Thursday Arvo

Lugged soil samples out of the bus in the city and cycled them to my bros house. From there he put my dirt and my bike in his car and i showed him the way to my gym.

Omar was meant to come for sparring which is why Leonard was there - to give me some feedback and to make sure we all could communicate properly about the kind of intensity we want to put into the session.

He was a no show though. Apparently he doesn't usually train for boxing on Thursdays - just runs so I guess despite Rod promising me he would show up I can't really blame him for not coming. Still it was a bit dissappointing after all the dirt lugging in the bike bags to make sure I got there on time!

Leonard went home and I made the most of my session which ended up being pretty good. I did some skipping, footwork and shadow to warm up for about 3 rounds each, some floor to ceiling ball and then kidnapped Theo for some sparring.

Theo is my height but much heavier being stocky in build. He's used to competing against taller guys so he has developed good countering skills and is fairly fast for his weight. He's also totally against girl bashing which annoyed me to begin with because sparring wasn't realistic with him - he'd take a lot and give very little back - but now we've found the right intensity. He let me load up on him and still kept me very much on my toes since his counters were quite fast. Was fun. Did about 5 hard rounds feeling pressure back without any risk of taking anything hard unless I walked into it. Was great.

Did some ab work with medicine ball throwing thanks to Theo again (I'm milking the - I have a fight coming up for all it's worth ) and then to uni to drop off soil samples.

Am absolutely stuffed and cycling uphill with about 15 kg of dirt on the bike is NOT fun. Still I think I'm feeling pretty positive about tonight's session.

Friday morning

I feel like a need a really long stretch but am being picked up to go out to the field again today so don't have long. Did a 30 min easy jog - promising myself a good stretch before my next hard session.

Friday night boxing

Got to gym in time to do 3 rounds each of footwork, shadow, floor to ceiling and hard rounds on the bag. Stuffed. this week has been too long and physically with the soil coring. I can't wait for the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday off

I don't want to risk sparring too hard a week before my fight and my lower back hates me. I do try to stretch a lot but ultimately need time off. I think dieting doesn't do much for the energy levels either. Tuna or other fish, veggies and fruit are pretty much all I'm having.

Monday

It's a public holiday (YAY!!!) which means our gym is open. I do a 30 min backwards run in the park. Backwards because I've been reading up running mags etc and finally think I know that knee and back problems come from quads overpowering my hamstrings and but muscles. I've always had strong looking quads - without any weight training I'd get a lot of stares and comments on my quads but I think I just have a natural tendency to this imbalance which is ultimately not good for me. It's also common in runner who like hills and I've always liked hill running. Backwards running, more stretching and some serious but and hamstring exercises need to be planned I think.