Training notes - Pt 2

Well, the competition draws ever closer and I've been training as hard as possible and am thankful to say still remain injury free (as in new injuries, plenty of old ones lurking around the corner) and in pretty good shape.

I originally entered the -88 bracket and have been in the gym hitting the weights mainly doing deadlifts, squats and the old faithful Coutures (explain in a future post) and have piled on the pounds and last week I weighed in at 92K (all muscle, honest). The next bracket up from -88 is the -94K so I've decided to fight in the upper weight bracket, as opposed to flogging my guts out in the last two weeks trying to cut weight and leave myself exhausted in the process.

When undergoing a periodised training programme, the weight loss is best done in the first few weeks, leaving you strong and in good shape come the time of competition; so instead of starving to death and being a miserable sod (am I ever??) I've laid off the heavy squats and deadlifts and kept to lighter weights, at the same time doing more drilling and specifics on the mats.

Had a great session in London yesterday at Carlsons in Hammersmith (report and pix later) plenty of good training and tips and fine points to add to the arsenal and will be rounding off training Tuesday, mainly doing drills, drills and more drills and specifics and plenty of stretching.

Wednesday sees me travelling down to Wales to meet my sponsors and travelling then on to London for an early night before jumping on the Stupid O Clock from Stansted Thursday morning. Chilling out will be the name of the day Thursday and Friday and by then most of the UK competitors will be at the Welcome Hotel, where I've arranged for us all to meet in the lobby Saturday morning for photos and to get us all fired up and ready to fight!

I'll be reporting on the whole trip, plus the event and after show parties, with plenty of photos to share with you all on the Blog and the forums, so keep 'em peeled.

The photos are from the Scandinavian Open in 2004, where I had the honour of having my match refereed by black belt legend Rob Drysdale.