"What stories,
what 'mental tapes'
are you attached to
that destroys your serenity?"
- coach steve ilg - camping rumination
click on pics to enlarge the chi hit
yesterday, way up high on the Colorado Trail near Molas Pass; i'm trying to teach Dewa how to look like Clint Eastwood in this pic by Ananda because, "It's a good way to scare off bears," i tell her. Yes, Dewa is eating a SUNRIDER Herb; SUNBAR..a staple of our camping diet!
my boobs are NOT that flat (yet)! love the baby-carrier but it does nothing to enhance my pectoral magnitude. gotta give up for my two girls; camping in the high country is not easy; especially with a nearly 3-year old. however, my two girls are champs even sitting out a thunderstorm at 10, 740' and temps nearing freezing. some speak of providing "higher education"...to abba ilg, however, this is my style of providing a HIGHER EDUCATION to our chi-ld...especially when they are young and assimilate pranic and natural beauty and power so easily and deeply.***
so, after hauling my Rinpoche Dewachen around in the high country and a basically sleepless night in the tent, i show up this morning for what was supposed to be a A/B/C Club Ride of 80ks with 35% of the terrain being on dirt/gravel roads.
Fine, i think to myself, there are 171 members of the Durango Wheel Club and surely, in the peak riding season, there will be enough B or C riders that i can hang with...
i time trial (new daddies are ALWAYS time trialing to make it to any start line) over to the Durango Sports Club parking lot and there huddling like ducks over their bikes are only 7 riders; 3 are pro and the rest are all A riders.
great...
instead of A/B/C
it's gonna be A-and-me
and that, my Noble Warriors of Wholeness; spells H-U-R-T in case you are poor in understanding the pain of elite cycling.
i was lucky and i mean L-U-C-K-Y to hang with this Squad Of Two Wheeling Specialists of Supreme Torture until 41-kilometers at which point i foolishly took a pull with my new HP PROP WORKOUT student, Michael C which buried my actual Heart Rate in the vicinity of 200bpm and my Perceived Effort in the vicinity of triple hell-and-then-some.
photo: Kristin (left) and Peanut Butter & Co/Twenty-12 teammate Coryn Rivera
there are fewer more inspirational cyclists than Kristin McGrath, (the photo of Kristin in this link is taken at The Hub; the Practice Cave for HP Yoga in Durango!) a pro road cyclist and native Durangatang whose recovery from a brutal crash courtesy of a stop-sign running truck is incredible (click the above Kristin link to be inspired!). Kristen's recovery miracle is like mine in the sense that yoga played a huge part. Kristin has done yoga, 'since i can remember,' she told me today. she also told me that everyone keeps telling her that she should come take my class but, get this, "It sounds like it is too hard." Geez. well, KG promptly put in a pro-level attack at kilometer 46 using her titanium femur on these minor rollers for three miles before a final 6-mile dirt stretch that put your feeble coach into a tizzy..."that's okay," i told myself as the seven cyclists hammered away from me like a mirage in time-elapse, "i'll follow their tracks in the dirt so i can find my way home."
you'd think a Durango homey like ilg would know these roads by now.evidently , you have no idea of the massive amounts of dirt roads which spiderweb the rural countryside around Durango.
so, like a forlorn Tracker on a scant trail, i nitpicked my aerobic way through the pinon and ponderosa county roads until i came upon EB, one of the elite 7 and my neighbor;
"EEEEB!," i said gleefully for seeing a familiar face,"you didn't need to wait up for me!"
"Aw," he shrugged my statement off in friendliness common to my homefolk, "those guys were going way too fast for me anyway." we rode side by side in the dirt, chatting about important issues; like recent crashes, animals, and how fast the summer sped by.
then, we came upon Kristin who had rear-flatted on her mega-fast machine. she was being assisted by Eric and Dale. Dale started to talk about this hilarious internet comic titled; "Honey, Can I Ride My Bike Today? it is hilarious; click on it. anyway, it was kinda fun watching a pro figure out how to replace a tube when the valve stem of all our spare tubes was too short for her fancy deep rims. they figured out a way though. pros always figure out a way. it's their job.
not mine.
mine? is to inspire YOU
to get out and DO...
even if you are the last one in the peleton,
the one waaay off the back...
because you and i have a podium different than most;
it's called Wholeness.
and to practice Wholeness requires attacking our weaknesses
instead of ignoring them.
and that
to me
and to the Ancient Masters of Yoga...of Unity...of Wholeness
is what matters most
in the long run.
so get out and do the do
and get to know the real You.
head bowed,
ilg
mine? is to inspire YOU
to get out and DO...
even if you are the last one in the peleton,
the one waaay off the back...
because you and i have a podium different than most;
it's called Wholeness.
and to practice Wholeness requires attacking our weaknesses
instead of ignoring them.
and that
to me
and to the Ancient Masters of Yoga...of Unity...of Wholeness
is what matters most
in the long run.
so get out and do the do
and get to know the real You.
head bowed,
ilg
