Good Sunday Morning Workout

Sunday's training provided a good workout and a good start to my year (yes, happy birthday [November 28] to me). I've decided to renew my commitment to health and fitness and a good workout on the morning of my birthday seemed like a good way to do it.

I don't know where the rest of the guys were, but Glen gave Howard (a fellow lawyer) and me plenty of intensity. While I prefer to have a larger group of guys (more camaraderie, more chances to train with different styles, and a faster pace on rotations), it's nice to get the more intensified treatment when just one other boxer attends the workout. Here's the recap:

• about 30 minutes of roadwork
• one round shadowboxing
• one round on the punch mitts with Glen
• two rounds on the punch mitts, working on combinations to the body and head
• lots of rounds of drills, several of which reminded me that Howard is a southpaw
• two rounds of sparring with Howard
• three rounds of heavy bag drills
• five rounds of abs
• three rounds of 30s as the finishing touch

 I felt good and finished strong. I always strive for a solid finish. Physically, it's always good to build up more endurance so I can control the pace and keep the pressure on my opponent. Mentally, the strong finishes during training reassure me that I have a little left in the reserve tank when I need it most. That increases my overall confidence.

Back to Blogging: Coming Out Swinging at Sunday's Training

Wow.  I must have blinked.  It has been over a month since I posted here.  I knew I had been busy, but not that busy.  I'd like to say I have been so busy with training that I haven't had time to blog, but that isn't exactly true.  I've been occupied with other things: work and family stuff, mostly.  I trained well last week, but I haven't written about here, so I am not going to risk further delays by trying to catch up now.  Anyway, enough with the excuses.

I had a really good session at the gym today.  Just Glen, our coach, and Eric were there, so I got tons of focused attention--and, of course, that means tons of nonstop working hard with very few breaks in the action.  Indeed, those few breaks were very short, too, so it was a great workout.

I got to spar a lot with Eric today.  He and I work well together, and it was good, tough work.  In each round, we started at a moderate pace, but were really going at it when Glen called time to end the round.  Great stuff.  Thanks, Eric!

Sparring Improvement

Work has been nuts this week, but I'm still managing to fit in some training.  Sunday's "fight club" went well.  We had a smaller group than previous weeks, so we had the chance to do more rounds of drills.

I sparred 3 good rounds with Eric (not the Eric I have been sparring with during past weeks, let's call this one "Eric 2").  It was a tough sparring session.  He pushed hard and so did I.  We have similar styles--more aggressive, moving forward, and pressuring the opponent.

It was a good workout.  I got to practice some defense and I got my jab working well: two or three jabs in a row.  I'm polishing my footwork and moving better.  Let's see how it goes next Sunday.

Update on Sunday's "Fight Club"

As I mentioned last week, I've attended the boxing group at my gym the last two Sundays. It's fun. It's all midlife guys who have about the same level of boxing experience. It has been informally called "fight club." The coach is Glen Freedman, the head boxing coach at East Bank Club. I first met Glen several years ago when I boxed in a charitable fund-raising event for the DuPage County Bar Association called the "Bar Bouts." Glen was in my opponent's corner, and we stayed in contact after that. It's good to see him at GoTime for an hour or two each week.

The workout was a pretty standard boxing training session. Here's how it goes.

During the first part, we do a warm-up and then practice several rounds on all the bags (heavy, speed, double-end, uppercut), jump rope, and do shadowboxing. I almost always do some easy stretching after I break a sweat; I want to remain flexible and avoid injuries. This first part is the least structured; there are about 12 guys training in the gym at these practices, so having some time to get into the routine on our own is helpful.

While all the individual work is happening, Glen calls each of us into the ring to work one round on the punch mitts with him. We get just one round of this, because of the number of guys present, but if a smaller group showed up on any particular day, I think Glen might do more rounds with that. I felt a lot better this week working with Glen. Since the time is limited, there's an added sense of urgency to stay focused and mentally present during the round, in order to squeeze the most benefit out of it.

My round went well. My "finisher" right, which had been a bit sluggish last week, flowed easily as I threw the combination: left jab-straight right-left hook-right cross. It was good to have some power on that last punch without sacrificing speed or accuracy on the first three.

The next part is contact sparring drills. Because we're practicing punches, we wear headgear and mouthpieces and 16 oz. gloves. We start by working on the basics, such as left jab (so far, there are no southpaws in the group), one-two, and so on. As round follows round, we work at more complex combinations, defense, adjusting stance and balance as needed, and counterpunching. This is very helpful to me because it is realistic and lets us practice the fundamentals a lot. (I don't think any athlete can ever spend too much time practicing the basics of his sport.) It's safe and fun, but the guys punch about as hard as they do in sparring, so using defense is an important part of the practice.

Next, we have sparring. The drills and sparring are at a fast pace and Glen keeps everyone moving. There's a lot of rotation, so everyone gets some experience practicing with all the other boxers. I like the quicker pace and it allows us to practice with more of the other boxers. For example, this Sunday, I sparred four rounds with three different guys and had the benefit of practicing with their different styles. What worked well with Mark didn't work so well with Eric, and my two rounds with Brian had plenty of challenges.

