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Valkyrie approaches Trinity College, a beautiful establishment of scholarship and the quiet pursuit of knowle- what is that sound? It comes again: thud! Whomp! “Oof!” Valkyrie hastens, drawn by the sounds of people engaged in combat of some sort. She steps inside a building whose door is just ajar, and is confronted by many people in pajamas, rolling around on the ground! How silly, what are they thinking- Oh! Not pajamas! Gis! And they’re not rolling around without purpose, they’re grappling, playing the human chess game of Brazilian jiu jitsu. The Irish Winter Open for gi BJJ is commencing! Valkyrie steps up to the scale to weigh in, she’s a solid middleweight, scraping by just under 69 kg with her gi on. She can’t help a flutter of excitement at the prospect of testing her skills against other women, and reviews her game plan: take down to full guard or take the back, which decide whether she plays a full guard game or goes straight for the submission via rear naked choke. Of course, she thinks wryly, things never go to plan. Adaptability and fluidity is the key! She who can think on her feet will prevail! —————— Sunday, October 22nd, is my first tournament in Brazilian jiu jitsu! All my efforts the past month have been to prepare for the tournament and make weight (didn’t cut any calories, but boy do I miss salt!), and Sunday I finally get to play! After that, it’ll be my last couple of weeks in Ireland, before I return home to the next adventure and my goal is to just continue what I’ve been doing and have a little more flexibility once the tournament is over. Goals for this challenge: 1. The Weigh In -I will make weight at under 69 kg (or 152 lbs), in my gi, on the morning of the tournament. I will accomplish this by keeping sodium low, water, sleep and steps high. - Sodium: <2000-2500 - Water: >100 oz - Sleep: 8 hours - Steps: >8k 2. Focus On Flowers, Not Weeds - I will write 3 things for which I am grateful every day. If attitude is everything, then mine should be positive and resilient. 3. For Fitness - I will run or perform some other form of conditioning on Tuesdays, and perform 3 sets of ab exercises every day I don’t train BJJ.

Hello! I am Valkyrie, a Ranger! I began my journey with the Rebellion a year ago August (wow!), but have been hit or miss with my activity since February. I began as a Ranger, because I was a lifter and a OCR-training person. I completed a Sprint and a Super this year, and I had plans to complete the Beast this coming Saturday, however, funds being what they are, that isn't a possibility, unfortunately. However, May 22nd, my life changed. I discovered Brazilian jiu jitsu, and truly, my life will never be the same. As is the case with most young love, I was enamored and, yes, obsessed with BJJ. I thought about it all the time. I shrimped in my sleep. I dreamt of drills, and looked forward all day to class. I could say that the love has tempered in the last few months, cooled with time...but it hasn't. I still shrimp in my sleep and wonder if BJJ thinks about me too. In July, I received my first stripe and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. I was so honored! Then, in August, I went to Ireland to be with my fiancee for 3 months, and within a week I had found a new BJJ club and had talked the future husfriend into trying it out with me. Hey Mikey, he likes it! (Because, duh. It's awesome! And if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!) So, now I'm training 3-4x a week, going to 2 morning classes on Weds/Fri, because why not? I have the time and freedom, an opportunity I may not have again! Now enters the Irish Winter Open. The opportunity for men and women of variously colored belts to pit their skills and cunning against their similarly sized competitors. In short? A tournament! And I am going to fight! October 22nd is the fateful day, and I cannot wait to test my mettle against fellow women...my usual rolling partners are men with 20 to 30 lbs on me. It will be extremely interesting to play the game with another girl who is close to my size! So, this brings me to the goals for the remainder of this challenge cycle: 1. Maintain weight at 143-146 lbs (my weight class is -152 lbs in the gi, and my gi weighs 3.6 lbs, I'd like not to be worried about that for weigh ins) - This will be accomplished by sticking to my Eat To Perform macros, minding sodium* and added sugar**, drinking lots of water***, going to bed on time****, and getting 8-10k steps a day/comparable bicycling distance. 2. Train minimum of 3x a week (Mon/Wed/Fri) - attend 7 and 11 am classes 2x/week (Wed/Fri), and add in or swap a day for an evening class 1x/week or every other week (more people at the evening class to roll with) 3. Write down drills after each class to aid in retention of steps and sequence (this is invaluable and I wish I'd been doing it for months instead of a week! How much could I have remembered!?) So, that's all I've got for now. Looking forward to boring anyone who will read it with my ecstatic description of drills and free rolls, because I get all kinds of excited about this stuff! *Sodium between 2000-2800 mg **Sugar 75-100 mg (my usual is like...130 g, so....baby steps, people) ***100 oz H20 ****making 8 hours of sleep a priority, in bed by 9 pm the night before class.