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
