BJJ Grrl

I woke up Sunday and could hardly walk down the stairs — inside of my legs and my hammies, ow. Then later in the day, my arms got in on the soreness. And today, my shoulders and quads joined.

Adam led class tonight. He likes crazy warmups. We did crazy warmups.

And I was done at jogging. Uh oh. This is gonna be a long night. (At least Will and Jesse were feeling it, too.)

Jogging, high knees, butt kicks, side-to-side, alligators… Alligators?! Around. The. Whole. Mat. Crap. Then to bear crawls. That is one tough transition. Then to army crawls. Then I’m a little mixed up. Maybe: circled up, jogging with high knees, sprawling when he called it; eventually stayed down and did mountain climbers; then stayed in that position while, one at a time, ran around the circle and jumped over everyone else. … Yeah, that sounds good.

Somewhere in the alligators/bear crawls, I think, I landed oddly on my left wrist. It was not happy all night. Really not good during the holding position part of that last one. Also, shoulders were really complaining by then.

Then partnered up on the wall, pistol-grip the sleeves, and gi drags. When I got home, the inside of my fingers was all cut and scratched up; it must be from this. An odd number, so I sat out the first rounds and then dragged Will when he was done. I did one trip, and ohemgee so tired. I wanted to stop then, but Adam said, “C’mon, one more,” and the guys started cheering for me. Ack. Must do. Got him down, turned around, and couldn’t get the momentum to get going again; he had to help me by pushing with his legs. So. Tired. Collapsed. Finally got up; legs were shaking.

Rolling. Adam said I could sit out… except, oh, wait, one of the guys can’t roll yet (he had LASIK a few weeks ago), so I’m in. Seriously? I mean, sure, I got technique, but I still at least have to be able to move around.

Rolled with Will. He just swept me around and could do nearly anything he wanted to. He caught something, I can’t remember what. I flopped like a fish all night. So bad. But so tired. I think I had moments of pretending like I could play spider guard, but my legs couldn’t keep up any pressure at all.

On the wall for shrimping.

Then a round with Big Tom. Adam started calling out 30-seconds bursts during the round, where you both went as hard as you could. Erm… yeah, this is all I got. Then at the end, he called out “Submit and done!” Sudden death. Loser owed pushups. Tom wasn’t pressing nearly hard enough; he should’ve finished me much sooner. He’s too nice. He went to catch a kimura and accidentally dropped his elbow in my temple instead. So I didn’t tap out, I nearly got knocked out. We stopped, though.

I think we drilled next. Gi choke from side control. Pull out far lapel; bring it under their arm and behind their head. Come up to knee-on-belly; switch hands on that lapel. (They’ll probably bridge in to you and drop you on your knee next to them.) Reach across with the now free hand and grab on their shoulder. If they didn’t bridge and drop you, drop your knee for yourself back down on the near side, right by their ribs. Pull your elbows to your hips and try to drop all your weight on their face. Walk around a bit toward their head if you need to, to finish.

More rolling. Guillaume first. And… nothing. A few moments of control. Possibly a sweep? I think I mostly flopped on him in half guard. Saw mount for a little bit, but couldn’t finish the armbar. Several other near finishes, but just had no energy or strength for that last bit.

Then we did partner lifts. You start in guard and grip their belt; they grip your lapels. Bring one leg up, then the other, and then lift. 10 each. I could barely hold my guard around Guillaume, and then I could hardly get any lift on him. I could get a good base and pretended I was deadlifting and could feel my muscles straining, but he didn’t budge.

One last round. Got Scotty. More 30-second bursts. He was going harder in those, but still letting me work. So much tired. He said I’d rolled good, but I’m not really sure I what I did, if anything. I think I tried some spider again, though it did nothing for me.

Nearly everyone crawled off the mats, which made me feel a little better. At least it’s not just me thinking that was a hard workout.

Car update: My car is fixed! It’s also still in Philly. But, my best friend, who lives near Richmond, is in North Carolina on a business trip and is coming back this way on Thursday night. And, because she’s super awesome, she volunteered to drive me to Philly to get my car, provided I go back to RVA and spend some time with her on Saturday and Sunday, since we missed that last time. So, if this wild and crazy adventure works out as it should, we’ll drive up on Friday, possibly spend the night with a friend of hers or drive back to Richmond; then she has plans Saturday morning so I’ll go train with Chrissy, leaving us Saturday afternoon/evening together; and then Sunday, church, maybe, followed by more jiu-jitsu. And I hear there are lots of girls coming in for the weekend. Sweet!