March 18th

Personal training session again today. Hard work as usual. My feet are a mess.

Diet
Breakfast: Oatmeal, nuts, sugar
Mid-morning: Tuna, ricecake, boiled egg, apple
Lunch: Chilli, rice, steamed veg
Mid-afternoon: Tuna, ricecake, boiled egg, apple
Post-workout: Chocolate milk
Dinner: Thai yellow laksa with chicken and potatoes, frozen yoghurt

Me and Kirsty both felt in need of a treat, so we went to Thai Express for dinner (living large!) and as usual it was delicious, if drenched in unhealthy coconut milk.

Exercise
Movement: 4 rounds of what was essentially shadowing-without-punching. Really good drill actually, not throwing punches makes it easy to concentrate on correct footwork and guard.
Shadowing: 4 rounds
Focus pads: 6-7 rounds, working on combinations and guard. I’m still dropping my hands when I get tired
Speed bag: 4 rounds, 2 working on snapping back my jab, 2 endurance and timing
100 crunches

Hard work, but I’m getting better at the focus pads drill, throwing quick punches and moving well. I’ve still got the usual issues to iron out::

1. Dropping my right hand when I throw a jab
2. Lifting my back foot when I throw a right
3. Not fully turning my hips and lower body when I throw my right, and so losing power

We worked hard on #3, practicing that turning motion over and over. If I can get it right my cross should be a useful weapon for the fight. The other 2 are habits, with enough practice they’ll fade and I’ll be a better fighter when they do.

In between getting shouted at for my faults, Alexis told me he was impressed with how much I’d improved since I started training back in January. Was good to hear, and I’m pretty sure that 3 months ago I couldn’t have done today’s session without collapsing.

Feeling good health wise, not real injuries except for my feet which are shredded. Kirsty suggested I take a photo and put it on here, but that’s disgusting. Just take my word for it. I covered both feet in plasters before training, which made it bearable but after the session they really started to hurt. By the evening I was hobbling around like a right idiot. I don’t have time to give them the fortnight off that they’d need to heal, so I’ll just keep slapping on plasters and training as normal. Having said that, it’s tempting to skip Saturday training (we’ll probably go for a run, which would be agony) in favour of training at home where I can row, cycle or swim instead and give them a chance to mend. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

23 days to go…