Holiday Swoon

This has been more of a book with chapters than a real-time blog (although I wish it had been the latter) so no updates on the boxing front means no new chapter in my career to chronicle here. Which sucks. But yeah, I haven't been writing because I haven't been training, or not at the boxing gym at least.

But not everything delaying my training has been bad, like the holidays and a pending order of new (and desperately-needed) boxing gear. To break it down:

- Went home for a long Thanksgiving weekend (geez, it really has been awhile since I’ve written in here) and to get my Mizzou fix. Did what I could with the heavy bag, assorted dumbbells and miles and miles of still all-too-familiar road and managed to squeeze in a couple two-a-days. Great trip home on all fronts – family, food/beverage, football and boxing.

- Returned to Boston and hit the gym hard, despite some crazy days in the office extending into the evening. Had some good sparring sessions with a few people I’d never moved around with before and was able to work on some basics I’d been neglecting, slowing the pace down to focus on footwork, timing, and some upper body movement. In addition to working with some of the regulars, the gym owner fed me a steady diet of novices and girls preparing for bouts, which further helped me control the tempo and think, think, think – before, during and immediately after every step, punch and pivot.

- The gym owner alerted me that a group was carpooling to Lowell (an hour drive) to register for an upcoming tournament and renew our fight passports for 2009. He gave me the day and time to meet him at the gym, but when I showed up (15 minutes early, mind you), another fighter and I discovered that we had been left behind for no reason other than the whim of the gym owner. I was definitely put off and couldn't help but feel a little disrespected. It's bad enough that I constantly have to fight to keep the owner's and trainers' attention in my training, but to have to struggle to even get registered to compete was beyond ridiculous.

Between the bad taste in my mouth from literally being left behind, two blizzards, and travels/festivities surrounding Christmas and New Year's, I haven't been back to my boxing gym in over two weeks. I'm not throwing a fit, so much as I just lost motivation to drag my stuff to Allston to show my face to people who aren't taking the same interest in me as I am in the sport. I've been cross-training hard on my own, so my raw strength and cardio should still be where I need it, and I'm jumping back into my "usual" routine this weekend, so again, no hard feelings - just another irritating setback in my floundering amateur career.

- I added a Twitter feed in the hopes that it wouldn't seem like I'm totally abandoning updating the blogosphere on life in and out of the ring. I think I just need to get in the habit of writing shorter, more frequent posts, and what better time to do that than the start of a new year, eh?

As cliche as it seems, I feel like there's no better time to revamp my training than the start of a new year. There are no resolutions involved - I still have the solid physical foundation and aggressive mind-set to pick up where I left off last month. If anything, I'm stronger, fresher and more motivated than I was immediately after my last bout. Now it's just an issue of waking up from my holiday swoon and making it all happen.