littleman....its was meant as a joke

it was a kids new years day party with everyone playing party games 

Well, it's Monday and I'm still debating the MMA class.  Like LM was saying, I'm getting too old for this shit:) I don't think I can train jiu-jitsu 3-4X a week, and do that 2X a week... something has to give. We'll see tonight.

The other thing I'm struggling with is I have no future in MMA.  But maybe jiu-jitsu.  They have an old men's Blue Belt division in the Worlds in L.A. next Winter I was thinking about doing, if I can stay healthy.  I'll admit I wouldnt mind taking one more shot at something physical before I start using a cane too.  The dogs left me very strong and ADHD works miracles on body fat, so for my weight, I am more than a handful, even though I haven't 'worked out' since I was in college.  (There is just nothing harder than being a dog musher. Whatever you think is hard, do it wearing full gear in snow up to your knees.)

This is my most recent 'Bond' picture I took at just under 140lbs, literally at 'fighting weight'.  I took it for the same reason Heather said it... because someday, when I'm damn near dead, with an oxygen mask around my head, somebody will say, that was YOU?  I'll look back and smile because I have photo albums of proof I was one of the baddest MFers to have ever lived:)

I say I have one more shot at a World title in me.  And I think I want it in jiu-jitsu:)

QuoteADHD works miracles on body fat

That's hilarious.

QuoteADHD works miracles on body fat

You wouldn't think so if you looked at one of my workers that has ADHD.  Typical out of shape-beer belly-skinny armed-flabby 30 year old dude.

...well, maybe it's more dog mushing than the HA:)

But I've been doing this enough that I should put it to use.  I should take a crack at a belt.  I took off a 6 months when I moved to Cali, then another 5 months recovering from my motorcycle wreck... but I still have a few lives left, apparently, so it's time to do something with them.  At some level I still feel its stupid to train, if you never compete, even though jiu-jitsu is a lifestyle not a destination.

But that clock is ticking.  I got 5(?) years left of being competitive at something. I remember posting about this in 2007, in our old forum.  'I'm done competing', I said.  'Just to stay in shape', I said.  'Average among fighters', I said. I guess we'll see:)  Maybe I'll shoot for some submission tournament in the Spring and see how I'm doing, regionally.  FL is pretty damn tough, lots of badass Brazilians here.

ok, off to class...

>>hehehehe if you don't need to train for that, you are in damn good shape:)

Uh... based on your picture, not remotley as ripped as you are. But I can deadlift 2x bodyweight and keep putting one foot in front of the other for a long time. For my 40th birthday, I hiked 55 miles with 17,000 feet of gain and 16,000 feet of loss (and raised over a $1000 for a locally-focussed non-profit - they said it was more money than they made off their black tie dinner and probably their single biggest fundraiser ever - I didn't even tell them I was doing it until after the fact)

I couldn't go 55 miles today, but I think I can handle Shasta

>>Telemark, with skins; very cool:) 

Alpine Touring, actually. That's a long conversation, but it's a better tool for most jobs except making actual telemark turns.

>>snowboard

I had this dream of surfing big mountains and took up snowboarding. Fun, but I never got that good at it since as a tool for backcountry travel, skis just are way better. My friend Christian Santelices was in a couple of Warren Miller films as a snowboarder, but when he wanted to do a lot of winter guiding, as he says, his wife handed him some skis and said "Dude, you need to learn how to ski".  I remember towing a snowboarder friend for 2 miles once down a long slight downhill - not steep enough to really ski, but  between poling and skating, I could effortlessly descend, but he would have been stuck walking.

So for me, snowboard and telemark (and skate skis - probably my favorite form of skiing these days) are resort equipment. For the backcountry, I'll take Alpine Touring (though recent advances in tele bindings make that choice a lot less obvious now).

FYI I ended up taking part of the MMA anyway, because there were an odd number of students and someone always needed a partner, and I had already warmed up a bit, so I jumped in. It was tough aerobically, etc., then we went into this jab/perry drill that turned into a jab/perry and knee to the ribs drill.

