Tag Archives: BJJ

Back On The Mat – Feel The Burn

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I got back into BJJ training properly on Monday after what feels like a LONG time out of action. I went back initially last week but only worked for the first half of the lesson while we were drilling positions (specifically escape from full rear mount) but didn’t want to risk wrecking my finger again. However this week I sucked it up a bit, bound my finger really well and got on with it. We worked a really good half-guard escape and transition to 100KG or arm bar which requires some really quick movement. Rolling for the second half of the lesson was a different kettle of fish. I was expecting to struggle after not having been for so long, but I really made hard work of it. I was completely gassed after my second rotation and one of the purple belts gave me an utter drubbing. At the time it was hugely demoralising and I found myself thinking ‘I really am terrible at this, why do I bother’, but with a bit of time I can look back on it and see a problem which is to do with me, not my training.

I am, and always have been, a bit of a perfectionist in many areas. I expect (rightly or wrongly) to be great at new things I try very quickly, and it’s my downfall. I’m guessing it comes because I am reasonably bright, and I do tend to pick up the basics and concepts of things quite quickly. Be it a sport, a language, a hobby; whatever. The problem is that it doesn’t last, and I have a really hard time moving from the ‘picked it up quickly’ phase through the ‘actually it’s harder than it seems’ one, and on to the ‘actually I can do it’ one. It’s always been the same and it probably always will be. Tang Soo Do, Japanese, learning to drive – all the same. I know that I’ve got to get on with it and work through the hard part, but at the time when you’re tired, frustrated and annoyed at yourself it requires a bit of fortitude to do it.

On to less reflective stuff then, time for some stupidity. I train on textured foam rubber matting five days a week and have done for quite a while now. In all this time I’ve only given myself a small amount of mat burn maybe once or twice, usually doing things like ‘zombie crawls’ during warmups. At BJJ on Monday I managed to put two burns on the top of my foot, one of which is about the size of a plum, and it REALLY hurts. I should end the story there and let you guess about what incredible guard pass I was going for, but the truth is much less impressive. With my instructor being Brazilian he’s fond of football, and so we had a game of five-a-side to warm up. Muggins here had a rush of blood to the head when he saw an opportunity to slide tackle and make a dynamic save, and in the process took the skin off the top of his foot. It hurts like crazy, and my decision to wear nice tight patent leather shoes to work seems less and less clever with every step I take. Doh!

On Tuesday night we had the first time an outside group has used the TSD academy building, and a few of us went along to show some support and have our first try at Korean Yoga! It was really good, not what I was expecting at all, and I think I’ll be back. I was surprised just how hard I had to work, and how much stress my muscles were put under in certain postures. The mixture of high effort and utter relaxation is a great one, so I was surprised when the session ended and I felt pretty much the same as normal. That feeling didn’t last for long though, within five minutes I had to sit down because I felt like I was going to fall asleep, and that night I slept like the proverbial log. I know that a lot of the relaxation and concentration works with Alpha waves in the brain, and I find it really fascinating. It’ll be really interesting to see how the Qi Gong aspects crossover with TSD.

I’ve got a busy few weeks ahead now, I think they’re going to fly by. Mrs AdamR has her 30th birthday, I’m going to see Dragonforce, I’m off to Germany for a week and then I have.. well, I’m not going to think about that now, I’m already starting to get nervous O_o.

Leaps And Bounds

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The unseasonable weather continues with some gorgeous sunshine, and we were blessed with some on Saturday too which was a real treat. It meant that although the field was absolutely soaking at dog agility, I didn’t have to wear a massive coat and end up looking like a drowned rat. Murphy’s going really well at agility now, he’s turned a corner and when I think back to a year ago when he started, it’s like having a different dog. It used to be nigh on impossible to keep his attention or to stop him buggering off to sniff something or someone, but now he’s a little agility machine! It used to be the case that I could see he was a way behind the others in his group, and although Murph couldn’t care less, I found it quite demoralising. I’m fiercely competitive in just about everything I do, and not being the best at something (regardless of having a few days or a few years experience – I expect to be amazing at everything straight away) was infuriating for me. But now he’s really very capable. Granted, I can’t work as far away from him as some can, but I’m sure that’ll come with time.

