Unfit for purpose.

I did an advanced class at Jujitsu last night, only because it was one of those weird nights when mostly senior belts were in attendance. I think we had one yellow belt on the mat, so we were able to break out the secret techniques. We just put the yellow belt in a corner to do some grading work.

It was a good night, but man, I was feeling it by about an hour in. I realised, as I was driving home feeling sorry for myself, that I was suffering from taking an extended break after the last melanoma excision. Because they took such a big chunk out of my face, the healing time was longer than usual, and the docs were pretty adamant that I wasn't to do anything like getting smashed in the cheek by somebody's elbow just for fun.

That was fine. There was a lot of football at Suncorp Stadium last month, so I would've missed a bunch of classes even without the surgery. But around the third or fourth time I had to perform a kata-break fall to avoid getting my wrist snapped, I had that fatal thought: I'm getting too old for this shit.

I'm not, really. But I’m a lot older than when I started, and if I have extended breaks away from training, my body gets out of the groove and wants to stay out. It reminded me of other times in my life when I've been training in other sports or when I lived at Bondi, and I used to surf every day: it doesn't matter how fit you are. There are different types of fitness, and they don't always translate from one sport to another.

I was able to keep my strength training up after the operation because, other than grimacing extra hard in a heavy deadlift, the suture line on my face was not threatened. So, I could still walk into the gym and do the same intensity of squatting and deadlifting I could've done the week before the operation. But an hour of advanced Jujitsu techniques at low-to-medium intensity last night nearly finished me. I had to have a hot bath and a couple of painkillers when I got home.

Luckily, that was enough to sort me out. I woke up a little sore this morning, but good to go. I guess there’ll come a day when I don’t.