Well, I know there’s been a little pause since last time we spoke but having had to juggle a multitude of plates and wear a couple of different hats over the past week or so I’m pleased I’ve managed to find the time to sit down and write. When it comes to procrastination I can scream in at first place when I put my mind to it. Or maybe when I don’t.

Training over the past week or so has as always been good, and I’m beginning to think about the end of November which is now hopefully going to be the next date I’m fighting. A couple of pull outs meant the 24th wasn’t going to happen but on the plus side of things I guess there’s more time to get myself ready. It’s good to have a goal to work towards and I think  it’s important to set your sights on what you want to achieve and commit yourself to it from an early stage.

Before I started competing I used to set myself goals with training as I’ve always found it helps you stay focused. There’s nothing worse than finding yourself going through the motions simply because the motions are you all know. And with Muay Thai there is always something you can work on.

Really that’s what training is about. A constant cycle of self improvement and with the physical training I’ve found a mental toughness begins to develop after a time too. I noticed it yesterday and really felt that I had to just grit my teeth and get on with things. It’s always hard on a ‘no energy’ day. It’s good to understand why your doing what your doing but its easy to get lost in over analysis too. Some days I find its better just to get your head down and get on with it. Hard work as always, is good work.

That’s not to say I’m approaching training with a ‘work the combination and hope for the best’ attitude, but the way we improve at anything is by constant practice and repetition. And I’ve found in Muay Thai  and I guess it’s the same with any martial art or discipline you train in, that you get a lot of that.

I’ve spent the past couple of months focusing wanting to improve everything but maybe sometimes I need to be a little more focused in my approach. I’ve noticed at the moment my clinching needs a lot of work so I need to spend more time focusing on that when I can. The grappling is ok but the knees are far and few between so that needs to improve. There’s a goal right there.

Again that’s only going to get better by practice and more practice and I’m hoping with a potential goal to aim at for November I’m going to be more motivated than usual to get them up to speed. Missing out on an opportunity to fight sucks big time but I’ll be ready for next month. Fighting may not be the be all and end all, but it’s a lot of fun and something I want to do for a while yet.

You hit your thirties and sometimes people expect you to slow down a little. You don’t need to do that in my opinion. Your thirties is still young. If your strong enough, fit enough and mostly importantly train hard enough then why stop? Especially if you love what you do. Besides I didn’t start competing till I was 31 and I’ve been stepping up for five years now and training for nearly nine years. I must be doing something right. I’ll be training when I’m 60. ,

So with my temporary  mid life crisis out the way, I’m looking forward to training hard rest of the week. I’m going to make a point of picking things up with running again and despite Christmas rapidly looming I’m going to do my best to ignore all the nice stuff (by nice stuff I mean chocolate) I see out in the shops at present. (Well most of the time anyway.) I guess really the next five weeks or so of training is going to be all about graft, and I’m hoping that next we speak I’ve got some positive news about my fight next month. Better late than never I guess.  In the meantime have a good week, train hard and just like before… I’ll see you on that road.