I've trained MMA and other martial arts randomly and sporadicly over the past few years but have only recently found a decent MMA club in which I believe I could recieve adequate training. They have a full size cage, 24ft right?, and 4 cameras watching every training session so the coaches can go through the videos with you to see where you can improve. This is a tiny little club in the backward town of Lincoln, England so I'm surprised that such a place even exists!
Good luck on your journey man! It seems that we are starting our adventures at the same time! Also, the fact that you mentioned you're 34 kinda helps my self-esteem a little bit, being 26 and thinking its too late to get into.
As for your body feeling wrecked after the training session. Yeah man. I feel ya there. Nearly vomited twice on my first session. Only just quit a bunch of vices aswell. Quit smoking, drinking alcohol and quit drinking energy drinks while severely limiting my cannabis use.
I had my first class on Tuesday, a bit of grappling, and yesterday we were doing striking and takedowns. I'm loving it. Hope you do too man and keep us all updated with your progress.