We’re up to 20 obstacles or so now on a course, and that’s including everything except weaves. This week was the first for us with a seesaw in the middle of it, and he absolutely nailed it. Weaves are by far the most difficult obstacle to learn, there’s so much to it and there’s so much that can go wrong. You always enter the poles from the right, and making sure they do that at speed, from any angle, and without skipping a pole is really tricky. I’ve been holding off entering any competitions with him until I was confident he was capable. I know he’d have fun regardless of how well he did, but I’d like to be able to give a good account of myself. I think he’s nearly there now, and while it probably won’t be a full agility course (he’s not up to 9-12 weaves in a course yet), he could still do jumps and tunnels or something similar. Maybe once I get him measured we’ll look at entering something in the Spring.

Training with a broken finger and with most of the club away at the tournament was pretty depressing, but in a way quite rewarding as well. Other than the person instructing, I was the only adult present. It was quite good to work one-to-one with the kids, especially with them having just graded. It meant I was able to help them start to learn their new one-step and self-defence techniques. Tonight’s where it’s really going to hit home again what I’m going to be missing when I don’t train at BJJ. I went up to see the guys at our new gym on Saturday and let them know what happened, and my instructor (speaking from a lot of experience) told me I’ll be looking at two weeks before I can start to make positions again, and four or so before I can roll properly. I wanted to get back a lot faster than that, but after giving myself a day off the splint yesterday and spending a lot of it in a lot of pain, I’m sure it’s not going to happen.

Halloween isn’t far away now and I’ve got a fancy dress party to go to. I’ve had an absolutely genius idea for a costume, and I can’t wait to get it done. How many people will recognise it? Probably not too many. I don’t care though; it’s far too cool to not do.

Neither Here Nor There

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Right about now I should be sat in a car on my way to the midlands with a bag full of equipment, starting to get nervous about taking part in the British Tang Soo Do championships. Instead I’m sat at a desk clock-watching and waiting for the weekend.

I knew from the start of the week that I wasn’t going to be able to go, thanks to a mix-up at work with annual leave, and in a way that’s almost a blessing in disguise. I didn’t break my finger until Monday night and at the time I didn’t know it was broken, but if I was still going at that point and found out that I wouldn’t be able to compete I’d have been absolutely gutted. As it stands I’m more annoyed than gutted. I’m envious that I’m not going up with the folks from our clubs, and I know envy isn’t an attractive quality in anyone, but it’s tough. I’ll be going along to training tonight to show some support for the few left down here in the normal class, but I won’t be able to do very much myself.

I spent my lunchtime up at the hospital in the fracture clinic. I had an appointment at 11:45 and when I got there I couldn’t believe how busy it was and how many people were waiting to be seen. In the end I waited just over an hour for my appointment, an appointment which took approximately ninety seconds. By that point it was more despair than anger at having to wait so long to be told almost nothing. According the specialist I saw it will take about a month for the bone to set properly, and if I catch it wrong before then I’m going to know all about it. He didn’t say I definitely couldn’t train, which is good news, but told me I should wait until I can stub that finger on a table without it being agony before I try anything much. I’ve tried it since. It’s still agony.

As I won’t be able to train at BJJ tomorrow, I’m already trying to come up with ways to occupy myself so I’m not left thinking that I should be somewhere else training or competing. Luckily dog agility has moved to Saturday mornings now that it’s too dark in the evenings, so that’s the morning taken care of. I intend to do a lot of cooking I think; I enjoy it, it keeps me occupied and I get to eat the results :) . We’re all getting together on Saturday night for a few drinks and some films to try to cheer up one of my good friends who’s had an exceptionally rough time of it lately.

Time to actually choose some music for the drive home. I grabbed a random one without looking from the pile of CDs in my car this morning, and the scandinavian girl singing at me was a real blast from the past and instantly took me back to earlier in the year. Spooky. Spooky and really distracting when driving!

Green Fingered

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I wish this was an update about my gardening prowess – although my first lawn is growing like mad – but unfortunately it’s more literal today.

Last night I went along to BJJ, but for the first time at the new full-time gym. I say full-time, it’s only open in the evenings, but the point is it’s the club’s building and it’s not shared with anyone else. It was the first time I’ve ventured out to see it and I’m impressed, it looks really clean and good.

