Sunday, March 6, 2011

Gas Tank on Empty

As far as fitness goes, one of the things I pride myself on is having endurance. I think my cardio is pretty good. That is until I hit the wall three times this past week. And I don't mean I got tired and winded. I'm talking gas tank completely empty. Lying on the ground sprawled out realizing that I don't feel sore because I'm too numb to feel anything but knowing all too well that I'll be feeling it later.

This all happened during jiu-jitsu training this past week. It started last week Sunday. I rolled with a guy bigger and much stronger than me. Now granted jiu-jitsu is designed to let the smaller person take on the bigger, stronger person but my technique isn't there yet. Having this guy's weight on me while trying to defend myself was really draining. I gassed out bad. So what did I do after training? I caught my breath and then ran 4 miles. When I finally got home and sat down, I didn't move...at all...for the rest of the day.

The next day I went to jiu-jitsu training and gassed again. I was really sore from the previous day and I was partnered up with another guy larger, stronger, and this time more experienced than me. When we rolled I managed to get a few dominant positions but as training went on I slowed down...a lot. Again I found myself on my back defending submissions and giving up position. At one point I found myself in a really good position to take the guys back and go for a choke. All I had to do was shift myself to the side a little bit and I would've had the position but I was too tired to move (those few inches seemed really far). Instead I flopped over and lost the match. It wasn't long until I was flat on my back gasping for air barely able to move...and that was during the water break.

I went to training again on Wednesday and this time I was partnered up with somebody stronger than me (again) but this time he wasn't bigger and I had a slight edge on experience. I was looking forward to seeing how we'd match up when we rolled. But when it came time to roll the Professor switched up our partners. I was matched with a guy my height but thicker, stronger, and heavier than me. I noticed the rank on his white belt was below mine so I thought I may have an edge in experience and technique but as soon as we got to rolling I could tell he's trained before. He moved and maintained positions very well and defended every attack I went for. He's done this before. It wasn't long until I was on my back defending against a guy that felt 210 lbs...and a muscular 210 lbs at that. Several times I found myself in turtle position (sort of a duck-and-cover position with your knees and elbows on the mat)  trying to sweep the guy but he simply put his weight on my back and I was stuck. When our training session was over I was once again flat on my back panting for air, too weak to move.

It's kind of crazy to think I can run no problem for over an hour but 5 competitive minutes on the mat kills me. Just shows how conditioning varies among different things. But on the bright side, I didn't get tapped out and training with those guys should help me improve that much more. Right?? Otherwise, I'm just getting beat up and that'd be a bummer.

1 comment:

  1. My dad and I were talking about something along those lines, I've been getting into cardio and on an eliptical and tread mill I can get a solid 5 miles at a pretty steady pace no problem.

    But when we started our Max Overload Training which is intense on the muscles but short in time we stay at the gym, we feel completely exhausted. But I told my dad it's like walking to town for groceries it'll get you fit but you can get use to it fairly quickly, but if you were swinging a scythe in the field all day that would take you out hard core you know what I'm tired I set you an invite to the blog so you can edit stuff I have a fever blah kick ass

    ReplyDelete