Tonight,
like most New Years Eve nights, i will celebrate via sweat
and stillness the outgoing year and welcome the new one.
Ananda and Dewa,
snowshoe training for tonight's New Years
Eve Ritual Workout on our private
Snowshoe Loop. photo by ilg
Historically, some of my most intense workouts have occurred
on my New Years Eve Workout Rituals...including ascents of
some of the most difficult peaks, ice climbs, and ski
traverses available on Turtle Island. Often, i would combine
doing Repetitions of Snowshoe Intervals or Nordic Ski
Intervals; one for each year passing and another for each
year upcoming... each interval celebrated with a sip of
champagne or beer...until the libation froze solid in the
night-time cold!
2008 Tour de Ski,
above Durango, CO. photo by Mary Brown
that was then.
this is now.
I
have planned for tonight a milder version of my now infamous
New Years Eve Workout Ritual. Nordic ski intervals on my
private nordic loop; a flat interval of about 2 minutes will
be my 2008 Reflection Ritual Interval, followed immediately
by an uphill interval for my 2009 Welcome Ritual Interval,
which will take about the same time. You can do the math: 2
minutes per last year month + 2 minutes per future month x
24 months total...even this relatively 'tame version' of my
Ritual is not a Workout to pass off lightly!
After each 2009 Welcome Ritual Interval, i'll stop by the
3-Chi Ski Firepit which i'll have roaring beneath the shock
of shimmering stars up here at 7,535'. Taking a well earned
breather, i'll then toast to each month of past and upcoming
years with either beer or bubbly...trust me, by the time i
reach December? my skiing becomes quite brazen as i fly
through the trees on the descent! Look out trees, here comes
ilg!
Ananda will join me. Dewa will be fast asleep from
tobbaganing. This is a fantastic Workout Ritual to share or
fly solo. Ananda will do a much more brief version and keep
the Dewachen Radio Monitor within listening distance.
Out
there tonight, beneath the dazzling wash of electric night
sky, with the 12,633' Shivalingam of Doko Oosliid watching
my sweat-soaked Ritual, i can promise you this much; my
reflections of this past year will bring up much emotion
which i will do my best to purify into pure, unadulterated
motion.
it's been quite the year for feeble ilg...
it's like these years are passing at the speed of (en)Light(ment).
which they are.
for
us all.
allow me to in-Courage you to do something Special tonight;
just make sure no Resolutions are made independent from the
Two Things Which Matter Most:
1) Sweat
and
2) Stillness.
The Best Training Effect from
snowshoeing; ear-to-ear
smiles! Joy and Dewa after their training
loop...photo by ilg
See
you next year, and thank you for your travels along this
humble, powerful Path.
coach steve ilg
