Sharla's Log

I'm crap at keeping training logs but find I need to know why I'm especially low on energy or have aches or pains and don't remember what I did to deserve them so I'm making an effort to keep one now.

I might also write in the occasional bad food indulgence since I often complain I have trouble making weight but if I wrote every little cheat meal they'd probably add up to more than I really need  :-[

I'm a Bantamweight (although currently 3 kg over) female. returning from a knee injury. Also have a history of back pain. I keep those factors in mind with my training. No plyometric jumps or skipping allowed just yet. Also need to do a lot of back strengthening compared to other resistance training.

I've been competing for a few years - total of 10 bouts with mixed success. Still have a lot to learn - apparently by trial and error  :) Last bout was September last year - Australian national titles. Lost to a southpaw - the first I have ever experienced in competition or training. Then injured my knee and got sick due to excessive, extended dieting in preparation for the nationals.

Am aiming to have my first bout back later this month but it all depends on whether or not there are any matches around. I've fought and beaten all the other bantamweight girls in the state (there aren't many  :)) so I might have to give away weight.

I feel like a geek for being the first one to enter anything in this but I am one anyway - trying to juggle training and PhD studies at the moment. It doesn't always work.

I'm a transport cyclist - downhill on the way to training and uphill home. I live very close to my uni campus so don't have to cycle far for that. The swimming pool is close to the boxing gym. Usually works out to be about 40 mins to the pool or gym and 50 mins home. I don't really count going to the gym or pool as exercise but I feel it coming back uphill.

Easy morning jog 30 mins - wanted to do more but knee felt a little dodge. Not game to push for speed yet. Did it on grass. Included some backwards jogging and side stepping.

Apple Scroll - at least it has fruit!

:coolclick: for taking the initiative and beating us all to the punch. You're doing good getting back up to speed, nice to hear you can run again even though that it's on grass. I've mentioned before that Ali ran sideways, backwards and forwards. You're doing alright, don't be afraid to throw in a little shadowboxing while doing your roadwork.

Thanks for the encouragement Chris

Sharla Bollocks to the running, find a longish hill and try power walking as fast as you can 200 metres or less then jog back and go again try 8 reps see how you go.

Thanks Scrap  :) Power walk up or down the hill? I feel uneasy jogging down hill at the moment.


Finished the day with boxing training. 6 pm to 8 pm - all rounds 2 mins long, 30 secs break -

3 rounds shadow and 3 rounds floor to ceiling to warm up

Light sparring in a round robin with 1 round in sparring, 2 on the floor to ceiling.

Then sparred the last 4 rounds straight.

Total sparring maybe 8 rounds (wasn't counting)

Finished off technical work with more floor to ceiling work - another 4 rounds

Then did the following strength training circuit 3 X- Circuit One:

pushups with bars to go deep - 20 reps
back extensions on mat (raised feet and head) - 25 reps
Chin ups - 12 reps (pathetic I know but I'm working on it  :))
Sidestepping and ducking under height of the floor to ceiling ball left and right with hands up- 15 X each way
Leg raises - knees up, straighten legs, bend legs, knees down X 15 reps
Lunges (bodyweight only) X 15 each side
Crunches X 30
Back exercise on hands and knees - dumbell in one hand lateral raises X 10 each side
As above except diagonally across body - X 10 each side
Holding plank position 1 min 30 sec

I usually do something like this before starting boxing technical stuff and finish with stretches and a few more exercises but had offer of sparring as soon as i arrived so usual order of things went out the window a bit.

Sparred a taller more experienced guy and a complete beginner. It felt good. It was very light but I made a conscious effort to not get POed about being short and managed to get in a bit more than usual.

I landed some nice overhand rights, a good number of jabs to the body, right uppercuts to the body and one nice left hook when I usually can not get in at all against the tall experienced dude.

I was all happy until the coach who had no other comments for me at all said "stop doing this" and mimicked my overhand right. Not what I was expecting for the following reasons:
(1) surely he knows what an overhand right is called?!
(2) it was landing well.
Communication is not always the greatest! One day I'll find out he meant something else maybe.

Sparring the inexperienced guy was fun - easy to forget how far you've come without doing that occasionally!

Cycled home - about 50 mins.

Thursday

Morning cycling on the wind trainer - bores the crap out of me but can do intervals without hurting myself or having to cycle ages to get to the pool and back again.

Total 35 mins - 10 min warm up, and the Monaghetti:
1.5 mins hard, 1.5 mins easy X 2
1 min hard, 1 min easy X 4
45 secs hard, 45 secs easy X 4
30 secs hard, 30 secs easy X 4
15 secs hard, 15 secs easy X 4
Short cool down.

Cadence was high for the fast intervals but heart rate was not as high as it usually gets. I'm either getting fitter or exercising later than usual (started at 9 as had a late night at uni after boxing last night) - meant I was more easily warmed up and found it easier. Strange. Maybe I have to cut down my recovery time next time I do this.

Had lunch with mum (although I'd already eaten) and had half a baguette made with white bread, bacon bits, avocado, probably some cheese - all very naughty! ....The things my mum makes me do :)


Boxing training at night -

New resistance circuit I plant to alternate with the other one.
Went easy since I haven't done these particular exercises in the recent past and want to get the technique right - will up reps or weight after another session or two.

Resistance Circuit 2 - did following 3 times:
5 pushups on bars, 5 explosive clap push ups on mat (need to get more height before the clap - will keep low reps until I'm happy)
Back extensions using stand thingy (having a dislexic day) X 20
Chin ups palms facing in to use more biceps X 8
Tricep dips using parallel bar thingies (whole body weight) X 8
Seated row - only 18 kg - 25 reps (want to isolate middle back properly - harder with heavy weight)
Step ups with 12lb dumbells X 12 (6 reps each foot) - found difficult to control because of height of the bench - with knee in mind won't push it until feel more balanced.
Sit ups on incline bench X 20
mat abs legs extended, pulled in and pushed up to the ceiling X 20
bridging with fit ball X 20


Then 3 rounds shadow, 4 floor to ceiling ball, 6 bag

Finished night with balancing exercise - 2 fit balls, walking them across the ring next to ropes to grab if needed. Did it 4 times - 1st was messy, 2nd better, 3rd made whole way without needing to grap the ropes and 4th got cocky and had to grab the ropes once.

Our gym doesn't have 2 fitballs the same size so they are slightly different and I alternate each way with different balls.

Finished with 2 exercises Scrap gave me - 3 sets each.

Cycled home

Friday morning

Swam with swimming squad. Fridays are technique days. Easy but good fro stretching out and improving my balance I think. Pool was cold this morning even though it's in door - i think the aquatic centre owners are getting stingy on upkeep costs. Ate protein bar and cycled home.

Had breakfast afterwards - decided to add fruit to cereal - don't naturally grab fruit as often in these cold months - don't want to get scurvy.

Just had to carry about 10 medium sized pots around since - as per usual - all the trolleys were taken. I only carried one at a time and don't anticipate any problems but I'll record it here just in case my back decides to hate me tomorrow.

Ate a few chips with lunch. I precook all my lunches on the weekend and that was a pork stir fry but a friend bought hot chips to share and I had a few - one more little indiscretion that's going to come back to haunt me next time i'm making weight!

Friday Night Boxing 6 - 8 pm

4 rounds shadow and 5 rounds light sparring with coach Paul (I'll name them now since there are 3 of them and could get confusing if I call them all coach.
Paul hasn't done much work with me recently until this session so it was a good update. Paul allows me to talk through stuff with him until I get it which requires more patience than most people have :).

After this we did mit work. Paul stopped for a few minutes to go do something and coach George hopped in the ring with me to practice blocking the jab. Not really sure whether or not he had something specific in mind he wanted to work on but sometimes reminded me to keep my elbow in while doing it so I'll go with that. Then Paul came back.

I think Paul is getting that I need skills to help me cope with the taller guys even if I'll never fight a girl that tall. Just to get more out of my sparring especially when the guys are able to use their weight to walk through many of my punches. We worked on cutting angles with larger steps to the side while slipping or parrying. I think I need to strengthen my calves to get a good enough push off the back foot. Maybe also work on flexibility and balance with these larger steps.

