A tournament??

Yeah, I think I'm going to enter my first! a no-gi grappling tournament. There's one in College Station (not too far) in two weeks... it's not expensive and it's a round robin, so I will get lots of experience, I hope. I'm scared though! Shame on me, I am such a talker, but when it comes to putting myself out there... I am chicken! But I want to do it super early in my grappling life because I want to know how it goes before I think I have any chance of doing well, so I won't pressure myself. I'll go knowing I'll lose every match and that's okay.

Tom says he'll come and coach me, so I'll have someone there to give advice and so on. I want Mitch to come along too. And maybe some people from the new school? I don't know if they look at no gi as being okay or beneath them or too different or what... every time I have been to the Gracie school, everyone is wearing a gi.

I emailed the tournament hosts and they said there's usually a few ladies but if not enough for their own division, they'll just battle the boys. At first I was like ha ha, I don't have to worry about making any kind of weight class since the flier says the lowest weight class is <155lbs... but now I'm thinking if they do have a women's division, maybe I better be trying to get <125 or so. Not difficult in two weeks but that means no more lasagna (like last night) and more cardio.

My right elbow is swollen still. During the belt test I was paired up with my instructor for squats and escapes drilling, and since he's been on me in the past for not blocking hard enough, I really cracked my elbow a good one (not on purpose) trying to show him I wasn't holding back. I clocked myself right on the funnybone spot and the adrenaline was high enough that I didn't realize until later how much it hurt. It's definitely sore, and looks a little puffier than the left one.

Yesterday was fun if not much of a workout... my friend Markell is visiting from L.A. so he came to the gym with me in the morning; I did legs for 30 min and went to work. After work, Markell joined me in our judo class, where I took it very easy on the elbow. I decided not to start at Gracie until today (5-7, regular class, and 7-9, women's.) I made lasagna for dinner last night, and went to bed pretty early.