Man-cation

Tonight I'm flying to the "Redneck Riviera" of Panama City, FL for a man-cation with some of my Boston buddies. They know the owner of a mom n' pop hotel and go down for a long Memorial Day weekend every year and take the place over. I'm super excited.

But.

I have the strange feeling that I won't be doing wind-sprints and shadow boxing on the beach. (On second thought, montage, anyone?!) A week on the beach is, well, a week on the beach and I have no complaints or reluctance to sit in a hammock and booze up and go deep sea fishing and play shuffleboard and... whatever else you do in Panama City.

But at the same time, I'm coming off one of the best fights of my amateur career and have been frustrated by my on-again/off-again training schedules the past 4+ months. I want to keep competing often and at a high level, and the missing link isn't a lack of physical ability or savvy or heart or dedication - it's consistency.

I have a saw. I just haven't been able to keep it sharp.

And sand and booze are only going to dull it a little more - albeit happily. Which, ironically, will make it all the more frustrating when I step back into the ring next week and get back into attack mode.

But I'll worry about that when I return. Until then, I have some fish to catch...

Beautiful Cycle

My bout could not have gone any better. No, that doesn't do it any justice.

My bout could not have been any more perfect.

Seriously.

I entered the ring Saturday and completely dismantled my opponent, sniping him with stiff jabs, snapping his head back with straight rights and demoralizing him with body shots and hooks. I did whatever I wanted, controlling the pace, keeping my defense tight and eluding entire combinations with my head and upper body movement.

In all honesty, I don’t know where this boxer (me) came from. I’ve won more than my share of fights, but never before have things clicked like this to where I just controlled and dominated it from bell to bell. My opponent was bloodied and disheartened (I didn’t think he was going to come out for the 3rd) and my corner literally had nothing to say between the 2nd and 3rd rounds aside from “good job, keep it up...yeah...that’s about it...you’re killing him...where we drinking after this?”

Even the gym owner was surprised, commenting how “you’re a great boxer, but sometimes you trade a bit too much – tonight you picked your shots and just put on a boxing clinic.”

Psh, who needs momentum? I just need a pair of gloves, a good night’s sleep and a clear head, and I can save the world, one jab and counter-right at a time.

On the topic of momentum: since the bout, I’ve only been able to sneak into the gym four times this week (I guess that's not so bad) and I have a week-long vacation in Florida rapidly approaching, so I won’t be able to truly build off this experience. Despite this, time and time again I feel like momentum doesn’t matter – my training and success is just a hilly, beautiful cycle that keeps me head-down and on my toes, rewarding me along the way for my hard work, perseverance and love for the sport.

Pre-fight Musings

I always talk about how the most important thing for me is to peak rather than plateau before a fight, but my preparation for this bout has definitely flattened out.

My last great workout was Sunday when I built my routine around 8 aggressive rounds of mitts with my buddy wearing the chest protector. It was better than sparring, giving me a great cardio and in-ring strength workout while letting me focus on my technique and combinations. Since then, I’ve felt like I’ve been boxing in sand, with my legs being fatigued and sore to the point that I even had to skip a workout on Wednesday.

Not ideal, but come 8 hours before my fight, I feel OK. Far from peaked, definitely not flat, but certainly not ideal. The biggest reason I worry about quantifying my preparation is because I can’t help but have it affect my confidence and mental preparation. I have the utmost confidence in my abilities, smarts and ring savvy, but right now I don’t have that “edge” – that certain completeness that lets me know with certainty that my opponent can’t touch me. How can you not fight a little conservative when you don’t know with 100% certainty that your legs will be there, your punches will be crisp and the gas tank is full?

I by no means have myself mentally defeated – I’m prepared for this fight and looking forward to it, but I’m not “up” and chomping at the bit. Perhaps it’s because of my short preparation, or maybe my attitude’s leaving a little to be desired, or it just might be the fact that this is yet another exhibition and I can’t help but look at it like an open sparring session rather than a higher-stakes, official bout.

What’s most likely is that I’m holding myself to an unfairly high standard, especially after just over two full weeks of training since my work-induced hiatus. Whenever I step in that ring I represent myself, my work ethic and my abilities, so I feel it's only human to take pride in my showing. At the same time, I need to just take deep breaths and Hulk-up - my brain and body have never let me down and, as always, I'll just have to improvise and adapt tonight to put it all together in the ring.

