Afternoon. It’s been a long time since I sat down to write this blog. . I’ve been pretty busy with general life stuff including moving to a new area of town but suffice to say I’ve still been training. That’s always been the norm.

Things in general have been keeping me on my toes, so despite probably not running as much as I should, not sitting down to write this blog as regularly as I’d like and generally going out far too much it’s good to have martial arts in my life as always.

It’s also been a long time (about a year now) since I stepped foot in the ring and I’ve already decided it’s one of my many goals for 2017. With fighting comes a great deal of commitment, a bit of responsibility to cut out all the bad things in life (alcohol I’m looking in your general direction) and a lot of dedication, and of course graft.

It’s been a long time since I fought and just recently I’ve asked myself if it’s something I’d want to commit to again. Training is always going to be a constant. and fighting is a journey in itself but isn’t as essential as it used to be. It’s a more of a nice to have than I must but being honest, it’s something I’m missing. It’s a good challenge but it’s also good fun. If it wasn’t then there would be no point.

Shortly after I asked myself if I was still up for it ( I got a mental thumbs up back) I asked myself if I could still find the time. When it comes to finding the time at present, I appear to be up against it and struggling more often than not. I guess really that’s why I’ve been taking training as it comes rather than really pushing myself to get there some days. I’m pleased to say last week was a good week and this week is going to be better.

I currently do a few sessions of Thai a week and I’ve decided to get myself into a little bit of k1 on a Friday. (As of this week)  4 sessions a week is enough to start to get somewhere,  3 just about keeps me ticking over. When I finally pull my finger out I’ll get back into training a little on a Sunday again too. I’m still waiting for Saturday sessions to return at the gym to get that extra bit of work in.

Fighting has always brought out the best in me, but I can’t help but wonder if I’m going to have a large amount of rust to shake off as and when I do step up again. I’ve known people to take a year or so out before, step back into the ring and it’s like they’ve never been away at all. I guess really it’s down to the individual and it is what it is.

At the moment my main focus is getting myself to a place where I feel comfortable enough and ready enough to consider it as an option, so again a lot of that comprises of consistent training and good fitness. I think I’m going to work on some good plate spinning skills too.

Sparring and training in general is still heading in the right direction but I most certainly want more. There are things that are a lot more important than anything that happens in a boxing ring, but Thai is something I still have a great deal of passion for along with a will to succeed I’m applying to other areas of my life too.

I’d still like to head out to Europe next year if there’s an opportunity to check out a well known anti racist tournament out there. It’s nice to network with like minded people and the shows look pretty exciting. If taking a bit of time out to check out what they do is going to motivate me to get back into the square ring then can only be a good thing.

Besides, I think at the end of next year I’m just going to want to  be training and I hope when I look back at my journey I can say you know what I’ve done alright, onto the next bit. Regardless of what other people think of what I have or haven’t achieved it’s something that has been and always will be unique to me.

I’m also intending to get my teeth back into my other writing project when I know this one is firmly back on track. There’s a 150 pages of goodness gathering dust on my hard drive and it’s something I’m keen to breath some life back into. We’ll see how that one pans out but it’s getting finished by this time next year latest. Mark my words. Maybe  if time and money permits I’ll get myself out to Thailand for the third time too.

So despite it being a long time since we spoke last, it’s been good to talk to you again. I should get a blog out on Sunday this week.. and as for training well that’s later, and as for running.. well that’s now. Have a great week, train hard and just like the last time.. I’ll see you on that road.