Sharla's Log

I have older bros and have always been a bit competitive in nature. Plus I've always been into being fit etc.

My uncle had a stroke in his forties which rendered him paralysed over half his body vertically - he was told he'd have to stop drinking and smoking by a doctor before it happened but he continued anyway. Seeing all his drinking buddies stop visiting him, his wife have to give up her business to become his carer and resent him for it, his complete in ability to communicate and care for his kids - put my entire family off smoking forever. I've never smoked anything.

There was a kickboxing gym close to my university so I went there for a bit of fitness, distraction from uni and a challenge. I soon got hooked enough to compete and thought I was pretty good. Then I took a boxing fight to get my bouts up and was totally wooped. I've been trying to learn to punch properly by sticking to straight boxing ever since.

Monday

Lunch jog. Only 30 minutes. Will have to start picking that up again!

Night Judo

Was good - still too technical for me to be aerobic yet but gave me a muscular workout. A few good drills for balance too. It might help me learn to fight well moving forewards too since at the moment I can move backwards and fight more easily. Had fun - might be able to join in with the main group more in a couple of lessons. Most difficult thing at the moment is remembering everything!

Tuesday

Boxing

3 rounds skipping with 10 secs on (sprinting), 10 off and then 15 on 2 off for the last round. This was more difficult for me than i think it should be - will have to include more intervals in everything for a while to improve my recovery after sprint efforts.

Partner footwork with Kristine 2 rounds

Partner shadow sparring with Kristine 3 rounds

Partner drills another 6ish rounds. Worked on parries, improving reaction time, when we got to working speed together well it was fun. All very light - I left my mouthguard in the bag I took to the fights on Saturday!

5 hard rounds on the bag. Felt sluggish and unfit. I felt so much fitter just 2 weeks ago - I don't get it - maybe I tapered too much?

Balance work and abs - did ab work in between 3 rounds on the medicine balls, 2 rounds and the wobble board and one trying Scraps diagonal movement drill. Felt awkward doing that in any direction other than diagonally foreward to the left! Will have to work on that more! Also realized tonight that I've only been walking the medicine balls foreward all this time so started to walk them backwards. Why did I not think of that before - what a ditz! I guess eventually I'll try sideways too but for now learning to do it backwards is enough!

Wednesday

Lunch run, jogged to oval, 10 minutes jogging backwards, 5 forewards then 4 X 400m and 4 X 200m hard intervals with 100 m walk recovery between them, jog backwards about 8 minutes to cool down. Again not feeling as fit as I should. Noticed heart rate was low while warming up but still felt like my lungs weren't opening up enough - maybe something like asthma? I have been known to get asthma if I've had a bad flu or been stung by a bee (am extremely allergic) - but it's not something i usually suffer from although it does run in my family.

Wednesday night Judo

I kind of felt like I wanted to go to boxing training instead because that's still my favourite but going to Judo has the effect of making me appreciate my boxing training more. I'm actually looking foreward to a normal boxing training session rather than feeling it's something I have to do which takes up every evening.

I'm getting better at being a good oki - person to practice throwing etc. Falling safely is becoming natural. Apparently that's the main thing i should be worried about at the moment. I asked Leonard for a booklet of the throws and holds to help me remember them but he said I'm not allowed to have that until I get my green belt. Safety falling etc comes before learning techniques until then. I'm happy with the way I'm getting the concepts and feel the different ways I have to use my bodyweight. Some things are pretty foreign but a lot of them make sense in respect to experience I already have from boxing and other sports. I like that I'm forced to bend at my knees more (which I'm slack at doing in boxing) and still be aware of how wide my feet are and whether or not I'm on my toes.

Cycled there, got a lift home

Thursday Lunch Run

It was raining in the morning so I wasn't tempted to go out and do this in the morning - let a few little sneezes serve as an excuse - like what if I'm sick and running the rain makes it worse - pathetic I know but did a reasonable session at lunch.

Ran about 15 minutes to warm up and then did the Monaghetti fartleck. That is the following in hard intervals with the same amount of recovery jog time before the next hard interval - about 45 mins in total - ish.

2 X 1.5 mins
4 X 1 min
4 X 45 secs
4 X 30 secs
4 X 15 secs

Thursday night boxing

3 rounds skipping - 10 secs on, 10 off for the first two and 15 secs on. 5 off for the last one. Plan to pick this up to 6 rounds because it's giving me a different cardio workout than I get from running at the moment.

Footwork - 2 rounds

Shadow - 2 rounds

Kristine shows up - partner footwork 2 rounds, partner shadow sparring 3 rounds

Then did about 8 or 10 rounds of partnerwork working first and second attacks off of slips, blocks or parries trying to get reaction speed and speed and balance overall better. Felt good. Noticed to begin with slipping left to avoid her cross I'd move my head too much more than my left foot and be off balance for my counter but fixed that and got a bit more power and balance in it. Kristine is good to work with for this stuff!

Did some balance work on the medicine balls but only a couple of rounds since the gym is empty and Kristine is locking up. Walked Kristine to Paul's place before cycling home - she's had car trouble and it's not safe to let her walk alone. Cycled home. Had to dodge one guy walking with a group, who decided to charge at me with a shopping trolley - luckily he missed and his mates didn't catch on to the game until I was long gone. I won't miss cycling home late at night!

Friday

No run this morning - packing - am moving house - little stuff today and big stuff tomorrow. Hope to get something in sometime though - maybe at lunch today. Am excited because I'm moving close to the gym and the aquatic centre so training will be easier to organize - weights and swimming in the mornings, boxing at night and still get home reasonably early so can spend less time cycling at night!

Moving is a crappy, crappy job. This is where my training begins to fall apart - when big things come up in other areas of my life. I'm not a very organized person although I'm trying to improve that I still find myself in a mad rush fairly often.

No training Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Packing, moving and unpacking. I need to get the new place in respectable order since I am interviewing prospective flatmates this week plus need to clean up old place ready to hand the keys back. Still have more to do but made a pretty big dent.

Monday - went for morning run - just over 30 minutes. Good thing is I'm starting to feel like a runner again for the first time since returning from my knee injury ad managed a good pace.

Wanted to train at night but was at uni until after 9 pm (under the pump there too) and had to clean up more when I got home (meeting a potential flatmate today). I'm a little worried since I've got a match to compete on the 4th of November and really want to be in heavy training now but hopefully things will be calmer next week!

Tuesday

Slightly better - but not much

Went for run at lunch - about 40 minutes. Running pace feeling good still which is nice - wasn't just a fluke. - Although I have been told that if you do well you shouldn't consider it a fluke but if you do badly sometimes you can consider it to be just a bad day since you'll get sick and be overtrained etc but unless you're on illegal performance enhancing drugs you won't have a good day by accident!