Recap - 2 weeks out

So my short “camp” leading up to my next fight has turned out to be as frenzied as I thought it’d be. The air of desperation has thus far been extremely beneficial – there’s no room for a lackadaisical workout or unplanned day off, so I’ve made sure neither happens. Maybe this is how I’ll have to find my stride – accept that training won't ever be a paced trot and just embrace the sprint to fight night. Besides, I’ve always prided myself in the fact that I never “let myself go” and am just a few weeks of fine-tuning away from being fight-ready, and, well, we’re entering week 2 and I feel as good as I usually do...

So here's a quick recap of my training since scheduling the fight. Everything starts with 12-minute jump rope, 3 rounds shadow boxing:

• Saturday: Sparred with Tommy Duquette, one of the best amateur 140 lbers in the country. (Yes, the country - he's got the belts to prove it.) Needless to say, he had the advantage over me across the board, but when our 3 rounds were done he and his trainer had nothing but praise for my showing. I love sparring with Tommy because, despite outclassing me, he works with this certain style and pace that we both still get great work, no matter how lopsided the theoretical scorecard would be. If a national champ says I have a tight defense and good counterpunches (obviously I didn't need to say the same to him - I just laughed and said "wow" as I checked to make sure I was still in one piece) I know I'm more than capable of handling whatever shmuck I face next week. I finished up with a 10-round bag circuit and abs, then went for a 5-mile run. Fantastic workout.
• Sunday: Upper body weight circuit (chest, bi's, tri's, back, neck) and abs, plus a 6-mile run. Before my run, I walked backwards on the treadmill at the gym for 15 minutes, shadowboxing and keeping my weight low. Thanks, Ann Wolfe!
  
• Monday: Rest
• Tuesday: Declined some sparring to work on some things I learned from my rounds with Tommy. Had a nice, long, paced session on the heavy bag (12 rounds) and tried to focus on my balance and footwork. Finished with a 3-round burnout on the hook bag. Abs, plyos.
• Wednesday: Speed day. 4 rounds double-end bag, 4 rounds heavy bag, 4 rounds focus mitts. Had my 16 oz. gloves (rather than my 20 oz. "lobster claws") and really let them fly. Gassed quick - not early, but quick, from throwing cattle-cars full of leather in a short amount of time. Abs, plyos.
• Thursday: 4-mile run, sit-ups, push-ups, core exercises. Felt gross and unmotivated, but was glad to get in what I did.
  
• Friday: Sat in a suite at the Bruins game. Love me some Stanley Cup playoffs. Good times.
• Saturday: Detoxed with a grueling workout in the heat. 4 rounds focus mitts, 4 rounds hook bag, 4 rounds heavy bag, 3 round burn-out changing levels on the huge jumbo bag duct-taped to one of the ring poles. That thing owns me. Broke out the rope ladder and truck tire for some hardcore plyos and drills. Finished with abs and a 4-mile run. Watched the Royals beat the Twins and Celtics beat the Bulls instead of forking over $55 for the Hatton/Pacquiao fight. Watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" as I drifted to sleep and fell in love with Mila Kunis' character. Ah, what a Saturday.
  
• Sunday: Today. Feel-good sore. Going to go for a run, stretch out real well, and do 8 rounds of mitts with the body pads. I figure I'll get my strength in today by leaning/pushing on my buddy as I move around in the ring and tee off on him rather than just lifting per my usual Sunday routine. Was tempted to double-up the workouts, but figure this will be better work if I'm fresh. Besides, I'll never bench-press or curl my opponent, but I'm sure the situation will arise when I'll need to nudge him off me to make some space and rip into his rib cage. So the ring work wins. Sorry, beach muscles.
  

So good stuff going on this week in the ring and out. I have a busy week at work, some softball games to juggle (or skip this week...) and the usual life/schedule shenanigans, but I have zero complaints or worries about how I feel 2 weeks out. Just few more hard workouts and then I'll start tapering. And then it's go time.

...And Back on the Up and Up

So I guess all I had to do was write a whiny post on here about my loss of momentum and, voila, the tides turn and everything gets re-directed back on the up and up.

