Friday's open mat

I am back on the mats!

I was hemming and hawing about whether I was sufficiently over my cold to train again, when I connected with Kyle, a buddy of Chris's.  Chris blogs at Rolling Uphill and trains at a Dave Camarillo school in Minnesota.  Kyle and his girlfriend Sarah just moved from the Twin Cities to Austin, and he took me up on my invite to check out my academy.  So, I was committed.  Kyle was sore from getting back on the mats the day before after a long layoff, so he just watched me flail during open mat... but it was great to have a reason I couldn't back out last minute.

Lucky for me, turnout was good (7-8 people training) and I had a variety of belt levels from white through brown, and of sizes (from 170-270 lbs) to play with.  It was pleasant weather (upper 60s) and I totally abandoned my usual ego issues.  I tried to present a challenge to my partners, and was happy to foil a sweep attempt and pass guard once... and otherwise managed to roll a little over an hour without beating myself up much.  So it was good stuff.

Went to Dallas over the weekend for some dental work courtesy of my brother-in-law.  I am back at work today, and will be back in my old crossfit-esque lunch class in about 40 minutes.  And, will be back in BJJ tonight.  It's almost like old times!

I will say-- everyone says when they've been off the mats a while, they come back better.  I'm not sure if I did, but at least I believe I've lost all the bits and pieces of stuff that I was trying to learn and incorporate.  All I had available to me was the stuff I really, really knew/remembered.  I felt like I was looking at a closet with 4-5 pieces of clothing in it instead of a packed closet that still offered "nothing" to wear.

And on that Lloyd Irvin deal-- here's a link to the warrant for arrest which describes what's on the surveillance video.