Lifted this morning and did some light cardio.
Was pretty sore at work.
Need to be up early tomorrow so I gotta get to bed early.
Was gonna work out with julio but he never got back to me.
diet was okay, hit the chicken a bit hard after work, but it was all grilled, so shouldn’t be bad.
had to be at work early this mornin, really screwed up my sleep.
sukked it up and went to bjj eventho i been dreadin that class.
paced myself in bjj; got called a wuss by the coach.
I think he was referring to how i don’t pummel much and am not super aggressive; but i also took it as him referring to my tolerance for pain too- i took a nasty spill on the hardwood floor and needed a slight break.
i look at it as one more hurdle in comin back.
ever since i’ve come back off of vacation there’s been stuff just taking my confidence from me at every turn; this is just one more thing.
i was a bit sick and my endurance just wasn’t cutting it last week; gassed against the boxer with dreds, was told i was gassin a bit against the mma guy, kinda gassed sparrin my buddy ronald.
Just feeling kinda useless.
I did do well on takedowns today- fell victim to 1 guillotine and kinda got choked by the guy’s t-shirt another time, but had quite a few decent takedowns.
Otherwise, I didn’t score a single submission as usual.
Tried to jog after my workout- my legs were real sore: ankle from falling on the floor, inner thighs from a lot of guard passing work, and my hamstrings from last weekend.
So it didn’t really happen.
Instead I talked with my friends at the gym and let 'em know how I been feeling.
It was nice to get a little support from my friends.
On Wednesday I got to the gym between 5:30 and 6.
I did a chest and back workout till about 5 after 7.
after that I started workin skills.
My rounds were 3 min each.
5 1/2 rounds of jump rope till someone messed with the clock, finished up with 14 minutes straight for a total of 30 min jumping.
2 rounds of shadow with vest
2 rounds of shadow with vest and hand weights
2 rounds of shadow with vest and gloves
3 rounds on the big bag with the vest
Jogged for just under 2 miles.
Was pretty burnt today, Thursday, haven’t had a break in a week, aside from maybe monday when I did a medium weight workout really early in the morning.
My gloves came today so I was super hyped for that.
I showed off some fight clips for Roger, he was geekin over my Ramon Dekker and Sugar Ray Robinson clips.
I didn’t start my workout till late.
3 minute rounds.
Jump rope for 3 rounds
shadow for 3 rounds
heavybag for 3 rounds
jumped in the ring and sparred with “Country” for 4 rounds. i love workin with him coz he’s got sick power and ridiculous hand speed. We took turns, one would work defense while the other fired shots. first round I went real light on him, but i don’t think it did him too much good. second round he scored some nice punches on me, but didn’t pounce on me or anything (I like him, he’s respectful)- got my nose bloody. Third round I decided to go 70 to 80% and landed a sick body shot. I think I really learned how to fire with good power on an opponent without breaking my structure to get a couple extra inches of reach- kinda like pad drills on a more live target. Normally I’m all off balance to reach just a lil bit further. Fourth round I got caught with some good shots. Some hit me good, i didn’t really feel rocked, but I didn’t react all that well to a couple of the shots, it stung more than anything, my nose bled again; got pretty good at tieing him up and minimizing the damage by the end.
I’d say my defense was better in the second one, at least that’s what it felt like.
I really liked the work coz it really pointed out some big holes in my defense; holes I might notta seen in the typical “duel to the death” kinda sparring they usually do in my gym. Watching tapes to get more ideas for my defense at the moment.
Part of the problem is just how fast the guy’s hands are.
Pretty pumped about working on this stuff.
Friday
Got to the gym around 7
Did my old 10 minute sprint session on the elliptical.
I made it through and finished strong, but afterwards my lungs were BURNING.
Then I did a leg workout for about an hour.
I finished up with 30 minutes on the treadmill at a moderate pace.
My total distance for the day was over 4 miles.
Was tempted to hit the bags, but Monday’s the closest thing I’ve had to a day off since last thursday, and saturday’s gonna be a big day, so best to conserve my energy and make sure I stay healthy.
Turns out the fight Julio wants for me is a month earlier than I was planning for; giving me 3 weeks to train if i decide to go for it. Having second thoughts, this seems like another one of Julio’s bad matchups. Not trying to be a wuss, but I got better things to do than go in there and lose after 2 years of busting my hump to get back on track.
Saturday
Holy crud did I charge it today.
Worked out at danny’s for about 3 hours- did a lot of running, bag work, pad work, and sparring.
Then I came back up to bxf for about 2 more hours working with Julio.
We did stretching, bag work, sparring, and shadow.
Sparred between 25 and 30 min today.