First things first: I was recently promoted at my job. Yes, it was a proud day – I, Jonathan Moreland, am no longer an entry-level peon. It was actually a somewhat unexpected bump given my tenure at SHIFT, but I’m extremely humbled and all the more motivated to have received the recognition for my hard work. Funny note: whenever there is big personnel move, the manager involved sends around an all-office email. When my boss sent mine around, she had the subject read “and in this corner….” and tied in a bunch of boxing metaphors as well as a link to this blog. (So glad I’ve been neglecting it….) Anyway, made me proud that I'm officially the punchin' PR pro.

Another big development at work is my colleague/partner-in-crime/direct co-worker is leaving, so I’ve had a ton (wait, it’s always a ton – so make that two tons) of work handling the transition as well as the normal in-office craziness. Big point being: as usual, it’s all good at work. Extremely busy, but a good busy…especially when it doesn’t get in the way of the gym.

Which, luckily, it hasn’t as of late.

While I’ve been cross-training my tail off and staying in phenomenal (is that bragging? sorry, it's true...) shape, I’ve just started working out at the boxing gym again the past 10 days. So far, I don’t feel like I’m that rusty – I feel more fresh than stiff, strong than slow. It’s been a great start to camp, including a sparring session where I absolutely picked a kid apart with counterpunches, so my thought process and timing aren’t too far off either. I certainly feel comfortable with the tools I have to work with and build on in the coming weeks.

I think I got goaded into fighting on a card on May 8. It’s only a few weeks away, but, hell, why not? I’ve been antsy to get back in the ring and what better way to do it than train for a hard, rapidly-approaching deadline? I figure I can chronicle my blitzkrieg training on here too – I've always meant to write shorter, more boxing-focused posts.

The past few months have truly been a roller coaster – no melodramatics about it, there’s no other way to explain it. My career has finally broken through, and I’ve gone from 3 weeks off to 2 great weeks of “on” at the gym, with my health, motivation and counter-rights all focused upwards towards May 8. Now it's just an issue of riding this upswing as far as I can take it.

So Much for Momentum...

I haven't written since a few days after my last bout because I (unfortunately) don't have anything to report. At all. I haven't been to the boxing gym in almost two full weeks, I haven't even watched boxing in just as long, and I don't have working Internet at my apartment to be able to post random musings on here in the meanwhile. So to my few faithful readers, I apologize. My lack of activity has been frustrating to the point of heartbreak, especially after such a great bout to start the month.

This isn't to say that I don't even know a guy named Gym anymore (hardy har) - I've been cross-training my tail off and am in as good of shape in the weight room/on the track as I've been since high school, back when I was a full-time athlete, part-time delinquent, er, student. So I haven't lost all my momentum...but the following has certainly slowed me down:

• Rest. Necessary for any athlete. I took a whopping 0 days off after my bout and after training hard for another week, I was hurting. I was sore and achy, with something clicking in a knuckle on my right hand, my back acting up and far too many consecutive days of those icky, "bad" workouts. You know, the ones where you go through the motions, your arms get heavy earlier than usual, you cut a corner or two for the sake of finishing the workout because you're just...spent. Before you even began. Sick of the trend, I rested. Like any athlete could/should/does after a bout when his body's "check engine sign" is flashing. But my few days of rest quickly turned to a few weeks because of...

• Work. Yes, most everyone lucky enough to be employed right now has a demanding, full-time job these days, but I've learned the past 1.5 years that PR is far from the most conducive industry for competitive sport. Long work weeks are not only time-consuming (duh) but can devour a workout schedule and leave it in shambles starting on Monday. Sometimes the hours simply don't align - meaning I'm not going to start a workout at 9 p.m., be too amped to sleep until 1 a.m. and expect to wake up at 6:30 a.m. all warm and fuzzy inside to repeat 4 more times before the weekend. All work (and work OUTs) and no sleep make Jonathan cranky. And not function, in the office as well as the ring. So hats off to a superstar like Juan Diaz, balancing school and a world-class pro career. I don't know he does it. Maybe I should find out. Aside from his studies though, like me, I don't see what he'd be able to avoid...
  

• Death and taxes. And laundry. And grocery shopping. And sweeping up the dust bunnies. You know, the things you have to do. They suck, but seem to reer their head once/week this month and forced me to skimp a workout for the sake of not living in squalor. Speaking of living...
  

• Life. I like mine to be well-rounded. From March Madness to a long-time friend in town, my social life has hindered my training lately. No complaints here...aside from not training, that is. As such, in the struggle to carve out a few more hours a few more nights a week, this bullet is definitely going to be the first to go...
  

