I’m so very excited to be fighting for Invicta Fighting Championships on their inaugural card in April. They have done such a great job with promoting the event so far. Seeing all of the other fighters be so enthusiastic about Invicta FC is inspiring as well. Thank you to everyone for the support!

The first week of my camp got off to a frustrating start. I was coming off of a minor knee injury that seemed to get tweaked in every practice. Last week was awesome, though, and I didn’t feel it at all. I have five weeks left in my eight-week training camp and I am feeling stronger every day.

I’m not one to stay out of the gym in between fights, but I increase training intensity and my adherence to a schedule when starting a camp.

My Invicta FC opponent is Leslie Smith and the fight will be in the 135-pound division in Kansas City, Kansas. I don’t know a lot about her, other than she has a Thai boxing background and was training in Thailand for some time this year. We are both 5’9″, which is pretty tall for 135. This has changed my training a little bit, in that I am now trying to train with some of my taller teammates.

I’ve been training six days a week with a variety of MMA practice, pad work, bag work, rolling, drilling, sparring, running, and strength and conditioning. We have an amazing group of active fighters at The Academy and the energy in the room has been great. Almost everyone on our team has a fight between now and the end of May, from the local shows to UFC and Bellator.

I’m fortunate to receive help and instruction from a lot of people, but for this fight I have a few coaches I will be working with specifically. Greg Nelson is the head MMA coach at The Academy, so he helps me a lot with grappling and striking for MMA. I have been working Thai pads with Ryan Murray, and boxing mitts with Robert Brant. I have a new strength and conditioning coach, Matt Miller out of Horsepower S&C, who is the first person I have trusted to handle this part of my training since I received my CSCS.

One of the biggest challenges for me is managing my time. I am a manager and trainer at Custom Fitness, a private personal training studio in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. It is an awesome job for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that it allows me to work nearly full-time hours while still making it to pro practice at the Academy every day.

In order to get enough rest, I tend to be a bit of a recluse when not in the gym or at work – at least during a training camp like now – and I’m currently hiding out in my apartment eating diet food.

I’ll have more in my next blog, so check back soon!