February 7th

Yesterday at the gym we received our mouthguards, which was an interesting moment really. As a fellow competitor put it: “This shit just got REAL” Yup, you need a plastic wedge between your teeth because you’re going to get punched in the face. Real indeed. Scary even, looking around at a room full of large men who you’ve seem pummelling a heavy bag like it slept with their mother.

With that in mind I made today’s training a tough one. Aching legs from the Saturday’s sprinting be damned; I’d rather have lactic acid pain than broken nose pain.

Diet
Breakfast: Oatmeal with seeds and honey
Lunch: Turkish ‘pide’ bread with humus, chickpeas with dill and lemon, Iskander (Lamb kofe with yogurt and a tomato sauce on more toasted pide)
Pre-workout: Oat bar
Post workout: Chocolate milk, Grilled chicken, cous-cous (with cumin, coriander, paprika, dried fruit and chickpeas), yoghurt with red onion, cucumber and coriander.

Day of feasting on extremely tasty and averagely healthy foods. I really enjoyed lunch, and the dinner (made by Kirsty) is fast becoming one of my favourite meals. Dieting isn’t so bad when you can still eat this sort of thing.

Exercise
Wamup: 5 minutes on the crosstrainer, lots of stretches.
Weights set 1:

• Free weight bench press – 15 kg each hand, 3 sets of 8
• Lat pulldown – 47.5 kg, 3 sets of 8 (increase of 3.5 kg)
• Shoulder press – 47.5 kg, 3 sets of 8 (increase of 3.5 kg)
• Chest press – 47.5 kg, 3 sets of 8 (increase of 3.5 kg)
• Weighted punches – 1.25 kg each hand, 3 sets of 2 minutes, 1 minute between sets
• Lateral raises – 2.5 kg each hand, 3 sets of 8

Running: 20 minutes @ 11 kph.
Weights set 2: As above, substituting the weighted punches for 80 incline situps (2 sets of 40)
Cycling: 16 minutes, intervals at level 6.
At the end of the second set of weights I could barely lift my arms, and after the cycling my thighs were killing me. Of course this is a good thing, shows I’m working hard.

Final note, I bought some boxing boots today, which should help with the ankle support. Also found a wall mount for a heavy bag so I might install one at home.

62 days to go…