Didn’t have much explosiveness in the evening sparring session.
Took some shots I probably shouldn’t have; couldn’t get my footwork to click.
Made some excuses when coach tried to get me to go more, but i did it anyway.
Hate being a wuss.
Think I’ll take a cheat day tomorrow, but still gonna work out (probably twice).
Cant stop thinking about chipotle and fuddruckers.
Sunday
woke up early and went down to vuhginia.
guess there are 2 types of gassing.
The first type, you can’t breathe, your heart races a million miles an hour, and u think yer gonna die- this is the more common one that i’m kinda used to.
Lately, I been experiencing a lot of the second type- where your body powers down. You try to explode into a movement and nothing happens, your kicks take 5 minutes to reach the target and hit all soft when they get there, and basically nothing comes out.
I got hit with this kind of gassing last night (saturday night) sparring and I got it real bad today.
at the end of the workout, i just had to finish up with one measely round of padwork and i completely slopped it. I could only fire one shot at a time. I think I fired one combo on any sort of rhythm. I was barely even breathing hard; we were even having a conversation during the round.
Matt thinks i may have killed my glycogen stores, and after reading the link he gave me, I agree with him; so from now on I’ll be toting along some gatorade for my workouts.
I owe Brooks and Matt at least one pad round and some sparring tacked on to my next workout.
just wanted to drop a reply and give credit where credit is due. you sound like you are putting yourself thru h***, and i really hope you get the results you are hoping for. i was in the same position that you started from about a year and a half ago, so i know where you’re coming from. keep at it. i’m sure that you’ve found that it is amazing what one can put their body through when you want something bad enough.
Appreciate it bro 
thanks!
Took today off. My body just said “uhhh no, not gonna happen”.
Been sluggish all day, barely made it to work and was hurtin the whole way through.
Ate a bit more than usual to try to help refuel.
I noticed an improvement after eating some noodles.
At least I made it 10 days straight…
Not going to let this turn into a major stumbling block; just needed a little time to recouperate.
Tomorrow’s jiujitsu. Think the coach wants me sparring with mma gloves. I don’t think I’m gonna go through with it (already got a couple cuts & blurry vision in my left eye). Don’t think I like his vibe and don’t think bjj (at least the way they’re doing it) is really my thing. I could just be overly sensitive, due in part to overtraining, and a rough sparring session; i dunno. I’ve also gotten injured before when not following my gut; so that’s why i give my doubts any mind.
I don’t have this much dread about any other aspect of my training, even hard sparring against hard hitting boxers using bag gloves, or hard sparring with other kickboxers who’re bigger than me.
I also gotta do weights and cardio tomorrow. Gonna see if I can wake up early.
Okay i quit bjj on tuesday.
i just wasn’t feeling it.
i also feel like my skill in boxing and kickboxing has been on the slide, leading up to and especially after my 2 weeks off.
it’s nice now to have extra time to refine my stuff, and to be able to focus in on the important stuff.
monday and tuesday, both days, did well on the diet during the day eating frequently, but in the evening carbed up a bit too much (tuesday worse than monday). I kinda needed it after the 10 days straight, but it still throws off my weight and my schedule.
today, Wednesday i did pretty good.
diet was good.
10 minutes on the elliptical doing sprints to warm up.
did a lift for shoulders and arms- there’s a nice shoulder superset in it that really gives me some nice muscle endurance.
for skillz I did:
(all rounds 3 minutes)
3 rounds on focus mitts with Roger Leonard
5 rounds of jump rope
5 rounds of shadow boxing with weight vest
5 rounds of heavy bag with weight vest
2 rounds of tight double end bag with weight vest
2 rounds of slip bag with weight vest
2 rounds of loose double end bag with weight vest
2 rounds of uppercut bag, finishing out last 30 seconds of each round with continuous knees.
This is the kinda work I shoulda been doing coming off of vacation instead of all that sparring maybe. I need this kinda work to really refine my style and move more comfortably after time off, instead of just getting pounded on- but sparring’s good too.
I finished up with 20 minutes of elliptical at a medium high pace.
10 minute sprints on elliptical.
Tonite was legs; took me an hour or so.
I’m probably going to he!!, but we have a smith machine at an angle, it’s part of my leg day as prescribed by the trainer, and I think I’m falling in love with it.
If you sit with your feet out in front of the machine and sink your bootie back, you can make sure your knees don’t do the “over the toes” hack squat thing that usually destroys your knees long term.
I love it coz I don’t have to worry about my balance anymore.
There’s another superset in that workout that’s real killer too.
After that little session of pain it was on to skillz.
