Exhausted.

I've had a long hard week. I've been feeling exhausted and flat with everything coming to a head on Friday night at training. The session started and I really felt like giving it a miss. The usual motivation to push myself just wasn't there. It seemed to be taking all my effort to just do one kick, yet here I was attempting to do a combination of four kicks.
Half way through the session we switched to sparring and as I slowly put my pads on I was fighting the negative thoughts of this not being my night and that I should finish up now.
I think it was quit evident to Adam and Abet how my night was going thus far so Adam told me to spa with Abet. Abet is a quality fighter, former Jordanian junior nationals coach and has a similar talent to Carlo. He brings a complete new style of fighting to our club from his experiences in Jordan. Things as simple as footwork for setting an attack up to what sort of combinations of kicks he chooses to use.
We started sparring and it's on from that moment. Any thoughts I had previously of feeling mentally and physically exhausted are soon gone as Abet is giving me a well controlled hiding. The first round is a complete domination. The second is no better as I try to get in range to score on him. He is frustratingly quick, seeing my attempts at attacking, sliding out and countering instantly.
By the time we get to the third round I'm a little annoyed, my intensity lifts and I start throwing multiple kicks, finally starting to score on him. At the end of it all it becomes quit clear to me what level I need to be at to be competitive against someone like Abet.
The night reminds me of the high performance training sessions we had last year. Everyone involved were really professional, wanted to be the best and were prepared to work hard to do so. I remember every time I walked onto the mat that my work rate had to be at its best or I was going to get smashed. Because of this attitude everyone there was pushing each other to lift even if it was not a conscious thought. They were great sessions.

Yesterday I chatted with Adam (my physio) regarding how I was going at training. I let him know my work load and what I was doing on a day to day basis. I'm up out of bed at 6.30am, walking before going to work then training again that night. Generally I'm in bed at 11 and try to get to sleep by 11.30pm. That is giving me around 7 hours sleep. He tells me its not enough and I need to aim for 8 hours. Therefore this week I'm modifying my routine to see what impact it has, especially on Friday night.
Hopefully I get that extra bit I need to push forward.