Phone Journal Dump April 26th 2023

Started a phone journal in March hoping to track training towards competing in the European Masters in late April. Just copying and pasting it all in here.

1/3/23

Park pull ups and long walk. Wednesday Gi rounds. Not a lot of partners at my level but some big units so worked on bottom and letting guys progress in positionals. Freezing in the gym. Bad warm up. Only got going towards the end of the session. 35 minutes total. Not good enough.

4/3/23

Saturday Gi rounds. Good level on the mat. Good round with LB trying to not expose my feet when passing. Then later baiting the foot to deadman pass. Knee across passing I got from Norbi working well as a go-to but need some more work on the near side. Guard awful. Clunky, slow sweeps falling back on old reliables. Didn’t attempt a single bodylock pass and much better for it.

6/3/23

Monday dreadful . Some good heavy guys but I just got into wrestles instead of finessing them. Need to drop the ego and the love of scrapping. Strength numbers way down since I upped the intensity on the mat. Hilarious how weak JJ makes you. Weight floating about 88kg nogi so good place to start.

7/3/23

Tuesday NoGi savage. Great level on the mat in that session. 45min sparring. Not much give in anyone. Worked the new collarbone grip but need to not over rely. Coughed up a soft toehold to G. Complacent. Hard to get warm after coaching. Riding 2 horses with 1 arse as Dad would say.

8/3/23

Wednesday poor. Morning strength work, sluggish later in sparring. Need to warm up better and prep for sparring during everyone else’s drills. 2 horse 1 arse etc. Grinding is all good craic but too much like white belt. Had a word with 1 or 2 guys about upping skill level and dropping ego. Need better sparring defo but equally need to lead. Much better after chatting.

10/3/23

Friday- Went to Roger’s brown/black session Thursday am. Off the boil and not in good form. Beaten up in positional but chose stupid positions against V high level guys. Good rounds with Peter M, another guy I don’t know, mostly on the defensive but in the game. Last round standing and came down direct on my knee from Yoko Wakare. Not bad at the time but very sore swollen and losing mobility today. No pops or clicks though. Younger crowd in here than previous so defo faster. Good training but I’ll need to come up to pace.

11/3/23

Saturday- Knee worse again today. Can walk but hopping down stairs. Why we have to get so old Rock?

13/3/23

Monday- Knee bad. Can’t get heel to arse. Feels pretty stable but very painful. Physio appointment Thursday. Lifted a bit but zero enthusiasm. Coaching went well on the plus side nice to watch everyone spar. Advanced class level on the rise since Jan no doubt.

15/3/23

Wednesday- Difficult to watch training and do nothing but that’s where we’re at. Lifted this morning. Icing the knee but no sign of anything good.

16/3/23

Thursday- Physio today. Meniscus damage, patellar tendon inflamed and tight. Possible bone bruising. Pretty stunned. No pops, snaps etc at the time and I could possibly have rolled on with a bit of discomfort. Right decision to stop. Some damage done for just a heavy impact. I asked about return to training time. Pretty wishy washy on it. 6-8 weeks maybe but depends on etc etc. Looks like Euro Masters are a wash but I’ve been down this road before and healed fast.

25/3/23

Saturday- Lifted last night and decided to put on some armour for next 4 weeks with rehab. Full on old school 70s bodybuilding on the horizon. Upper body in agony today but good craic. Knee rehab started. Slides, hypers etc same as when I did the ACL. Depressing work but stick on the podcast and get through it stuff. Doing nothing but that the past week.

2/4/23

Sunday- IBJJF yesterday and on the leg the last 3 days setting up tearing down. Not too bad. Rehab defo doing some good. Swelling right down. Just achy. Heel coming to ass and quarter squatting. Got needled last appointment and she’s happy with the progress. Still a lot of pain there though but she’s now convinced mensiscus intact and might be just bony bruising causing the pain. All good. Looking forward to getting on the mat again in 2 weeks maybe?

10/4/23

Monday- Made my decision to not go to Barcelona. Going to do some light training this week but no way I’ll be ready to compete. Rolled 4 rounds Open Mat today. Neil, Rowan, Sean x2. Felt “okay”. Will train tomorrow night NoGi.

11/4/23

Tuesday- Just out having rolled a little. Warmed up well and got into it. Wore my big volleyball kneepad. Got stuck everywhere. Need to get something slimmer felt like it would get stuck and twist on the mat. Noise off it is crazy too when it squeaks on the mat. Freaked some people out. Can’t be scaring your training partners. Sore to put it on the mat and guard is impossible. Still- training. It’ll improve.

12/4/23

Wednesday- played the long game and didn’t train. Took all I had to say no to myself. Lifted instead and took care of the rehab.

14/4/23

Friday- Physio today. Same shit different day. No assessment of my knee just straight into treatment. Not very confident in this physio to be honest. Mobility okay but pain is still like 4 weeks ago. Said I’d trained, she just shrugged sort of like my wife does when she knows I’m going to do it anyway.

15/4/23-

Saturday- Light NoGi. New goal is compete in the summer. Maybe Madrid again. Doyler down so did 2 rounds with him. Stayed technical. Went round on, round off but completed the session. Cardio stinks. Blowing out my arse by 3min in. Registered for UK Masters September at HW.

17/4/23

Monday- Stupid stupid stupid. Pretty cold, got into sparring, felt the pain immediately. Kept going to the end because that’s what heroes do. Paying the price now with ice on the knee again before bed and E rolling eyes at captain fucko. I know it.

19/4/24

Wednesday- Rest and rehab, rest and rehab. Upper body looks like Tarzan, lower body like Jane. Strength numbers way up. Had to stick some tighter tee shirts to the bottom of the pile. 2 rashguards don’t fit me in the sleeves. But the progress in the weight room is just indicative of so little actual training. Reminds me of lockdown.

22/4/23

Saturday- Good NoGi training. Knee felt funny and quite painful sometimes, but felt like myself for a few rounds at least. Still very guarded. Good rounds with LB, S, JA. Moved around with a couple of white and blues towards the end. Feel chunky. Be glad to drop off the weights and up training. Scales at 92kg. Heaviest ever was 93kg. Mostly muscle, not fat really. Back and neck feel big and stable. They could have done with some work for injury prevention, so every cloud.

24/4/23

Monday- Knee very sore. Must have overdone it Sat. No clue why now and not last week. Going to give a whole week off again. Constant ache in it can’t put knee to the floor. Clicking constantly now which wasn’t happening previously. Really irritated. Getting 2nd opinion from another physio Thursday. No confidence in other one but maybe she’s right.