So I feel like I'm stating the obvious, but the past few weeks have been a crappy reminder of how difficult it is to find the time to commute out to the boxing gym and keep on keeping on. I feel like it's all backwards - I want to sweat, I want to bleed, I want to work myself to exhaustion, I want to put in my ring equity and do what I love. There's no lack of heart (insanity) or capable muscle mass here. It's just an issue of truly pulling out all the stops and making it "click," even during chaotic stretches like the past few weeks.

On the same note, it's good to be reminded what "this" is - my struggle to balance all these things with my love for the ring. There have been highs and lows the past eight years. Right now I've slipped from my climb to the top (whatever my peak may be) but I haven't fallen far. I'm still hungry, I'm still primed and as determined as ever. I just need to regain my footing and start my upward ascent all over again, with or without momentum.

First step's always the hardest. Luckily, this one's going to be up.

Overdue recap

A write-up of my bout last Friday is more than overdue, but has been delayed by, well, life. My hectic schedule outside of the gym has continued - part play, mostly work - and kept me from putting together a colorful post about fight night.

But, long story short, my bout could not have gone better.

Seriously.

The biggest problem with trying to give a first-person narration of a boxing match is that, in the heat of battle, you're a little (way) too preoccupied to take detailed mental notes and outline your blog post in real-time. Each and every step, bend, punch and fluid movement gives way to the next so quickly that each is instantaneously forgotten - melding into the gelatinous mess of adrenaline-laden memories, while setting the stage for each of its successors.

As such, I remember flashes of each round - the satisfying pop of a counter right down the shoot, "knowing" a hook was coming next and beating it with one of my own - but am nowhere near able to piece together a semblance of a play-by-play.

I don't know why I keep thinking I ever will be...

So Reader's Digest version: Round 1 was very much the typical "feel-out" round. I've come to learn that I'm very good at these rounds - more often than not my opponent is more wound up than I am, so I'm able to dictate the pace by just keeping my guard high and jab in his face, conserving some energy, not showing all my cards and only throwing power punches when they're absolutely appropriate. I used this efficient - but effective - approach to win the first round, taking some detailed notes (do's and don'ts) back to my corner.

Round 2 didn't go as planned, as my opponent made some adjustments of his own and, rather than cooperating and keeping his head on a tee, busted out some lateral movement that made by punches hook and loop a little too wildly. Luckily, this was more me missing big (and wild) than me missing badly - the difference being that missing badly gets you rocked, while missing big just makes you look like a jackass for finishing every combination with an errant haymaker.

My cornermen scolded me between rounds - as if I didn't know I had gotten ahead of myself throwing bombs - and told me to go back to keeping my jab in his face and let the right hands come to me - shorten them, quit loading up, and throw them when there's an opening rather than, well, when there's not.

Round 3 was mine. Mine mine mine. Controlling both the ring as well as the tempo with a healthy diet of 1-2's, I figured out my opponent's shenanigans and kept catching him with rights as he tried to dance away. I caught him with an especially hard cross as the 30-second bell rang, so, smelling blood (as if I didn't already need the motivation - the 30-second bell in the 3rd round unleashes something alien and angry in me) I was all over the kid in a heartbeat, ripping hooks and body shots as he leaned against the ropes. Knowing how much trouble he was in, I stepped back and nodded, spitting out a "let's finish strong, baby!" through my double-end mouthpiece to make sure he was still with me. He nodded, we touched gloves, and he took his beating like a man.

Which isn't me talking trash - he was a classy kid, got gassed, caught, and whupped in the final round. It's hard to explain - it was part warrior's code, part exhibition-mentality, part me just wanting to make a point rather than leave a mark.

Whatever the case, the sum result was that I simultaneously put on a hell of an exhibition while getting some very quality rounds in. When I got sloppy, he made me pay. When I kept it tight and fought my game, I took over. And most importantly, when I had to dig deep in the final seconds, I found a huge reservoir of energy that let me finish the fight with a resounding, dominating sequence. It was a competitive bout that gave me some more direction and experience, but all in all I could not be any happier with how I prepared and performed.

While my training didn't reflect it this week, I plan on taking all the steps necessary to be able to build off this fight and repeat it. However good it's felt basking in a strong performance, my work has only just begun.