Felt like a good session but not a physically challenging one.
Cycled to nearby pub to meet friends for one of the girl's birthday drinks. I don't drink but tried to pump in the caffiene. It didn't help a lot and I went home at 11 pm since had been up at 5 am for swimming and not got a full 8 hours sleep the past couple of nights.

Saturday 14th July

No morning training - slept in until 8:30.

Did have to mow the lawns though. I have a push mower with no motor and have neglected the lawns for a while. It took 1hr 50 mins of continuous pushing to get the lawn done since the grass was so long I had to go over each patch several times. Back is now a bit tight so might need to stretch it out tonight before bed.

Sunday 15th July

Woke up at 6 am to cycle to city to catch a train out to Elizabeth where state squad trainings are held on Sunday mornings. Trainings went from 10 am to 12. This is the first one I've attended since knee injury. Also the first one I've been to without a coach from my own club attending. I was a bit nervous because Don is known for being staunch but it went really well. I think he's probably different when dealing with Boxing SA political matters than he's when actually coaching.

Sundays are usually my endurance session day so will have to shift this around again.

We worked on diagonal movement, getting the power in and did pad work. Don's fighters al know how to do pad work for each other and they're good at it. I found the pace faster and more natural than what I get in my gym. The pads are held closer together rather then a metre or more apart like in my gym - a long way for a short arse like myself! There were even times when I was about to get confused but didn't because my punches just flowed from the verbal commands. makes me wonder how many times I'm 'confused' at boxing when I don't actually have to be. Strange mental glitch that tells me I'm dumber than i actually am!

Things to work on until next state training:
Bring back leg up more,
Don't come up on toes when trying to get power at end of punch - stay on same level,
work on upper body core -hip and abs strength - sitting and swinging medicine ball side to side,
diagonal movement co-ordination

Caught train back out to the city and cycled to mum's for a free feed :) - approx 45 mins. Got a lift home with the bike.

Monday 16th of July,

Alarm didn't go off so didn't wake up in time to get to swimming. You'd think being a PhD student I could handle my alarm clock radio but apparently not! Instead I went for a 30 min jog. No pain but it did feel slow. I sold one of my Kidney's recently to buy a new heart rate monitor which measures cadence.

My cadence is too low which might be part of the reason I hurt my knee - I will use my HR monitor to train myself to run with higher cadence. Right now Ave is 79 - want to get it up to over 100.

Well I dipped into my car saving budget but I won't be legally allowed to drive until around Christmas anyway so I've got time to save. I should have gotten my licence years ago but didn't have anyone to teach me any have been too stingy to pay for lessons - getting knocked off my bike for the THIRD time a few months ago has motivated me to finally go for it for safely reasons. Have to do 50 hours though and with one lesson a week that takes time.

Car drivers are always sorry and completely accept their fault but when I'm in a bike lane and not doing anything wrong and I still get hit by people accidentally it's only a matter of time before some cyclist hating A**hole runs me down and kills me.

Monday Night
Got to the boxing gym and found out they'd be closing early. I realized I had to try fitting a 2 hr workout into 1.5 hours. I decided to do part of my strength training before as usual and spread the rest out over the night between my technical rounds instead of a break. It hurt a little bit  :)

Did push ups, chin ups, roman chair abs exercises (raising bent legs, extending, bending and lowering) and crunches as per circuit one - 3 sets continuous.

Then between 3 rounds of shadow work to warm up I did the 2 dumbell back exercises,
Then between 3 rounds of floor to ceiling ball I did plank holds for 1 min 30 sec,

Then 1 minute burn rounds on the bags with:
ducking and sidestepping now with bodyshot added (hitting air) and 15 lunges each way X 3,
then 1 of Scrap's leg exercises between - 1 side/leg per round (each side 3 times) = total of 9 burn rounds

Finished off with Scraps figure eight exercise X 3 sets, medicine ball seated swinging left and right 20 reps 3 setc and medicine ball walking length of ring 4 X

One minute burn rounds on the bag hurt - need to do that mroe often!

Tuesday 17th of July

Morning jog - a bit over 5 km. No pain. Wasn't hard. Still aiming to increase cadence. This time average was 84 and max was 91. This is a slight improvement but one I have to think about still. My goal is over 100 which will take a while to achieve since it's over my max now. I'm not trying to run fast yet so I guess when i feel ready to pick up the speed with my knee my cadence might rise a little automatically (fingers crossed).

Cycled home

Boxing at night - another 1.5 hour session.
2 rounds shadow and then did rest of night sparring with coach Arthur.
Arthur is very stocky and short for his weight. It suits him to defend with his hands on his head rather than slipping or parrying and countering a lot. He wants me to do the same and it just feels WRONG!

I don't know if I'll ever get it and it frustrates me to have such a big emphasis placed on this one thing which feels so unnatural to me. I want to attack more and work with a higher tempo. I want to cover up as a last resort if someone gets through my punches rather than going into my guard and taking punches on it before i really need to. i feel it just puts me off balance and makes me feel vulnerable to a follow up attack. Arthur is my height but 25 - 30 kgs heavier. He can walk through a lot of my punches which makes them less useful defensively but I doubt another girl in my weight division could to the same degree.

One thing that dawned on me while discussing it with him was that he's trying to get me to just practice the guard first but since I like to punch defensively it might actually suit me to learn it backwards - ie. work on the angles and counter punches out of the guard as I'm learning it. i already like to slip and counter so potentially it will feel less foreign to me than going into a shell, bracing myself and not coming out until my opponents arms get tired or worse - mine are knocked away and I'm off balance.

Poor Arthur is also trying to adjust his style to suit sparring with me more too. He walked through my attack less tonight. I also caught him holding my left arm as soon as he gets inside and hooking me with his left. He didn't even realise he did it but did it 4 times tonight. This is illegal as far as I know in amateur boxing so learning to deal with it is not a high priority for me right now. It just reminds me that he's heavier and POs me!

Arthur's whole style seems like something that would suit a pro fight more than amateur. I hope we can find a middle ground on this guard issue!

Was a bit bad with food today - am in a workshop for uni this week and they supply food. I get hungry enough to each a sizable lunch around the time we have morning tea. They bring out cakes and biscuits for morning tea - not good!

Wednesday 18th July

Power went off last night and reset my alarm clock - I didn't wake up in time to do a morning workout and planned to do a lunch run instead but morning workshop talks went overtime and lunch has been cut in half so it's not going to happen  :( Serves me right for not getting up.

Mars bar  :-[ I shouldn't stew on things I don't get at boxing - puts me in a less productive mood all round.

Night -
Had to help move furniture so didn't get to boxing training. Instead went for an easy about 6 km run and played mith my fitballs at home. Did exercises in pairs alternating rather than circuit otherwise will forget new exercises and have to stop too much. Did however need to pause to clean up after puppy still being toilet trained (stench was to strong to wait which is saying something since i grew up on a pig farm!) and when being attacked by said puppy attempting to lick me to death. I think I've forgotten half of what i did but this is what i remember.

Fitball exercises:
Pushups (feet on ball hands on ground) 20 reps, Double leg extensions 20 reps X3 sets
Supine extensions 15 reps, sidelying single leg raises 20 reps each way X3 sets
Ball crunches 30 reps, new very hard ab wheel toy - hips on ball wheel away and back 3 reps X3 sets
DB back exercises hands raised laterally (as in circuit 1) 10 reps each hand, ??forgot?? X 3sets
DB back exercises hands raised diagonally (as in circuit 1) 10 reps each hand, kneel and balance on fitball over 1 min X 3

Went for morning jog and included semi speed work for first time. In the context of this run hard is about 70 % which is hard enough since I restricted myself to a jog recovery and never once walked or stopped.

10 min warm up
2X hard 600m with 400m recovery jog,
2X hard 400m with 200m recovery jog,
2X hard 200m with 100m recovery jog,
Cool down jog to total time just over 30 mins.

