Not posted in a week as I've been busy with college work and training every day.

I've been feeling a bit crap this week so far. Had diarrhea which made me feel weak, was careful to make sure I was hydrated all the time but still felt rubbish. In any case I've been training as hard as I can. Yesterday seen me do sprints on my bike, as many as I could physically handle, up a steep hill. I think I managed 6 which I was quite happy with, since the wind was coming right into my face the whole time!

Last week was tough on the shins so we've started off this week working on footwork and clinching techniques to let Graham's shins heal a bit as he was getting a lot of clobbering despite the shin guards. My only problem bruising-wise is around my knees but that's really just from a bunch of knee to knee and knee to shin clashes. Since tweaking my stance on Monday I feel that I can utilize my reach advantage much easier with my legs and my kicks are much stronger as a result, from both my right and left legs. Tuesday's class demonstrated this to me further as my kicks just felt right. It's hard to explain but you just know when your shots are landing sweet. Good power and technique on the pads and this effectively makes my legs much more dangerous from any range, since my technique is looking sweet and my stance and movment is comfortable.

After only a week I'm feeling much stronger than I was before. I feel faster and fitter too. On paper, I'm keeping a diary of what I've been doing each day in terms of interval training, sprints, running or whatever and changing it week by week to fit round college work or other commitments and I hope this will prove useful to look back on.

Not sure what we will be doing tonight, hopefully some sparring as well as the usual padwork and conditioning. I've no excuse for not doing extra training today other than that I was at college until 12 and after that I've been eating, watching UFC 1 and WEC 36 while reading and tidying the flat. Tomorrow instead of sprints I think I will go for a run of maybe 3 miles in my 2 hr lunch break.

BTW, first UFC is awesome! The sumo guy gets totally taken out!

Just an hour tonight but tried to put 110% into absolutely everything. Plenty of kicks on the bag to toughen up my shins, especially my left as for some reason I've been neglecting my left leg.

My mate Darren came back from the RAF for a week and since he started when did and is still really interested in Muay Thai and fighting . We had a few rounds with him and he posed different problems since he is quite happy to just fly in with punches and kicks coming in from all angles. It may be because he hasn't trained in a while (undisciplined) or maybe that is just his style, I honestly don't know and can't remember. I managed to stay quite calm despite some haymakers and got my counters in quite accurately. Sparring with Graham was much better tonight because I worked on my own plan rather than trying to figure out how to defend and counter his. I am going to do this from now on because despite being caught with a few good shots (up top and on the legs) I landed almost everything I wanted to and only messed up when I lost my head in the last 10 secs of the last round. Tried a spinning back fist as I seen Graham's hands drop as he moved in. Little did I know he was trying to clinch and because I didn't look over my shoulder I hit his forehead with the back of my arm! I tried to stop in the clinch because of the pain but he thought I was checking on him and just said he was fine and kneed me in the leg! hahaha. got a knee of myself in his gut before the buzzer spelled the end of the round.

Feel really energized, hope this lasts until my fight.

Staying up for a while to watch the election in the USA, good luck to Barack! :)

*edit*

Damn, almost forgot! Graham and I started our circuit training today. It was really tough but I just sppent the whole time thinking that if I don't give everything then lose this fight, I won't be able to try harder, won't be able to take that time back and do it again but better. I only get one shot at a first fight and I'm damned if something as burpees is gonna get in my way!

Training tonight went good. we done a little bit of everything. After warming up we worked on technical hand sparring taking turns at picking shots and covering up and countering etc etc. I started pad work poorly but felt much better as the rounds went on. Started using the speedbag tonight in between rounds too (while Graham was on the pads) and it is quite tricky, never used one before you see. I started just hitting it but after a while I used it as an attack and covered up, trying to cover up fast enoough to not get hit in the puss.

Sparring was much tighter tonight but I need to pay attention to my footwork because I'm still getting carried away every now and again whereas I should be relaxed all the time. I am generally much more relaxed now but occasionally I get excited and swing for the fences...

Last saturday I dislocated my toe which was total pain in the arse (or well, foot) but it seems to be getting much better so much quicker than I thought and is almost fully healed now. I'm still getting a slight shooting pain when I hit it and an aching after training but I think this will never go away and may also just be because it is cold. few of my joints get stiff in winter (getting old!)

Found out the name of the guy I'm fighting today. He is from the Glasgow Thai Boxing Academy which means that he will have been taught well and will be sparring with top class fighters day in-day out. So he will be a good test for me. I'm really looking forward to beating someone from such a good camp. GTBA have a great reputation so hopefully I can do my coach and my camp proud.

Official start of training - 34 days left!

Since I have 34 days until I fight I've picked up the intensity of my normal workout and will now be training everyday aside from Friday and Sunday. Just completed my Monday workout which consists of interval training 5 exercises with the intervals being 30 seconds full effort, 10 seconds rest x 4, but between each 30+10 I've got a 30 second rest so it wroks out like: 30 on 10 off, 30 on 30 off, 30 on, 10 off, 30 on ->- 10 secs before start of next exercise.

Skipping
Split Squats
Calf Raises
Tuck Jumps
Squats

Calf Raises and Squats were done with 6kg handweights. Gonna work up to doing tuck jumps with 6kg hand weights too.

Training with Colin and Graham at 5pm tonight where I'll do a mixture of callesthenics to warm up followed by 2x2 min rounds of skipping, 4 laps round the mats (maybe 400m in total) and then stretch off before we find out what Colin has in store for us. Most probably some technique work, pad work - 5x2 - hands (focus mitts), legs, all weapons then maybe either technique sparring or full contact sparring for 5x2 mins. If its anything drastically different I'll update, if not, I'll let you know how the core body workout went.