Behind

I live two lives; my real one and my martial arts one.

Real life includes my wife, our families, travel, and everything else. My martial arts life is much more limited.

My real life summers are great, but they play havoc with my other side.

It is my goal to finish my current Jiu-Jitsu level as soon as possible. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is wonderful in that progress is easy to calculate in minute detail.

If I were to never miss a single class, my level would have finished 233 days from today, after a start 414 days ago.

I found this an unacceptably long time period, so I have been pushing myself along at an accelerated pace. Instead of 233, at this moment I now have 114 days left.

Continuing my accelerated progress to the end will mean I'll continue to creep ahead. My projected finish date should come 44 days from today.

The problem is, my real life summer fun has played havoc with my overloaded training schedule. I've managed to repair some of the holes created by our fabulous Long Beach camping trip, our two weeks in Vernon, and our Victoria visit in August, but not all of them.

In that time my stay-at-home peers have completed 3 technique units, and 2 solid weeks of review. I've been present for none of the technique units, and for only 2 days of review. I was able to squeeze in a private lesson, which helped. I also attended only one open-mat session instead of my usual 11.

Clearly I have some catching up to do. Perhaps I can bum a key and get some extra solo time on the mat.