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.