Boxing at night

6 rounds of skipping - 2 mins with 1 min break
1st - 5 secs hard, 15 secs easy
2nd - 10 hard, 10 easy
3rd - 15 hard, 5 easy
4th and 5th - 10 hard, 10 easy
6th - 5 hard, 5 easy.

Am finding 5 secs easy and 15 secs hard is still too long a sprint and too short a break to recover and keep my sprints all as explosive as I'd like. The 5 secs hard and 15 secs easy is a bit too easy but probably still beneficial and 10 secs hard, 10 secs easy is about right.

Then did 1 round footwork, 3 shadow, 3 floor to ceiling ball, 3 bag and stretched.

Was a shortish session since I had to meet prospective flatmates both before and after training. Hopefully I've found one as long as he can come up with the bond money. Still have to clean up other house and still under the pump at uni though so may still have a crap training week! :-[

OK been awhile since I updated this so I'll try to remember everything but I've got a bad memory so there are definitely no guarantees.....

Wednesday - skipped Judo - did all nighter at uni to catch up on stuff.

Thursday - think i ran - think?? Went to boxing at night - shortish session though - bringing in 6 rounds of skipping. Realized that all this time I've though our gym bell was set for 2 minute rounds with 1 minute breaks and it's actually 3 minute rounds! No wonder when i counted the rounds etc I couldn't work out where all the time went!!! i think I also paced myself in my last fight for 3 minute rounds instead of 2s!

Did some back weights etc and ab work but still not fully into weight training again yet. partnerwork with Kristine is going well. Still working on decreasing reaction times and feeling more stable with blocks and parries and stronger in attack.

Friday - boxing but no time to run. Spent all day cleaning last house and after a few years as a share house with people who came and go leaving stuff behind there's an awful lot of crap there! Got to work with coach Paul a bit tonight. Felt good. It's been a while since I've been able to work with a coach in a way that has me reacting to their actions and I really enjoyed it.

Saturday - Met Kristine at my gym in the morning - did another good session - first half partnerwork - then Paul came and supervised us for sparring. We went fairly hard and it went well. Only thing i want to work on is sidestepping more to the left when she's throwing flurries - sometimes she can follow me to the right and since she's taller and stronger i can only backpedal for so long. I also need to get more comfortable with using blocks a bit. I do it in partnerwork but in sparring i just opt to get out of the way all the time which might not always be the best option when i need to get in. Overall good though i think - for the first time right hooks are coming off and i never used to throw them - was taught that they are not a punch originally but i am finding times when i can use them even if my elbow isn't a 90 degree angle and it's followed by a step to the right.

Again warmed up with 6 rounds of skipping with timed sprints - it's getting easier which I'm happy about! Don't feel so bad now i know I'm doing 3 minute rounds aswell! I was worried for a while there!

Saturday Arvo

Assumed sparring at Rods gym in Somerton was still going. Cycled there only to find it wasn't on and cycled back. Very hot day and total cycling time turned out to be about an hour and 40 minutes so i guess it's still a workout.

Sunday - off - completed last house moving crap by sorting out the boxes piled in my room so i can move in there. Did sort out a lot of sports stuff i own and FINALLY made up some resistance bands to hook up to the post on my bed. One to go to my rear ankle and the other my head as per Scraps training methods!

Monday - went to wrong building for a conference and then had to go back across town. Messy. then had to buy an ironing board for new flatmate to use (i don't own any clothes requiring ironing) in my lunch hour so couldn't exercise in that either. Wouldn't be too good trying to rock up to a conference sweaty anyway. Conferences are the one time i am expected to look half respectable!

Monday night Judo. It's making more sense. I find the human movement physics very interesting. I'm getting that I need to strengthen my lower abs and to be able to hold my hips to prevent falling foreward in many cases which i also need to be able to do particularly for foreward movement in boxing. Might be why I struggle with this more than backwards movement since when you move back your punches are pushed forwards while your body moves back and they balance each other out.

There was a really buff chick there from interstate tonight who is on the national team. She was heavier than me but a real buffinator - i really must get back into the weights! I'm jealous!

Tuesday morning - 1 hour jog/run then some ab work and dumbell back exercises.

Tuesday night boxing - Warmed up with Kristine because she's there before me and I'm running late because of conference. Did partnerwork footwork for 2 rounds, then partnerwork shadow sparring for 3 rounds, partnerwork single punch drills with defence - your turn, my turn stuff for 2 rounds, then i did shadow and waited while Paul spoke to kristine - they came in with the announcement that paul's bro is having twins! Then on that happy note Paul supervised us for 4 rounds sparring. Need to get my tempo up but am happy with sidestepping. Still need to be careful my guard doesn't get messy. i follow her punches too much to defend them when i really need to let them come to me! Then 3 more rounds with straight one, two combos - need to keep crossing hand from getting a bit wide so it's not countered with a jab.

Finished with 6 rounds skipping as on other nights.


Wednesday Morning

Went to the aquatic centre - did back weights - dumbell rows, seated supported rows, chin ups plus hamstring curls with machine and with fit ball. Then 30 minute swim. plan was to get through weights faster and then have longer for swim but with back muscles fatigued and not having swam for a while it was still work!

F***ing bee has been sitting on my top on the line outside since yesterday. Wanted to take it off the line but it was there last night, preworkout this morning, still there when i got back - little Ahole is staking me out because he knows I'm extremely allergic! They really do hunt me down I tell you! That has nothing to do with my training at all but i'll mention it in case i end up in hospital any time soon - it was probably my fault because I've seen him!

Bee was gone this morning but I'm not taking that top off the line just yet in case he's crawled inside or something sneaky little B*****d!

Wednesday Night

Conference finished a bit early which meant I was able to get to the boxing gym at 5 and since Judo is nearby and starts at 6:30 I could do both - even if it's only a short boxing session.

Boxing gym is relatively quiet at this time so it's a good time to hog the ring with individual exercises. I didn't want to do anything which required wraps either as would take up too much time to wrap up etc.

Warm up - Usual 6 rounds of skipping. Did 3 minute rounds but reduced break to 30 or 40 seconds in the interest of time.

One round of footwork by the bell (3 min rounds with 1 min break). Then used break to swing arms around to help warm up, then did 1 round of normal shadow sparring.

Grabbed timer. Set it for 2 mins 20 - so can wait 20 secs to start round and it will go off after 2 mins of work - then i reset it so i guess I end up doing about 2 min rounds with 25 to 30 secs break.

Got into the ring and did 4 rounds blindfolded.

