I'm a Mess

So the toe is still swollen and sore. I'm going to give it another week and if the swelling hasn't gone down I'll take it to the doc. My thighs are super sore and tight from a leg workout I did on Monday. And I have a new injury! I lifted last night before my bi-weekly Shadowrun game and managed to strain my neck whilst performing a dumbell bench press.

It hurts to turn my head to the left or to put my left ear towards my shoulder. So that sucks. I'll probably still go to class tonight but definitely no training AT ALL, and I might have to be careful what I drill even. I should be ok as long as we don't practice something crazy, like the inverted guard, or how to avoid getting stacked from the triangle choke. I'm a little worried; I've heard so many horror stories about neck injuries that never go away. I'll probably be fine in a week, but I'm paranoid about messing up a disk or something.

In other news, I bought some protein from proteinfactory.com, and it should be arriving soon. I'm looking forward to lifting and putting on some muscle. Not being able to train means less calories burnt in class, which means I may be able to gain some weight finally.

Broke Toe

So I broke my pinky toe last Thursday. I never could quite get the hang of Thursdays.

It was during my first no-gi class in over a year, and since we start from the feet, I decided to immediately sit down and buttscoot forward to sitting up guard. As I scooted I kicked my partner in the shin with my toe and heard it snap. It hurt some at the time but more after I finished training. It started to swell, but I trained another match. Now, over a week later, it's still swollen and bruised. There's not much I can do except tape it. I tried training some but it probably would be better to let it rest for a couple of weeks at least. I don't really want to though.

Even drilling hurts. Heck even walking hurts. But I have noticed that when I'm training I'm hyper aware of what's happening because I have to be so careful about where I place my foot. It's interesting. I think this heightened sense of awareness is something that makes a really good grappler. Hopefully I can hold on to this after I've recovered.

The other fun thing is that everyone lets me win!

10/11/10

Class last night was awesome. Zak taught. First class was my favorite type of class: super basic technique with lots of reps followed by hard training. We reviewed the scissor and push sweep from the closed guard. Training was super good.

Second class was also awesome. We did another round of jogging, then the drill where you shoot under your partner's legs and leapfrog over his back. Then we drilled the throw of your choice. A lot. Then Zak showed a counter to an X-guard sweep counter. It was pretty slick. Then more crazy tough training and that was it. I'm surprised I didn't puke. I was planning on lifting this morning but it was a pretty intense class and I didn't get much sleep so I didn't.

Everyone is getting so tough it's ridiculous. I wish we had some lightweight whitebelts in class. There's a lot I'd like to work on but I'd like to try it on a beginner, not someone like Eli or Steve. Armdrags for one thing. Zak has a sick armdrag and I'd like to work on it a lot but if I mess it up I get put in a bad spot quickly.

I'm considering doing a submission only tournament in November. That should be interesting. I rarely hit submissions in class so I will be focusing more on that.

Holy crap

I can update my blog from my phone via email.

Scary moment.

Training has been going great. I took a week off due to work, which was just enough time to make me miss being on the mat, and to heal up a little. I was back Saturday and class was awesome as per usual. Well attended, great techniques, great training, and I was pleased with the way I trained. My cardio was unaffected by my layoff.

After class on Saturday I often have a "deathmatch" with my friend Samanatha. She is close to me in weight, and very technical and flexible, and is one of my favorite training partners. She jumped guard on me, but instead of wrapping her legs around my waist, somehow jumped her ass into the side of my knee, which hurt a lot and scared the crap out of me. Fortunately nothing popped or snapped and I'm training today. But it was a scary reminder of how quickly shit can go bad.

Anway, I haven't made any dramatic improvements in my game or anything, I just feel like I've been training hard and consistantly since April or May and it's paying off. I'll probably do one or two more tournaments this year then chill a little during tax season. There is a slight possiblity I may try to do the worlds in 2011. I should probably start mapping out a training schedule for that now. If I don't make any excuses and put 100 percent into preparing for this tournament I think I will make a lot of progress.

I'd like to start an early morning drilling session with someone, like get to the gym around six, drill some techniques, and roll super light for fifteen minutes or so. It would be a good way to start the day, and very helpful. There's always so much I want to work on and get nailed down. Also, this weekend is the last weekend Sam will be around to train, which is a huge bummer. I am looking forward to visiting her in San Diego and seeing all the progress she's made though.

More Stuff

So I did another tournament. This one was on the Battleship NJ, in the Camden Waterfront area. Sort of an interesting venue, but the floors were metal, and my buddy smacked his head pretty hard on it which was not cool.

I got there just at the tail end of weigh-ins. I weighed in at about 130 with my jeans and stuff in my pockets. The promoter, with the unfortunate name of The Good Fight, uses a modified Madison bracketing system, so I had no idea what my weight class might go up to.

As I was warming up and the brackets were being made I heard my name called on the speaker. I went to the head referee table, and the nice guy there informed me that the next lightest person competing that day weighed about 150. The next lightest after him was about 160. He asked if I still wanted to compete and I said, yes of course. After all they already had my money, so why not?

So my first fight I pulled guard, got x-guard, swept. Couldn't stabilize my pass, and he went to x-guard. But he reaped the knee, and the ref DQ'd him. Sucks, but that's the game.

Second fight was with this dude who frankly I thought I would tool. And I should have. I dominated him positionally the entire match, surfed his guard, smashed his hooks, did everything except score a clean pass unfortunately. I swept him two or three times, but each time I almost got a pass he would turtle and scramble into a single or double and get points for a takedown. It ended tied and he won by an advantage. I am a little annoyed at myself for not sealing the deal. I really should have passed his guard at least once. He gave me several opportunities and I hesistated; instead trying to pass straight to mount. But oh well, lesson learned.

Everyone else did really great, and we took home like five medals. Fun day overall, and it was awesome when I saw that Zak and Brian came to coach and a bunch of people came to watch.