Training...

Hello.  I have not written for a long time.

Reason being, I have not trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for what I consider a long time, roughly, 6 months-ish.

I have been preparing for the swat tryouts again, since I did not make the grade last year.  I have cut everything that is not related to the following: sprinting 440M, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups, and an obstacle course.  I miss BJJ terribly, but I could simply not risk injury.  As you all know, when training BJJ with any modicum of frequency, you always carry a twinge or twang somewhere in your body.  Some muscle that fusses for a few days, a stiff joint.  Jammed fingers.

I also train in Intrepid Arnis Eskrima, and was supposed to compete in a sparring competition in April.  Along with my BJJ sabbatical, I had to tell my Eskrima Guru that the risk of a broken finger was too great, and I would have to bow out from sparring.  I felt so bad telling him this, as I am one of four of his students in his small school, and the only woman.

These were all sound decisions however, as I have been completely focused on the task at hand, which is becoming faster and stronger.  It is taking my entire being.  Real improvement in strength and speed takes time and diligence and patience and a bloody stubborn attitude.  These two animals do not like to work together.  You improve one, then you improve the other, then you go back and improve the other, and so on...It's not like, "oh hey! I can drag the 200 pound dummy farther today! And I can run faster too!"  Quite the opposite.  It's a constant building of a symbiotic relationship between them.

I have always been a pretty strong person, but the obstacle course demands, unadulterated, NC-17, strength. It demands that you essentially hurl yourself over hill and dale, drag yourself on the ground, over walls, through windows....your get the picture.  At the last practice, I realized this o-course was like a 4 minute round of speed deadlifting of my own body weight.

And then there is speed.  Lord oh lord, do I ever have to be diligent with speed.  I have spent so. many. hours. at. the track.  Documenting documenting documenting.  The track has been a source of joy on some days, when I set a new PR; and a source of misery, doubt, and frustration, when my times have been out the window.

In the running department, I was blessed with the ability to go as far and long as I want, but not very fast.  I have aways had to claw my way through the clock to improve my speed.  And I have done it to, am still doing it.  If I make the academy, I'll have to go from being a 9-9:30 minute miler, to a 7:30 minute miler.  This is a tall order, and I decided, well, then I will become that person.  I will be a woman who can run a 7:30 pace and do it well.

My tryout is on June 7.  Until then, the work and focus continues.     

Dag