February 26th - March 1st

Back from a long weekend in Thailand, and feeling suitably refreshed and recovered.

Diet
Awful, terrible, gluttonous. However you put it, I did not eat healthily. I had the best of intentions, and the first night I had a reasonably virtuous dinner, but after that I yielded to temptation and indulged myself with all the other goodies I’ve been denying myself since 2009. Bread, pasta, ice-cream, bacon, chocolate, fizzy drinks; no sugary or fatty treat was safe.

Exercise
Again, good intentions at the start. The resort had a gym, so I went down there on the first morning and started doing some cycling and weights but the equipment was pretty crappy so I wandered off to lounge around by the pool. I suppose I could have stuck with it, but when the bikes don’t run properly and the weights are falling to bits its hard to really get into the workout, at least for me.

Sleep
Lots, and some more. And then a lot more.

Lots of negatives in all that, and taking so much time off a month and a half before the fight does not, on the face of it, look like a good idea. But there are positives:

All my little injuries have faded and gone; my knee, foot, hands etc. all feel completely fine. Who knows, when I started training again they could all return with a vengeance, but for now all is well with my fragile body. I also feel totally rested for the first time in ages, having slept and relaxed properly.

In short, I feel better. My state of mind is much improved, my enthusiasm for training is back at a peak and I can’t wait to get stuck back into sparring. I've got the same excited feeling I had at the first “You’re in” e-mail, hopefully I can hold onto for a month and a bit...

Great news on the personal training as well; Ian has agreed that I can have the sessions with Alexis, so from tonight (2nd March), I’ll be back at Vanda every Tuesday. That takes my total training to 4 times a week at the boxing gym, plus at least 2 sessions a week at home. Come April 10th I should really be ready to put on a good show.

40 days to go…