Past week was a blur of emotional toilings and appointments. We picked out my dad's headstone on Friday: black with subtle gold sparkles under the sunlight. Going to place an Air Force picture of him on display in it.

I managed to drag myself into boxing afterwards. Part of me felt like skipping, but classes are pre-registered every weekend and there’s a cancellation fee, plus another side knew that toughing it out and going would be good for me. It was a new coach and some hard conditioning. Instead of merely skipping rope for 3 rounds of 3 minutes as the warm-up, we replaced the 30 second rest with 10 burpees before jumping back into rope skipping. That didn’t feel hard, but It escalated from there with rotating medicine ball throws, kettlebell thrusters, and battle ropes. I felt like my gas tank was truly tested for the first time at this place. It was also the first time I’ve ever used battle ropes. They were the easiest among the exercise trio.

We then did a drill of jabbing at our defending partners for 2 minutes straight, then 1-2s for 2 minutes, then switching.

Played around with a different squat form last night after work: high bar and ATG, with hamstrings touching my heels. Lately I really like the idea of cycling in different grips and stances, instead of primarily thinking about changing the bar or exercise. I used to exclusively squat high bar until 2019, when the top of my vertebrae started to seriously hurt. The positioning didn’t come back naturally to me and it felt awkward.

Worked up to a single of 405, then 315x8. Predictably, the weight felt very light except for a split-second at the very bottom.

Have also started supplementing with Biotest Superfood instead of buying my usual Costco multivitamins.

It felt weird yesterday coming home to a house without him. I'm glad Mirza was there to greet me. It became ritualistic for Dad to note that the cat had been asleep and waiting for me all day until he springs awake and comes to the stairs when I enter.