A workout like this would be insultingly easy pre-knee injury but i found the recovery time pretty short. haven't had a chance to look at HR monitor data yet but I suspect my heart rate didn't fall much between intervals. Still felt good to do first session like this since being injured  :)

Night boxing

Felt a bit drained - wasn't really up for being explosive so light sparring with Kristine was good. Did a little shadow to warm up (ok only one round but I'd cycled 40 mins to the gym so maybe that's not too bad??) and about 1 hour of 2 min rounds with 30 sec breaks. Breaks probably worked out to 40 secs though since I had to take my glove of stop and reset the timer each round.

Technically might have been a bit messy at times but i'm aiming to be a bit more creative and get out of my usual rut - use a few more new combos and work body and head inside and out. Was fun :)

Finished of with half a resistance circuit before gym closed.
Chin ups palms facing in 8 reps, back dumbell exercises as per set one to reps each hand horizontally and ten reps diagonally, 30 oblique crunches each way. All that 3 times.

Coach Arthur was there closing up the gym so I had a chance to discuss my frustration at learning his style of defence with him. He's a pretty reasonable guy. He did say he teaches only what he was taught as he's had limited exposure to other gyms and other styles but was open to the idea that I might need to do things differently.

I'm not sure either of us know how to do tings differently but I suspect improving my balance and movement will let me bring in his style of guard as a back up to other forms of evasion.

I doubt I'll ever use that sort of guard as a first line of defence though because if I can hold it up there's no back up. However if I slip of parry neatly enough I can bring my hand back to guard at the last second if I see it's not going to be successful.

Friday 20th July

Lunch

30 mins cycling on the trainer thingy - 5 warm up, 5 mins cool down 20 mins between with 1 min fast 30 seconds slow.

Friday Night

I planned to go to boxing training. I packed my bag with my training clothes and everything I needed after finishing my cycling on the trainer, detached my road bike from the trainer, cariied it outside and closed the door .... with my bag, phone wallet and house keys inside!!!

I was able to get back into work but couldn't get into my house until Saturday lunch. Cycled 40 mins to mums to sleep Friday night and got lift back Saturday. My flatmates have phones but I couldn't remember their numbers and we didn't (until now) keep a spare key outside.

My flatmate's dog was in her room and despite being an unusually hyperactive puppy the last time I could get him to jump up to he bedroom window was the second I realized her number was on his dog tag - of course I'd have to cycle to mum's to use her phone to call her anyway. We don't have a home phone or answering machine so leaving a message from my mums wasn't an option either.

No one was at my mums house but luckily I know how to break in there. Such a monumental stuff up as only I can achieve! It has to be the week I've already missed boxing training one night to move furniture and ate lots of bad uni supplied workshop food too!

Sunday
Got up early - cycled to city to catch train (40 mins) out to Elizabeth for state squad training. Get there 15 mins early - waited another 20 minutes and decided it had been cancelled. Had to wait again for next train and that pretty much used up all the time I had for training that day. Had made plans for the afternoon so I didn't get a session in. This has been a screwed up week for training!

Next time I'll text Don to double check whether or not it's still on. Really he can't be expected to contact everyone since it seems it's usually only the guys from his own club who show up. That's SA boxing for you - too small to keep many obsessive boxers and not enough obsessive boxers to make things like state training as good as they could be. A lot of the other gyms have boxers who live too far out to get to Dons gym anyway.

Monday

Went for a 30 minute jog at lunch.

Kept getting harassed by flatmate's dog banging on my door, late night phone calls and the sound of adjacent bathroom tap dripping since flatmates forget it's on it's way out and needs to be turned off hard. Didn't sleep well and also was up late getting my washing put away since being locked out Friday night and half of Saturday took away a lot of my usual cleaning and washing time. After all that getting up early in the morning to swim was a no go. I don't know if I'll make it to club swims for a while since have too much uni work to get here late and am always an hour late on swimming training mornings since cycling back takes so long.

Night Boxing
This weeks going to have to be a bout super time efficient sessions - uni sucks right now. Did the following with between 20 and 30 second breaks.
3 X 2 min shadow
3 X 2 min floor to ceiling
15 X 1 min bag rounds

Then did chin ups (palms foreward 6 reps and in 5 reps X 3 sets), back extensions on the mat (25 reps X 3 sets) and medicine ball walking in a circuit (ring length - 4 sets). Need to do even numbers of medicine ball walking since the balls are different sizes.

Plan to move most of my resistance training to morning workouts since night tend to be a bit random in closing time of the gym etc.

Tuesday 24th of July

did lunch session 30 mins on the bike - 6 mins warm up, 20.5 mins (1 min fast, 30 secs easy) 4.5 mins easy. Then finished off with ball exercises - 3 X the following circuit:

single leg squats - 10 each leg
double leg squats - 30
20 push ups (feet on ball)
25 back extensions
DB back exercises - 10 horizontal, 10 oblique each hand
30 crunches
10 supine thingies (nice back stretch)

Whole lot took just under 1 hour - nice lunch workout when time limited! (started work early)

Night Boxing + Swim

4 rounds shadow - 2 mins rounds, 1 min break (gym bell)

Round Robin light sparring with tound out spent doing shadow instead. 2 min rounds - 30 to 40 sec breaks (timer set for 30 but handling takes a few seconds) 8 sparring, 4 shadow

Sparring with Kristine and a woman who trains about twice a week for fun only. Very light. Tried to work on movement.

4 bag burn rounds with Kristine - ten times combo explosive then swap quickly and repeat until end of round. 2 min rounds 20 - 30 secs break
Combo (one per round) - 1 -2, 1-2-3, any 4 punches, any 5 punches (swapped every 5 so didn't get too much rest).

Then cycled to the pool for a 30 min swim. The pool is close to the boxing gym so it saves time to do both in one trip. My back has been bothering me ever since I mowed the lawns that day and i suspect not being able to make morning swimming trainings has stopped it from loosening up. I am trialling a swim every night after weekday boxing trainings for a while to see if it helps.

One other niggle I noticed while sparring was a strange pain in my left shin which was not too severe and I could ignore it but it moved up to my knee. Trained through it and didn't feel it before bed but had a limp later that night. Felt like something just clicked out of place or something. Weird.

Wednesday 25th July

Yet another day off. As advised my new osteopath and the fact I'm i sooky s**t at feeling knee pain again.

My back felt slightly better after swimming last night but with the knee trouble thrown in I decided to try out an osteopath my flatmate's found helpful. This will be the fourth specialist i've emptied my bank accounts for and I have two more appointments with her before my next pay day next Thursday so my bank account is taking a big hit.

Her diagnosis looking at my back (she wouldn't look at the knee and assumes as they all have it's not related - that's for my Saturday appointment) is as follows:

- Areas of hypermobility and hypomobility in mid back and neck
- C5 to C7 facet joint restrictions causing stiff neck
- T4-T6 and T8-T10 facet joint restrictions with some costo transverse restrictions
- Scoliosis in lower and mid spine and possibly my neck
- Possibly post-Scheurmans disease causing stiffness
- Step defect at L5 in lower back possibly indicative of Spondylolisthesis

I have to stop cracking my neck and back. The more strenuous chest stretches etc i have been doing and given in the past are too much for my current condition. I have been given a gentle stretch lying on my back with knees bent and arms lying out to my side to do any time I'm feeling tight. Self massage is also OK.

She didn't ban me from sport but said i need to be very careful and advised against doing anything when i'm sore. A large amount of this is worsened by cycling but backstroke is good. ironically the only way i have of getting to the pool is by cycling!

My reaction to hearing all this was to sulkily go buy myself some comfort food (6 inch meatball sub with cheese and 3 subway cookies - very bad!). Also extremely grumpy which i know because when the neighbour's dog tried to scare me by barking as i walked past i barked back and scared it. I'll soon be known as "that psycho lady that barks back at the dogs" if this keeps up!

Am overloaded with uni work right now and since my body is against the idea of training right now I'm going to have a few days off or light at least.

Reducing to pile of uni work I have to something manageable might be good for my back anyway. I used to take time off when I became busy with study. I don't know why I feel guilty doing that these days when I have the biggest study load of my life which is proving more difficult than all full time jobs I've had.

