In a perfect world, I'd be able to spend 45 minutes doing my conditioning routine BEFORE the Fundamentals class on Mondays and Wednesday, then do the Fundamentals class AND Live Training afterwards. And truth told, at least in the short term, I may be about to experience at least a fortnight of such perfection.
But we'll see. The key to this latest turn in my conditioning has been to focus on shorter-interval work, with some short-term HICT work early on after the most intense part of the workout (sprints in the first third or so). While I want to continue to pay attention to the cardio base that comes from LSD work, I also want to make sure that I stay heart and lung conditioned for the kind of high intensity that continues to come my way on the mat.
As Stephan Kesting pointed out years ago, part of this conditioning is just about helping keep you calm and collected under stress (something I think I was losing track of late in 2011 for a while when I was poorly defending back attacks). I'm paying a lot of attention to breathing during the conditioning sessions, and hoping to be able to better translate that to class and Live Training. There's a notion going around that one of the things that Rickson Gracie focuses on most when he trains is his breathing. I can definitely notice a difference when I do so during conditioning. It's worth working on.
159.2 on the scale, post-train, a great Monday number in the gi. In addition to conditioning and a pair of 8-minute sparring sessions during Live Training, I got in some very nice drilling with Mark. We focused on the omoplata from the Rap Star (arm wrap) position, and how the foot on the hip is key to both getting space and breaking posture to set up the omoplata.
Many, many reps. And an ideal version of what I want to spend more time doing after training. At this point, maybe just two "spars" is plenty if I'm going to get to spend the next 8-10 minutes instead drilling a specific position that I'm trying to add to my game.
