I'm trying to break the next training period into two six week periods. Monday, November 12 through Friday, December 21, when I leave for Tucson for Christmas vacation. And Monday, December 31 through Friday, February 8, the day before the Revolution tournament.
My goal in the first six weeks will be to train three times a week. I want to focus on escapes (from rear mount, mount, side control, north-south, triangle choke) mostly, as well as movement from the top and sweeps from the guard.
Conditioning-wise, I want to do a generic Phase I cardio/strength type of program. Three days of core-based, weight lifting each week. Three days of LSD cardio each week. This is all geared to raising my fitness foundation, a little more strength and a little more breath.
In addition, I'll do the Tabata and abs Tabata an alternating mornings, starting on Monday.
In the second six weeks, I'll switch my training to four times a week, with only two conditioning days on Saturday and Sunday. Training focus will be on the competition gameplan; namely, whatever was working in the previous six weeks.
The conditioning workouts during the second six weeks will be the 39: Tabata + Berardi + Beaster.
It's basic periodization. But hopefully it will leave me with better awareness on the mat, and ready for the "shock" of competition several Saturdays from now.
I suspect there will be other tournaments. The Spokane guys have been doing a lot with MMA lately, but I wouldn't be surprised if they put together an event or two in 2008. And I'm pretty sure that there will be a Gracie Barra Seattle event sometime in the spring--probably between Revolution events in February and July (late April/early May?).
But I'm going to stick with this schedule with the hope of peaking in early February. If everything goes well, then I should be able to adjust the periodization (i.e. 2-4 wks Phase I/4-6 wks Phase II) to fit the tournament schedule.
