Friday, November 13, 2009

Preparation is key

I'm a creature of habit when it comes to the 36 hours immediately leading up to a fight. Last night, however, I had no choice but to break my rituals.

After swinging into CVS to buy a protein bar, banana, sugar free Red Bull and my other pre-fight necessities, I walked home and went to unlock my back door...when I couldn't find my apartment key. Key chain? Check. My apartment key? Nowhere to be found.

Thank you, Murphy's Law...

I call my roommate and of course, she isn't answering. I have someone let me into the building itself, drop my goodies off at my apartment door and do what any decent, patient man would do: walk to my favorite neighborhood bar.

So instead of a home cooked dinner of chicken parm, I had a (delicious) grilled cheese with fried pickles. And a mug of Octoberfest, because I was in that sort of mood. (Pre-fight rules be damned!)

A buddy was in the area, so we met up and one mug turned into two. It's been three hours and my roommate is still not answering or replying. And that's when the spelling bee started.

Yes, a spelling bee. Like on TV with the little, uber-geeky kids. Just at a bar. And it was awesome, albeit of no help getting me in my apartment and my bed.

10:30 p.m. rolls around and I'm still - for all intents and purposes - homeless. I line up a couch to sleep on, a ride to work in the a.m. and a washing machine to wash my clothes since I'll be wearing them two days in a row. I trek out into the night to hop on the train...

...when my roommate calls.

30 minutes later, I'm in my apartment, spare key in hand. I won't even tell you where my key was, but, well, it was in the most obvious place outside of staying on my key chain.

So in short: while I'm in good shape and have had good results the past two weeks in the ring, I am far from being peaked and truly "ring ready." I've worked a long week in the office (hell, I'm still at my desk now, just 3 hours before my bout), didn't get much sleep last night and have done nothing other than eat well today and hydrate to prepare for my bout.

But ya know what?

I'm still savvy, hungry and have more than enough to work with.

And I'mma whup this dude something fierce tonight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sooo, how did you do?

NerdOfSteel's Boxing Tips said...

Going out drinking the night before beating some dude's ass is a baddass story to tell your grandkids. Good luck.

BTW - I have to ask, what in the hell is a friend pickle?