Then 4 rounds on the medicine balls (took shoes off), 3 rounds on the wobble board still with bare feet - felt it in my calves more than usual - perhaps because i had bare feet - or maybe I wasn't doing it properly before....?

Then did 4 rounds partner shadow sparring with Kristine and cycled to Judo.

Judo is good but I'm still a complete twit (100 %)here which feels weird compared to how I feel at boxing (only 50 % twit)!

Warm up is fun but I'm pretty sure I'm doing half of it wrong especially the weird push ups where we have to swing our legs all over the place between each one. Still getting dizzy with the rolling but not as badly.

The beginners coach takes me and we go through all the 5 throws, 2 hold-downs, 1 escape, 2 arm locks and 2 turn overs I've learnt. One of the other guys helps out so I can see things done more rather than just either being oki or the aggressor. It's good. I get squished in the hold downs and am getting an idea of how a judo bout is a contact sport because before getting squished I didn't really appreciate that. I am squished a bit but not hurt so it's all good.

Afterwards I ask Leonard which muscles you use to stop yourself from being pulled foreward. It's my theory that if I strengthen those then I'll have better balance moving forewards and I won't fall into my opponent - which I've being doing in partnerwork drills where we throw jab cross in your turn my turn fashion to practice keeping the punches straight and tight and defending against them.

What follows is a Biiiiiiiig discussion. Being into Judo Leonard is very into what makes for balance and power and how to break it. I'm a bit shocked at his level of understanding of that as it applies to boxing - it's better than mine - despite the fact that he can't box he still understands WHY you usually finish with a jab or another punch after the cross and WHY I feel more power moving in throwing diagonal right cross versus a parallel one and WHY I come up too high on my front foot when I'm throwing jab crosses moving foreward with parallel movement. I thought I understood most of this before but I think I missed some of the underlying concepts. being my brother Leonard likes to pay me out a bit - which I'm used to - now he has more ammunition damn it! :) Seriously as if his ego wasn't big enough! Really though I'm happy with what I think I learnt last night!

Thursday

Woke up tired. Did a lunch run with one of the girls from uni. She's just returned from a knee injury too. She comes from a netball background so hasn't done any distance running but is good at a short sprint. He physio has set her a plan for running sprint on the long side of a soccer oval and walking the short sides for a total of 10 laps.

We do a jog warm up, stretch, a jog lap of the oval and then start her physio's program. I jog backwards when she walks the short sides. overall it doesn't take long. We then do another 5 minutes jog to cool down and stretch again.

I like running with other people because it forces me to be more sort of versatile. She's good at a short sprint so I'm forced to practice that with someone to race. It's not a hard session and it's short but in my experience it won't be long until I'm getting a lot out of these sessions.

I was a sort of informal running coach for a heap of friends at uni before I hurt my knee (some of them also decided to pop out babies and move for work too). Now looks like that's going to start again. It's a good way to get in a bit of a social life without sacrificing my training. :)

Thursday arvo. Mum calls me when I'm cycling home and says she'll drop around for a cuppa before I head to training. That's easy now since I live closer to the city where she works. I'm tired for some reason and she talks me into taking the night off because I don't want to get sick like last time. She might be right but I really with there was some sort of quick easy way to tell whether you're being a lazy, sissy, slackarse and when you actually need and should have a break!

Lunch run with Sarah

Sarah's an ex-SASI funded kiaker - right now she's not at her fittest but we used to run together a lot and I know she can be pretty gutsy and pushes herself hard so while the pace is easy now it will become more challenging fairly quickly. Plus I love the motivation of feeling like I have a responsibility to my running buddies and hopefully now moving stuff and conferences etc are out of the way I can kick myself up the but and start doing some hard conditioning workouts in the mornings so lunch runs are a bonus.

Today's run was an easy 40 min jog - except for the TWO - Yes TWO times we had to sprint away from killer swarms of bees! First time i was running backwards because Sarah was getting tired and jogging slowly - Sarah was looking down, I was looking backwards and suddenly we were surrounded!

Sarah saw them first - I am soooo not observant - signalled the sprint and after a few metres being allergic and selfish I left her behind to outrun the stragglers of the swarm of bees which continued to chase her for another 50 metres (yes I'm a coward but I can die from a bee sting and as far as we know Sarah's not allergic).

We then changed our course - exited the oval and continued running through the arboretum for a while and decided it was time to go back. jogging up the dirt road which should have been reasonably far from the first swarm the bees had cut us off at the pass so to speak. The dirt road was blocked so we then had to go around the block and walk up the main road to return to uni.

Luckily neither of us got stung but we did forget to stretch! We had stretched after a brief warm up jog before the run though so hopefully we won't pull up sore. Shouldn't since it was an easy pace.

Friday Night Boxing

Didn't feel up for some reason. I've decided that there's often a link between the psychological and the physical with these things. I've decided to look for any reason I might be lagging physically when I'm not mentally into my training. I don't like to think I might just be loosing my 'heart' so to speak.

Did a good looooong stretch and did feel slightly more ready to train after that. While I stretched Kristine decided to go for a run since she does all her training at night - she runs before boxing. Other things I'm gonna try to improve when I'm not feeling motivated might include, hydration, nutrition, my sleeping pattern and I'll remember that sometimes when I've been lazy my body has a compulsory bitch about getting back into it because it's decided I'm finally letting it get old and fat and preparing to live out my days on the couch watching reruns of "Friends" while pigging out on food from a take away joint.

Skipping didn't happen - Kristine wanted to get straight into it when she got back from her run. All night we worked by the bell - 3 minute rounds with 1 minute breaks. We started with partner footwork (following each other maintaining distance) for a few rounds. We then went on to do about 3 or 4 rounds of partner shadow sparring. After that did chase - one person attacks with anything they like while the other can only use a jab. I do notice that doing work after shadow sparring I notice all the punches that come close without hitting. I don't flinch but I'm aware of them which I think is good because I notice the times i am open even when Kristine can't quite catch me.

This used to be very difficult for both of us but I guess we've improved our timing with our jabs since it's not so hard to be chased anymore. Took turns doing that for I guess 6 or 8 rounds? Damn can't remember and it was only last night!

Just before we finished Kristine pulled something in her neck when she made a sudden move trying to slip or something. She seized up and I dropped my gloves to help her. A 15 minute massage later and some hamstring stretches and she's ok. I notice that she has all the same knots etc that I do. Maybe trying to force hard punches while using parallel movement makes us strain something? We don't have a lot else in common.

Paul calls to find out about my next bout. It is now fixed for November 11th. That's good - gives me some time to settle into my new routine and get down to weight without killing myself. Having said that we know that my opponent will be at least one kg heavier than me. If past experience counts for anything I'll fly over to Melbourne and when there find out she's more like 5 kg heavier than me! Still it's a good rehearsal bout for the nationals.

