I’ve really been focused so far this week with training. I got to register for Atlanta on Tuesday, so far it’s 25 Alliance members, and me. This will be my first tournament flying under the Team Lloyd Irvin banner – hope to do the team proud!

Anyhow, went fairly easy on Monday – was still fairly sore from the tournament on Saturday. I popped my biceps tendon out of the bicepital groove – man that hurt! Very thankful I’m an amazing massage therapist and was able to manipulate it back in place. Ice and an evening of anti inflammatories took care of most of the ache. My amazing chiropractor patched up the rest of it in the morning. Good as new!

Good thing too! Training on Tuesday was pretty hard core. Team training at 10, rolled around non-stop in and out of gi. Then went into Coach’s advanced gi class. This week we’re working on mount escapes. Drilled a few options, then set to rolling for about 5 rounds. Yes, I got my butt whipped. Seems to be how I learn.

Was back at 5 for sparring. We did about 9 rounds of nonstop sparring – and made sweat angels on the mats afterwards. I jumped right into the no gi class at 6 and I think I did all right. I landed my first guillotine in perfect form!

I was pretty beat after that. I am pushing myself a lot harder now that I’ve got Atlanta on my mind. That said, I went home and was passed out by 9.

Wed was pretty light comparatively. No 6:30 training still – coach is needing to help his wife with their new baby. I came in and rolled at 10, then we had our intro gi class at 11:30. Usually it’s a drill only class, but we didn’t have any real new people, so we got to roll a bit as well. Yay! I’ve discovered the wonders of what a properly applied knee on belly can do for your game. There are a few upper belts that have put me on their hit lists. I trotted off to get some actual work done at the spa for the rest of the evening.

Today: Thursday, was REALLY busy! Went to the Chiropractor again in the morning – I was feeling pretty good!

Got trounced a bit at 10, then had some fun at the 11:30 class. I teamed up with one of the new white belts – my spidey senses said he was ok. I was explaining to him the concepts of staying relaxed and not working so hard. Demonstrated by staying stiff in mount and letting him dump me over vs staying relaxed – and he couldn’t budge me. At rolling time, I went fairly light. Went with two newer white belts and I don’t go hard on anyone until I know how they’re gonna react (spaz much?) It was fun! Got caught in a triangle and coach just gave me a “why the hell did you do that!?” Kind of look.

Came back at 5 to spar. It was bloody hot and people didn’t seem too motivated to get rolling. The ball started rolling when one of the purple belts offered me a fist. I felt honored as I was his first roll since his mma fight on Saturday (which he won by rnc).

Yea, he ate me for lunch. If I started slowing down or acting tired he called me a pansy – then laughed when I glared at him. We went at it for about 15 minutes and our session ended against the wall when he walked his feet up, did one sided shoulder stand on me… and I punched him in the stomach. It was pretty funny and he told me I did really well. It was a great roll – I need more like that to get me ready for Atlanta. By the time I make the rounds with my teammates, the competition will be a joke.

Anyhow, I made more sweat angels while the no gi class warmed up – I counted myself already warm. We did a really fun mount escape, then sparred for a bit. I did really well for the two rounds I got to roll. Afore mentioned purple belt was teaching class and was (thankfully) picky about my sparring partners. Destroyed my first partner, then had a very good match with one of our blue belts. We apparently have similar game and therefore had some awesome scrambles.

After class I went home to chill and write this up before bed. Oh, and I finally got the video of my no gi finals match from Saturday. The video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYMemGGYta8&sns=em

I gotta admit, I watched the video and was fairly pleased with myself – only one no gi class and all.

Okay. Warrior needs sleep now. Gonna be a light training day tomorrow since I have to work at 12. Hopefully I can get a couple rolls in at 10.