I think I will aim to swim after every boxing training from now on though too keep the back happy which means early mornings are not happening as I'll get home from night trainings at 10 pm or later. I'll use my lunch hours for resistance training and other cardio now instead.

Saturday 23rd July

Bused to osteopath so she could check out my knee. I felt good about how the appointment went. This osteopath has bad knees herself (sounds like gravel crunching on gravel when she moves her knees :-X) so I feel she understands exactly what I'm going through.

Turns out I probably have chondromalacia patella in both knees but it's my left knee being a little twisted and having adhesions occasionally that causes the pain. Hence the random off and on nature of the pain.

She sort of clicked my knee back in and massaged it. I'm meant to be icing it twice today sometime..... :-[

No stretching for a few days but then do more quad stretching etc. Also leg weights. She said my leg muscles were not weak but I have laxity in the ligaments running along either side of the left knee cap which allow it to twist out of place. She could show me the difference in movement between my left knee and my right. Leg weights will build up the muscles and allow them to sort of do part of the job of those lax ligaments.

I'm thinking looking over my right shoulder to check for traffic when cycling with my feet secured in my bike shoes is bad. To my fashionable triathlete mother and her cyclist boyfriend's disgust I'll have to put an extremely uncool looking rear vision mirror on the handle bars of my bike.

Also I know now that not being allowed to pivot is not good for me. I never felt comfortable with it anyway but now I know I need to allow the foot to move to avoid twisting my knee as I turn.

I'm relieved to know it's not going to be months again before I can run.

I walked home from my appointment - approx 1 hour. I still don't know how to make walking good exercise - if I ever do it regularly I'll have to concentrate on keeping up the tempo because I mentally drift off and then saunter along a little too relaxed.

I had planned to make Monday my first day back in training but a couple of things interfered with that

1) Went to babyshower Sunday afternoon and ended up with nasty, nasty gastro from the fingerfood along with some friends who went. Had to prepare a presentation to give on Monday at uni and was spending about 5 mins on my computer and 5 mins on the tiolet continuously Sunday night. Even when I did go home to bed my sleep was interupted by dashing to the toilet a little too often.

2) Had another osteopath appointment on Monday afternoon and was banned from exercise until FRIDAY!!!! She wants me to give the treatment a chance to work for a while before I get back into it.

She says if I get grumpy and want to train to remember all the money I've spent trying to get things fixed over the last couple of years and the frustration of it not working and I think she has a point there. I might do as I'm told even though it means my arse is going to be double it's original size by the end of the week!

Good news though - she said "I see no reason why we won't be able to get your knee back to ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!" :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

She's not so optimistic about my back because looking at my back x-rays which show my upper back and some of my lower back she says I do have Post Schermanns disease so I will get sore from time to time and have to relieve the pain with swimming and that lying down stretch she showed me.

I also have some degradation in my back from an injury which is likely to have occurred 10 to 15 years ago - so I guess that's partially irreversible but we might be able to try to prevent more degradation.

She showed me on the x-ray how the scoliosis in my back looks like it's actually more in my lower back than my upper back. We will have to get another x-ray of my lower back sometime to check that out and to find out for sure whether or not I also have the spondylolisthesis she suspects there.

Still after thinking for so long that my long distance running days were over I'm really happy since I think i should be able to manage the back problems enough to enjoy my sport. :)

That's great news. It looks like your best running days are still ahead of you. ;)

I was hoping so but first training back Friday night the knee moved again. I felt it move while doing light sparring again! Maybe I need to strap it until it's more stable? Something to quiz the osteopath about when I see her this Thursday!

Friday 3rd August

Cycled to the gym
4 rounds shadow boxing to warm up
about 30 mins of light sparring - 2 min rounds , 20 to 30 sec breaks
Then felt knee twang -
Stopped and went to the pool -
30 mins stretching outside the pool
30 mins swim,
some time in the spa stretching the leg and massaging the knee
cycled home

Saturday 4th August
Nothing - knee not happy

Sunday 5th August
Cycled to the pool, 1 hour swim
Knee still not good - slight limp so need to be careful!

Later at night about 40 mins stretching before bed.
I'm not too good at this and don't have a set routine yet but aim this week is just to fit stretching into my routine and begin to make it a habit.
I'm also aiming to drink more water since my main fluid intake is coffee :-[

Monday 6th August

Cycled to boxing training. Also brought everything I needed to swim afterwards ......... except my bathers! My ditzyness is forever sabotaging my efforts!!!

So boxing training:

Stretch whole body
Rounds all 2 mins with 30 secs break
4 rounds shadow
6 rounds floor to ceiling ball
6 rounds bag
Another whole body stretch with a little resistance training in between stretches -
abs exercises - 4 sets on mat, 2 sets using roman chair, andback weights - 3 sets each of back dumbell exercises and chin ups.
cross ring 4 times balancing on medicine balls - a bit unco after not doing it for a week.

I wore a knee brace while training tonight and the knee was OK.

I did make it my goal not to be so heavy on my front foot though which helped and maybe stretching before starting slightly loosens up those muscles and/or ligaments which might be pulling on the knee.

I also made a conscious effort to keep my punches working on one level and not rising at the end of each punch - tried to stop hopping around like a jack rabbit basically!

I wasn't as fluent on the bag as I'd like since this still takes a bit of concentration. I might need to focus on that for a while to make it automatic.

Cycled home

Thought about doing time on the windtrainer but by the time I get home tonight (posting from uni as had 5 min job to do on the way home) my flatmates will be in bed and i don't want to wake them up with the noise.

It's probably best to let the knee have one more easy day anyway.

Cool log Sharla CC. I know how it feels to have injuries, I'm currently off training while a Physio is trying to sort out my harmstring.

One comment I'll make about your knee, perhaps you already know this, when you're doing squats ensure your knee is directly above your ankle/foot (i.e arse further back) with your weight on the heel rather than leaning forward with the weight on the ball of your foot, this should put less pressure on the joint. I only mentioned it since this is harder to do when you do one legged squats.

Anyways, good luck with the back as well.

Thanks CC Bomp,
I'm always a bit nervous that my form might not be correct doing squats etc so I'll keep your advice in mind.

Tuesday 7th August

Cycled to boxing training:
Stretched out legs well and chest before starting this time. I'm hoping that not having tight muscles in my legs before beginning training will stop my knee getting pulled out of alignment.

I wore the knee brace again and probably will wear it for all boxing trainings for a while.

4 rounds of shadow to warm up - 1st normal and then put eye patch over my left eye.
I think my left eye is my dominant eye and I'm trying to get my right side stronger so I'm trying the eye patch thing Scrap often recommends in his posts.

I kept the eye patch on for some light sparring with Kristine then
About 30 mins with 2 min rounds and 20 to 30 second breaks.

For the first time in AGES I actually brought my back foot up instead of leaving it behind and I managed to work in my correct range rather than being too far away. I could take advantage of Kristine's openings more easily. Although I wore a couple more jabs i felt better than usual overall and really enjoyed it. I didn't bounce around as much perhaps because I found my range more easily?

4 rounds floor to ceiling ball with patch still on

3 rounds mirror work working on diagonal movement with patch off (it gets a bit sweaty and gross!)

6 times across the ring with bare feet on the medicine ball

Then did some resistance work 3 sets of the following:
- Sat on medicine ball and swung ball from outside to centre with arms out straight holding the ball - 15 reps from each direction.
- feet on the fit ball holding medicine ball in hands doing crunches - 30 reps
- normal crunches sitting on the fit ball - 30 reps
- 8 tricep dips with full bodyweight using roman chair thingy
- seated rows 15 reps with 18 kg
- back extensions on the stand thingy - no weight, 15 reps

Then cycled to the pool and downed a protein shake while stretching for about 30 mins. Wore short fins for the whole swimming workout which was somewhere between 40 and 50 minutes.

swimming warm up - 500 m
50 m freestyle with fingertrailing between each of the following for 50 m: backstroke, breast stroke with dolphin kick, freestyle and butterfly. Finished warm up with 100 m freestyle fingertrailing.

Then sprint set - 25 m sprint, 25 m freestyle fingertrailing recovery with each sprint and recovery completed within a one minute cycle before the next one.