If she's meant to be a bantamweight and she's heavier I'll assume she's just not in prime fitness and doesn't have a huge strength advantage. If she's naturally heavier she won't be one of my opponents in the nationals but she'll still be practice for me and I'll rely on the ref and my coaches to make sure I get out of there alive. Hopefully i can run away and counter good enough to survive a bigger brawler anyway - only reason to worry would be if she's taller and skilled.

Saturday Morning boxing

Ran to the boxing gym - about 15 mins - then stretched - forced Kristine to stretch too. She's much tighter than me in the hamstrings but much more flexible in the gluts. My gluts are so tight i can barely even get into the stretch!

We take along time to stretch ourselves and each other properly so again go into the training without skipping. In hindsight I think that was a mistake. I'm a bit heavy on my feet today and don't lighten up until the very last round. We start with footwork and shadow sparring as on Friday night. Then we go through chase again until we're finished. About 10 rounds maybe? Stretch each other again. Kristine's hamstrings are sooo tight as are my gluts but at least now we have each other to make sure we're looking after ourselves.

Before she seized up I don't think Kristine appreciated the importance of stretching and since fighters in our gym don't train in a class format we only stretch as much as we make ourselves stretch. Our coaches are not physical conditioning coaches. None of the fighters really stretch a lot so now I intend to change that so I am not tempted to skip stretching because someone else who is not stretching has already finished warming up and they're waiting for me.

Sunday
1 hour 20 min run.
Meant to be longer but turns out daylight savings started and I had to be somewhere at 12 - when I thought it was 11 and had to cut my run short to show up late! Typical of me!

Then got phone call in the afternoon from State coach wanting to know why I didn't turn up to state training - which i had no idea was on. I'm wondering what memos I keep missing! Still looks like it will be held at my gym this coming sunday (rotates to different clubs) so at least it will be easy to get to!


Monday Morning

Morning weights and then 30 min swim. Did deadlift followed by plyo jumps, dumbell chest press on fit ball followed by clap pushups, wide grip lat pull downs, weighted plank holds. All with 5 min timed recovery during which i did some dynamic stretching. All reasonably heavy weight and low reps. Had to be careful though since I don't have a spotter.

Didn't manage to get to Judo Monday night - another uni deadline but that's what judo nights are for - fun flexible sessions since I've got 5 boxing sessions a week apart for the 2 judo nights anyway.

Tuesday

Spend all day still finishing uni work but can train at night.

Night boxing
6 rounds skipping
3 rounds shadow sparring
4 rounds bag
4 rounds sparring Theo

Enjoyed it - mentally got the concept of a peppering jab and how it might be used when my opponent is close to the ropes (especially if they're taller) for the first time.

Then went to the aquatic centre.
Did similar weights routine to yesterday except close grip lat pull downs instead of wide grip and weighted push ups instead of dumbell chest press on the fit ball and bench crunches with a 10 lb weight held with arms out straight above my head for abs.

Then finished off with 20 mins on the treadmill. Noticed how much faster I run when I keep my core firm and watch my posture. The SLOWEST I can run without kicking the front of the treadmill is 14.1 km per hour and the fast intervals feel good.

Wednesday Morning

30 mins swim. Spend some time in seminars planning my swimming proram though so will be injecting more structure into my swims for now on....

Wednesday Night

Judo. Glad to find I'm not getting nautious with the rolling etc anymore. Makes the training easier to enjoy. I do have to force myself to relax a little though. I find myself wanting be very particular about the technique for everything but I'm not meant to be getting hung up on that sort of thing just yet!

Cycle home since after putting mats away after training there's no time to do weights at the aquatic centre as I had planned. I am a little sore from weights on Monday and Tuesday anyway so will do more later in the week.

Thursday

I am pathetic. I had moved my alarm clock away from my bedside so I had to get it up to turn it off. It worked for one morning but I kept pressing snooze and getting back into bed until I had no time to train.

Then I realized I could run to uni and get a training session out of that without needing a lot more time than it would take for me to cycle. It worked out well although since it's gradually uphill all the way and takes about an hour my posture is not as strong as I would like which makes me a bit slow. Also the bum bag I have packed with a change of clothes etc bounces around a lot so I'll have to start leaving clothes at uni.

Thursday night boxing

I get there and find out we're sparring tonight. I have time for about 4 mins skipping and 3 rounds of shadow boxing before getting in for about 9 straight rounds of sparring. Theo, coach Arthur and coach Paul alternate working with me. Coach Paul is the hardest to spar because he's tall. Coach Arthur goes southpaw for me and i still don't really know what to do about it. ......... Need to read up on that again - I'm sure I've quizzed trainers on the forum about it before!

Kristine helps me stretch and I her. I had promised her a massage since she cramped up last week so for an hour after training I do battle with all the knots she has in her muscles before walking home - find my keys have detached themselves from my little keyring maglite and fallen out of my bumbag (I am cursed by the key gods!!!) have to walk further to where my flatmate is having a late dinner then home again - about 40 mins walk total. Then I have to stay awake to let my flatmate back in when he gets home but that's not all bad because I have a good stretch which I really need since my lower back hates me!

Decided - partially due to laziness - to save my energy for sparring Omar tonight at Rods. Cycled to uni and at the end of the day cycled to Rods gym (in the rain) only to find out it'd been cancelled! Then I had to cycle to the landlord's to get a spare set of keys (still in the rain) and home (in the rain). So basic theme of the day has been cycling in the rain - over 3 hours of useless cycling and no sparring >:mad I really don't know how I'm the last on to find out when these things are cancelled/changed etc!

Ok I thought I'd updated this but seem to have had a few days deleted so basically -

Hard State training session on Sunday but it went well. Worked out how to handle Omar a little better. Also sparred 2 other guys. 6 rounds total - 3 with Omar, 3 with the others. Omar switches from southpaw to orthodox and now I can spot it (with Arthur's instruction) and adjust my movement to avoid his power hand I'm finding it easier.

Similar thing Monday night with coach Arthur. Sparred him both southpaw and orthodox. Found his wide lead jab as a southpaw difficult but went through ways to deal with it after sparring which made sense.

Swam for 45 mins after training.

Tuesday

30 min jog in the morning. Just trying not to stiffen up since sparring has been hard. Night boxing. Coach Paul was going to come in to help me work on my guard but he didn't show. Tried to do what he said we were going to work on with Kristine anyway. I don't think working off of the guard is something I'll ever be able to do that way though. I think I'll only ever be able to use it as back up when other forms of defence fail because I swear it's almost just like being hit without my hands there at all. They may stay there sometimes but I still feel everything, still get put off balance and still can't punch back immediately - unless it's deflected because I half slip it or am on the move. Conclusion - I'm just going to try to keep my hand in a position where it can catch or parry punches at the last second or just be there IF my slips and movement don't help me. Not completely sure of how to do that yet though.