I warmed up with like 7 or 8 2 minute rounds on the heavybag while i was waiting on roger.
3 rounds (i’m pretty sure 3 min each) of focus mitts. he’s trying to get me quicker (on reaction as well as handspeed).
then it was on to jump rope for 15 minutes.
I went and fixed the timer at this point to go 3 min on, 1 min rest.
3 rounds of shadow with 5lb weights.
2 rounds of shadow with no weights, focusing on speed and continuous movement.
2 rounds of tight double ended speed ball
2 rounds of slip bag
2 rounds of loose double ended speed ball
2 rounds of big bag throwing just kicks, last 30 seconds of each round continuous knees on uppercut bag.
I finished up with 20 minutes of cardio.
My knees were bugging me a bit and my legs were pretty burnt so i put the treadmill on 15 incline and did 20 minutes at 2.7 to 3mph. That was actually pretty rough, really worked my hams and lower back, not to mention tiring me out pretty good.
Diet the last 2 days darn near perfect.
Broke just under 212 tonite as well.
I think I’m gonna be stuck in this weight range for a lil bit.
I’m doing what I can and I’ll try not to get discouraged but i think it’s a bit of a plateau.
After 2 days of almost 4 hours apiece, it was wishful thinking to automatically assume a third.
Friday 9/30
Left work early today around 3, coz everyone was takin off to go to an office party.
I went home and slept a good 3 hours or so.
Woke up, ate some chicken and vegetables mixed in with some house special fried rice- shrimp, beef, egg, etc.
Rolled up to the gym by 8.
Lifted weights for almost an hour, doing chest and back.
Then I jumped on the treadmill and jogged for a good 25 minutes (last 5 min of which was kinda cooldown).
Was happy i got in the treadmill work, coz i thought i was gonna skate on it.
Was also interesting to find out that I can maintain a faster pace on the treadmill, without an excessive amount of suffering, than I had earlier thought.
O and gold’s gym is officially on my death list. They sent a debt collection agency after me and ruined my credit. I told those thieves last january that i wanted ot end my membership- even signed paperwork to that effect, they kept charging me, i called up to tell them i wasn’t going to pay anymore & to end my membership, they kept charging me, i put a stop payment on my bank account, they kept charging me.
Buyer beware with gold’s gym, gonna see if i can get in on a class action lawsuit against them. This act of thievery will not be tolerated. :mad:
Saturday 10/1
Did my 2-a-day today.
worked out from 12:45 till about 3:30 in the afternoon.
Then I worked out from 6 to 8 in the evening.
sparred at least 20 min straight in the afternoon.
sparred 12 rounds (36 min) pretty continuous in the evening.
the gatorade REALLY helped.
Made 209.8 pounds too.
Had some chicken strips while watching the fights tonite (opted to save 50 bux and watch the toney fight) so I hope I didn’t ruin it.
Aside from the chicken strips, all day all I had was a double bowl of oatmeal, some lowfat chocolate milk, an apple, and the gatorade- so i’m hoping it won’t be too bad.
Keep it up. Your devotion and sharing of your practice will not only benefit you but inspire others. The key is the longterm commitment to practice and having your heart in the right place. Do what you love, just be.
Nexus, much thanks for the support. Gonna try to keep doin my thing.
Sunday
Woke up early and went down to virginia.
After gassin last week, i had something to prove this week.
The gatorade really helped, coz I blazed through the class.
I completely sweat through my shirt and was doing work after class was over: with the heavybag and plyometrics.
Afterwards I drove up to Timonium to help Akhilleus with a seminar at his kung fu school.
The seminar went 3 hours- was mostly doing coaching but had some intermitent spurts of activity; on the whole it was really draining.
Afterwards I stopped by TGIFridays to make some arrangements.
I went home, showered up, came back (to tgif) with my gf and had dinner.
after dinner, they brought dessert with the ring i bought on a chocolate cake, and i popped the question. luckily she said “of course”.
Diet was okay- ate yogurt for breakfast, lunch was some chinese fried chicken & veggies with the batter and fried stuff pulled off the chicken, and dinner was a steak with a couple spoonfuls of cheesy mashed potatoes and a forkful of cake.
Monday
After this weekend I was drained; heck i think i spent over 19 hours in the various gyms over this past week.
I had a hard time waking up and i was walking dead all day.
Julio told me he was planning to be at the gym tonite- wanted me to be there.
He owed some stuff to Roger and wanted to apologize to him for not being around.
I was just too tired today and have had egg on my face (waiting up at the gym for him) way too many times; so I just went home and figured he’d call me if he was looking for me.
He never called, so I guess I’ll find out Wednesday if he was waiting on me.
