Balancing Work and BJJ

Last week was my first week of work. I really like what I'm doing; I help recruit retired lawyers do nonprofit work and give legal advice to low income families in New York City. There's a big learning curve but it's all very interesting and I'm learning a lot about the field. Plus, all my co workers are very welcoming and knowledgeable. Plus, I work at Fordham Law School's Feerick Center for Social Justice and I've met Mr. Feerick himself multiple times! What's been equally challenging is balancing work and BJJ.

It's more difficult than I expected. I get out of work around 5:45-6pm and then head over to Shaolin's. It's only one subway stop away and a 3 block walk. I stay until 7:30 or 8:30pm, depending on if Shaolin asks me to stay for the beginner's class and drill/roll with the other girls. If I get out at 8:30 (which I did this entire week), the next train I can catch is at 9:38pm, which gets me home by 10:45pm. At this point, I still need to shower and make sure I'm prepared for the next day of work.

This is pretty late considering I get up at 5:45am to catch a 7:12am train to NYC which gets in at 8:15am. I'm sure you're thinking 5:45am is pretty early for a 7:12am train, but I leave at around 6:45am to account for any traffic, plus I'm really slow in the morning. A couple of nights I've only had 4 or so hours of sleep, which I know I cannot keep up long term and still perform well at work. I've also cut it pretty close in terms of packing all my gear and getting to the train station on time. I haven't had any issues thus far, but I don't want there to ever be issues, especially since this is my first job.

I think it's best I do the following things to be efficient about training and commuting:

- shower at the gym so I don't waste time waiting at the train station and showering at home that late

- pack my lunch and dinner, gi, mouthguard, etc. the night before so I won't be so rushed in the morning

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that if I'm feeling tired or overworked, then don't train! This is very tough for me because you'd probably have to shoot me to keep me away from training, but it's not worth risking performance at work just so I can train. I had to miss class on Wednesday and I was definitely sad about it, but I need to make sure I can balance everything.