Our club's logo and a nice clean floor and wall

Our club's logo and a nice clean floor and wall

I didn’t realise it but the lesson time had moved from 8 to 7.30, so I got there 20 minutes after the start of the lesson – oops! It was quite a small class and thanks to the new mats with their super slippery tops, making the position was really easy. We worked another De La Riva sweep which rolls up beautiftully into side control thanks to a sneaky push/kick half-way through. We went into some open rolling which was absolutely awesome. Not having to worry about putting your head or feet through the chipboard wall is great, and having all that extra room to work makes it feel far more open. The slippery top to the mats will take a week or two to wear down, which will be a good thing. Although I really like being able to shrimp and switch hips so quickly (it’s like grappling on ice!), it makes some stuff really tricky. I got caught in full mount at one point and whereas normally I’d bridge into Upa, my feet had absolutely no purchase and I got choked out quite nastily. Overall it was good though, I spent the majority of the time I was rolling in either side or mount, and scored with Americana once. I can definitely feel the beginnings of my ‘game’ evolving, and I know where I work well from and where I tend to end up in trouble.

Some of the guys checking out the rest of the gym

Some of the guys checking out the rest of the gym

Getting back briefly to the title of this post, and my green finger. While I was rolling with a guy about the same size and strength as me, neither of us wanted to pull guard so there was a lot of pushing, shoving, grabbing and general bullying going on, trying to get on top. At one point I took his lapel and passed it over his arm to help me tie him up, but just as I got a nice pistol grip on it he tore it free. My little finger got caught up as he did and there was a loud crack and a lot of pain. I’m still not sure exactly what I did, but for the rest of the class I taped it up and cried like a girl when it got hit was totally manly and didn’t bat an eyelid.

By the time I got home a small bruise had started to appear under it, and by the time I got to bed I couldn’t bend it thanks to the swelling. Here’s how it looked first thing this morning…

My broken/dislocated finger started to go pretty colours

My broken/dislocated finger started to go pretty colours

The bruising’s gone really dark now and started to go green around the edges, so I think by the middle of the week I’ll have a really attractive green finger. It’s throbbing like mad and I keep doing stupid things like shoving my hand in my pocket which hurts like nobody’s business! I’ve busted my toes before and although they hurt, it’s nothing like as impractical as that finger. I can’t type properly, write and whenever I drink I look like a ponce with my pinkie sticking out. C’est la vie. Rafa showed me his fingers at the end of the class and his knuckles are a mess, I guess it just comes with the territory.

On top of that I’ve found out that because of ‘work-related differences of opinion’ I can no longer go and compete at the British TSD Championships this weekend. I am absolutely gutted, I’ve been looking forward to it for ages, and now I’ve had my chance to go taken away. I’m not sure if I’m more angry or upset. Never mind, I know the rest of the guys will do me, the club and the county proud, and come home laden with silverware again. Good luck guys, even though you don’t need it.

Manic Monday

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I remember the Bangles song with the same name really well from my childhood for some reason, but already I’ve managed to digress, that must be some kind of record.

As the title of this entry suggests, Mondays for me are pretty manic at the moment. Quite aside from the shock to the system that coming back to work gives me, I’ve got so much going on. Once work’s out of the way (and Mondays for the foreseeable future at work are going to be manic) the clock starts ticking. I’ve got to get home, changed, do whatever chores need doing and then start chopping up some cheese. Mondays are dog agility days, and as Murphy has absolutely zero interest in toys once he’s out of the house, I take small pieces of cheese as rewards for him when he gets things right. Next is getting the hound himself ready which is never easy, as he has ten minutes of going absolutely mental when I get home. Taking his lead out just compounds his euphoric noisiness and jumping about, but once he’s tethered and I’ve made sure I’ve got everything together, it’s off to the field where the agility lessons take place, about three miles away.

Dog Agility used to be quite a relaxing thing, the dogs would only be capable of three or four obstacles in a row, but now it’s quite different. Murph and his classmates are quite capable of more than sixteen obstacles in a course and dogs can be pretty fast (even short-legged ginger ones), so just keeping up with him around the course is a workout in itself now. I managed to embarrass myself not once, but twice during last night’s lesson. Part of the course involved sending him over a jump and then getting him to do a sharp ‘pull through’ around the wing of the jump. I stopped sharply to turn, but by now dew had started to settle on the grass, and out came both of my feet. I’m sure the frequent throwing in training means I’m much calmer when I’m on my way down now, but it was very relaxed as I landed on my ass completly horizontal with the pup licking my face as if to say ‘Come on, get up, we haven’t finished the course yet!’. Naturally I managed to do exactly the same thing about ten minutes later at another jump, much to the amusement of everyone there and the total bemusement of Murph who probably thinks it’s a new move we haven’t learned yet…

