It’s my favorite week.

It’s the week of a competition.

This Saturday, I’ll be competing at the Battle of the Beasts Championship in Columbia, SC—a no-gi absolute division with $5k on the line. If you’d like to watch, the live stream will be available on Saturday at 4 pm at this link.

I’m excited to compete, but that’s actually not the reason why I love the week before a competition so much. I love the week before a competition because it’s a break from the daily onslaught of training. It’s a break from the monotony and the day-to-day grind of trying to get better.

It’s showtime.

Every time I take a break, I start to notice things, and one of those things is that during my preparation for competitions, I get a bit run down. I always feel like during training I am operating at about 80% of my potential because I’m so damn tired and beat up.

The week of a match is fun because for a while, I get to feel not beat up.

As my career goes on, I’ve gotten better at recognizing when I’m overworked and on the brink of exhaustion. These are the 5 things that I notice that shift when I am overworked.