Last Day of September

What in the heck am I doing in this photo?  I'm actually backing away from Keith, whom I was sparring with.  More about that later.

Yes, it has been confirmed -- the pieces out in the hallway outside of the gym is the new ring.  It will be a raised ring, meaning the ring will be slightly elevated off of the floor.  The new ring will be a welcome change from the current ring.  Barry mentioned this past Friday that the ring will be assembled soon.

I noticed that the speed bag was missing.  "It was here on Friday," I told Alan.  "I don't remember seeing it there on Friday.  Barry put a lot of stuff away before the boxing show, so maybe that's been put away, too," Alan said.  I hope so. It's not unusual for items to come up missing from the gym on occasion.  "If I had noticed it wasn't up there, I would have brought one from home," Colonel said.  I was glad that Colonel brought his double end bag in and hung it up. Tall John tried to pump air into the one that he's been bringing in, and so did I.  But the air wouldn't stay in.

Alan gives tips to Keith in-between rounds in this photo.  Keith was sparring with Tall John, who wanted to work on defense.  Gabriel was watching from the sides.  "Throw something, man," he told Tall John.  When Tall John explained what he and Keith were working on, Gabriel smiled and said, "But at least throw some punches!"

Gabriel later got into the ring with Keith to run some drills with him.

Keith and I sparred for three rounds.  I was trying to go easy, mainly because Keith and I had not sparred before.  But then I got some quick reminders to keep my mouth closed, as several of Keith's punches got me right in the mouth.  I kept throwing right hooks to Keith's head and body, but I couldn't get any left hooks in at all.  Afterwards, Keith said that I had some hard hooks.  All the guys I spar with seem to tell me that (smile).

Gabriel also sparred with Matthew.  In this photo, Matthew has backed Gabriel up into a corner as Alan looks on.

Michael, a guy who used to live in my building, stopped in briefly.  "I need to get this off of me," he told me as he rubbed his mid-section.  "What helped me lose a little was. . . .," I started.  "Don't tell me to give up sugar," Michael said, as he held a cup of coffee in his hands.  "That's exactly what I was going to say," I grinned.  Cutting down on that and watching my intake of carbohydrates has helped a lot with me taking off some weight.  Currently, I am a little under 170 pounds, which is a good thing.  But many times, I get tripped up when the fall season comes in.  The cooler temperatures are often an excuse for me to eat heavier foods as well as sugary foods.  But not this time.  As much as I don't care for cooking, I have to admit that since I have been cooking more these days, it has helped me control what I'm eating.

Now I have to up the amount of exercise that I do outside of the ring.  I have a lot of free time on my hands at the moment, so there's no reason why I couldn't do exercise in the morning to start off my day.  Now, if I can only stop pressing the snooze button repeatedly, I'll be fine.