Dog agility finishes at 7:30 and I’ve got half an hour before my BJJ class starts. That means saying my goodbyes, getting the dog together and racing home to drop him off before heading into town for my lesson. Last night I was ill-prepared and had forgotten to get cash out to pay for my class, but somehow still managed to get there in time to get ready before it started. It was nice to get back in training after a week out with my mangled arm and shoulder, and although I had to be careful and take it easy with the rolling, we worked some more ‘de la riva’ sweeps which was great. My progress seems to have hit a bit of a sticking point at the moment, but I’m sure something new will click soon and I’ll feel like I’m getting better at it again.

By the time we wrap up there, have a bit of a chat and get home it’s normally about 10, which means I’ve got time for a quick bite to eat (I still haven’t had time for an evening meal by this point) before going to bed again. I find it hard to sleep on a full stomach, so I’ve taken to taking protein before and after my class to keep me going. This current bag of Mint-Choc whey protein is really nice which is lucky. I had considered getting some unflavoured whey and adding nesquik milkshake powder as had been suggested to me before, but when I thought about it it’s really not such a great idea. Part of my reason for taking protein is not only to help keep strong, but to cut some weight too, and adding nesquik which it turns out is 93%(!) sugar, and well, that’s not going to help. Ok, a scoop of that is only about 15g, but even if I could stick to one scoop per drink I’d be looking at 45g of the stuff a day, 7 days a week. That’s about 300g of sugar, or if you prefer, ~1250 Calories a week extra. For a bloke my size that’s half a days eating extra! If I was a girl it’d be almost a full day’s worth of food. Blimey. The flavoured stuff from myprotein.co.uk uses sucralose as a sweetener – safe as houses and zero extra Calories – bargain!

Mir Locks & Making The Most Of The Mini-Summer

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After a fairly busy few days of training, including getting back to BJJ on Saturday and some pretty heavy sparring on Sunday night, I went to BJJ last night after an hour of Dog Agility first. Murphy was overjoyed, you should’ve heard him squeaking with excitement when he realised which way we’re driving (his sense of direction is awesome, I think I should have called him TomTom), and surprisingly he hadn’t forgotten any of his training.

I motored over to training afterwards and we did some technical work, quickly switching from open guard to a kind of spider/half-guard hybrid for a sweep, and some other sweeps working from a spider pass attempt. I love the technical stuff, it’s enormously satisfying when you get it right and barely use any power. We went on from there to putting the higher grades through their paces in a series of ten minute pressure tests. As soon as a point was scored either way, the junior grades jumped off and someone took their place, continuously, for ten minutes. I jumped in to roll with my instructor and he was really gunning for it. I was determined not to let him sweep me, but an attempted sweep quickly turned into a strange locking of arms as we both rolled sideways. The next thing I knew I was on the other side of the mat in enormous pain, holding my arm, which had made a pretty sickening ‘pop’ noise.

I’m not sure now what I’ve done to it, but about an inch below my elbow is very tender and I have no strength in it at all. I was told after that what I’d described as feeling like ‘a bizarre kimura’ was in fact a Mir lock. I have no intention of ever being caught in one again, let alone resisting it. Still, I’m not there for a nice cup of tea and a site down, and I’ve learned a good lesson.

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Over the last week the weather has been absolutely gorgeous down here, as if trying to make amends for the rubbish summer we had. Determined to make the most of it, a group of us headed down to the beach on Saturday afternoon in an inpromptu celebration for a friend’s wife’s birthday. We arrived early, and for once I didn’t mind waiting for the (habitual) latecomers. I grabbed a nice spot on the grass at the top of the cliffs and had a lie-down in the sunshine, which was the perfect tonic after being mauled earlier that day at training.