Sprints were medley order ie. backstroke, breastroke (with dolphin kick so can wear fins), butterfly and freestyle. Did 4 sprints in that order and then had a full 1 minute cycle rest before repeating until I'd completed 5 sets (20 sprints)

Cool down - 200 m with alternating 25 m backstroke and 25 m freestyle fingertrailing.

This workout felt good. I think it got my circulation going and stretched all the muscles in my back. I have a good feeling afterwards that's not quite the same as that post hard run buzz - not from pure aerobic work. Fingertrailing was included with the aim of leading with my elbow rather than my hand which stretches my back more and makes the movement a little different from the way i box.

:coolclick: Sharla, great log and interesting to see how somebody who actually cares about their physical fitness actually lives.

You do more exercise in a week than I do.......well ever!

Anyway hope you recover from your knee injury soon, I'm mighty impressed how you manage to juggle your boxing and science career, you've certainly got a lot of drive.

If you don't mind me asking how old are you? And have you actually turned professional yet?

Hi Bilbo. I'm 26 which means I have a few more years of the amateur scene. There's not much of a women's pro boxing scene where I am so I'll get more bouts as an amateur here. I'll worry about pro boxing when I'm 34 and too old for the amateurs perhaps. It's too far away for me to predict really.

Wednesday 8th August

Had to get up at 6 am to work out in the field out at Roseworthy. A relatively early morning since I've been swimming after boxing training.

Boxing training started at 7 pm:

Stretch - took about 15 mins - not sure how to spend an hour stretching as Scrap recommends - I've got plenty of books filled with ideas and things to look up on the forum though so I think it's a matter of finding the time to plan a routine some time on the weekend.

4 rounds of shadow
About 6 rounds of light sparring with Kristine
The above all on a 2 minute round with 20 - 30 sec breaks

About ten 30 sec burn rounds on the bag with 30 sec breaks - not feeling very explosive doing 1 minute burn rounds so trying a shorter round but I think they were too short or had too long a break. Will do it differently next time.

I worked the floor to ceiling ball for 3 rounds on the 2 minute round with 20- 30 sec break.

All of the above was done wearing the eye patch.

Then got to work with coach Paul until 9 pm doing light sparring without the eye patch - it's annoying when it gets sweaty!
Had a ball :)

I felt able to freestyle easily without trying to concentrate too hard on something particular about my guard which often happens when I'm being coached while sparring.

I ended up doing some things which are a little unorthodox to get in like switching to southpaw to step in with a right jab to cut distance.

I don't know that I'd ever risk that in a bout but I doubt there are any girls in my weight division who are 6 foot 6 either! i used a lot of overhand rights and somehow did something to my little finger but it's just a little swollen so I'm not worried.

When finished only had time to the pool to gym and jump in straight away to do a 30 minute easy swim. lots of finger trailing freestyle and backstroke. A day in the field plus a fairly continuous afternoon at training proved a little tiring and since did sprints yesterday I thought stretching out was more important for this swim.

Had my protein shake in the shower when I got out.
cycled home.
Intended to stretch before bed but since it was 11 pm when I got home and it'd been a big day i just went to bed. :-[

Thursday 9th August

Went to osteopath this arvo. She decided to look at the knee hoping she could treat it one more time and not again. She examined it, massaged it and pulled it around a bit to release any 'adhesions'. She also massaged the muscles around the knee. She wants me to start building more muscle now but I'm not to overdo it. She said "don't train as much as you've been known to". An odd comment since I don't know how she knows how much I've been known to train.  ???

I have another appointment with her in one month to look at my back but I'm to change the appointment to an earlier date if I get too much pain. She's not sure if she's being too optimistic about my back or not yet.

Then cycled to boxing training - after buying a snickers bar - I've been eating a lot lately and not all good food either - had TWO lunches today - perhaps my eating patterns are out of whack with these later nights I'm having to swim after boxing. Need to settle into a routine again!

Boxing 5:45 to 6:45

Good stretch - not sure how long but felt like I was able to 'feel' the stretches more tonight. The hamstrings, and little muscles int he front of my hips at the top of my quads - groin probably - felt like they needed a lot of stretching. Felt good.

Did all boxing training wearing the eye patch again. jarred my right elbow doing bag work a few times which is weird but I didn't jar it badly so I'll kepp using the eye patch. My training partners and coaches have already noticed an improvement in my distancing so I think it's worth it.

4 rounds shadow to warm up
bag work about 6 ish
floor to ceiling
more shadow

Can't remember how many rounds but all 2 minute rounds, 20-30 sec breaks

Didn't feel powerful or explosive tonight - I think the nights are all endurance workouts at the moment with swimming straight afterwards. I might need to rearrange things a bit next week to get some more power work in there.

Some resistance training:
Abs oblique crunches - 30 reps each side, normal crunches 30 reps, plank hold 1 min
All these done consecutively HURT! I need to work on this since i think abs should be stronger than that.
Back - 8 chin ups, 15 back extensions on the stand.
Above circuit 3 times then started another circuit

Lunges - 15 each side bodyweight only and 15 squats - 2 sets alternating exercises. Felt knee clicking so didn't do a third.
Tried one set of one legged squats with the ball to finish legs off - 15 each leg.

Hamstring exercise with fit ball - 15 reps - 3 sets - short rest between.

Then cycled to the pool.
Tired. Swam easy for 30 mins and felt a bit dizzyish. Had my protein shake bought at the boxing gym first but really needed some sugar. Might get into a habit of packing jelly beans for some long workouts. I guess boxing followed by a swim is similar to a long run in training time and I used to like my energy gels to keep me going after the first hour when i used to do two or three hour runs. Same principle i think.

Friday

Spent the day in the field - got back late, smelling bad - decided to shower and go to bed rather than train. Slack I know!

Saturday

Woke up all ambitious ready to make up for Friday and also wanted to visit my sister so decided to get there on foot.

Walked about 30 mins to the nearest pharmacy to buy a knee brace and an eye patch.
I keep my other knee brace at the gym and I didn't want to run without one for a while.

Still doing the eye patch thing. I'm wondering if I overstrain my left knee because I think I'm standing up straight but I'm actually a bit to one side? My driving instructor always says I think the middle of the road is further right than he does - just slightly - although it's lucky the poor guy has brakes on his side of the car too :)

Seems you can choose between the soft and hard eye patches. I've got a soft eye patch at the boxing gym but I thought I'd try a hard eye patch for this run to see if it doesn't get as sweaty and is still comfortable. I've decided I like the soft eye patches better. (that was dodge - just had to change the words one and ones to eye patch and eye patches so it didn't sound porno!)

After reaching the pharmacy and putting on my new eye patch and knee brace I ran the next hour or so to my sisters house. The pace was slow and my knee didn't all together like what I was doing to it but have only felt muscle soreness since which I think is a good sign. Usually if I do something that genuinely irritates the knee it hurts afterwards.

Sunday

Meant to run home but spent the day with family instead. Had muscle soreness. Yes very bad - two days off in one week. Plan to make the coming week better though. I can understand why the osteopath told me to rest but unless I get a new injury I don't think I'll take an extended period off again. I'll alter how I train to avoid particular activities but stopping completely for a week makes it too difficult for me to start again. Yes that was a poor excuse and I'm slack :-[

Monday

Morning walked flatmates dog for 30 mins. She's away and I'm babysitting. She doesn't walk him much so I'm not obligated to but I'm hoping a bit of a walk makes up for the fact I'm not home as much to spend time with him like she would. I also aim to get into the habit of using that time for some sort of exercise before breakfast.

Lunch - went for a 30 min jog on grass. A more comfortable surface than the footpaths on the way to my sister's house - can definitely feel the difference! The aim was just to jog easy to get a bit of the lactic acid out of my legs. I think it helped.

Boxing - From about 6:15 to 8:10pm

Stretch - took about 30 or 40 minutes. I can feel how much I need to stretch after Saturday's run. Hamstrings seem to really need it.

Wore eye patch for technical work and since the stop watch was being used I had to go by the gym bell which is 2 min rounds with a 1 min break.

