On one hand, it's totally grueling: I spent almost 5 mornings (like 6:30/7am mornings) at the gym (back in summer 2006 training for my first fight). Usually I did 30-40 min. runs before training. I sparred a couple times a week, often going to work with various parts of my face sore from being hit. I lost about 20 pounds to make weight - which means that I ate around 1200 calories per day and stopped drinking. To be fair, I was studying for the GMAT at the time, so it was easy to hole up every evening and study all weekend, to keep myself from being tempted to eat out or go out.
The upside? There was one, yes. I think the best part of training was having the ability to control my life in order to achieve something. I had a goal and I had to figure out how to get it done. It was like ultimate problem solving - which I was doing everywhere, in the ring, in the kitchen, in my head. This sounds slightly, ok very, crazy. But I was shocked with how adaptable I was to the training lifestyle and how losing the pound, landing the punch, got easier as I stuck with it.
Now I will say this: after my first fight (Oct 2006), training for my second wasn't nearly as strenuous. Maybe because I'd done it before, I didn't worry so much about eating and getting to the gym, it was more natural. At that point, I knew how I could lose 5 pounds the week before the fight so if I wanted to party it up two weeks before, I didn't feel guilty about it. Also, my body was conditioned to getting up early so training wasn't really affected by a late night.
After my second fight, I was just plain lazy. I thought I could just ride on the strides I'd made and a good fight would just... happen. It certainly happened all right - I didn't make weight, had to jump rope for 30m, chew gum and spit, to lose 2 pounds. My fight was called first and within 1:57 into the 1st round the fight was ended, mainly because my legs kept giving out from the jump roping. It was like being a colt trying to stand for the first time (when two giant yellow gloves are coming towards your face like a steam engine). I think part of the reason I wanted to stop fighting after was a mixture of discouragement and just feeling so tired of it all.
My plan was to quit for a while, start up again (Fall 07) and prep for the Golden Gloves in Feb 2008. However, at the US Open that fall, watching the tennis balls go back and forth and spending one too many minutes deciding if I should have another beer, which would put me over the calorie count for that day... I ended up quitting my boxing gym in Sept 07, joining Crunch in Dec... and now I only use Crunch to taking boxing classes or to store my stuff when I want to run outside. Boxing's an addiction, I tell you.
So, anyway... I'm excited today because I feel like training will get me back to a really good place.
Super excited!
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