Day after the night before

So last night was the first class, and it was brilliant. Marcus came too because he can't make his normal one on Saturday mornings, which was good because we all got to start together. The whole thing was great. Heavy bag was good, amazing stress reliever, but while I was hitting it I was flooded with the images of actually fighting. There is a long way to go. Its obvious that technique is everything with this, apparently most of boxing is in the feet, and coordination. I got carried away several times, but I'm going to concentrate on these basics and get a good foundation. As soon as you get the hand-wraps on you feel like you can do it just because you've seen it all before. I was devastated about how poor I was at the speed-bag. I've always wanted to try it, when I stood there looking at it, I felt like it was something I'd definitely pick up no problem, but there was a problem and I didn't work it out yet. Maybe Saturday. Skipping was funny, I can do that because I had a lot of practise when I was a little girl.

First day of the rest ...

Today's the day we start the training, can't wait ... its also coincidentally the day the full renovations start on our bathroom (getting completely gutted) so at least on Tuesdays and Saturdays I'll be able to shower at the gym

Spoke too soon

Spoke too soon, this often happens, its almost too predictable ...just as I start getting smug about my commitment to fitness I fall off the wagon. This weekend was shameful, loads of red wine, white bread and even chocolate, even chocolate ice-cream. What a fanny, must be getting my period ...oh well, the class starts tomorrow and I am buzzing for that. Bought the heavy bag gloves yesterday from Canadian Tire (Everlast $29.99 good deal)

mapmyrun.com

Feeling quite pleased with myself, because we've started the workouts quite seriously and I'm already feeling pretty good. I'm even seeing a few results I think although its hard to tell since I always suck in my gut in front of a mirror, pure reflex and I cant help it. Anyway, Joey showed me this website which is really helping to track what I'm doing. So far in Apr I've done 4 x home workouts (by http://www.tranz4m.com/), 3 x circuit training with Marcus and Konrad (Konrad is lifting around 30-50% heavier weights than me, slightly worrying but he's on course to be a heavyweight and I'd rather fight in the featherweight class if at all possible), and 2 x pre-season football (soccer) training. According to the website I have burned 3,945 calories doing it. I'm not sure whether this is a good measure but it tells you anyway. Also according to the site its 0.49 miles to Marcus's gym from my house and since I'm jogging there and back I'm counting 3 miles of running too http://www.mapmyrun.com/

Boxing training starts next Tuesday

Do I have to ?

This weekend I had the first talk to my wife about how sensible this all is. Inevitable I suppose, and it went something like this :-
Ian : What do you think we should call the blog ? At the moment its called My First Fight
(we were in the car driving back from the kitchen remodeling showroom, honestly)
Karin : Why do you have to have a fight, you're making it all about the fight, not the fitness thing
I : We can call it whatever, thats just the title for now
K : Why do you have to have a fight ?
I : Its to see if I can become a boxer after 12 months
K : Of course you can
I : Oh ?
K What do you think your mum will say ? She won't like it.
I : I'm not telling her, she won't have to know
K : Really ? (mock threateningly, but really threatening)
.........
K : I am worried, you're going to become a retard. You're a bit sensitive
I : I'm just going to have one fight, win one fight and thats it
K : How do you know
I : They wear head gear and everything
K : Well I'm just worried about ... etc etc

I can't remember the rest, it didn't especially escalate from there but suffice to say that Karin is not coming to the fight, I think she's secretly looking forward to the six-pack though. When and if that happens. Marcus and I worked out last night, 5 min jog, 10 min cross-trainer, 40 min weight circuit (light), 5 min interval running. I didn't drink at all last week except for 5 beers on Friday night, more later on dieting. I did have 2 slices of left over pizza yesterday afternoon.

Its not the size of the dog ...

Karin and Fern (3 months)

"Its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog" Barry McGuigan MBE, Irish World Featherweight Champion

Whitebrook Boxing Kinetics

This is the Champagne Fitness Centre at the end of my street, and its where Whitebrook Boxing Kinetics hold classes to teach boxing technique and fitness. We went to see the advanced class, and met Chris the owner and trainer to ask him if we could join and film it. He agreed and will give us extra tips and training if we share the footage of our progress with him to use for his promotions .. fair enough, should be some good stuff. There are five levels of fitness according to his program, it takes about two years to get to level 3. We don't have that much time, so we'll have to do a lot of our own work outside. We've signed up for twice a week. Chris was a CFL player-turned boxer who stopped fighting after 9 successful bouts because he got a CAT scan and saw the damage done. So they don't spa at WBK, its all about the fitness and that suits us for a start.

Introductions

My name is Ian, and I have never had a fight in my life (there I said it). Actually I have had one or two minor skirmishes in school ... vs Stephen Wincote age 6, and vs Mark Laven age 13 ... but that's it. I don't want to fight anyone in real-life, its just not me. I only tell you that as a jumping off point for this project.

Over the next 12 months I am going to document, on film and on here, my journey to become an amateur boxer. Haha, I said amateur as if there's the option to be professional ... I am 32 years old, will be 33 in July, I work as a Sales Manager for a large software corporation, and I live in Ottawa, Canada with my wife of 5 and a half years and my dog, Fern.

I am in reasonable shape, judge for yourself when you see the introductory video, but don't judge too hard because I ate a load of junk food and drank a load of booze before those shots to make the footage 12 months from now look even more impressive! I even went and ate a pain au chocolat on the way to the studio ... so dedicated to the cause.

Konrad is an Economist. I have to say I was pretty surprised when he said that he wanted to join in when I told him about my plan to transform myself into a boxer over the course of 12 months, with the goal of having a real boxing match on a proper bill. We were in The Brig pub on York St and we had a few Guinneses while we quickly came up with the plans. Konrad is younger than me. I would guess that he is fitter too, but I think its fair to say that we both have some hard work to do to keep this from being downright dangerous.

Marcus is a Market Analyst, and is probably the fittest of the three of us starting the training. As of today Marcus has not commited to actually fighting but he wants to train, and I think he may get into it. I don't know, no pressure.

Firuz is filming it all. I 'pitched' the idea to him about 2 months ago, and he liked the thought of tracking rather average, normal men trying to get fit enough not to get humiliated by some little shithead first time we step into the ring.

Starts here

So it looks like this is actually happening, this weekend we filmed around 4 hours of footage. We caught the boxing fitness class that we're going to join in 2 weeks from now, the "before" full body shots of Konrad and me (bet you can't wait to see us looking all podgy in our undies) and then we got Konrad, Marcus and me doing our first jog ... the roadwork as boxers call it