the Grinder

Excuse me. Maybe it's the endorphins.

Or maybe it's that I did everything right today.

Or maybe I got the endorphins because I did everything right today.

I had been sick for nearly two weeks which for me is devastating because I rarely get sick.  Most of those days I didn't feel horrible, but I knew if I went to jiu jitsu at some point my nose would run on my unfortunate partner, so I didn't train.

So yesterday I felt almost but not quite good enough to train, and I was sure I would wake up today ready for anything.  That actually did happen, but with my sometimes terminal insomnia, I woke up ready for anything at 4 am, and as is usually the case when that happens - although my nose was clear - I felt like dog shit by about 8 am when I had to go to work.

And so I did go to work.  I performed my  menial job competently, and I dealt with my co worker's ignorance without undue strain.  Nonetheless I was ebbing by the time I had to go to school.  School unfortunately is always draining.  While I can and do learn there and sometimes even enjoy it, the class is usually dominated by the incessant squeaking of a few 20 year olds who don't understand their chatter really doesn't prove how smart they are.

So when I left school I was tired and had a headache.

I had not squatted yet at that point, and I tried momentarily to rationalize skipping a session.  I knew I was out of food, had to go to the grocery store, and I had about two hours before I had to train jiu jitsu.  Further I knew that after jiu jitsu class, there would be a grinder, a lengthy match against an opponent for the competition team, which I assumed from past experience would be 20 minutes.

But I squat everyday, which means that if I skip a day, I do not squat everyday, so I more or less have to squat.

So I squatted the minimum,a 315 double, and left.  As a friend of mine asked about the Squat Everyday Program, "how do you finish watching Sex and the City without elliptical time?"  I don't.  I have the squat and leave routine down to 8 minutes, so it really isn't a hardship once I give in and make myself go to the gym.

And then a couple hours after that came the Grinder.  It turned out to be 25 minutes, and I was paired with a new but decent blue belt who at least approximated my own weight.

I can't really write what happened there.  I know that my guard broke down very quickly, so the Grinder turned into 24 minutes of training from atypical positions I don't seek out.  And it happened, somehow, that I flowed.  True at my age I flow like a glacier, but all the same I flowed.  I was doing snake mounts and break dance passes, and I think probably I did a toreando pass which I never do.  I just know that at some point I had a double pants grip and then I found myself on top of side control which usually describes a toreando.

I could tell you how many submissions I caught, but I won't.  The point is that I flowed like a glacier.

And too in the middle of this day that started poorly and ended perfectly, I got texts from people who want to pay me to train them.  That seems, in part at least, to refute criticism from those who say I didn't do CrossFit right.

And so all of this makes me love the people who love and forget the people who don't.

And here, maybe, are the endorphins, but right now I want to eat raw meat and sleep outside.

So once, right now, everything is perfect with the world.