The view from the cliffs looking over Gwithian beach

The view from the cliffs looking over Gwithian beach

The afternoon rolled on and everyone turned up eventually, so we all headed down and grabbed a sheltered spot under the cliffs. A few of us decided to brave the Atlantic and get wet, and I’m so glad I did. I haven’t been in the sea since Christmas, and September is when the water’s at its warmest, so we spent a while bobbing about and body-surfing. We sprang back over the beach like something out of Baywatch and got settled for some barbecue action. Barbecues on the beach always taste good, especially after being in the sea and working up a proper appetite. Stuffed, worn out (after a game of what was meant to be Rounders after the food), and sipping some cold beers we sat around and chatted while the sun went down…

The sun sets over the sea while we eat barbecued meat

The sun sets over the sea while we eat barbecued meat

As the evening wore on we were joined by one more who came bearing gifts from the East (including Soju!), so we drank a bit more, celebrated her return and then a few brave souls (I say brave, better prepared might be more accurate, I didn’t bring enough dry clothing) headed back down for a last dip in the water as it got darker and darker. We made the decision to head a couple of miles down the road to the Sandsifter, a bar which has been done up for the middle-class surfing wannabes – and has the prices to match. A great night, and worth all the clambering about over rocks while tipsy in near darkness, if just for the sunset and twilight.

The last light of the day...

The last light of the day...

Post-Weekend Update

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I’m sure some of you came here maybe even wanting to know how the weekend and the competition went. Well sit back and I’ll enlighten you.

On Friday during kickboxing I remember complaining that I couldn’t catch my breath properly, and during the light rolling we did on Saturday I was hurting a lot and sweating like nothing else. Over the course of Saturday I got worse and worse until the evening, where I was practically unable to get off the sofa. Every joint and muscle in my body was aching, I was running hot and cold sweats and coughing; not a very well bunny. When the alarm went off at 5:30 the next morning it was obvious that there was no way I was going to even manage the 400 miles on the road that day, let alone fight.

I spent Sunday extremely fed-up, aching and feeling like crap in bed/on the sofa, as I did all of yesterday. It meant I missed dog agility again, and missed meeting up with the guys who competed and seeing how they did, as I missed BJJ as well. Today I feel a bit better, well, enough to be back at work at least (is that really a good thing though?), but I’m still gutted that I didn’t get my first taste of competition. I was so up for it, and have spent the last few weeks really trying to build the beginnings of my game. Not to mention the fact that I’d already paid for my entry…

So there’s really nothing more to say than that; I got ill, I missed everything.

Fun.

(Normal service will be resumed next time, less of the self-pitying boo-hoo nonsense ;) )

Drilling

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I’m a Fire Marshal at my place of work, which means I essentially get no more pay than if I wasn’t, and have to shepherd people around the building in the event of a fire or bomb(!). I don’t mind too much, it’s nice to have on my C.V. if nothing else, and it’s fun putting out fires on the training courses. We had a surprise drill today which broke the day up nicely, even if it did mean donning my oh-so-attractive fluorescent yellow tabbard and shouting at people in the cold. I’m not sure why anyone wants to know any of that, but it was fresh in my mind so I thought I’d share. I’m sure that you, my lovely readers (yeah, I know you’re still out there reading), are enthralled.

I’ve spent some time doing a different kind of drilling lately, putting finishing touches to the house and attaching various things to walls. Generally all the DIY has gone really well so far, but I came close to snapping over the weekend when I tried to put a long curtain pole up in the bedroom. I was really pleased with all my planning and preparation, making sure everything was measured, spirit leveled and ready to go. However, fate and the builders conspired against me. I started drilling into the wall which was going great, but with about 5mm still left to go before the hole was deep enough to hold the rawl plug, the drill came to a complete standstill. Actually that’s not very accurate, the drill itself was still spinning like a Dervish on speed, but it just wouldn’t go in any further! Casting my mind back now, there’s a large metal lintel I remember the builders putting in during the build, but at that point I couldn’t have cared less. I was hot, tired and practically deaf thanks to the drill’s incessant screeching of masonry bit against metal, and ready to throw the damn thing out the window. After plenty of swearing, a foul mood and some less-than-perfect drilling, there is now a very nice curtain pole up and I’m no longer waking up at dawn ready to bare all at the neighbours thanks to the privacy of curtains. I’m sure the neighbours are glad too.

The third of my trinity of tenuous drilling links today relates to training last night. We started out as we always do on a Wednesday night with a Senior class, doing my best to indelibly stamp the new self-defence and knife defence on my subconscious. I quite enjoy them, especially the take-downs and armbars on the knife stuff, and i think they’re finally sticking. I stayed on for some kickboxing, and it was a treat to drill some of the other kinds of self-defence there too. Easily my favourite of the bunch involves avoiding a kick and ploughing in behind for the double-leg, immediately sprawling for some semblance of back mount, followed by a nice easy RNC. These days I don’t need to be told twice to take the back if I get a chance ;) .

