Changes of plan

So... when I started this all that time ago, I had a million ideas about 'getting fitter' as a whole general term without any kind of specific targets. I knew I wanted to be able to run faster and/or further, get bigger, get stronger and do it all with one massive change up all at once.

Whilst I know it's kind of possible, I realised that I had a priority, and that was adding muscle mass. Training to run long(ish) distances isn't really conducive to that aim, so that got knocked on the head. After a while, I found that keeping up with football, Taekwondo and weights wasn't really possible - no matter how much I tried mentally arranging it I couldn't find day number 8. I'd already dropped football one season in favour of TKD and didn't want to again. So, regrettably, I finished TKD. I still intend to take up fighting again as I do really miss it.

I got really interested in exactly how to build muscle - what to eat, when to eat, when to work out, for how long and how frequently. When to rest, what supplements to take and which not to.

There is a lot of conflicting information available and I read through a tonne of it. I've put together plenty of different plans to follow to keep mixing things up and the result was around 21lbs of muscle gain, going

         from this                               through this                                   to this
               V                                             V                                               V


I'm still a novice at this stuff but I'm enjoying learning and I think this might end up being a dumping ground for all the stuff I have learned/find out in the future...

It's slow progress, but it's progress...

lakes/2 months?!/competion/green piss...!

Well, I'm thinking about starting writing in this blog again and I came across this partly written post which I figured I might as well publish for the sake of it.

In reference to the title - I think I had been to the lakes so was gonna write about that, it had been 2 months since my last post when I wrote this (now 22 months) and protein shakes make your urine green....

So the post as I found it:


So...it's been a while.

I haven't really updated because as far as I thought nothing much has happened...then I thought about all the stuff I have done and decided there probably was enough for about 4 posts...

I've made some big changes in the weights side of things as well with some interesting results...

Firstly, the competition.

Well, the day as a whole and the week following pretty much killed me.  The night before trying to get myself properly prepared I spent hours double/triple checking that I had all my kit together, that I had an appropriate selection of energy boosting bars/drinks, enough water to drown a fish, fruits, knee support, elbow support and enough songs on my iPod to keep me singing for a month.  As such, I messed up on one vital area of preparation; appropriate amount of sleep.

I did however manage a hearty meal of chicken and pasta to pack up on the carbs and protein to keep me going through the next day.

Finally getting to bed at around 2; I was up at 8 to get ready.

We all set off in convoy down the M62 and arrived in Doncaster in plenty of time - especially plenty of time given that the adults weren't starting until around 1.  To be fair, I'm getting on now, so I do need an extended of period of time to warm up, but 4 hours is a little excessive even for me!

So, 4 hours later it was time for breaking.

Up steps Chris...KYAAA....fail....damn.....

Next is the patterns.

3 of us competing; 3 of us from the same club...1st 2nd and 3rd thank you very much!  I came away with a respectable 2nd and my first trophy of the day.

Once the patterns were over I was told there was one fight, then I was up sparring so to get my pads on sharpish.  3 minutes to get fully kitted up is not a long time - especially when you're broken like I am and need a knee support, an elbow support and hand wraps.  So off I sprinted to get ready while the first 3 minute fight went on.  Off to the toilets to put my abdominal (groin) guard on - couldn't exactly do that in the middle of the hall! Then back to get the rest of my pads/wraps/supports/life supports attached...

3 and a half minutes later and I'm stumbling towards the ring one glove on, the other a bit on, about 3 seconds from being disqualified.

A quick reminder of the rules, bow, touch gloves and fight on...  As I moved in he picked me off with a kick at which point the referee stopped us and moved us back to our starting positions...........which......is when I realised that this wasn't continuous but was in fact point-stop.  Oops...

Point-stop is definitely not my forté, as I found out when I lost 9-6.  I wasn't down-heartened though; he was a few belts above me and I hadn't come there expecting much from point stop, it was all about continuous for me.

So eventually the time came for the continuous first round.  I'd been watching the guys I would have to fight warming up earlier on, and they looked pretty good with the kicks.  Good enough that I felt if I stayed on the outside to compete kick for kick I'd come out the loser.  So, having thought about what happened to me in Ireland - getting steam-rollered by a messy, but ultimately effective style, centered more around punches than kicks.  I guessed they probably wouldn't have encountered it before and wouldn't have the answers.  I hoped so anyway!

So I tried to get on the inside of their kicks as much as possible, only really throwing a few kicks and mostly to set me up to come in for the punches.

It might not have looked right pretty, but it worked.  First round down against someone a few belts higher than me and I was on to the final.

I kept the same technique for this fight and this time was actually easier than the first round.

3 minutes later and I was receiving my trophy!

Between the group of us we got around 25 trophies I think