Still crazy after all of these months

Dear readers.  It has been so long since my last post, over two months, that I was beginning to accept the idea that this little experiment in blogging had run its course. Work demands and the duties of being a new daddy were so consuming that maintaining blog seemed a silly luxury.  After all, I reasoned, it’s not like anyone really cares that much if some old dude starts training jiu jitsu.  Or stops, for that matter.

But then, I received a comment from a gentleman in Manchester, UK. It read (initially quoting me):

“Week 1. I Am completely awesome….Week 2. I SUCK!” – I’m so glad it’s not just me brother I can’t even remember how I happened upon this website but I am glad that I did. Keep pushing forward bro – there’s a bunch of us out there doing the same

He was responding to my post on the ego roller coaster I found myself on during the very beginning stages of training BJJ.  That post was almost six months old by now, but it still hit me – there may actually be people out there who give a crap about all this stuff.  People who, when they notice the blogs have stopped, conclude that I gave up.  Just one more middle aged dude in mid life crisis who tries out some new path but soon gets dragged back down by the relentless gravity of aging.  I realized that this might all be about more than just me, and I hated the idea that someone else starting down this path may have lost just a little wind from their sails from my apparent failure.

Well, I am happy to say that, while my blogging may have entered a hiatus, my training in BJJ has definitely not.  I got my third stripe in May and am still at it.  And it’s fantastic.  I continue to develop, though perhaps not as quickly as I’d like at times, and I feel stronger, healthier and more alive than ever.  I just re-upped my gym membership for another six months and hope to get my blue belt before the end of the year.

But a belt is a piece of cotton. That’s not the point.  Training BJJ has radically altered my body and my mind in so many ways.  Example: I just went on a shopping spree for new pants as  all my old ones were falling off (and believe me, no one wants to see that).  Turns out I had dropped 3 inches in waist size since starting last December.

Not that there hasn’t been a bump or two along the way.  Recently, I was out of town for almost a month visiting family and, though I managed to train a handful of times at Gracie Barra gyms in Chicago and Minneapolis (BTW, shout out to all the wonderful folks at both those gyms who were so welcoming) I couldn’t maintain the 3 or 4 times a week minimum I try to stick with here in Albuquerque.

When I got back, I was so exited to dive back in that I trained 6 days in a row, twice on a couple of days.  It felt great.  But I was a little rusty I suppose, and feeling the mile high altitude.  Maybe because of that, or just my over excitement at being back to it, I sustained a string of minor injuries.

First I came home with a black eye I got from an unintentional upkick while passing someones guard.  Baby Momma was a little concerned.  Then I got my nose smushed by a shoulder during a sweep.  I thought it was just a friction burn, but when I got home and wiggled the bridge of my nose, “click, click click”.  Busted.  But not badly.  Still, Baby Momma was now very concerned.

Then, about a week and a half ago, I was rolling with a very nice but much heavier and and pretty aggressive young guy.  I had a little more experience and did fine, but a some point I noticed that my little toe was hurting.  When I looked down, I saw that it was now pointing about 20 degrees south of normal.  Don’t even know how it happened.  It didn’t hurt badly, even when I pushed it back into place.  I even finished the class.

But by the time I woke up the next day it was all black and blue and swollen.  The toe also had a new little zigzag thing going on. Again, clearly broken. Baby Momma was now not concerned at all, as she had already completely given up on my sanity.  “Just don’t get killed,” she added.

So now I’ve got to wait a bit to get back to it.  I taped up the toe and am working out every day so that I don’t lose my strength and conditioning.  My foot swells up a little after, but it would be riskier, I believe, to go back in crappy shape and risk even more injuries.  And its nothing a little ice can’t take care of.   I imagine I’ll be back at it in another week or two at the most.

So there you have it.  For anyone out there starting out in their “mature” years, don’t give up!  Maybe it feels like all those techniques are the physical equivalent of learning Chinese.  Maybe you wake up after the first week and feel like rabid wolverines have been chewing on your tendons all night.  Believe me, it gets better.  And don’t let my tales of dings and dents dissuade you, either.  In fact, the occasional black eye or broken nose is WAY less painful than being sore, exhausted and out of shape.  And these injuries are minor annoyances that will go away soon enough.  The knowledge, confidence, strength and conditioning, that sticks around.  So, to me, the total tally is clearly in the positive.  Or maybe I’m just crazy.  Like a fox.  Or a rabid wolverine.