It’s going to be a hectic few days now. I’m taking tonight off, my neck is still a bit funky and I feel like I could do with the rest, but from then on it’s training on Friday, followed by training on Saturday, then 3 hours on the road and my first taste of BJJ competition on Sunday (with the obligatory 3 hour drive home afterward), and back to BJJ on Monday night. I should be ready to drop come Tuesday.

September – Ahhhhhh

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Everyone knows I’m a massive fan of all things Autmn, and the arrival of September today is a good thing in my book. The summer never really happened except for a few good days, in fact I can probably remember all of them, so the transition to Autumn won’t be very stark this year. The evenings have drawn in and the air is starting to feel cooler, I’m looking forward to those long shadows and orange evenings already.

Unfortunately I’m starting September feeling very off. I was fine for most of yesterday, but as the evening came in I gradually started to feel terrible. The headache I’d been nursing all day just wouldn’t stop and my whole head felt swollen and ‘swooshy’. It put an end to any thoughts of dog agility despite us not having been in weeks (poor Murph), and also to my last heavy session at BJJ before the competition at the weekend. I still feel rough today, and writing this now, it feels like something inside my head is swelling and trying to burst out through my temples. Quite how I managed to use the new self-service machines at the Post Office is beyond me, so if someone ends up with my wallet in the post or something like that, send it back eh?

I managed to be fairly productive over the Bank Holiday break and even got around to seeding what will be the back garden. The ground out there is really tough and stony though, so just how much of the seed will ‘take’ and start to sprout, I couldn’t tell you, but I broke up as much of the topsoil as I could. It covered surprisingly well, and it was even nice to look at a light brown garden rather than a dark brown mud one, so I can’t wait to see how nice it’ll look when it’s all green. Long-term I intend to get some fruit and veg growing at the bottom, and a few nice trees in too; namely flowering cherries and a couple of decent acers. I’m going to line the bank at the end with bamboo too, it grows like mad and it’s a great natural windbreak.

All that remains for this week is to get better, pray my new gi arrives in time and get the new club patch sewn onto it. If I’m going to get my ass handed to me in my first competition, I’m at least going to do it looking smart.

De La Riva

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De La Riva is my favourite guard to work from in BJJ, and for that reason and no other it’s also the title of this post. Describing it is hard, it’s like a normal open guard, but you lock one leg in and under the opponent’s which makes it almost impossible to circle one way, and with a foot controlling the hip there are loads of sweep possibilities. I find it really difficult to pass. It’s also really difficult for me to fight my natural programming and open my guard to go for the De La Riva, but I’m getting there.

De La Riva guard

De La Riva guard

Last night’s class was a very frustrating one for me. We’ve been taking the intensity up over the last couple of weeks in preparation for the competition, and I was already feeling tired and sore going into the lesson. After a good few rolls working from half and closed guard, either trying to pass if on top, or sweep from underneath, one of my arms just gave up completely. I think it’s a re-occurrence of the tendinitis I had when I first started training, it’s very painful and leaves me unable to grip anything with my hand. Not ideal in a BJJ class. So I spent the rest of the class watching and running the timer, not very glamourous I know, but it gave me a good chance to watch the blue and purple belts working, and to see Raphael really going for it. The thing that gets me every time when I watch someone really good at BJJ is the sheer speed and power in every ‘explosion’, that’s what I’m really going to have to work on for my passes and escapes.

At the end of the lesson I was looking forward to getting home, having something hot to eat and resting my arm, but fate conspired against me. I had a text from one of my friends saying that our mutual friend had left his motorbike near his house, parked perfectly legally on the road. Someone decided they wanted the parking spot though, and moved his bike onto the pavement. He’s away on his Honeymoon at the moment, so leaving it on the pavement for the next week wouldn’t be such a great idea, so I was asked to come and help him move it somewhere better, i.e. outside his garage. Struggling down the road lifting the best part of 120KG of bike while he tried to steer against the steering lock at 10pm wasn’t the end to the night I’d expected, or the one my arm wanted, but it’s what I had. Never mind, it’s all sorted now, and he can buy me an ale when he gets back.

A couple more sessions of going for it all guns blazing and we wind it down for the last week before the comp, my arms can’t wait.