Where were we?

Well, a little less than a month, but close enough. Hi, I'm an aspiring amateur boxer and I am going to be competing in the Southern New England Golden Gloves in January. I've actually been meaning to document this for a while but honestly I've been a little lazy about it. Haven't been in the right head space, so to speak, but we're good now. And I might be following in the footsteps of one of my teammates (sup, Catastrophe?).

Let's give a little back story, yes?

I used to be the girl who ate everything in front of her and 98% of it was bad for me. I was also the girl who fake ran the mile in high school and whose only form of exercise was changing the channel on the television. I was quiet, shy, self conscious and nervous about everything. I am 100% not the girl I was a year ago, let alone when I graduated high school. Sometimes, I wish some of those "popular" kids could see me now so I can say SUCK IT!

Okay, I joined my awesome, amazing, wonderful all women's boxing gym in April 2010 as a way to lose more weight (around April 2009 I weighed roughly 180lbs) and to do something I wouldn't find boring. So I went to the gym to meet with the owner and check out the place. It was awesome and I signed up for a membership after a quick tour. I also decided, in addition to that, and because I was nervous about having lots of people in the classes watching me, that I'd sign up for some private lessons. I was paired off with Keith, a pro boxer and a really nice guy. He taught me all the basics and trained me good. He left our gym after about two months and I was given a new trainer, Zach. Oh, Zach. There aren't enough words to describe you. He's an interesting guy but he knows his shit, been boxing for about six years and is an amateur boxer. I was a little nervous to walk into the gym the first day he was there and find out, "Hey, you have a new trainer...enjoy!" I've been training with him ever since and he knows how to push my buttons to get me to train harder and better. He's good like that. I've been working with him once a week since about June.

I also have a second trainer, Jaime Clampitt (4x world champion if you care to google her). She also has been training Zach for the six years he's been boxing. She is probably one the nicest people I've ever met and I'm so lucky to have her as one of my trainers. I had met her briefly while I was training with Keith. She had subbed in for one of my lessons while he was prepping for an upcoming fight. I was hella nervous to meet her. I mean, c'mon, I googled her before I met her and I wanted to know how much she was going to kill me. She didn't. And I wanted to work with her more often. She trains me once a week as well and I've been working with her steadily since September (I worked with her a bit before that but she took about a month off for her last fight).

In June two girls who trained at our gym headed down to Florida for the Women's National Golden Gloves. They each won their respective weight classes and are now Golden Gloves champs. How awesome is that? Jaime had me spar them literally three days before they left for the competition. Damn. I believe it was while they were gone the seed was planted. I also take Jaimes Sunday morning boxing class and she had mentioned, I assume in jest at this point, that next year I'll be down there with them and to start thinking about competitions in January. I'm pretty sure I laughed at her because that point I had only been boxing for 3 months and I sucked, but I nodded my head and halfheartedly said, "Sure!"

Fast forward 5 months and it's a done deal. I'm going and competing. And I'm terrified. I've had no competitions thus far but I have done two "exhibitions". The first one was a few months after I started sparring and it went pretty well, me and the woman I sparred had pretty much the same experience level. Second time was the day after Thanksgiving just two weeks ago. I've sparred Marcia before, when she comes up to SB some Sundays and she gives me good work (she also hits incredibly hard). But she's been boxing for seven years. Um, I've been boxing for seven MONTHS. I do love working with her, though, but I was terrified that day. It was at her gym down in CT and I was horribly sick. Bad, bad cough, and had maybe 60% energy. I was pretty sure I sucked the big one. Everyone who was there, and those who watched the tape (including Zach who was not able to attend, so Jaime and Melissa worked my corner), said it was pretty good...but I need to work on my jab. It was a great experience and it was my first time in front of a lot of people. I'm proud that I did it and got through those three rounds. And I busted her lip, go me!

Now we're at this week. I worked with Jaime on Tuesday and I was not feeling so great. We started things off, after jump roping to warm up, with some sparring. Holy crap, what? AND she sparred as a southpaw because the girl I'm being paired up with on Sunday (for a holiday "exhibition" at my gym) is a lefty. I was all over the place. For every ten punches she throws I throw about three it feels like. My problem is that I get way too down on myself while sparring and I think too much. When I tell my brain to stfu, I can throw combos and combos and land a lot of it but it's hard to turn off your brain enough where that is effective and yet still be thinking and trying to figure what your opponent is going to do. And then we did pads, which went a lot better. Wednesday I worked with Zach and I felt incredibly good after my hour with him. We did about six rounds of pads and I felt solid.

Oh, I should also say that I tend to not get hurt in the ring (knock on wood and minus some bloody noses) but outside the gym. Catastrophe convinced me to try a pole dancing class (it's great for muscles!) and after four weeks I broke a toe. I was done with that. Two weeks before Thanksgiving I fell down my stairs and bruised my tailbone something fierce. The latest one? I've had a cough for about a month now and I pulled the intercostal muscles in my ribs. Hurts like a youknowwhat but I refuse to quit and slow down (and I've been yelled about by quite a few people for it). Oh and I have tendinitis in my hip flexor. ONE MONTH, remember?

To wrap this up I'll just give a quick run down of what my gym schedule is like as I am now on a training-six-days-a-week plan as per Jaime. And as me and Sonic say, "We don't question the Hurricane."

Sunday: Jaimes boxing class (that I am not skipping anymore!) followed by sparring.
Monday: running in the afternoon or morning and some ab work.
Tuesday: conditioning with Marcin int he morning, also including running and jump roping in the afternoon
Wednesday: one hour with Zach followed by his boxing class, then sparring
Thursday: Mike's boxing class
Friday: NOTHING
Saturday: Jaimes boxing class at her gym in RI and then one hour training.

That's roughly where I'm at. Did I mention I also work full time during the day and three days a week I work at my gym?

Tomorrow blog: Weight. Gross.