Wednesday

OK this is likely to be too much info for a lot of people but just in case some coaches of female fighters or female fighters haven't thought about this I'll post it.

Was on target to make weight on the weekend. Then weight went up by 1 kg which freaked me out. I thought - what did I eat!!!! Then was extra careful despite feeling a bit drained. Then got my period and came in under weight. I had fluid retention leading up to my period which made me gain weight and then i starved myself to keep my weight down. I should have real;ized what was going on but instead Wednesdays training was a write off because I was so drained.

Boxing training was frustrating. Still being expected to be able to completely absorb the force of a punch on my guard without any movement AT ALL when being hit by heavier people. It's never going to happen but a week before every fight I have coach paul decides I'm suddenly gonna get it.

Frustrating. I wonder if his height at 6 foot 6 means that when people punch up towards his head his guard deflects it which is why it seems so easy for him.

I usually spar people closer to my height and punches are always direct if I have to stand there in front of them the way he expects me to. Just don't want to do it! Head butting punches sucks!

Ate after training. Had some carbs int he form of toast. Felt better almost immediately. After that I felt ready to do something else.

I decided to try a makeshift vertical treadmill (idea from Scrap) since I think it forces me to have correct posture. used towels on the carpet in my room with a half deflated fitball against the wall to step on and a little extra cushioning below my tail bone (a dressing gown). Seems to be good for my abs but I'm not sure i'm doing it correctly since I don't get my heart rate up very much. Did it 2 X 30 mins with some fitball work between.

Thursday morning

20 mins vertical treadmill - breakfast - then 30 mins run outside.

Thursday Night Boxing

My pay didn't go in when I expected it to today and I spent all day stressing about it. Then it went in late afternoon just before I went to training. I'd exhausted all my stressing to the point of having to relax.

Wa La I find my guard. I just decide to have a go at it doing partner work and it works. i get Kristine to unload everything she has at it and it works. What The!!!! I think before I was trying to stop everything on my fists but it holds better when I use my forearms. I'll keep it for particular purposes though since I still don't believe it's good to use in every situation.

I feel like a knob though - I've been whinging about my trainers not letting me give up on this for AGES! Like 2 years!

Friday

30 min run at lunch - nothing too stressful - half of it running backwards, all on grass or soft ground.

Night boxing

Not a long session but a focused session. I'm making a deliberate attempt to relax now and just trust my coach. I think I inhibit myself too much when i don't. A few minutes skipping, shadow - half alone and half partner shadow with Paul, pad works and that's it.

Saturday morning - on weight - or somewhere between 53.5 and 54 depending on the spot of the floor I put my scales on! Going to swim to loosen up and am catching the plant this arvo.

Caught the plane,

Got to the hotel and did a quick session of footwork, shadow and pad work outside. Relaxed for the night.

Sunday is a long day. It's a 3.5 hour drive from Melbourne to the show, then weigh in about 2 hours before fighting and then drive back (longer return since we got lost).

I haven't yet decided how I feel about how things panned out. I'm angry but at the same time there were a few lessons here I had to learn.

I was on target to weigh in at 53.8 or 53.5 naked first thing in the morning. I've been watching my weight very carefully and I know I'll be at my lightest early in the morning - everyone is unless they are dehydrated. I'm not dehydrated. I drink 600 ml of water on the way down there in the car and I have a 100 g protein bar for breakfast. When they start the weigh ins Brizzi - who brings in the scales insists it's ladies first. I weigh in (around 12:30) and he insists i leave all my clothes on including my heavy jeans.

There's NO WAY those scales were correct. I had to have weighed at LEAST 54.8 with those clothes on. My weight is recorded as 53.3 - hers is 56.1 with lighter clothes on. She was meant to be a max of 55 kg tops - but in reality it think she was closer to 57 or 58. As soon as I've weighed in some rude asshole tells me "fighters only allowed in here and orders me out" - why did he think I weighed in? Just to check my progress for Jenny Craig! Asshole!

In hindsight Paul said we shouldn't have taken the bout - for someone as light as me that weight difference is significant and I've deliberately made weight for her without the same honesty being returned. Still we've travelled a long way and you need to give away weight sometimes to get bouts up in Australian boxing especially as a female.

If you want to get a match at 56 then admit to it and I'd have happily come in at that weight. I wouldn't be a strong 56 but I'd be 56 and even if I didn't get up there at least I could still respect my opponent at the end of the day. In the end she had some skills and the decision may have gone the same way had we been the same weight.

I have learnt a few things I need to work on - which I won't go into detail about here now that I wonder whether or not opponents will find this log. I can not put it all down to the weight. I am annoyed at the way I handled myself in the first round and then while I was better in the second I can't afford to fight that way even against girls my own weight. I needed the wake up call now before the nationals and I'd respect her for giving it to me if she'd made the effort to make weight and hadn't left me feeling I'd been going hungry for nothing.

Stupid really - she's talking about turning pro in December - so they're pretty confident - so why not test her properly and make sure we're the same weight?!?!

There are a few things I have to give credit for though. Boxing Victoria put the show on to raise money for the Make a Wish foundation - a worthy cause. Boxing SA they can't even make enough money to support itself let alone fundraise for anything else!

The crowd is really nice and cheer for me. More for me than her which suprises me. Victoria and SA have a traditional rivalry and I'm all prepared to be bood and hissed big time but that doesn't happen. Perhaps Brizzies gym is not well liked in Victoria.

Flew back to Adelaide Monday morning - tired from the trip. Take the day off. I hope having fights on consecutive days at the nationals won't wear me down too much. I don't think it's the fight itself that's made me tired so much as the travelling though and being so angry at myself.

Tuesday

Full day in the field. Taking time out pre-bout and to travel always means I'm further behind in uni work and have to catch up. It was too hot to work outside without breaks from the sun so I ended up working late instead - until nightfall around 8ish - then cycling an hour to Gawler to catch the train home. At least got in 2 hours of cycling and had to swear at flies so much all day I've cooled down by the end of the day. Have also spoken to my bro about what happened and thought a bit about the psychology behind the mistakes I made so hopefully I won't have a repeat performance at the nationals.

