Fat to Fighter–Toe-ing the line

So tonight I did both Muay Thai and BJJ back to back again.  I was the only student there for Muay Thai and Damien decided to kick my ass ten ways from sideways.  Not that that is a bad thing.  It was a tough session. He ran me around for several minutes, then had me jump rope for awhile.  I hadn’t jumped rope since high school, so I kept hitting my shins and toes with the rope and my calves were on fire by the time I was done.

After all that, I put my gloves on and we did pad work for awhile. This time Damien was moving around much faster.  As good as I’ve been doing, it’s sobering to realize just how incredibly slow I still am. He was literally running circles around me and as I stepped my pace to keep up, I was so gassed I could hardly see straight. Though at some point in all this he mashed my big toe on my right foot.  I hobbled around bit, then it felt ok.  Later though, it was turning purple under the toenail. I’m guessing that isn’t good.  

We then worked on clinching. In Muay Thai, that is where fighters grab each other by the head and try to control each other. It’s hard to do, and unlike regular boxing the ref wont’ separate you. If you can pull the other guy’s head down, you can start kneeing him in the face. Fun stuff.   I had a hard time pushing Damien’s head down. Most of it is positioning and leverage.  

After that, we took a break for a bit, then both Damien and I jumped on the mat for no gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  Oddly enough I wasn’t totally out of steam at this point.  I missed the free roll they do at the beginning but worked some technique. They paired me up this week with a guy named Brandon, who hadn’t been there for awhile.  Brandon is a big big fellow. He’s around my height at six foot…and his arms are about as big as my neck, and I have a thick neck. He was very cool though. We were working on escapes and passing guard, which I will admit, is not much fun. I like doing submissions and chokes, but I get it, I gotta be able to pass guard in order to do those things.

At the end, we did some free rolling.  Brandon is strong as hell and pretty much threw me around like a rag doll. I did get the upper hand at times, but only because he would let me, just so he could get out of it. By the time they told us to switch partners, I was done. My arms and legs were total jello and I was out of gas. We went at a much faster pace tonight, but probably because Jason was there. 

It’s odd because I left the dojo with a sore toe and feeling like I had just gotten my ass kicked.  It’s hard for me to tell if nights like this are good ones at the gym. Last Thursday I felt great when I left.  Was still tired, had good workouts, but also executed everything pretty well and didn’t gas out or fatigue out too soon in either class.  This week was really tough so far.  Damien said he will be hard on me because he’s seen I can pick up things quickly and I seem more serious about learning than some of the other newer students we have.  Doesn’t mean that he is mean to me, just during training, he’s gonna jump on me if I slack, which is what I need.

So I left tonight wondering, did I have a bad night, or had I just been pushed so hard by others and myself that I realized how far I still have to go, despite the huge gains I’ve made so far?  Gonna have to think on that one for a bit.  Now that my college classes are done after this week, I can go to Muay Thai on Monday and Wednesday nights as well, adding 2 more days to my current routine.  Hopefully I’ll see even more improvements then.