At least I got a good hour of sleep instead.
Diet was okay, not great.
Had some beef and veggies for lunch, snacked on a few sourdough pretzels this afternoon instead of my normal stuff, and for dinner I had some leftover chicken strips with a few pieces of wheat bread.
Takin the day off from work tomorrow to take care of some stuff, gonna try to get to bed before 11, and get back out there tomorrow night.
Took Tuesday and wednesday (today) off from work.
Didn’t really leave the house on Tuesday, managed to take care of a lot of what I had to do from home. Spent a lot of time trying to sleep: my gf kept waking me up every 2 or 3 hours. I was dead Tuesday evening and I was dead this morning.
My eye doctor appointment was today. I was gonna just do a half day, but I didn’t get enough sleep - think I need to start trying to sleep on the couch; so i just took the whole day off from work.
The eye doctor took the picture of my eye and it showed a bunch of hemorrhaging on the left eye that’s been giving me all these problems. It’s the type of bleeding that diabetics get on their way to goin blind. he told me to take a week off from any sort of contact sparring. If it doesn’t start showing improvement I may have to get surgery.
Actually, the surgery’s pretty likely regardless.
Tonite I took off from the gym again and didn’t eat well again. Probably a bad move on my part, but I was still feeling sluggish. I did manage to clean up my house pretty well; had to throw out a bunch of expired food.
Need to get good sleep tonite and get back on track.
Took a look at my finances today and realized that surgery would probably break me; so I got a part time job through work today. Made 60 bux for 3 hours worth of work.
Looking to make at least 800 a month.
Problem is, between the job and my eye, my training’s pretty much in limbo.
Gonna see if I can workout an hour in the evenings and an hour in the mornings, but I really dunno now.
wish me luck.
Another day in limbo.
Julio wants me to help out this weekend, so saturday I might help him out; holding pads and stuff.
Virginia’s probly out, in part coz I don’t wanna risk my eye, but also coz with gas prices as high as they are and my finances as bad as they are, i could use the extra 30 to 60 bux it’ll save me not going down there.
Monday no work so i should be able to get in some gym time then.
Tuesday I’m going to try to hit the gym for an hour before work and an hour after work. With the part-time clean up job; I’ll be pulling 12 hour days so the 2 hours might be hard to squeeze in.
At work, I’ve been trying to jump into a new project so I can get my boss off my back- i mean he’s come close to firing me 4 or 5 times now, starting from my 3rd month there. The sad thing is that I haven’t even broken any rules. He’s just been giving me a hard time, coz for some reason he doesn’t think I belong. Eventhough I don’t want to fail & I think I can do my job given decent direction; I’d love to leave and get a better paying job- but it really only makes any sense if i can leave the state.
Still doin pretty poor on my diet. I’ll do better next week. This week’s just messing with my head.
Keeping my fingers cross for Friday.
Worked out saturday evening with Julio and the guys.
Mostly held the mitts, but I got in some bag work- lots of high kicks.
Julio has a love of TKD style chambered kicks that are hard to read and can transform into any of a multitude of kicks at any angle. ie knee comes up front and turns into a sidekick, a round house, a hook kick, an axe kick, whatever, at any height. I worked on this a lot though i don’t know that i like it. For sidekick it’s okay. Having a snappy jab of a head high roundhouse could come in handy, but it’s got almost no power, best case scenario is that it opens up a cut or causes a bloody nose. I think I’d rather cause some damage.
My diet’s gotten absolutely hideous.
I’m gonna snap this downward slide on monday and tuesday.
Hoping to be somewhat back on track by the end of the week.
I’ve been really stressed out by the situation with my eye, my money, and my job(s).
My poor reactions to all of those 3 as well as the change in weather are what have sent me into this tailspin and I think I’ve come too far to cr@p out like this.
I think I’m done feeling sorry for myself, about my eye.
I think I realize that I’m not just going to give up training altogether, even if I got a part time job that leaves me almost no time.
I don’t want to let my money problems get in the way either.
I’ve come to freakin far to just give up; even if my eye does prevent me from competing again- I’ll find out friday.
made it back into the gym tonite.
made it through a decent leg workout.
wednesday i made it back to the gym again; this time it was arms and shoulders.
diet got a little better.
thurday i made it in for chest and back.
diet slowly getting better.
talked with Rodney (the other boxing trainer) again tonite. I think he’ll start working with me on the evenings.
He’s much better about helping guys develop an actual style.
Roger seems more to work on combos and that’s about it.
Rodney’s about defense and the whole game.
He’s also willing to work with me about my eye and not being able to take much contact.
it’s the most excited i’ve been in a while.