Jalopy

Today’s temperature was around 86 degrees and humid. It was overcast, so it looked like it might be cool. I took a walk at lunch but had to turn around because it was just miserable out there. After lunch, though, for some reason the heat came on in our office! It’s usually freezing in there — I have been known to wear a sweater during the summer (or even put a sweater on over another sweater in the winter) — but suddenly I started getting warm and feeling as if I was out in that stuff again. Ugh. Thankfully the HVAC company has an office actually in our building, so they were able to fix the problem quickly.

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I feel like a jalopy crawling down the road, black smoke streaming from the hood, sputtering coming from the engine, random parts falling off, a bumper hanging halfway off and dragging. My knee was uncooperative with everything tonight, my neck is stiff, there’s a knot just under one shoulder blade — and then during Open Mat, I twisted the knee again and then later somehow strained the hip on that same side so badly that I can hardly bend it now. Also, sometime tonight I got a giant bruise on the top of one foot.

Also, why is it that when people say, “Let’s go light,” what they really mean is, “You go light, and I’ll go hard”?

BJJ Fundamentals

Warmup. Knee did not like. Then drilled side control escape back to guard for the rest of class.

BJJ

Rolling to warmup. I drew Giant White Belt then Steve, and then was the odd one out.

Drilling was an Ezekiel from top half guard. Drilled for the rest of class.

Open Mat

Tim called out that we all needed at least 3 five-minute rounds before we could leave. Buddy first and we both played around. Then Guillaume, and it was here that I injured my knee while trying some spinning rolly twisty thing to take his back while he was rolling and spinning away. Then I tried to finish the round with one leg, and that’s still no fun. I sucked it up for one more round, though, and somewhere in there strained the same-side hip (hip flexor, maybe?) something terrible. No idea how. Too bad no one makes full-body ice packs yet…

Fleurs!

Thursday

So on Wednesday night, being the genius that I am, I decided to do some extra wrist movements after my workout. Instead of helping my wrist, I ended up making something twang hard. So I’ve actually had it in a (not very supportive, but at least it helps me remember) brace for the past 2 days.

Then Thursday, the weather was so nice but it’s supposed to rain allllll weekend, and I had a couple buckets of daylilies to transplant (and some snapdragons that I’d picked up when I got soil for the daylilies), so I went home after work and did that instead of going to class. Worked for 2 hours, until it got too dark, though still had some flowers left.

So no verdict on Thursday class yet.

Today

Fundamentals, nogi

Short warmup, then drilling. Side control escape. Drilled with Ethan and Cesar.

Open Mat

I’d meant to leave because I had the rest of the snapdragons to plant, and there wouldn’t be a chance the rest of the weekend with the rain. But my leaving would have left an odd man, so I stayed. (Yeah, I’m a sucker.)

Rolls with Guillaume, Nolan (who used to train with us, gee, 2 years ago? I recognized him, but couldn’t remember his name. He remembered mine. [Rats.]), and then one of the ones I just play guard against to stay safe. He was being slightly less spazzy than normal, so I considered opening up a little more, but as soon as I did I caught an elbow diving through straight to the face, so just went back to guard retention.

Got home and finished up the snapdragons. I have fleurs!

Most of the beds around the front of my yard are just the rocks. (The ones in the back are mulched.) There are a few existing plants up front, but not many. I eventually want to replace the rocks with mulch and have lots of flowers. I like flowers.

Next week

There’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is that I have to go back up to Fairfax for work; meeting on Tuesday. The good news is that I’ve already talked to Maggie, and I’m going to train with her at Fairfax Jiu Jitsu on Monday night.

Shattered toe

No snow this weekend, just lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of wind. I hardly got any sleep Saturday night. Last night was at least some better; I only woke up a couple of times.

Four of us this morning. Jogging stuff to warmup, then a ~10-min round, with Aubrey. Drilling was escaping the back. After drilling through a few times, we did a set of positional sparring from the back. Finished up the last half of class with rolling, 3-min rounds.

In my first round with Andrew, we were near one of the wood-sided edges of the mat. My feet were behind me, and I felt my big toe kick down on the wood. Sharp pain, and then a duller throbbing, but I kept going. A few moments later, my feet ended up in front of me, and I saw why things were hurting — I’d apparently caught my toenail and had half jerked it off; the nail is cracked in several places, and there was a whole mess of blood. So I tapped and limped off the mat to wash off and tape up my toe.

And then in a following round, my partner slapped my hand to begin and dropped his knee — and all his weight — directly on the (previously) non-injured big toe. Thankfully it was not the already shattered toe, as there may have been a reactionary haymaker from my side.

My toe looked worse than I’d thought when I got home and examined it more. Still a dull ache down there. So there will be much taping this week, and now it’s a good thing that I’ll be off starting tomorrow, so that hopefully the toe & nail will be much better by Saturday, for the US Grappling Greensboro tournament. (Wait, how it is already time for that? And then there’s Richmond next week. Yikes!)

Frosty wonderland

Everything was covered in a thick layer of frost this morning. All the grass was covered with white, and all the tree branches were outlined in sparkles. Ooo, pretty!

Not awake. Me, Aubrey, and Andrew this morning. Jogging type stuff. Cold mats. Then round robin to warm up, twice through. Drilled basic thread-the-needle side control escape. Then 2-min rounds of specific sparring from side control, top controlling and bottom trying to escape. Then one more set of round-robin sparring, plus one more round for me and Aubrey.

I’m leaving here shortly to head to Fairfax, near DC, for a business trip. Definitely gone today and tomorrow, possibly until Wednesday. Joy. Meh. Interestingly, Andrew is also heading up that way for a business trip (and with one of the same government agencies, too), though he will be much further in (and will probably get to train at 50/50 with Ryan Hall, as he usually does). I’m still undecided about trying to train while I’m there, though; I’m not familiar with the area and not comfortable driving around up there. But if I end up going up there often enough, I’ll make sure I get comfortable enough 😉

just typing one handed

and trying to eat with that same hand. not a sight typer, either, so this is slow and strange. left wrist is out of commission. actually, not the wrist so much as the back of my hand. i know, weird, right? under an ice pack right now. again.

day off from work today. got some things done. then took a nap, which might have been a bad idea — possibly even more sluggish after that.

fundamentals bled over again. warmup, similar to this morning’s. got light-headed, too, which sucks. then in groups of 3 for round-robin rolling to warm up. three times through. drilling, same sequence from this morning. 2 more rolls to finish up.

hopefully this hand clears up by morning, since my whole job is pretty much typing. meh.