A busy week of normality.

Life is pretty hectic at the moment, nothing special but it's all go. I taught a class at 'the boxing clinic' last week. It was good fun and a bit of a culture shock for some of the punters. At the end of the class a few of the clients came up to me and asked me where I was from and before I could tell them I was from North London they had already decided I had come from Hell!!! I aim to please. They also commented on me on the companies blog saying, in no uncertain terms, that I am a horrible little man. Job well done, but being described as unsympathetic hurt, I have feelings you know.

At the fun factory, Islington Fire Station, we have 2 new guys now. 1 is a brummie who I struggle to understand, worst accent in the world. Good lad, though not the sharpest tool in the box. He has been with us 3 months and is settling in well. Just this week we got another new guy, he too is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. On his first day he forgot to shave, then when he was pulled up on this matter he tried to pretend he had. Unfortunately the facial hair gave it away!! The 2nd day on a drill he messed up unceremoniously but this has been put down to nerves, not by me, I attribute it to uselessness!!! On his first night he went to bed at 2230, stand down doesn't begin til' midnight. So, all in all, not the brightest of starts but at least it can only improve for him. Now we have dumb and dumber on the watch it could be quite a fun place to be. I have decided to embrace work and enjoy it as much as I can, no point in moping around, life's too short. With the arrival of dumb and dumber the dynamic of the watch has changed too, now the young blokes, myself included, match the fossils. Thank god for that.

A weekend of hard work, garage raving and budgie saving!!!

This weekend was a veritable mixture of socialising. On saturday night I went down to South London, God forbid, to meet up with the BMF instructors after the training day and have a couple of jars. We were in a lovely pub near Chelsea and it was remarkably civilised. Once we had had a few drinks down South my longing for the North grew ever stronger so we headed back to Hoxton Sq to continue the party. I always seem to have issues being allowed into bars in said Sq, after some serious negotiations and gratuitous Fire Brigade warrant card flashing we blagged our way in and met up with a group of mates. 

The bar was extremely crowded and a little pretencious so Dave, a mate from work, decided it would be good to go to a Garage night in Vauxhall. Back to the South and for shitty Garage music??? Oh well, if that's where the party is i'll give it a bash. We got to the venue and under went a vigorous body search and through metal detectors, not a good sign, or is it. At least they were taking security seriously. Inside this cramped and sweaty hole the music was blasting and the drugged up crowd, drinking beer out of cans, were throwing shapes all over the place. I had 2 choices, stand around and moan about the dated music and rough crowd, get me, or get stuck in. I chose the latter and started dancing like no one was watching. I was having a blast, good friends around me and a great atmosphere. Then I clambered up onto the stage and started dancing in a most un rude boy like fashion, it was hilarious. A few of the tough guys looked at me funny but I was in the zone and loving it, I was busting the old one potato two potato dance and all the cheesy moves I could dig up. We stumbled out of the club at 4ish as me and Dave had to be on duty at 0830. By the time we got home it was 5, Dave crashed on my sofa and I managed 2 hrs sleep before my pesky alarm went off for work.

I was in shit state at work, not from the alcohol just from lack of sleep. We had a rememberence parade for the fallen heroes which I wouldn't have missed for the world. Then we got a fire call, it was a small fire in a kitchen but inside were a budgie and a dog, with total disregard for our own safety, me and one of the boys pulled those poor creatures from the smokey house and saved their lives. It's a tough job but someones got to do it. That dealt with it was back to the station for more hard graft, scrubbing the motors for monday's inspection. A few more shouts and finally 6pm rolled around and I crawled off duty a broken man. I got round to my folks for a much needed home cooked meal, man i'm going to miss them when they are in Spain for good. All in all a superb weekend full of friendships, laughter and what makes my job exciting......... FIRE!!!

Training for sweet FA

I have been told this week, just 3 weeks away from the fight and after almost 2 months of preparation and hellish work in the gym, my fight is off! All that blood , sweat and tears and no chance to take it out on someone at the end is very frustrating. It is not unusual in the fight game for this to happen and I have been around for a while so shouldn't be too suprised. However, I am the best I have ever been, super fit, strong and techniqually excellent. On the plus side, I am in the best shape I have ever been so it wasn't all for nought. I am going to describe below what an average work out is like to give those who don't fight an insight into the horrible world of pre fight training camps.

Extra Cardio- This takes place before training with everyone else!! 3x5 min rounds with 1min rest in between.

Round 1

1st min bunny hopping over kick shields with a sprawl at each end (sprawl is where you drop to the ground forcing your hips down but keeping your back arched and your upper body upright) 

2nd min-jump once over kick shield then sprawl, then twice over and sprawl, then three time etc......

3rd min-rope climb constantly up and down

4th min-wall walk, sit with back flat against the wall legs outstretched. grip 8kg kettle bell against chest and stand up without using your hands, pushing in to the wall. repeat from start position

5th min- pick up heavy punch bag over shoulder and slam it into ground, repeat for whole min.

1 minute rest

Round 2- Everything in this round done with harness and someone pulling back against you.

1st min-sprint to rope, climb it, sprint to end of gym and back to rope, climb it etc... for whole min

2nd min-bear crawl (scramble run) on harness for whole min

3rd min- on harness sprawl then stand up and shoot ( place front knee on floor then drive through with the rear knee and stand up) constantly down the mat for the whole time working against the trainers resistance

4th min- more sprinting up and down the mat against the resistance of the coach.

5th min- non stop burpees with jump

1min rest thank god. Just enought time to put on 10kg weight vest and re attach harness.

Round 3 Circuit to be done as many times as poss in 5 mins.

circuit starts with a sprawl then 6 bunny hops over kick shield, bear crawl down to coach, harness sprint to rope, climb rope, pick up heavy bag and throw it, grab 2 x 16kg kettle bells and sprint to the end of the mat and back, sprint back to start, sprawl and repeat whole thing. My record is 8 laps in 5 mins.

Then fall down and die untill main class starts, 1 hour of boxing including 10 minute hard cardio workout and 20 mins, at least, sparring. Then change t-shirt and do 1 hour grappling including at least 15 mins of sparring. Then try to get home on the tube without looking like a dead person. i was doing this 3 x per week on top off running in my own time, teaching british military fitness and training 2 x per week, mainly sparring with some good fighters. It's tough as hell but I absolutely love it and am going to keep it up eventhough the fight is off, why let the fitness slide.

THAT WHICH DOESN'T KILL US, ONLY MAKES US STRONGER!!