You know, I haven’t spent much time this week at the gym due to life commitments and it still not being as open as often as I’d like. I guess with current circumstances taken into consideration with training I should make sure I’m there as much as possible, so I guess this week is my bad.

There’s still opportunities to train on a Friday night night too  and here and there at the weekends as well. There. I think I just made two sessions into a reasonable three or four. Although, being honest I’m looking forward to getting back to some good old fashioned blood and guts on a Wednesday and Saturday. It’s nice to have options.

Despite a slower week martially I’ve still managed to stick to running although I’m currently getting a decent route fleshed out. It’s trial and error at the moment but at least I’m doing something when I’m not at the gym. With that and the inclusion of free weights at home as well as a bit of shadow boxing from time to time I should be up to speed in no time.

The next step is to cut down on pubs and bottles of wine at the weekends. That’s my bad as well. I’ve decided to become a booze free zone for a couple of weeks from tomorrow onwards just to get back into the habit of clean living and sensibleness for a while.

Mentally I’m gearing myself up to start training hard again but to get the most out of it I want my fitness and everything else to be running in first gear too. And besides the fitter I get the sharper I get in training. It’s a long road but it’s always  worth it.

I think last year I could of achieved a lot with training if I’d spent more time at the gym and no doubt could of still kept competing if I wanted to. I don’t begrudge what I did and didn’t do when it comes to Thai  but I certainly feel energized when I think about the year ahead. Thai boxing is a lot more than fighting and I can see my overall journey extending well into the years ahead.

I keep an open mind with martial arts and I’m glad these days I think just as much about street application as I do about what happens in a ring. It feels like I’ve come full circle because when I first started out down this road  (nearly 11/12 years ago now) I started off training with self defense in mind.

Along the way I think I’ve kind of forgotten why I began so it’s good to get back to elements of that as well as looking forward to whatever ring based challenges 2018 throws at me. I’ve got a long way to go but I still love what I do. It’s a big part of who I am.

There’s a lot to be said for applying focus from martial arts and the energy needed into other areas of my life so despite not training as much as I wanted to last year I think my energy was most certainly flowing in the right direction. It’s good to have learnt how to balance it again and put it back into all things martial and writing based too.

In the meantime, it’s good to have caught up with you all again as planned. I hope next week I’ll have a little more to say about all things martial but it’s nice to be able to give you a little insight into what’s currently making me tick. When it comes to everything else.. well. Watch this space. 😉 In the meantime, have a great week and as always train hard and fight easy. I’ll see you on the road.