6 rounds shadow
6 rounds bag

I think I'm overthinking again. i need to nominate training days when i don't think and I just go for it. I need days when i really work at a high intensity. At the moment I'm getting bogged down with technique and trying to work out if things 'feel right'.

resistance training

Abs - normal crunches X 30 reps, oblique crunches X 30 reps, plank hold 1 minute
Back - mat back dumbell exercises both sides X 15 reps, back extensions on stand thingy X 15, chin ups whole body weight X 8

Did the above as a circuit - 3 sets.

Balanced on medicine balls moving across the ring twice and then did 15 squats (off balls) X 3

My balance is crap with stiff legs. I also noticed that with the oblique crunches (one leg straight, slightly off the floor and other bent at a right angle) I tend to want to angle my foot (of the bent leg) in as I get tired. Definitely a few form and flexibility issues I need to correct there.

15 squats seems piddly and it is but i am an infamous squats sissy. Give me hill sprints any day over squats. I'm not sure why I hate them so much but I know that when i was running a lot I couldn't bend my legs easily at all. I think I let them stiffen up too much. Now I want to aim to include some squats to maintain my full range of movement.

Cycled to the pool.
Easy 30 mins swim. I've worked out when I get dizzy. it's when i swap from freestyle to backstroke. i guess spinning in circles makes you dizzy whether your body is horizontal or vertical. I feel silly for not realizing that before ::**

Tuesday 14th of August

Woke up early to catch bus out to the campus where my field trial is. Bus leaves at 7 and gets there at about 8:30. Then I have a coffee and check a few things on the student computers before walking out to my field which is about a 25 - 30 min walk.

Was out there for the rest of the day bending over and using a SPAD meter to measure chlorophyll concentrations but when I was sick of that I took 30 mins off to swap my boots for my running shoes and take a jog around the paddocks.

By the time I'd finished and got home again the earliest I could get to training would have been about 7 pm which I've done before but after an early morning that would also mean a late night so rather than stuff up my training for the rest of the week I decided to have an easy night. Took the flatmates dog for a walk to the supermarket to pick up some rye bread and milk which took about an hour.

That dog's lucky he got to go though because he's a brat and before I was organized to head off to the supermarket he'd already had me sprinting intervals up and down the street. A door knocking phone company representative came to sell me something and the dog - Napoleon - escaped.

We then spent the next 10 minutes playing his favourite game of "I can sprint either direction down your street and I know you'll chase me because theres a busy main road at the end and I don't understand that cars will squish me".

The phone company dude waited patiently just watching me chase him in bare feet so he could try to sell me something. If he wasn't a nervous teenager and it wasn't his first job I'd have been annoyed at him for not helping but under the circumstances I didn't have the heart to snap at him.

The unplanned sprint training ended with Napoleon running into a neighbours yard, being scared by their dog and quickly running straight to me for protection. Little BRAT!

Revising My Program

I'm at the stage now where I think I've gone past just aiming to keep active and do what I can with an injury. I still get niggles and a bit of pain now and then but I'm not so limited in what I can do that I can't follow a periodized program.

I think it's time to inject a little more structure into my training. I can only do this to a limited point because whether or not I get to work with a trainer and what they plan to work on with me is not usually planned ahead of time. It's fairly spontaneous and can be light, technical work or pad work designed to kill me. I'm not exactly going to turn it down though because I like getting some direction occasionally.

Anyway for the times when I can set my own program I think I need a plan. Some days I do a fair bit and aim to do something similar all week but that's not the smartest way to train. I end up doing a lot of endurance workouts and loosing the intensity.

I'm going to put it in here - if anyone has any comments or suggestions I'd love to hear them.

So here is a brief summary of what I'd like to make a standard week look like:

Monday - Hard - muscular endurance
Tuesday - Easy
Wednesday - Hard - Power
Thursday - Easy
Friday - Hard - Aerobic endurance
Saturday and Sunday - Easy

Alternating with this - having one extra power day instead of muscular endurance.

Monday - Hard - Power
Tuesday - Easy
Wednesday - Hard - Power
Thursday - Easy
Friday - Hard - Aerobic endurance
Saturday and Sunday - Easy

I guess I expect boxing training and swimming to work my muscular endurance a bit so it's not as high on my priority list as the other types of hard sessions.

Also my recovery from aerobic endurance workouts is pretty good and I need it just to keep up my cycling transport to training and ability to practice technique as long as I need to - so I think I can benefit from that being a regular part of my program.

Power stuff is really important. I might try to include half a power workout on one other day as long as doing it doesn't muck me up for the rest of the week. I'll start with the above first though.

I plan to go to boxing training still 5 days a week but I'll probably cu down the length of the session or make those sessions stretching nights so I still box but not for as long. I'll still go swimming afterwards because that has helped my back big time.

Fridays are a good day for aerobic endurance because that takes a long time and would mean a late night but i can sleep in the next morning.

For muscular endurance days I was thinking I'd do a whole body workout doing weights to failure and continuous boxing rounds with relatively short breaks. I'll have to do half of the weights program in the morning to make sure i have time to get through it all.

On Power training days I'll add plyometrics in gradually as my knee allows me to do them. I'll also up the weights but reduce the reps in my resistance training and attempt some explosive rounds on the bags. I figure if I end up doing some technical work with a trainer on that day and the boxing session is not a long one I'll make sure i do explosive sprints in the pool afterwards.

Depending on what I've got happening on the weekend I'll aim to take either Saturday or Sunday off but I don't want to get into the habit of having more than one day off a week.

So any comments? Any advice welcome :)

Wednesday 15th August

Walked the dog for about 20 mins in the morning - yes it is a short stingy walk which the poor dog gets because I slept in!

Lunch run - total time 30 mins including a 15 minute warm up and 5 short sprints with an unmeasured jog recovery between and cool down.

Night Boxing - did the complete seesion wearing the eye patch.

Skipped! the first time I've skipped without pain since my knee injury. I have to consciously stop myself from stiffening my left side. Must still be a bad habit I have from nursing the knee.

I only skipped for about 5 minutes and then stretched.

Stretched for about 15 to 20 minutes - noticed that my right quad and left hamstring were the tightest muscles.

Rounds were 2 minutes long and had a one minute break as we went by the gym timer.

Shadow boxing in partner work with Kristine - 2 rounds. Was fun :)

Burn rounds on the bag with Kristine - basic idea is we throw ten lots of a combo while the other person holds the bag and then we swap. We dis this for the full 2 minute round but if Kristine started the round I always finished so we both did the same amount even if it meant completing it after the bell.

Round 1 - jabs
Round 2 - crosses
Round 3 - any 2 punches
Round 4 - any 3 punches
Round 5 - any 4 punches - from this round we only did 6 of each otherwise the bag holder gets too much rest.
Round 5 - any 5 punches

In hindsight I probably could have done 5 ot 10 burpees in the break betwen rounds since we sort of get a break while holding the bag anyway. I like these burn rounds though. They are simple but the keep the intensity up with was what I wanted to achieve in this session.

I then accosted coach George to catch the medicine ball for me. I caught it - twisted to one side, threw the ball back to him with that hand and he threw it back to me to repeat. did this 15 times on each side continuously for 3 sets - no break between sets. I'm trying to use this to work my core but I'm not sure I'm doing it properly. I guess having to practice a bit of hand eye co-ordination isn't a bad thing though with the catching etc.

Then got in one set of 8 clapping push ups and 15 squats before getting to do pad work with coach George. Pad work went well. Coach George is not a giver of compliments easily but he does also think I'm better with the eye patch on! Freaky!

I also worked out part of the reason my right cross is s**t - George tries to motivate me to hit the pad harder for the right cross by slapping it in harder. I feel like I've missed my chance to hit it because it's pretty close by the time I get to hit it and I detect a little twinge of fear seeing it come in.

I'm not sure where i get that from - maybe anxiety because I'm sure it's going to be a crap punch, maybe I think I'm going to bend my thumb back on the pad or jar something? Strange to notice a feeling like that but not remember where it came from!

I have to imagine his pad is someone walking into a punch though and let it rip and push it through i think. i would do that in sparring an enjoy it so it seems so ridiculous that I get a twinge of fear doing PADWORK!!!!

