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.