training at the beach

My mate was training for a fight while visiting us from the states. He had to stay in shape, yet we were many K's from the nearest gym. So we had to make do. I wanted to go running with him in the mornings, but, my sore knee and my exhaustion kept me from it. He ran for about an hour every morning.

Then as the evening started to creep up we would head down to the beach for some more intense training. The first night I had him do some shadow boxing to warm up. A few round of fairly brisk shadow boxing and then a good 2 K run to makes sure he was good and warmed. In the soft sand ofcourse. This wasn't supposed to be fun. I then had him start doing interval sprints. I let him run on the hard sand for those. Run at full pace for a minute and then jog for a minute. And again. And again. And again.

I had him do mf's, coach used to tell us that stood for My Favorites, but we though otherwise. He would run ten metres at full sprint touch the ground and come back to the start touch the ground, then twenty, then thirty, then forty, and then back down. When the last ten meters were done that was one. We did more than one.

Then twenty squats, sprint up a sand dune, jog back, sprint to the hard sand, do twenty push ups, jog back twenty squats and up again. We did that for a while. People were watching us like we were crazy. I felt crazy. Gabe felt like dying :)

Then we went down to the hard sand to do a little punching and kicking training. I had the thai full arm pads, he was wearing boxing gloves. There was a small group of young guys that were making fun of us a bit. Mimicing the boxing, and just acting like jerks. I though about a six on two sparring session, but felt we needed a real work out :) Funny their humour seemed to leave them when Gabe started punching and kicking the pads. When someone really knows what they are doing the punches and kicks land with a ferocity that can be a bit overwhelming for normal folk. He really knows what he is doing.

We finished up with five rounds of pads and then were through for night one. Gabe was consolled by some of the vacationers on the beach, I am sure they hated me, what a mean guy I am.

Not to over spiritualize things too much, but it seems a bit more sane to make these sacrifices for an athletic event. Everyone seemed to understand. He is on holiday, but he didn't drink more than a glass of wine. He ate very healthy, when there was some awesome food being shared. He worked his ass off both morning and evening. In this beautiful setting that yelled for you to relax, take a load off, just enjoy the grandeur of Gods creation, He was devoted to improving, to growing, to being in shape. And no one thought it was crazy, it is just what you have to do to win. Funny, but we are called to "devote" ourselves to the apostles teachings, to breaking bread, to prayer, and to fellowship. But if you sacrifice this much, you are seen as religious, fanatic, over the top. Well you know what? Maybe devotion is just that. Making sacrifices, working hard, seeming a bit strange.

I know I feel like maybe I should be training for my fight, what about you?

the rev