1 hour no-gi, 1 hour pads. I'm really not very good at jiu-jitsu. I am simultaneously too impatient to wait for someone to butt-scoot up to me (and thus fall into plenty of sweeps, submissions, or guard pulls) but I'm also too comfortable with getting put on my back. I've taken several months off here and there, and I feel like I've forgotten how to play guard, how to pass, etc. It's frustrating, but at least (thanks to this fitness challenge) I've noticed that I no longer feel like absolute death at the end of five 5-minute rounds of rolling. Cardio isn't a problem, I just need to be more regular about writing down what I learn from class and trying to remember and apply it, as opposed to just letting my mind go blank when rolling.

1 hour pads, 1 hour speed drills class. Honestly, a day that didn't include any sparring or grappling feels like a rest day. I needed it. I was pretty beat up. I really like speed drills; it's sort of a halfway house for sparring. It's a class that I wish I had when I started sparring (too soon) all those years ago.

No-gi and clinch. And a salad. I am going to MURDER a cheat meal when this is all done.

Workout 16 (officially). First time sparring since last November or December, and it was the "Advanced Sparring" class at Evolution. I wasn't nervous (and I usually am before sparring), there wasn't an adrenaline dump, but I must have been pretty tense because the cardio aspect of it killed me. We did three sets of five two minute rounds, and after the second set I was wiped. I'd like to think my cardio is pretty good, but I think I need to take it to the next level to be able to push the pace more consistently. Notes from Brandon: 1) keep your hands up 2) pay attention to their hands more 3) move your head 4) let your hands go; "kicks score points but punches win fights" 5) know what to do when they flurry I also caught a girl's kick and punched her real hard in the nose. I feel terrible about that. :(

So far: 6 Instagram posts, 2 on here (where I can expand a little more). And I never post on Instagram! It had actually a year since my last post before this contest. I plan to keep posting every day for the rest of the month, but I wanted to make sure I get the past week's workouts in before I forget them all. This challenge came at both the best and the worst time. It's motivating me to get back in shape, but at the same time I'm still a bit banged up, so I can't push quite as hard as I'd like to. Before this month, I had taken about two months off from jiu jitsu. I was getting some pretty bad back pain, and some tingling and numbness in my arm. I'm used to back pain, but the loss of sensation in my arm had me pretty worried, so I didn't roll, spar, clinch, squat, or deadlift for nearly two months, trying to give my back/neck a break. Several X-rays, MRIs, blood tests, and electromyograms (the thing they use to test for pinched nerves) I found out I have some bulging disks in my neck. Not severe enough to keep me from staying active, and certainly most of the guys on the mats have worse, but something to keep an eye on. So after a (relatively) clean bill of health, I'm just now getting back into sparring, clinch, and jiu jitsu. Hardly the first time I've sparred, but just getting used to staying relaxed under attack isn't quite as easy as I was hoping. I'm still getting tapped by white belts, but I'm just glad to be getting back into it. Friday: No-gi and clinch. 2 hours. Neck so sore (but it hurts so good). Saturday: Conditioning and pads. Two hours. So sweaty. Sunday: Planned a 4 mile run, decided what the hell, let's go for 6. Monday: No-gi and pads. Really need to get better at not getting put on my back. Tuesday: No-gi and clinch. Got subbed, got some subs. Not that anyone's counting or anything. Wednesday (today): No-gi, pads, speed drills (for the first time). 3 hours for the first time in a while. Not even sparring yet, but it was a nice baby step. Just getting used to checking, parrying, keeping my eyes open when a glove is headed towards my face.