Preparation status – leaving in 43 days!

I put a countdown timer on the blog and looking at it right now, it says 43 days and 12 hours till departure. Times runs so fast, it doesn’t feel like it was very long ago, I got the idea to do this project and here I am with just over a month before I sit on the plane towards my first destination.

I’ve bought the first ten tickets, got vaccinated, insured, and renewed my passport. I also got some gadgets for the trip, such as a flashcard reader for my iPad so I can upload photos on the road, and a funky tripod so I can hopefully do some cool long exposure shots somewhere out in the world. More importantly, I finally got my pimped out, super light weight globetrotter gi from Kauai Kimonos, which I think will be perfect for traveling. I still need to find some nice grappling shorts, new shoes and other stuff, but it is not so urgent and I can probably buy some of that cheap on the way.

My training preparations has been pretty tough, but I want to be in the best shape possible for this trip. First of all, to handle all that training (combined with jetlag, strange food and so on), which I think will put a lot of stress on my body. Most places, I will only visit for a few days, and I want to get as much training done as possible each place, so there won’t be many breaks. I also wanna try and hit some competitions, and being fit for that is of course always important. Last, but not least, I want to do my best to avoid injuries, which I think are less frequent when I am strong and flexible.

I started doing my physical training for the trip in the end of september and have been doing it since with no breaks, besides a few days here and there due to Christmas, tournaments etc. Mondays and wednesdays, I do a cardio/endurance workout with the guys from my gi class, who are also competing at the Europeans. We are doing basic circuit training and has upped the amount and intensity along the way. Saturdays, I do heavy lifting, mostly for upperbody, since I still have problems with my herniated disc. It is getting much better though, and I can do things like boxjumps, lunges and similar, which was impossible just a year or so back. I also, try to do a basic stretching routine daily.

It is very obvious, how I have gotten in much better shape over the last three and a half months, I have been doing this training. In the beginning it was extremely exhausting to finish the workout, but now I can do a much longer and harder workout with no real problems. Wednesday we did six rounds of five stations with lunges, clean & jerk, sledgehammer, tireflips and ropeswings, and by the end I felt like I could go six more rounds (and that was even the same day I just got vaccinated). When I get really tired from working out or rolling, I only need to rest for a minute or so to get my breath back, and I feel fresh and ready again. My movements in jiu jitsu feels faster, more explosive and my grip feels really strong compared to earlier. Really nice to be in this great shape, I recommend it ;)

Grappling wise, I have been rolling consistently five days a week, and I can feel how my body gets more used to the high volume of training. Six months ago, three times a week were more than enough for me. I am very blessed to live a life without an alarm clock, so my body is allowed to sleep as much as it needs to recover ever single night. I think that plays a big role in my energy needs for all this training. I have also done some extra sparring with a very skilled brownbelt from another local gym as preparations for the Europeans, and has gotten a lot out of it. Nice to roll with someone who has a different style than what I am used to, and can put a lot of pressure on my game. I will need all the defensive training I can get for all those headhunters in the gyms out there, who are hungry to test out their meanest headlocks on visitors from out of town :D

With all this training, keeping my weight up has been very difficult. At some point, I dropped all the way down to 76 kilos, so I decided I had to start eating A LOT more. I managed to crawl my way up over 80 kilos now, but I would like to hit 82-83 by the time I leave. I generally have difficulty keeping muscle mass, so wanna have something to lose during the trip, so I don’t end up competing in -70 for the Mundials in June ;)

My plan is to keep this workout going until the day I leave, so hopefully I can stay injury free for that.