It’s been a good week. A hard week. “Sometimes you have to have a rough one to have a good one,” Donny, my training partner told me one day, when I was looking like hell after training.

It felt like in the previous week, every technique I tried to do, I failed to do. I know that when I first learn something, many times I can’t do it live that day. I have to practice it and drill it first to master it. But man, I was counting and I felt I couldn’t do anything I wanted! But I know I know, it’s just part of training. I just have to battle my emotions, relax, and just look forward to the next time I get to try stuff.

Diego, Captain’s black belt friend, actually took me aside (because his wife Luciana probably told him I’d been crying in the girls’ changing room -_- …snitch!) and said to me, “Don’t worry about anything during training. It’s your attitude and feelings that make good training. If you feel happy and good, you have good training.” He explained further, and I can’t remember the direct quotes, that I (Roxanne) train every day and there are other things involved, like my tiredness level or the strength of a bigger man as my partner. I told him that was upset me was when I forget the techniques I was taught. I hate when I forget what I should know! And then he repeated, “We all forget! Don’t worry about anything during training.”

That kind of made an impression on me. I feel like I know this, but it was nice to hear it again from someone other than my inner voice, you know? And it makes sense. I try and follow my own Jedi-like code : “There is no emotion, there is peace.” Emotions are not needed during a fight, or training. Once I start getting frustrated or upset, it inhibits further technique and training.

Thursday I repeated that to myself to try and calm myself down when I was having a rough session.
Wednesday, John, Jordan, and Rich helped shark-tank me.

The week before that, Jordan and Serena helped me out, and Captain jumped in when John couldn’t make it. That was sweet… I didn’t even ask him! I was in the middle of going as hard as I could and I started to hear his voice.

I’ve been doing lots of double sessions back to back lately. My weight loss has been stagnating, but if I don’t eat, I’m tired and don’t recover as well. It’s a balance! A hard one. Well, I only have two pounds to lose before I reach where I want to be.

And I was stress-eating during Serena’s fight week. LOL Our friend’s suffering becomes our suffering a little bit. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten two donuts in one sitting. haha New experiences all around….

So her family left and that was sad, but then my friend Q from college came to visit from the Boston area! It was great! She went sight-seeing on the Vegas strip when I had to train, and then we hung out together during other times. We saw a comedy show, and I was excited that Mike Hammer, the comedian, knew who I was! 😀 He saw me in the audience.

We also saw Cirque Du Soleil’s Ka, which I’ve been wanting to see for years! Thanks, Michael, for buying our tickets! <3 I took Q on the Red Rock driving trail.

We did jiujitsu together. We watched four eps of Attack on Titan season 2, and four of Sword Art Online. 😀 We ate at Skinnyfats and El Pollo Loco, my favorite restaurants, and JaBurritos, the sushi burrito place.

I have missed her, but at the same time, we talk every week so it felt natural. It was so good to show her my life and stuff I love! <3 <3 Man, time has been passing so quickly. Last week Q was here?! This past week was training as normal and it was fantastic. From Monday on, I was hitting all the moves I couldn't do last week. I kept being able to do the moves of the day. I did the back-take I couldn't do last week. I've been choking people out with my new set-up! My striking technique has been on point. I've been hitting the new wall-takedown technique. And my kid students have been impressing me. HAH Hell yeah!
Serena is back in training!

My cardio level is back to excellent! Serena ran stairs with me this week.


I adore Team Syndicate so much! Best coaches, best training partners!!

I actually ran myself into the ground Thursday, and nearly passed out. So I rescheduled my strength and conditioning with Lorenzo for Saturday instead of Friday. 🙁 Later that day, after I fnished teaching kids, Captain said, “You had a good day of training!” I said, “What? But I didn’t train!” He said, “I know! Rest is training.”

feh. A fighter gets pressure to train their butts off, and then when said butt falls off, we get flack for not resting enough! We can’t win!! “Listen to your body!” Oh please, if I listened to my body, I wouldn’t be a fighter! haha

I’m ready for my next fight, whenever that may be! I wish I knew!! Gotta be ready!

So normally I have almost zero waking hours to lay down, but Thursday and Friday I had some time, so I watched My Hero Academia and Transformers Prime. Man, I really like Todoroki’s character!
I’m on Season 1 ep 22 of the Transformers now. I had heard that after Beast Wars (which I watched as a teenager), the target age group got lowered, but Prime feels serious enough for me to be interested in it. Optimus is so cool. *_* I love strong leaders with strong morals. I think he’s my favorite, but I also like Rachet’s logical character. Miko annoys the snot out of me! 🙁 stupid kid!

I adore the music and just bought the back ground music cd! I rarely buy CDs so you know it’s good. 🙂

Due to my exhaustion, I’ve only been studying Portuguese once a week with Thais instead of two. :/ I’ve been slacking a little on my Japanese, as well. I did a translation project listening to Japanese fighter’s interviews, which was awesome! That’s done now, though…
Speaking of Portuguese, the prodigy Brazilian BJJ kids started going to another gym where there were more teenagers their size and level. I’m sad! oh well. I wish a Japanese person would join the gym. haha.