Fair play Sharla you seem really dedicated to boxing and studying, im sure u will bounce back stronger and better from this expierience, i enjoy reading your log cc keep it up. :)

Thanks for the encouragement CC Gally :)

Wednesday

Cycled from Gawler train station out to Roseworthy, braved the heat and flies as long as I could and cycled back. Got home in time to have a quick shower before getting ready for training because as gross as I get from training all the bugs and dirt and plant matter that accumulates in all the wrong places and really, really needs to be cleansed!

Back hates me from field work. I don't want to jar it by skipping so I stretch in between rounds of footwork and shadow to warm up. Do about 5 rounds on the bags with Leonard's mental advice in mind and I think I kinda get what he means but still need to work on it.

Notice that Anthony is working with some guy i don't know. He looks like a beginner when they spar but then is holding pads for Anthony and giving him instructions. I think Anthony is just too polite to ignore what he's saying (Anthony is the most experienced in the gym but also the most humble and unlikely to insult anyone) then I realise he actually makes sense.

When he's finished with Anthony I ask him to hold pads for me too. Poor guy was just about to finish. :) I do a few rounds with him and really enjoy the different things he shows me. He's out of practice himself but still remembers a few tricks which are good fun.

I cycle back to uni - Waite campus. had to make up some solutions for the lab. It's my lab job to make these up even if I'm in the field and have no ideas we've run out. I have to cycle here and have just finished at 11:30 pm to cycle home again. it's not the way I'd like to be training but i guess with all the cycling I got some cardio and some boxing in today and at least temporarily have avoided attack of the lab shrews who await an excuse to pounce.

I'm not the only student here which kinda sucks because when most other people still find themselves doing late nights without training taking up time I'm not sure how I'm supposed to keep up. Also check my uni email for the first time in a few days and have a lovely progress report to do by next Tuesday which pretty much means I've got an exciting weekend coming up! :P :-X

Thursday

Day in the field. Bus it out today so no cycling. Don't train before leaving but fit in boxing training plus another session of weights afterwards.

Boxing

6 rounds skipping

Partner footwork with Kristine - I get her to take control with verbal cues to signal who follows who in the first few rounds and who is attacking and who is running away in the next few.

We do a similar thing then with partner shadow sparring. We work alternating roles between attack and defence and in fighter and out fighter for about 4 or 5 rounds. I have to say I'm having heaps of fun.

I don't know why I'm in such a good mood but my mum commented by email last week when I was stressing out that i was probably on edge because I was hungry. I've been eating whatever I want since the weekend and perhaps enjoying it a little too much :)

Kristine finishes up because she started training early and i finish off with 3 rounds on the floor to ceiling ball, about 4 hard rounds on the bag and about 10 minutes on the medicine balls. It's been a while since I worked on my balance with them and I have to say I really suck! I finish with a quick stretch and then go to the aquatic centre.


Eat a protein bar for dinner and start weights. Low reps, high weight, 4 mins break between sets. Deadlift with jumps straight after each set, Dumbell chest press with clap pushups, Lat pull downs and weighted incline bench situps.

Then cycle home (not far) and before I go inside I do a 5 min jog to warm up, about 10 short sprints (maybe 100 or 150 metres) with walk recovery and 5 mins cool down. Cardio session is only just over 20 minutes so quick but i guess better than nothing.

Went to bed after 10:30 Thursday night but have to get up at 4:15 am Friday morning. Long day in the field and in this heat I jump at the chance to get a lift out there to start by 6 am. I finish at about 1:30 pm having only a few short drink and food breaks. Seems like a long day and I'm absolutely stuffed. Have a decent lunch (steak sandwich with the lot plus chips - still eating whatever :)) back at Roseworthy campus and then (after showering off all the dirt) jump in the pool. Damn that's nice after working in 38 oC heat all day! My work boots are black and my feet were even beginning to cook!

I was fairly careful with sunscreen but in the Australian sun it's not easy to not get burnt. I've managed to forget a spot - lower back plumbers crack! and have a large red sunburn welt across my ass! Why didn't the field guys tell me I was exposing myself! :-\

Probably should have tried to make more of a work out of the swim but have only 30 mins before I have to catch the bus back. It's soooo nice just to cool down I try to work on my form a little - keeping my core strong, leading with the elbow and using my full stroke length for freestyle. Since I've missed Judo for 2 weeks now I also practice my tumbles and I get dizzy easily - looks like you loose your ability to not feel that if you don't keep doing the tumbles regularly.

Rested a home for a bit before boxing training. Did 6 rounds of skipping and then partnerwork footwork and shadow sparring with Kristine. We then do chase aswell. We alternate within the rounds who is attacking and defending taking turns to call it. It's a fun session but the heat is a killer. At least come Queensland in December I'll be used to the heat! Originally planned to do something after training like weights but have decided to take the night off because my body hates me. Will get a good night's sleep tonight and try to stretch tomorrow to make up for all the bending over and heat stress I've caused it this week!

Saturday - off needed it

Sunday - interclub sparring at Golden Grove. Over 1 hr cycling there - the last 30 mins uphill. Was a b**ch just getting there and felt tired before I started but was allowed to be a bit conservative with my energy until I had to start sparring. It's so hot at the moment they're not pushing us really hard.

I get to try out hitmandonny's starting technique and I like it :) Have 2 new sparring partners this time. Heavier, taller people (one 81 kg girl, a guy of average height and a tall skinny dude) but they don't try to take my head off so it's actually lighter than usual.

With the guy of average height he has this really irritating way of holding his lead hand. It's on an angle but high. makes it easy for him to go over the top of any lead punch and difficult to counter. The only way i could deal with him was by switching to southpaw and using a lead right hand jab to go over his lead hand. I'm not entirely happy with that because I don't want to have to switch to a weaker stance to tackle that kind of guard. I think that's dangerous. If anyone has any better ideas please, please, please tell me!

With the tall guy I struggled to get in a bit but right at the end of my last round it dawns on me that I don't have to go straight in against the dude. I can just step to the left when he jabs, slip inside his jab and land my own because he drops his right.

I like that I worked that out but I don't like that it took me so long to do it. If it took me that long in a fight I would have lost - i guess the only comfort being girls my own weight won't be that tall and if they are they shouldn't be strong enough to push me backwards every time I do get in like he does.

Cycle about 30 mins to mums for a free feed and a lift home :)

Monday

Still trying to work out how to program things in but haven't come up with any magic solutions just yet.

Do a 45 minute workout at boxing before going to judo. Includes skipping and shadow rounds with sprints and core work, hamstring exercises and pushups in between rounds. Also do some balance work on the medicine balls in the last 5 minutes to cool down. Tricky stuff now I'm working on all directions but I can see it being beneficial in the long term.

