Today was my second day of training, and it felt awesome.
First off, my elbow is actually feeling better today than it did yesterday! And my toe seemed pretty much, if not all the way healed. I have still been taping it, but I have been doing kicks, taking classes, and having to jog in classes no problem. YES!!!!! THANK YOU!!!
I woke up and decided to take a fasted “exploratory” walk. I didn’t get too see much, though, because there is only so far I can go in less than half an hour 😉 I was frightened many times by barking, scary guard dogs. And then I came back home, showered, ate the same ole muesli with fruit and yogurt breakfast I’ve had every day, then it was off for my first time trying the morning “MMA” training which is the “beginner/intermediate” class. The afternoon MMA class is for people with a year or more of grappling experience, and so I can’t take that class. Boo! I can’t even fake like I’ve had a year of grappling experience, or I totally would 😉 Class was fun but it should have been called Jiu Jitsu class. The AFTERNOON MMA class is truly MMA, but the morning class is only jiu jitsu. Boo! It was still over my head though. After we warmed up and did some drills, it was time to learn some techniques. Ray Elbe, the head MMA instructor, taught us some things…He’s a great instructor for the class, but everyone is much more advanced than me. To me, it all seems like- do this, do that, go like this. But I don’t understand HOW we would start in the starting position, what would we do from the end position, why we do this, etc etc etc. But it was still enjoyable! Then after that it was some conditioning. Killer. We had a partner, and we were supposed to shadowbox, then the partner calls “sprawl” and then they have to sprawl a total of 30 times, then the next partner goes, and back and forth for 3 sets. I think maybe ONE pair of partners did the full 3 sets, and it wasn’t us. It was killer. Then, it was time to roll. Argg THIS time again. After a frustrating first roll, I opted to sit out…then 3rd round, Ray tapped me on the shoulder to roll and it was super fun!!!! He was a great partner 🙂 Peeps did another round, then it was all over. Then and there, I set a date with an assistant instructor for a private lesson cuz I need to accelerate my learning to catch up with everyone. I know jiu jitsu takes a lonnggg time to learn, years upon years, but I want to play!!! So we set a date for the afternoon.
I came home, showered again, ate some green curry chicken with vegetables, and had a pleasant ride on my motorbike to get a 2 hour massage. Then it was time for my private jiu jitsu lesson! We went over arm bar from the guard, kimura from the guard, and triangle from the guard. Then we went over a few different sweeps. Annnd a few other things I don’t remember. Shit! Anyway, it was good.
After that, I changed my shirt, and went to Muay Thai. From the start, I could tell my body was tired. Oh lord, I know this would be a long class!! We started with running around; running while practicing 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, elbows, running KNEES!; alternating ground touches while running; sprinting; side skips inside and outside and alternating…Then it was like 30 burpees, 50 high leg kicks, 30 jumping jacks, sprint punches, and a bunch of other things that never seemed to end…oh man I was done! And this was just the warm up. Then, the teacher would call out things and we would do them and I felt proud I got them all. They were just simple things, like “lean back, right block, left block.” Then, it was clinching practice with a partner. Grab the back of the neck with the right hand, knee with the left. And vice versa. If you grab the back of their neck with both hands, pull their head down and knee them!!!! YEAH! And you can also put one hand around the neck, another around their arm, and step outside their leg and pull them toward you to get them off balance and knee them when they’re tripping. Yeah, baby. After that, we did 3 rounds pad work with a trainer and that killed me. I was embarrassed to have to rest before each round was over, and I wanted to give them the excuse of “I’ve worked out so many hours today already….I just took jiu jitsu before this…” but I know that they wouldn’t hear any of that. (I will avoid this situation in the future by not taking back to back lessons/classes) After that, it was 3 rounds in the ring practicing clinching with different people. Then, it was more conditioning. 200 jumping knees on the bag, 100 front kicks, 200 elbows, 300 sit ups, and then running around the mat area for like 10-15 min. This TORE UP my feet, and it was a common sentiment I overhead among other participants. I was dying, not because my lungs couldn’t sustain the running, but because my feet felt so wrecked from twisting and pounding on these coarse mats. I survived though! And you better believe I’m still coming back of course 😉
The whole Muay Thai class I was sipping on BCAA’s, pure water, and a protein shake. After that, I came home, showered again, and ate a chicken salad. Yummers! I also had a multivitamin and fish oil to combat inflammation.
I feel great! I am such a happy little bug to train 🙂
Tomorrow is a busy day, as I plan to do a workout in the morning, then I have many errands to run, including buying some big towels to mop up the sweat off my body while training, and buying more workout clothes. In America, I would not consider this to be a daunting task, but simple things here seem so challenging…”How do I get there on the motorbike?” (without getting killed) being a huge question…Then at night more training.
My friend, Tina, should be arriving from California tomorrow, so I will keep a look out for her! 🙂
In love and harmony,
~K
NOV