2wk Hiatus

Trained tonight for the first time in two weeks.  A combination of illness (cold), work, and triathlon training conspired to keep me off the mats.  Good news is the cold is gone and the triathlon (turned duathlon due to bay pollution from rain) is over.  More on that later.

Training went fairly well.  After warm-ups we worked a few butterfly sweeps.  Then specific training followed by rolling.  Got a late 20s Brown and early 30s Purple, both about my size and far more experienced.  6min rounds.  Managed well enough.  Survived the round with the Brown.  Got a nice take down from a transition from the spider sweep off a pass.  Been working that since I thought about it after failing to sweep my opponent in my division at Nationals.  So it felt good to see the transition work in a live situation against a more experienced jitsuka.  Also had a couple passes to knee on belly that I couldn't seem to secure.  Doubt I would have got the points.  Got a spider sweep on the Purple too, but that's about all I could get going against him.  He ended up choking me with 2secs remaining in the round. Drats.

Rolled with my son for 10mins before the end of class.  His instincts are remarkable for only his 7th class.  Attacking arm bars and triangles from guard with vigor.  Also quick to transition to tripod and spider sweep set ups as soon as I open his guard and stand up.  The best part though was his near instantaneous shrimp to guard recovery when I stepped around his guard via torreando or x-pass.  And his response to my side control was almost as reflexive:  bump to underhook to belly down to elevator takedown from knees.  Really impressed.  And not just saying that because he's my son.

As for the duathlon on Sunday, I did alright for my first race.   It was a 12 mile cycle and 4.5mile run.  Finished 36th overall out of 180 registered (turns out only 150 showed up) and 17th in my division (out of 35).  Averaged 22mph on the cycle and 8:30sec miles.  Felt good, despite the lingering cold.  Looking forward to a real triathlon.  Maybe in February.