Now, That's What I'm Talking About

One hour of sparring this morning.

Two hours of BJJ tonight.

Coming home in a mild state of post-workout euphoria and crashing with a glass of wine, happy and satisfied, Good Neurotransmitters coursing through my brain.

This is what I needed.

Ironically, the day could have gone differently.  When I showed up for morning JSD class, The Master commented that he wasn't sure if I'd be in today, seeing as how I'm injured and it's the last Thursday of the month - Sparring Day.  I had completely forgotten.  I was cold, tired and the thumb was indeed sore.  I weighed my options.  Go home, stay and watch, stay and spar.

I stayed and sparred.  What the hell, I was already there.

Other than the fourth Thursday morning of the month, sparring classes are held on Friday nights. Despite years of consistent attendance, in the last two months, I have only been to one evening sparring class due to the new Judo lesson I've been taking instead.  I didn't think I'd do well kicking and punching today, being rusty and all, but it actually felt really good.  I got to work with an especially fun partner twice, we went pretty hard, and for my last match, I wound up grappling with one of the bigger guys, working on some ground skills.  I was toast, but it was still fun and my thumb was fine in its splint.

I was pumped about going to BJJ class tonight. On Thursdays, there are warm-up drills, usually a self-defense lesson, a basic BJJ skill to work on, and a lot of free-rolling with a variety of partners.  The self-defense tonight included a good Judo throw, we worked on guard passing as our BJJ skill, and we rolled.  I worked with good people, forgot about my (well-protected) thumb and just enjoyed wrestling.  A few guys gave me pointers, and two of them told me I move exceptionally well for a white belt. It's encouraging to get that kind of feedback when pretty much everyone there is better than I am right now, and I haven't rolled since before the thumb break.  My longtime training buddy worked with me as well, and asked if I'm ready to resume our 5 a.m. workout routine. I told him I was, so that's set up for next week.

It was a good night on many levels.

And I've learned that all I need to to get my Mojo back is 3 hours of intense fighting and several surges of adrenaline every day.

Maybe that's why martial arts is my thing and not crochet or flower arranging.

Whatever.  I'm just glad to feel like myself again.