Maybe I can practice a smothered right cross on the bag. Seems weird to practice that when I'm ususally trying to keep my distancing correct on the bag. Maybe if I set the bag swinging? Even then I'd usually time it so I hit the bag when it was further away! Odd Odd Odd!!!

By the time we'd finished pad work there was no one else left in the gym so I didn't get to do any more resistance training. Will definately have to move that to mornings.

Went to the pool. i had forgotten my googles but the pool guy lent me a pair from lost property. Googles are a must for me because my eyes tend to be sensitive to the chlorine. Unfortunately the googles wouldn't seal properly.

So after attempting awkward head out of water breastroke and a few backstroke sprints, banging my hand on the end of the pool since I'm squinting too much to avoid the splash to see the end of pool rope - I decided to stop. Swam for about 23 minutes and did about four 25 m sprints. I then went to the spa for the next 15 minutes to stretch my hamstrings and gluts before cycling home.

Thursday 16th August

Took the dog for a quick walk but it was raining and while I took and umbrella the dog doesn't have a raincoat and didn't seem to be enjoying it - seriously what kind of dog is this! - so it was only about 30 mins.

It's meant to be an easy day so when I went to go for my lunch jog and realized I'd forgotten my runners I was annoyed but maybe not as much as usual. I swear I'm going to have to start pinning checklists on the front door to make sure I don't forget stuff. A lot of the time i pack it into one of a few bags to go into my bike bag rack and just forget the whole bag. Being disorganized is my worst trait!

Night boxing.

Stretched a bit and used the tennis ball to massage some sore points in my back. I guess it's a good sign that I made myself a little sore from Wednesday night's session. It means that I managed to get away from doing the same thing every night. I won't say I'm at my peak or doing wonderfully well but with me lately it all seems to be about baby steps.

had a short session since coach Arthur had to close the gym early tonight. Did about 10 mins skipping and about 10 rounds shadow boxing - both wearing the eye patch - until I had to leave. Wasn't tempted to do hard bag work but the shadow boxing felt good for loosening sore muscles. Felt like I wasn't just throwing arm punches which I'm happy with.

Cycled to the pool, ate and then jumped in.

Once in I was tempted to do a longer swim since the gym closed early but I knew I was training endurance Friday so decided to keep it to 30 mins easy. Forgot my towel - typical!

I'm glad I did because cycling home took a lot longer than normal - it was pouring with rain and I had to cycle into the wind most of the way.

Friday 17th August

Lunch run - Fing forgot my clothes but went home to get them - I'm working over the weekend so  don't feel bad about taking the afternoon off anyway.

Ran 1.5 hrs easy. So far no signs of pain in the knee butstill wearing the brace. The knee brace itself is a little irritating - it has a padded circular part around the hold the knee sits in but seems a bit tight. I might try cutting it a little so it has more give. I want to build the length of this up to 2 hours but might decide soon to move it to a Saturday or Sunday morning since I just want to sleep afterwards.

Night boxing

stretched, Skipped. Still only 10 minutes. I cycle 40 mins to the gym which is enough of a warm up for my legs I just want to get used to the jumping movement again before I try anything as dramatic as burpees. It'd be typical for everything to be going OK and then I just land badly or something! Especially the latest theory RE my knee is that it moves due to ligament laxity when I twist on it.

Shadow 4 rounds, Bag work - about 8 rounds. Finished with one more round of Shadow. All rounds 3 mins with 20 to 30 sec breaks.

Not sore from Wednesday anymore and was reasonably happy with how my right was working compared to what it has been. I wasn't aiming for power - just to keep going and to be a little more fluent than normal over a longer round but more power than I tried to put out came out. Still no where near KO punches but it does make me suspect that I when I am trying to punch hard I'm tensing up too much.

Had a break before cycling to the pool for swimming but forgot to buy protein shake. typical.

Swam for one hour. That's a little short for an endurance day - will build it up to 1.5 hours eventually. I used the last of my pool visits so i upgraded my membership to use all the facilities. Am hoping that on the days the gym closes early I can use the aquatic centre facilities to make sure I still get my weights done.

Cycled home - no rain or wind this time but a lot of merry drunks asking me for ciggies when I am stopped at traffic lights. Luckily they believe I don't smoke because I'm cycling and they tell me to "keep the good energy up darlin!" Did stop on the way home to get food too - grocery shopping day Saturdays and don't have much food at home.

Saturday

Off

Sunday

30 min jog First 20 mins easy over undulating terrain mostly downhill. Last ten minutes 30 secs hard, 30 secs easy up hill. Knee felt unsteady going down hill but good going up. I got some good hard bursts out which opened up my lungs and felt good. Someone rightly made me realize that I've been a bit defeatest in my training attitude lately (thanks  ;)), just waiting for the knee to go again and that's a bad attitude to have. I have nothing against plonkers but I really don't want to be one! If it goes then i may have to change sports to something like only swimming but I really want to feel my heart pounding in my chest occasionally even when I'm old and grey!

If i was more organized I would have gone earlier and had more planned but had a lot on this weekend.

I have however made a real attempt to make sure the coming week is more organized. It occurred to me that forgetfulness sort of runs in my family - not Alzheimer's or anything too severe but just annoying completely disorganized ditziness. Rather than fighting that I'm taking drastic measures to be ultra organized.

I put a check list on my bedroom door listing all the things I have to take with me everyday and a rough plan for the week. Have all tomorrows gear laid out ready to go and aim to make getting ready for the next day the night before a rule. Doing it in a rush in the morning when I'm not awake yet is asking for trouble!

I did my usual fortnightly cook up for lunches too. I still have some pork stir fry and vegetable curry left in the freezer but the more variety the better. Cooked lasagna with beef, carrot and capsicum and a creamy chicken cabonara with lots of mushrooms, capsicum, pine nuts etc. I've also added a grilled chicken salad to take and eat instead of protein shakes after boxing. At $3.50 a pop I'm looking for substitutes.

The big aim for this week is not to forget anything and to push a little bit harder.

Monday

Up at 5 am

30 min jog - legs a little sore from previous night, knees not liking the down hill slopes - I think maybe because I have tight hamstrings. Had a busy day at uni so wanted to do it in the morning to save me mucking around at lunch.

Lots of bending over today to take measurements from plants - back doesn't like it.

Cycled to boxing.

Boxing 20 min stretch, then 2 min rounds 20 - 40 sec breaks.

4 X shadow boxing
6 X bag
2 X shadow
3 X bag.

power felt better than normal but not as fluent as I would like.

Cycled to pool (ten mins pretty negligible)

Ate grilled chicken salad (nice - I'm proud of this one - sometimes my cooking can go sooooo very wrong!)

Weights at the aquatic centre for muscular endurance
10 mins rower to warm up

Back - supported, seated row - only one bar - 30 reps, 30 sec break, 3 sets
(gym is too crowded to get off equipment and expect it to still be free for circuit training later)

Counterweight chin up and tricep dips machine
Chin ups alternating with tricep dips
32 kg counterweight - 15 chinups, 10 tricep dips
45 kg counterweight - 25 chin ups, 15 dips
50 kg counterweight- 30 chin ups, 20 dips

This was harder than I expected maybe because I used a narrower grip than I usually use for chin ups in the boxing gym without a counterweight, maybe tired from boxing. Still pretty heavy counterweight to get only a few more reps out!

Biceps curls - seated with dumbells, 20 sec break between sets
set 1 -10 pounds, 20 reps
set 2 - 15 pounds, 15 reps
set 3 - 20 pounds, 8 reps

shoulder press - one bar - 20 reps, 3 sets, 30 sec break

Hamstring curls - as with shoulder press

Leg extensions - as with shoulder press

I'm thinking this is a bit of a lame program but can get programs set for me for free with aquatic centre membership. I'm going to ask them for a whole body endurance, whole body power and split strength program. I'll ask for an emphasis on compound exercises that use core muscles and maybe work more than one muscle group at a time for time efficiency.

They'll have to spot my technique for me when they go through it so hopefully I won't have to stick to using the machines. Any more suggestions on what I should ask them for would be appreciated.

