First class with Rodrigo in weeks due to his vacation and my trip to Pasadena. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to the Worlds while in Southern California. But I did spend Friday night at a nice little outdoor wine bar in a plaza across the street from the Convention Center, munching on pepperoni and mushroom pizza, sipping a nice pinot noir from Monterrey, and reading the Gracie magazine coverage of the World Pro Cup - as well as every other article in the issue. I even spent some time wandering through the Portuguese. You'd never believe I actually did my master's thesis on Brazilian history as hideous as my spoken Portuguese is. But written, I actually don't do as bad as I'd thought.
I'd done a 4 mile stretch on the treadmill. My most intensely aerobic session ever in all likelihood, 63 minutes with my HR in the low 140s, 600 calories burned. I think it's the kind of thing I need to do twice a week in order to have the sort of cardio I'll need to maximize my jiu jitsu and compete better.
I was drinking water all day, better than I usually am because I knew there was a pretty good leg cramping risk late in training tonight. And I ended up ending a roll with Elliott because of a hamstring cramp I'd been fighting off for awhile but succumbed to eventually. But I lasted pretty well in what was a characteristically vigorous Rodrigo training session.
I really appreciate the way he pushes us. He has a very good sense of how to bring us right to the edge of conditioning, when we can go one more round. I remember thinking that years ago as a white belt during one of those existential moments when I didn't think I could do another jiu jitsu burpee (the backroll to knees to standing move). It turns out that I need something else, the extended additional cardio that Joel Jamieson talks about and, more than that, the HICT (high intensity continuous training) that will help make these power-oriented glycolytic muscles of mine into something more efficient and oxidative. But the training on the mat is certainly doing its part.
Rodrigo had us work on the 101 tonight. I needed the tutorial. The one thing that has dogged me about the 101 guard opener is whether you hold on to the sleeve or the lapels. The verdict? The sleeve.
I need to make sure I drill this guard opener so that I have it as a legitimate option come July, rather than as a set of steps I sort of remember doing once. I'm still interested in the Flat Pass, and the novelty of it might work well in competition. But there is a world opened up to me if I can get the 101 going when I need it. So now's as good a time as any to put it in the fire.
Tatame ... Wellington caught me with a bicep slicer as I was defending an armlock. I actually spent quite a bit of time defending his armlocks. He was good and persistent about getting into position and I was fuzzy on the details of how to turn the defense into a real counter. Essentially, you want to pancake the legs and then once they are neutralized, reach over and crossface with your free hand. I think I managed something like that in one armlock defense. But I ended up getting reversed after passing the guard. And then on to more armlock defense.
I was a little disappointed in myself for forgetting the counter, and for feeling as fatigued as I was. On reflection, of course, I have to point to the 4 miles I did earlier today - and the fact that I haven't been training for a week - as perfectly reasonable factors working against me. That's to take nothing away from Wellington, who is moving very quickly toward a faixa roxa of his own, if you ask me.
All for now. This will be another truncated training week with my wife's Mom and Dad visiting from Arizona. I'll get on the mat again on Wednesday and then call it a week.
