Saturday, February 09, 2013

Slip Drills

I texted K this morning that my back was toast from last night's drills. He asked me to let him know when I hurt so that he can tailor my next workout to avoid injury. Thursday night I worked a lot on "slips" (see video) and we did 30 straight minutes of strike avoidance (getting out of the way of a punch or kick). This involves bending and ducking in all sorts of odd positions while keeping your balance, your fight stance and breathing correctly. It's hard. I like this video because it shows how sopping wet you get boxing and you can hear their "breathing" patterns which is what K is a drill sergeant about. Fricking breathing. Oh! and his latest beef with me is my "angry face". LOL! When I start feeling the burn and start grunting, my face contorts into what K calls my angry face. He says this, "STOP with the angry face. RELAX and breathe." I'm all "RELAX? Are you f'in kidding me? I like making my angry face!" Then he gets his Krzysztof look and says, "So you like letting your opponent know you are hurting and tired? Not a good plan." I hate it when he makes sense.

Slip drills:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUcPHtfzs8c

So, I've been with K for 6 months now and I swear he finds a new muscle to rip apart in me every session. He tells me this afternoon that I won't run on the treadmill today, but instead he felt I was ready for "running ladders". You know ladders, where you see football players doing it all the time in practice. It's like hopscotch on steroids. I just try not to trip over my own feet. So now my knees, hips and ankles have joined my back in hell. And I get one whole day off before I go back.

A question I was recently asked: "So, what do you do besides work and train?" LOL. Not much! That is my life. It takes a HUGE amount of time and dedicaton to do this. I only work so that I can afford training, or I'd give that up. :-) I don't have kids to raise, or a husband to slave over so I'm free to do the things I've always wanted to do! I don't know how I settled on boxing/kickboxing/MMA, but I found my "thing". Who would have thought? I'm sure the people of my past would be rolling their eyes, insulting me and calling me Jane Wayne, but I don't care what anyone thinks, I love training and I'm not losing myself again! It originally started as something to do to regain my health, but now it is my love and obsession. Some women are obsessed with men, I'm obsessed with punching them. Ha!

Saturday, February 02, 2013

I don't even know where to start!!

There is so much going on in my life right now, it is hard to know how to put it all on here. I am on Facebook every day, it would be so nice if I could just copy and paste all that crap here and be done with it.  LOL.

Training is going well. I had a pivotal moment with it in December when Krzysztof (K) got pissed at me and told me I needed to get my shit together. It was at that moment that I decided to quit smoking for real and change some things in my life forever. I did it! Smoke free for over a month now! My eating is much better, too, and yesterday K told me I was doing "fucking amazing"!  He has never said anything like that before, he is more of the yell at me type. K's new move "Tapped" comes out in the spring. He is the bad guy again. I am actually learning some technique now, rather than just gasping for oxygen. Boxing is hard!  I will start learning MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) at the end of the year when I've dropped enough weight to do the grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Mom is hanging in there, all done with Chemo and Radiation. She lost her hair, and it is growing back now. She had 70% tumor shrinkage and is in a partial remission at the moment. She is back to her "squirrel on crack" persona running around here driving me crazy. The doctor gave her less than a year, but I don't know, she is pretty onery. :-)  I got her an Xbox 360 for Christmas because she wanted to play the Kinect (like the Wii) for virtual bowling since she can't do it in real life. I, myself, am enjoying the zombie killing games. My stepson is schooling me on all things Xbox. "Left 4 Dead", "Dead Island" and now they just came out with "The Walking Dead" (after the series), which I love of course. I asked my therapist if there was something wrong with me (muscle cars, Xbox, horror movies, boxing), she said no, I was just a unique girl who was in touch with her male side. So, I'm going with that. People laugh at me when I have my boxing wraps on with my long, manicured nails. You CAN be girly and be a boxer too. Look at Ronda Rousey!!  She is totally beautiful and is one of the first women to be in the UFC!! UFC 157 in Feb!!

Work is weird.  Now that my Seattle counterparts are gone and the NJ plant shut down, I am overwhelmed and stressed, and don't know how much longer it is going to last. I'm putting all my money into savings and trying to hold off buying my new Dodge Challenger until after tax time. I want to pay cash for the car, but I don't want to eat up all my savings doing it. Training is super expensive too, so I have to figure out how I will replace my income temporarily if something happens to my job.  I'm still working from home 3 days a week since mom isn't driving, but I also train 4 nights a week, am still remodeling the house, the boys (my stepson and friends) come see me about once a month, and I go up there to see his plays, etc. Training used to be right here in Lake Forest, but K got a job at a new UFC gym in Torrance, so I followed him up there. Now it is an hour there and back. :-/  He is worth it, though, I am actually learning shit, and losing weight, and getting buff!

Well, that should catch you up somewhat. I went to Seattle in December to visit my best friend, which was a blast, but I froze to death, lol. I am going back to see her again in April, then she is coming to see me in July, and I will take her to Disneyland.

For those who asked, here is a typical day of my "fighter" diet that K monitors very closely:

Breakfast:  1/2 cup of steel cut oats (oatmeal) with stevia or honey. 2 eggs with salsa/peppers, water, cup of coffee. Multi-vitamin, fish oil, Vitamin D, Calcium.
Mid-morning: Protein shake with vanilla/caramel whey, 1 banana, nonfat milk.
Lunch: Grilled chicken with veges (celery, pepperoncini's, carrots, green peppers, green onions, cucumbers) and tomato in a spring mix/spinach salad in a ginger sesame dressing with croutons, water.
Midday: Protein shake with Chocolate whey, strawberries, peanut butter and nonfat milk.
--Killer workout for an hour--
Dinner: BBQ'd Beef tenderloin steak, steamed asparagus, wild rice OR sweet potato OR a little pasta, water.

Ta-Ta For Now!