If they can't set me a decent program I'm considering asking my old swimming coach for one. I can pay her to set me something for the weights training and swimming aswell. That'd be great but it's also a more expensive option.

Swimming - 30 mins. next time I have a muscular endurance session I'll have to bring my hand paddles to make it harder work for my arms. I got out the pool at 9:55 pm and it closes at 10 pm so a longer swimming session after weight is not easy to fit in.

Cycled home - good cycling conditions - no wind or abusive traffic :)

Tuesday

Tired from Monday. It's taken me a long time to understand what athletes on TV are talking about when they say something like "my recover takes longer than it used to" - at least they're on TV because their still good and they have some sort of follow up comment like "but I'm better at listening to my body". Tuesday written off - no energy.

I do have better ideas for Wednesday thanks to some great input but this is what I did Tuesday.

No run.

Went to boxing for a light training session. I've decided it's important to show that I'm still getting to the gym and making the effort to work on my technique even when I'm too sore to be explosive.

Got there to find that no coaches were there - coach Paul's girlfriend had opened up. Coach Paul is apparently still "away". He's been "away" for a long time and I'm not sure when he's coming back. Coach Arthur is taking on some part time course for work so the 2 nights a week he's at the gym might not be possible soon.

Coach George is pretty committed to the gym but pretty tied up taking beginners classes. He told me himself he doesn't like to be in the corner when we fight because he gets too scared for us and he tends to stand back and let the other coaches take over when people are training to fight.

Our gym is pretty well kitted out with equipment and looks awesome with all the walls covered with posters of former boxing greats etc. Seems like such a waste to see it slipping away and turning into a non competitive gym. Many others would make more out of less.

Stretched, Skipped for 4 rounds, 3 rounds of light shadow, used speed balls in the cellar for about 4 rounds, balanced on medicine balls in the ring for 3 rounds, balanced on old wobble board for one round. The angle on it is too small but it was still challenging.

Was sore and didn't do very well but i guess it's better than nothing. If I wasn't sore maybe Monday's workout wouldn't have been hard enough.

Cycled home - clear conditions, nice :)

Got home to find a bird in my house - the feathered variety, hanging off the light fitting in front of the front door. Don't known how it got in - maybe fell down the chimney?!?! Maybe flew in very quickly as I was leaving for training but I didn't stand by the door with it open so if he flew in then he'd be a quick little guy! Ushered it out the front door gently using my flatmates large umbrella opened up.

Also found my Boxing Level 1 coaching license had come in the mail. I went to the coarse to learn a few things. Wouldn't coach anyone with competitive aspirations with my current level of experience but there were plenty there who would coach fighters with less. Maybe I'm negative but I think it's scary how easy it is to become a coach here.

Morning run

Found an oval. Small soccer oval. Did about 4 laps to warm up,
Ran between the soccer goals. Not sure how far apart they are but i don't think it's set up like a proper soccer field. They're not far apart. Strode out for the first 10 m speeding up for an all out sprint from there to the other goal post. Walked back to repeat 10 times, cool down jog and stretched.

Night boxing

Cycled there, skipped one round - not feeling as agreeable for the knees as it should but not really painful either - Anyway decided to move on with shadow boxing.

Shadow boxing - four 2 min rounds 1 min breaks but often kept moving in breaks to loosen the joints up and just practice footwork - in rounds I'm trying to remember to attack the body aswell as the head. I'm always fascinated with these people who love to attack the body and do it well because it still takes some conscious thought for me to attack the body.

Young Chris who trains pretty regularly but isn't fighting yet (i think he'll be good when he does) is doing a fitness leaders course part time while he finishes school. He asked coach George if he could teach the class and coach George agrees. Looks like it's going to be a regular thing so coach George can always work with those of us training to fight Wednesday nights. Ironic how this comes up when I'd pretty much decided to start looking for another gym!

Did pad work with George. Not sure how long the rounds are because we work according to coach Georges internal clock. Do about 6 rounds. I ask him if the power in my right is better since I've deliberately made an effort to accustom myself to his unique pad holding style. He says it's starting to come along. I'm happy with that - George would say if it was complete s**t and has many times before!

What he does say I have to work on is not letting my elbows fly out. Apparently i do that when I spar but an OK during pad work and partner work. I've heard this before but been unable to correct it because I didn't know WHY my elbows were flying out. I'm pretty sure it was because I was forgetting to bring my back foot up under me and over reaching. Need to practice feeling the ball of my back foot behind my punches and hopefully not forget it in sparring. Always a risk that what I do in training might not cross over to sparring though I guess. Something I'll need to think about!

he also says i move around too much when doing shadow work - that I'm all over the place. Not completely sure what he means. I tend to think moving around is good but I must be doing it in an unrealistic way? Might need to ask my flatmate to video tape me again and get some show boxing taped too so I can see it for myself. i don't notice anything obvious when doing mirror work.

I am all inspired by the fitness of Scrap's guy being able to do one 25 min round (if I've read correctly) so since I've done some time with pad work already i decide to finish off with a 15 min round. I knew I wanted to put some sprints in every minute so took eye patch off which I had worn all night up until then. Can't see much with one eye.

Since the most I've ever done is a 3 min round this HURTS! Still manage to get ten seconds hard in every minute though which i like knowing that i can do even if most of the rest of the round is S*** because I'll know next time I'm feeling like crap in the ring that i can always pull something out of my hat when I need to. Also get to see the flaws that come out when I'm tired - punches getting lower and lower on the bag, hands dropping - and i can work on them.

Finish boxing - talk to George about what the story is with me being allowed to fight since mentioning it to coach Paul was probably not the greatest plan since he's still not in very much and not able to tell whether or not I'm giving my training enough to be allowed to fight. George calls the matchmaker right then and there and nominates me for the fights in mid October. About a month and a half to get ready and prove I'm ready.

George asks what weight and I say bantamweight or featherweight. Really I'm a little small for a strong featherweight and a little too big to not become weak making bantamweight so I can't choose one over the other. Usually I make bantamweight and find my opponent weighs in as a featherweight anyway so I'll let them choose the weight.

I don't really care as long as I can get back into competing again since the longer I'm out of it the harder it's going to be. George is fairly confident of my fitness being OK though - he just wants me to work on the afore mentioned technical issues.

I ask George if I should do some of his classes to get a bit more direction for partnerwork etc. He says yes of course and i wonder if all the trainers actually agree with coach Paul when he says "classes are for fat people trying to loose weight". I've seen George give guys who are getting better different exercises than others in his classes - tailoring it to their skill levels a bit. Maybe coach George doesn't mean to stand back as much as I thought he did.

I doubt he'll be my corner man when I fight but for now he's the best coach I have available even if I don't always understand what he wants. he's always there when he says's he'll be and I place some importance on that. He's also had more bouts than any of the other coaches. Apparently coach Paul spent some time in the UK training but not fighting and because the scene is so much better there he came back with a broader understanding of the sport. Still he's not here now and I can't rely on someone who's not here.

Leave boxing - go to aquatic centre for weights and swim

Do my own crappy weights routine. Am still looking at getting one made up for me - I read about the plonker doing an olympic circuit but not sure what that is.

medicine ball throwing from left and right side doing situps - 15 each side 3 sets (pulled in random aquatic centre employee to help me)

Leg raises on roman chair alternating with back extensions on stand thingy - 15 reps each 3 sets

Close grip lat pull downs

Seated leg curls

Leg extensions

Feel like I've forgotten something. basically all of the above done 3 sets, about 30 sec breaks at weight which allowed some effort but also speed for 5 to 8 reps.

Got in the pool easy swimming for 5 or 10 mins then 10 25 m freestyle sprints with slow swim back. Felt it in my legs perhaps because i did sprints in the morning.

Got out. Showered, cycled home. Another late night. Thing is I couldn't make it much earlier than this because the gym doesn't open until 5:30 and on some days I'll have meetings at uni and be unable to leave until 5 pm which means the earliest I can get to training is 6 pm. Still cycling conditions were good again. Soon it'll be summer and that'll be really nice since it stays lighter a lot later with daylight savings time.