Judo
Usual warm up - mix of exercises for abs and weird pushups, rolls etc. My bro takes me and another white belt for some work. He's very technical which is good. Much more detailed in what he wants to see us doing compared to the other coach. My head hurts by the end of the session and I see we both have a similar approach to learning things - we're fussy picky podantic freaks! i like that though - I'd rather learn it properly the first time!

Tuesday

Night boxing

OK I haven't really got a structure for the week in mind specifically. I intend to go by how my body is feeling a bit also using my resting heart rate and the feeling of my muscles after warming up to decide what kind of session my body is ready for - hard and explosive, moderate or easy.

I do however have a structure for what i expect to have in every workout for the next few weeks - starting off with some cardio and core work to warm up, then some stretching - enough to get a little benefit but not enough to cool down - then the main workout - either running or boxing - followed by more core work and stretching.

Core here meaning not only ab work but back work, a little hamstring and bum stuff and hip raises (stand on edge of ring or curb with one foot, hold body straight and raise and lower the other hip). I have noticed that sometimes when i do the hip one my back clicks and I'm sure that having one side weaker than the other might contribute the back issues I tend to have.

So that's what I did, main boxing workout involved shadow and bag work. I like how my power is much better when I have my core engaged and my lower back sort of straight. I got the idea from Judo feeling how much easier it is to carry the weight of another person on the correct part of your back and feeling the way you automatically hold your back and hips to brace for the person you're throwing (so they can pull on the ghi to slow their descent). Early days yet but I think the same applies to getting power in boxing.

After boxing a quick feed and some water and the same format for a run. The main workout consisting of 30 mins run - 6 min warm up, then minute on and minute off for the remaining 24 minutes. I'm limiting all my runs to this short, demeaning pidly time for a while because I have to admit I pull up with a sore back from longer runs because of the poor posture I have over longer runs. I need to improve my core before I can build my mileage.

So that's the plan - no swimming or heavy weights until after the national - a decision made partially due to economic factors (aquatic centre membership has expired but I need to pay for flight to the nationals as first priority) aswell as time constraints. It makes sense to me though - it's too late to build a lot of muscle before the nationals and if I work my core properly and stretch properly I should be able to get a good cardio workout from running without hurting myself.

Wednesday lunch run

Do a few sets of straight and oblique crunches and some bridging exercises to work my core then a 30 minute jog. Legs feel heavy and even a slow pace feels difficult. That's what i get for stuffing up my back bending over in a field all last week so i can char grill my ass! My stride is shorter than it should be - i think due to the same tightness that's got my back feeling like it's meant to belong to the 80 year old me rather than me now. I try to stretch a bit after the run and have difficulty stretching my right hip flexor - that'd be part of my problem i guess but it's difficult to isolate.

Wednesday Night

Quick 50 minute boxing workout. Skipping, core work, shadow and ball balance work. Young Micheal who's had knee problems the doctors can't help him with stands in front of me looking miserable. I try to give him a pep talk about how just because things don't get better as quickly as the doctors say they should it doesn't mean they won't. if he rests his knee and goes easy on it and ices it a bit he'll come good. Funnily enough he also has a dip in his lower back where it goes in - same as me and sometimes gets back pain. I wonder if - despite our huge age difference - we have a similar problem?

Energy levels are a bit low and despite my heart rate not being as high as when pushing in the same kind of workout on Monday I feel a bit flat. Feel like I get good flow in the shadow work though.

Judo

Worked with a blue belt beginners coach today, throwing and being thrown by same white belt as on Monday night. I weight 55-54 kg, he weighs 85 kg. I can easily feel the difference when I'm throwing him properly since he's suddenly a LOT lighter. It's fun - even being thrown now I'm getting comfortable with falling properly - feels like a ride at the show :).

They are talking about grading us for our yellow belts soon. I know if Judo was my main sport I'd be gagging for it but with nationals coming up for boxing soon I really don't care either way. Nice of them to have our continual progression in mind though - i like how organized they are!

After Judo I have dinner with my bro and we discuss mental preparation and general preparation for competition. He has a lot to say which makes sense and I've got some homework to do. Things to find out about my opponents, the competition in general and tactics to think about for a few situations - plus what the limitations of my pre-fight observations might be and how to know when to stick to and abort from the path I've taken in a fight. Eg i might be doing something and suddenly be hit with a close to KO punch coming from somewhere - I won't stay there with my little jabs but get the F**k out and look for her third arm! Not a likely scenario but having thought about that before just in case makes sense!

Thursday Morning

OK sooky la la time
Tried to run - only managed less than 20 mins before having to stop. My back has been HATING me all week since field work last week and it refuses to loosen up. Basically when I try to run my body has an "F you b**tch! Die b*tch!" kinda response. Back hurt, stride was messed up and not my left knee but my RIGHT knee didn't like it! BS my knee pain and back pain aren't related!!!!

I finished off the 30 minutes doing my version Scraps vertical treadmill idea but heart rate is so low I'm not sure I can really class this morning's efforts as a workout. I'm tempted to just go out and run for 2 or 3 hours until something either breaks properly or gives up on hurting me - I don't have time though since I've got a chiro appointment this afternoon.

Perhaps that's something to try after the nationals. Resting and stretching doesn't seems to be a magic solution and I'm sick of reminiscing about the days I used to be a runner. It's ironic I feel this way the day after trying to console Micheal about his knee problem!

OK I'm a goob and I've finished cracking my sooky la la :-[. Went to the chiro - got a few answers RE why my back is so screwed at the moment. One is my sleeping position. Lying on my back with my left leg straight and right bent causes my right glut to tighten up - I've been wondering why that's tight for a while now! The other being the bending of the field work which I kinda knew. She adjusted a few things but because everything is so tight she couldn't do a lot. I have to have tonight off.

I also asked her if it would have been such a bad thing for me to keep running and it is a stupid as it sounds. Apparently I've inflamed a joint in my back so even if I warmed up and made all the ligaments feel good it would have only masked the problem temporarily and caused worse pain later when i cooled down. Bad idea!

mental note to self - make an appointment for the afternoon of my last day in the field when doing field work coz it's bound to screw my back and stick to known 'safe' sleeping positions if possible. She showed me a couple of stretches to try to release the tight part of my right glut but I couldn't feel them and she said it's a difficult area to stretch so I think prevention is much better than cure in this case!

I stretched my gluts before I went to bed Thursday night a little and when i also woke up this morning.

No exercise until later tonight since the chiro said to take 24 hours off. I plan to make a habit of stretching properly before bed and when I get up from now on. I once read an interview with a female runner who had gone from average to elite in a relatively short space of time. She said she stretched for 30 mins every morning. It didn't suprise me that she said stretching was so important but at the time the significance of her timing didn't register.

