On the Mat Day 340: Skimping on the Important Stuff

I wore my old gi last night. It has holes in the knees and has faded from black to ash grey but I love it so much it's hard to part with it. It feels like a second skin. I like the Tatami kimono I bought but because it's so new it doesn't feel right. It's also a big baggy at A2 and I'm hoping that it shrinks in the wash. I really like my purple belt as well and not just because of the colour. My blue belt was so thick it felt like I was wearing a sumo belt. For some reason my purple is cut thinner and rests on my waist much better. I picked up K-sensei's black belt to hand it to him after he left it on the mat and was suprised how heavy it felt in my hands. I think it's a custom made belt with black embroidery which makes it look rather sinister.

I have been feeling really happy, really content this week. Perhaps it's because of the recovery from a shitty week of having a cold but I suspect it has to do with the vitamin D I started to take again. I work in an office and not getting enough sun is a real issue. Vitamin D seems to put me in a euphoric mode which gets even better after a night of the jits. I was so looking forward to class last night. 6 folks turned up and I was hoping to see more faces but it was a fun class of working on head and arm chokes and variations depending on if the opponent defends with the "pick up the phone" defence or turns away to try to turtle. My neck hurts today from doing it.

Futon sleeping asian chick - mmm

At the end of class I talked to Kajima-kun who just seemed really beaten up and tired out at the end. I asked him if he was eating and sleeping properly. He replied that he had slept only 3 hours the night before and ate a single lunch box and cup ramen in the day. I had a wtf?! moment. He says he cannot eat much and doesn't have a lot of cash. Plus he is not able to sleep much and easily wakes up. These two things are extremely important when doing someting hard like jiu-jitsu. The fact that he skimps on those two things and does not take it seriously enough astounded me. The thing is he is really good for a white belt who only weights around 58 kg! His re-guard is very good and he is quite cunning. He has a lot of potential if he beefs up, gets a bit stronger and watches his snooze and eats time.

Dumbell wielding asian chick - mmm

I'm in pain right now, particularly my hamstrings for some god awful reason, because of the 20 min kettlebell workout I did on Tuesday night. Wow! is all I can say. KBs are so good at mimicing a BJJ sparring round. My muscles were fatigued, my heart was pounding and it was an excellent cardio workout. I will definately pursue doing these workouts and improve my technique with them.

Sparring time: 8 x 6 mins = 42 mins