(Mental note: I need to move more when sparring with Brian. I could easily see him and me standing toe to toe and trading huge bombs. There is definitely a time and place for that, but I'm trying to avoid developing bad habits, or, as the case may be with my willingness to get into a slugfest, to avoid sliding back into old bad habits.) The pace and power were perfect, too; no one is trying to take anyone's head off, but the guys do push each other and encourage one another to improve. There's a camaraderie--even a team spirit--in this intense, most individual of sports. For example, Eric commented that my jab was working a lot better this week, so it was good to see some of that ring rust falling off.

After sparring, we do some abs work. It's a straightforward routine, but beneficial, and you can work at your own pace in an encouraging environment. The medicine ball gets to play a part, and I always feel especially alive when I get that lactic acid burn as I push myself to do yet one more crunch.

Finally, we finish strong with "30s"--three rounds of punching the heavy bag as hard and as fast as we can for 30 seconds, while a partner holds the bag. Then we switch with our partner and he punches for 30 seconds while we hold the bag. That goes on until all the guys have done their three speed rounds. Final stretching and cool down is on our own.

Back to Blogging; Busy Weekend; Training Hard and Enjoying It

February was quite a month. I've been away from the blog, mostly because I have been busy with work. It's an interesting challenge to balance all of these activities, but I am definitely learning a lot from it. Although I haven't posted any training updates, my training continues and is going fairly well. It could always be going better, of course, but I'm a perfectionist, so my attitude is permanently oriented toward improvement.

Here's a recap of what has been going on lately, in work, life, and boxing.

• In my defiant approach to the economic recession, I have been hustling to get some new clients. I have two new prospects and one to contact tomorrow. I am not being naive, but if the basic laws of chemistry and physics still apply, matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus, in the aggregate, there is no less matter or energy in the universe today than there was a year or two ago, so we haven't truly "lost" anything. The matter and energy may have changed into different forms, but they still exist. As a practical matter, this means that the opportunities are still available, but we will have to be more persistent and imaginative as we look for them.
  

• Life continues to send its nonstop series of ups and downs. I'm enjoying my new neighborhood--and am confident I'll enjoy it even more once spring arrives with some consistently warmer weather.
  

• I helped my good buddy Mark move his home over the weekend. He's in the same building, but has moved to an apartment two floors above his former unit. I'm thrilled for him. He's still relatively new to Chicago, so I am glad he's getting settled comfortably in his new place. Mark is one hell of a great guy and a really good friend. Unfortunately, he recently lost his cat, Fritz, so it's a difficult time for him.
  

• Training got an added boost on Sunday. It was my first time attending the Sunday "fight club" (also known as "Small Group Boxing") at my gym. I was there in a group of about 12 guys and Glen, the trainer, who runs the 2 pm Sunday gathering. It was a great time and I look forward to attending the practices regularly. In addition to the shadowboxing, work on the bags, abs training, punching-and-defense drills, and work on the punch mitts with Glen, I got in some good sparring, too. (Thanks to Jim and Eric for pushing me hard and making me work!) It was a blast. Since all of the boxers are midlife guys--basically late 30s to late 50s in age--the group might offer some good business networking opportunities, too, as well as the chance to make some new friends. After all, some of my closest friends are guys I have punched in the face. I'm hoping my buddy Mark will attend some Sundays.
  

That's the update for now. I'm planning to get more content on this blog, including links to various articles I've found interesting. For now, thanks for reading, and stay strong!

Quick Update

Some brief periods of roadwork after Friday's training:

Saturday, June 28: 26 minutes
Monday, June 30: 24 minutes

Also, some good news: Chad at GoTime said he will help arrange some sparring for me. Since my training times have varied a lot recently, it has been hard to get much sparring practice, but I am hoping we can change that soon. I have been working on various improvements to my technique and would like to do some sparring to practice them under "real" conditions.

Wednesday's Training

Today was a good day at training. We had a good attendance at the practice. In addition to Bernard and me, Kevin, Cory, Matt, and the Judge were there. Andrew stopped by at the end, but did not join us. Kevin and Matt sparred today. It was Matt's first time; he enjoyed it. I did not spar because I got to the workout late and I focused on trying to make up for the shorter workout by increasing the intensity of my work. I hope it helped.

I'll spar next week. Bernard has designated Wednesdays as "sparring days." Of course, we will be able to spar on Mondays, too, but Bernard asked that we tell everyone to be there at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesdays so that we can all have a set time to get some sparring practice. That sounds good to me. It will help us have a regular time to get some work with the other boxers on the team. I'll tell Tim about it tomorrow and send out an e-mail announcement to the rest of the guys.

As for the workout itself, things went pretty well. Here's the breakdown.

• 43 minutes of roadwork
• 5 rounds on the pads with Bernard
• 3 rounds of pivoting drills (holding a broom handle across the shoulders and pivoting from left to right while in a boxing stance)
• 2 rounds on the heavy bag
• 2 rounds on the double-end bag
• 1 round on the uppercut bag
• 1 round of stretching

That's 14 rounds plus the roadwork. Not too bad. It was raining like a monsoon here in Chicago all day today, so fitting the roadwork in was a challenge. I am glad I did it, though.

It will be fun to have a set time each week for sparring. I need the practice and I hope the rest of the guy will like the idea.