When you think about it dogs, cats, most animals have a good stretch when they get up in a relaxed state. We don't because we've scared ourselves shitless with blaring alarm clocks and are immediately in a rush to go somewhere or do something. Also I'm a blissfully sound sleeper and if for whatever reason i sleep in a dodgy position I'm gonna hold that for hours so of course it's going to be just as bad - if not worse than what I do in training.

I also wouldn't be surprised if having some back pain from field work had something to do with the position I feel asleep in - perhaps it's a vicious circle. Maybe that's why having almost a week off of field work didn't actually make my back feel any better but worse instead.

It all seems so obvious now but I've been training for years and never caught onto this idea before - i wonder how many more stupid things I've missed. I might just have to get used to feeling like and idiot!

Friday night boxing -

A more or less normal session minus the skipping. Did partnerwork with Kristine and high tempo sparring. Was good fun. Luckily movement doesn't seem to be too badly effected. Either the chiro did a damn good job or my back problem is mainly only restrictive to my running. Weird!

Saturday

Morning boxing with Kristine. Ended up being a light session, stretching before and after with help from each other. Worked on a combo which used to be one of my favourites that I'm a bit rusty on these days. That's the thing about having been in several gyms over the years. You get moulded into several different shapes and for a long time that's a disadvantage - it's confusing and you're always a beginner. Now I'm at the stage where I can see how I'm a beginner and I think have a clearer idea of what I have to improve. It's when you can't perform well and you don't know why that it gets to you.

Night self massage and stretch. Lots of heated baby oil, sitting in front of the heater murdering my own legs, drinking several litres of water. Whatever has happened to my back feels like it's made my legs spasm and I really need to spend several hours on them. I think it helps though. Fell asleep wearing my skins in case they really do work :).

Sunday

State training in the morning. Loooong warm up since there are a lot of people who need to spar. Biggest people go first and as one of the smallest I'm last. I do 4 rounds straight with Omar. I'm happy with the way I'm moving. Omar seems to have learnt how to spar softly since he is very controlled with me and the guys before me. Went well :).

Mum was passing through the city since she had her first triathlon of the season this morning (yes were all freaks!). She dropped by my house and gave me a much needed and appreciated back massage. Fantastic :)

Sunday night got to go over my mum's for a free feed (I know I'm spoilt :)) and scabbed a massage off my sister. She wasn't going to say no because it was my birthday Friday and she was too busy being a flusy with her new boyfriend to hang out with me :) :)

Also borrowed the roadbike stationary trainer thingy off of my mum since I won't be risking running again until after the nationals. A bit of a stretch before bed and tried to massage my own legs again.

Monday morning - a little stretching 30 minutes on the trainer with sprint intervals and some more stretching.

Monday Arvo

Paid for a massage. Normally when I book massages at late notice and just walk in to a place i get a pissy little 'relaxing' massage despite asking for a sports massage. That didn't happen this time. I was very impressed and luckily this place is close to my house so I'll be going back. I've actually booked another one Thursday plus a chiro appointment. It's a bit expensive but I'll cope and I can't think of anything worth spending money on more right now. He gets into a knot in my back (between my spine and right shoulderblade) no one has ever been able to move. I don't think he defeated it but I was impressed by the fact he gave it a good go!

Boxing training (skipped Judo in case lifting dude 30 kg heavier than me irritates my back) - skipping, shadow and floor to ceiling ball plus lots of stretching. It's not a long session but it's fast and fluent. After that guy has massaged my hamstrings I can nearly do the splits all of a sudden! I'm still not game to do anything jarring but I don't think I really need to at this point.

OK quick update.

I went to the nationals and did a little better than last year so I guess I achieved my original goal. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to test myself against the southpaw again and not entirely happy with a few factors which i didn't predict but have to put these things into perspective and get over it!

Anyway I'm going to do weekly posts now rather than daily since I've taken some time to work out how to use my Polar Protrainer software over Christmas and have a semi-structured training program all set out on a calendar at home! Organization always being my weak point I'm hoping it helps. I've decided to own up to how much time I actually have this year and only plan to use that instead of planning things that are too ambitious, failing and then doing crap all.

Back is happy right now. Still saving for a new mattress but sleeping on the floor when it's bad helps. Also not cycling much anymore since buses are more convenient in my unit now than the share house I was in before. That seems to help the back.

I've planned 4 fitness tests - one for testing lactate threshold - test named after some dude starting with a C - will try to remember that later.

Also weekly Ownoptimiser test to check am recovering properly.

There's a walking fitness test which seems a bit dodgy. The software calculates it based on your heart rate after walking for a given time. It doesn't take into account some pretty serious variables though like the pace you walk! I'm going to do the test multiple times on the same day with a good rest between times to make up a standard curve and calibrate the method.

I've also designed a flexibility test routine and strength test routine. Unfortunately I don't have a partner to spot me for weights so I can't calculate my one rep maximum weight so I guess I've made it more endurance based by counting max no of reps I can complete at a moderate weight.

Last test is a mobility test - basically hopping between two points on the floor and seeing how many hops I can do in a minute and I'll do something similar punching set point on a bag aswell maybe.

I intend to do one of these every week so I do each of them once every 4 weeks but not all at once. I think it'll take up too much time to do them all at once and the lactate threshold and strength tests might tire me and interfere with the results of whichever I do second.

I guess it's time to set some new goals .............. Still thinking about it.

Going pro is a possibility - after the nationals my coach was up for it seeing why I don't feel there's much point in me continuing with the amateurs. Need to feel like a machine after 6 months though.

Need to learn to balance stuff with work better which is what I hope my new training program will allow.

I am running again too! :) :) :) Ok sounds crazy but I did a one hour tempo run the other day and my back feels fine - my quads HATE me - I'm lowering myself down on the toilet seat with my arms but my back is fine :) :) :). It was meant to be 40 mins but had accidentally set the HRM to start the tempo phase when I pressed the button and forgot so it was a really long 40 mins ::**.

Anyway I'm not aiming for a marathon and am only doing 4 runs a week with really long warm ups and cool downs and two swim a week with the purpose of concentrating on exercises which will balance the muscles in my back, stretch them and strengthen my abs and gluts - all to help my back.

I guess though one of my aims will be to maintain my ability to run without any abnormal pain, That'd be GOLD!!!!

Anyway I've just been doing easy cardio up until Tuesday this week and have now started weights and plyometrics (YES I can do them now!!!! :)). Next week back at boxing. I'll use this log for weekly summaries and technical issues and keep the daily conditioning details in my polar calendar at home so I don't have to wade through hours of crap when I'm trying to work out why I'm tired or sore but people can still offer me suggestions etc on here. :)