Sunday Roadwork and Punching

It has been another hot day here in the Windy City. I managed 32 minutes of roadwork out in the heat and humidity, throwing punches periodically along the way. Not great, but not bad. I keep going.

Saturday Roadwork

25 minutes of roadwork and shadowboxing today. It's hot out there. I hope to be in fine shape from all of this. :-)

Friday's Roadwork

Very small training today: 15 minutes roadwork. I admit that I slacked on going to the gym. I was hoping to meet Tim there, but he was busy with work so I decided to do a little roadwork and shadowboxing--very little.

Wednesday's Workout

Today was quite a good workout. It was hot and humid in our gym, and I ended up drinking over 3 quarts of water during the workout. It was intense, but it went well. Here's the summary.

• 35 minutes of roadwork
• 11 rounds on the pads with Bernard (this was pretty intense today)
• 6 rounds of shadowboxing
• 4 rounds on the heavy bag
• 3 rounds of stretching
• 3 rounds of situps
• 1 round on the uppercut bag
• 1 round on the double-end bag

So that makes 29 rounds plus the roadwork. Attendance at tonight's practice was good. Bernard, Jack, Rich, Cory, Matt, and I were there. I saw Mike B. at the club, but he was too late to be there for boxing. Surprisingly, Tim was not there, so I will check in with him tomorrow to see how he's doing. We're having scheduled practices only on Wednesdays now through Labor Day. After that, we will resume our twice-a-week workouts.

I was hoping to get some sparring practice today. Bernard wanted me to spar with Rich. Unfortunately, Rich did not have a mouthpiece, so we didn't spar. Even though we have a full-face headgear, it doesn't offer the same protection as wearing a mouthpiece, so we decided it would be better to wait. I was ready to go and Rich seemed eager, too, but we need to make safety the paramount concern. I have not sparred with Rich before, so hopefully, we'll get to practice next week.

Friday Roadwork

39 minutes of roadwork today. I did a little shadowboxing, too.

Wednesday's Workout

Practice today was good. It was still quite hot in our gym, and plenty humid, but it did not feel quite as intense as it was on Monday. The workout was good and the attendance was better. Bernard, Cory, Rich, Tim, and I were there. Bernard mentioned that Bill had stopped by just for a few minutes at the start of the practice and said he will be joining us next week. I look forward to that. Bill is an enthusiastic member of our boxing team, a good sparring partner, and an all-around great guy.

Here is the summary of my workout on Wednesday.

• 27 minutes of roadwork
  
• 10 rounds on the pads with Bernard
• 4 rounds of shadowboxing
• 4 rounds on the heavy bag
  
• 1 round on the double-end bag
• 1 round of situps

It was only 4 rounds more than I did on Monday, but overall, I felt quicker and sharper. I'm grateful for the improvement. :-)

Tuesday Roadwork and Shadowboxing

Just 27 minutes of roadwork and shadowboxing today. Looking back, I haven't taken any days off since July 7, so I will need to take a rest day soon. However, tomorrow, I will be back at the gym for practice.

Monday: A Slacker Workout?

Yeah, I am probably being way too hard on myself to call today's training a "slacker workout." I felt like I was slacking, but it really is hot and humid, and even though I consumed a lot of water all day, I still felt pretty week at boxing practice tonight. Another part of it is probably that we had a really small group: just Bernard, Mike B., and me. Tim was picking up his wife at the airport, so he missed practice. With fewer guys, it's a lot harder because there is little or no rotation on the pads, so that's tough. Anyway, despite all of my whining, I did manage to do a workout. Here's how it breaks down.

• 38 minutes of roadwork (very slow pace)
• 6 rounds of shadowboxing
• 5 rounds on the pads with Bernard
• 2 rounds of situps
• 2 rounds of stretching
• 1 round on the heavy bag

While I write down what I did, I see that it's not as minimal as I had thought. Of course, this is not one of my more intensive workouts, but I did put effort into it, so I am happy with the results. Besides, as my grandfather (my dad's dad) liked to day, "The biggest room in the house is the room for improvement."

Sunday: Brief Training on Very Hot Day

I have some friends visiting Chicago from British Columbia for the next week. I went to breakfast with them this morning and walked around with them on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Later in the day, I did some very brief roadwork because it's about 100 degrees and very humid. I drank a lot of water, but I still did only 26 minutes today. Running shirtless helped, as did pouring some cool water on my head after I was done! :-)

Saturday: Long Roadwork on a Very Hot Day

I decided to push myself today with the roadwork and shadowboxing and did 1 hour and 17 minutes on the road, with some shadowboxing intervals mixed in. It's another hot day. Apparently, we're in the middle of a big heatwave that is making its way across North America. That's alright. I'll keep drinking lots of water to stay cool and throwing lots of punches!