But I think I'm just into sport jiu-jitsu and just want to continue to concentrate on that this year, while I have a chance to learn under these guys.   I'm going to train like I'm going to compete and see what tournaments fall into place. Last time I kept getting hurt before the matches but I'd like to think that is just dumb luck.

But fighting with the little gloves are for younger, angrier people, with something to prove:) Maybe I'll do a little more just for fun but I don't see a reason to take it too seriously.  Jiu-jitsu I can do into old age. 


>Alpine Touring
gotcha. I used to live on the backside of Mt. Timpanogos/Wasatch Range in UT and backcountry skiing was the bomb right out of my back door.  Embarrassingly enough I went boarding only once out there, but I was there to sled, and that is kinda like water skiing on the snow, rather than downhill, but it scratches the same itch.


>your picture
well, looks can be deceiving, especially in competition.  Same with dogs, same with people.  My Achilles heel is my asthma.  It can be severe.  I spent a lot of my childhood in hospitals because of it. Months, actually.  At 18 I ruptured my own lung and the air seeped out into my chest and I came close to collapsing it, all by myself.  I never really saw it as a disadvantage, nor anything thing to stop me from doing anything.  Hell, I'm even allergic to dogs. I'm not supposed to do high exertion in the cold.  Whatever.  I find work arounds.  I become very efficient.  I manage.  If it was easy, I wouldn't want to do it:)

I like that picture because I know I never lifted weights in a mirror at a gym to look like that.  I just worked my ass off for 20 years and took off my shirt and that's what my body looked like. My satisfaction was in a stack of firewood, or 2500lbs of dog food loaded in a freezer. Form just followed function. That's why the transition over to jiu-jitsu was a good one for me.  Most guys start from ground zero and have to get physically in shape, in addition to learning skills.  I just need to learn the skills and focus on breathing.


>surfing big mountains
That is it right there.  That is the essence of boarding.  And it's very different than downhill skiing, and just one tiny component of backcountry.  But that feeling of leaning over your board, nothing in your hands, just carving up fresh powder... man, that is a wonderful feeling.  Its almost like my motorcycle in that you feel like superman covering ground. 

I don't know... what you are talking about is bigger, more comprehensive... but boarding has that surfing feeling that is more like a dream than mechanical. A slice of life.

So was it fun? Good people, or nutters?

>>very different than downhill skiing

Yeah, I can see that. Might be a boarder if I were starting now. I just don't have the confidence on a board that I do on skis. I can get down black diamonds, even board the bumps a little if the snow is soft, but I've been skiing since I was 2.5, my dad was a ski coach, my mom both an alpine and XC instructor and competed in XC until her 60s. My comfort level on skis is just so high. So I board when I want to get out of my comfort zone, but when I want to just have fun, I ski.



>>I know I never lifted weights in a mirror at a gym to look like that.

Funny thing is when I was younger, I was always climbing, skiing, lifting, doing manual labor and used to pop off 100 pushups before bed every night for years. A couple of months a go, I was walking by a mirror, looked and thought "Damn, my arms look like they belong on a twelve year-old girl".  I was the lightest and fattest I've ever been.

So I started going to the gym with focus - spending less actual time exercising, but doing it hard. I realized that for a long time, I'd been going through the motions more than pushing myself. After a couple of months, I have some definition back in my arms and some semblance of six pack showing. I didn't actually notice until my wife said "Holy shit sweetie! You have abs again."

I've put on a few pounds and dropped a fair bit of fat.... moving in the right direction.

yeah, no MMA for me after all, just enjoying the jiu-jitsu:)

I cannot exercise for its own sake, but a game a squash, a good bike ride with mates.  Or a skiing holiday.  That's Good.
You guys are extreme

NFFC... going on HOLIDAY!!!!!!   what?.... for fun?   

No, I wont believe it until I have seen the pictures. 
Thats like... no, you said it would never happen.


Seems we are not  just a bunch of geeks in here.