State On The Way

Steve spent most of the time last night prepping JJ for his match at the Illinois State Boxing Championship, which takes place tomorrow night. Steve was considering closing up the gym Friday night, but I agreed to open it up. Knowing that in a couple of months, when the Golden Gloves are in full swing, the gym will probably be closed a lot, I figured I should come in.

Eric, Nick and Mike sparred with each other. Mike has often said he needs to calm down in the ring, and he was rushing the guys in the early rounds. Steve pointed this out, and Mike brought it down a little. Nick was tired out, but he hung in there with Mike. Steve told him that he has to get his cardio up. Eric took a hit in the face from Mike which really threw him off. Eric was supposed to do two rounds with Nick afterwards, but he begged off. He promised Steve he would do those rounds the next time.

Steve asked Andy about sparring next week, and Andy agreed. However, Andy admitted he felt a bit nervous about doing so. "You'll be fine," I assured him. Andy has advantages of a long reach and long legs. If he uses those to move around and keep his opponent away, he could avoid being hit too much.

Jermaine and Ben showed up, albeit late in the evening. Keith was a no-show, as was Jordan. JJ's friend, Sam was there again, but I'm not sure if he signed up for the gym. While newcomers Deb and Carla returned, I noticed that Dan, Paris, Paris 2 (there's a second new guy in the gym with that name) and Peggy didn't come in. When I pointed out Peggy's absence to Steve, he remarked, "I'm not surprised that she didn't come back." Honestly, neither am I. On the first day, she didn't give the impression that she was going to be there long.

I meant to try out an energy drink that I had picked up at Walgreens earlier this week. There have been plenty of times when I felt worn out before the workout got started good. Some of that can be blamed on being drained from dealing with frustrations at work before I get to the gym. Sometimes dealing with nonsense at work has the opposite effect of producing energy to burn (like last Friday when I took out my anger towards Les on the heavy bags). Other times, the slow down has to do with diabetes zapping my energy. I don't completely trust energy drinks because many of them are filled with caffeine. I was going to drink half of the bottle before I came to the gym, but I forgot. Hopefully, I remember on Friday. If it is effective, and doesn't leave me jittery or produces a big crash after it wears off, I might use it on a regular basis.

There was a cola called Jolt. I don't know if it's still on the market, but whenever I needed a major energy lift, I would grab a can of that. Jolt's advertising slogan was "Twice the sugar, twice the caffeine", and they weren't lying. However, that stuff was wicked. I would be up for hours, and the crash afterwards was a trip. After awhile, I left it alone.