Friday's Training

I was hoping to train with Tim today, but his wife went out of town for a few days and he is staying at home with their dog. :-) Therefore, I did some roadwork and shadowboxing for 36 minutes. Another fairly easy day. Man, it is getting hot outside!

Thursday: An Easy Day

Despite yesterday's workout, I'm not sore at all today. I just did some light, springy roadwork today with some shadowboxing for 38 minutes.

Wednesday Practice

I had a really good workout today. I'm happy with it. Tim is back in action, so he was there. Also, Bernard, Jack, Rich, and I were at the gym, so it was a good practice. He's the summary of my workout.

• 42 minutes of roadwork
• 13 rounds on the pads with Bernard (this included 8 rounds in a row--intense!--and finishing with Bernard's aptly named "round from hell")
• 4 rounds of shadowboxing
• 4 rounds on the heavy bag
• 3 rounds of mirror training to focus on my technique for several combinations I've been practicing
• 2 rounds of stretching (I'm confident this saved me from a lot of post-workout soreness!)
• 2 rounds of situps
• 1 round on the uppercut bag

That's 29 rounds plus the roadwork. Yeah, I'm pleased. :-)

Tuesday Roadwork

44 minutes of roadwork today. This is the "easy" day. I expect to be back at the gym tomorrow.

Monday's Practice

There were only 4 of us at the gym tonight: Bernard, Rich, Cory, and me. It seems like the rest of the guys were slacking. Even so, I had a good workout. Here's the recap:

• 46 minutes of roadwork
• 7 rounds on the pads with Bernard
• 3 rounds on the heavy bag
• 3 rounds of shadowboxing
• 2 rounds on the uppercut bag
• 2 rounds on the double-end bag (which needs to be fixed; it needs a new bladder)
• 2 rounds of stretching
• 2 rounds of situps

That comes to 21 rounds plus the roadwork. I'm pleased with today's work. I felt focused, energetic, and fairly speedy.

I've been working on increasing my hand speed lately. That is going well. Bernard has us building on a foundation of five straight punches: left jab-straight right-left jab-straight-left jab. From that opening salvo of punches, you're in a position of just having thrown a punch with the lead hand--in my case, the left. (Southpaws would begin with the right jab and finish with it.)

Having just thrown the lead jab, you're in the same position as if you had just throw one jab (rather than the initial 5 punches). However, the idea of leading with 5 quick straight punches is to confuse the opponent and overwhelm his defenses. Therefore, speed is of the essence. I have been working on that. Rather than trying to throw each punch with maximum force--probably a serious waste of energy in this kind of strategic combination--I am focusing on perfect technique and speed.

This opening attack feels right to me. It is a more advanced strategy, but it is something I can actually do in sparring or in a bout. I really like working with Bernard because he keeps things practical. I'll keep practicing this approach on the pads, on the bags, in shadowboxing, and in sparring. I am confident I will master it.

Sunday Roadwork and Shadowboxing

Today, a fairly warm day, I did 46 minutes of roadwork and shadowboxing. In the shadowboxing, I am working on throwing multiple left jabs very quickly. It's going well.

Saturday's Training

26 minutes of roadwork today.

Back at It

I got back to the training today. The two days off was a good break. Today I did 30 minutes of roadwork with some intervals of shadowboxing.

Monday Roadwork

55 minutes on the road today, along with some intervals of shadowboxing. Overall, training is going pretty well. There's always room for improvement, but I am happy with my progress so far.

Having said that, I think I'm going to take a couple of days off. Physically, I feel great, but mentally I feel I can use the rest. It won't be a long break, just 2 or 3 days at the most. It's just a brief chance to recharge the ol' batteries.

Sunday Roadwork

23 minutes of roadwork today. Not a bad start to the week.

Saturday's Workout

Tim is back from his two weeks in Europe and he and I met today to do some training. It was a good session, and it's great to have him back. Here's the summary of today's workout.

• 30 minutes of roadwork
• 5 rounds on the heavy bag
  
• 3 rounds of shadowboxing
• 3 rounds of mirror training (working mostly on the left jab-straight right-left hook-straight combination)
• 2 rounds on the uppercut bag
  
• 1 round of situps
• 1 round of stretching

In all, that's 15 rounds plus the roadwork. Next time, I'll probably be working on some defensive and counterpunching drills with Tim. For now, though, I am fairly pleased with this week's workouts.