aaahhhh! just 7 days left!!!

oh man. less than 7 days. oh man. nerves? not even really sure how to describe how I feel! I sparred for the last time before the fight this evening. I took some solid hits. I landed some solid hits. Somewhere around the 4th round I managed to actually hit a groove and do some slipping! I've got this. I'm ready. I hope.


For the next 7 days I am going to devote my energy to fundraising. I've been handing out my fantastic little cards, but now it's time for me to put a really personalized plea out there. Cause this fight isn't just about me... it's about the second anniversary of losing my father to cancer. And every other person who's lost a parent/sibling/loved one to cancer. It's about putting cancer on the ropes and giving it a solid one-two. We have a chance here to make a solid contribution to an amazing charity looking to take cancer out. The Jimmy Fund isn't just a nameless random charity; it has earned nine consecutive 4-star ratings by Charity Navigator. Your donation's actually make it to the front line! 


I was touched last night. Two of the sweetest lil' old ladies on my street each gave me $5 towards the fight. I knew it was a big deal to them, and it almost made me cry! Every little bit helps, so please don't hesitate to donate, even if it's just $1! 


And talking about amazing people, my friend Victoria has organized a virtual bake sale: we're well on our way to raising nearly $300! Get your bids in now, we close tomorrow at noon! Take a punch at cancer and get delicious baked goods at the same time!


Check out my videos on youtube, I've included below my last video provided by Haymakers for Hope. Look how far I've come! Let's work together and put cancer on the ropes!!

Crunch time! 13 days till my fight!

It's coming faster than I ever would have thought! Luckily, my rib injury seems to be righting itself - I'm working hard to get it to 100%, it'll definitely be there by early next week!

I've made it to nearly 50% of my fundraising goal: I huge thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! Remember, every little bit helps so don't hesitate to donate today! Let's blow that goal out of the water!

Next week we start bidding for the awesome bake sale Victoria over at the District Chocoholic is sponsoring... looks to be some amazing food, so stay tuned!

http://districtchocoholic.blogspot.com/2011/06/taking-cancer-down-bake-sale-style-you.html

my nose and a fist.

Are not best friends. In fact, they may be enemies. Specifically with Jen's fist. Last Thursday she landed a blow that left some faint bruising and a definite amount of soreness in the bridge of my nose. When Heather was my only option for sparring on Sunday I bowed out and did all technical work - and trust me, with Lyle, that's not necessarily the easy way out!

I'm pretty sure I'm glad there isn't any footage of last night, not sure I want to see my reaction when my eyes start watering and I start closing my eyes every time I see a fist coming. Cause when my nose hurts, that seems to be my only reaction. The smarter thing of course would be to get out of the way!

I've had one honest nose bleed in my life. I was about 8 years old and I crashed HARD into a table corner. I was quite shocked. Since then I've only seen a spot of blood here and there due to extreme dryness. Obviously I was quite surprised last night when I wiped my nose to find a faint smear of blood. Stopped almost immediately. One more round in, a few more drops. I suspect my nose just doesn't like to bleed - which is a good thing!

There's some faint bruising on the sides of my nose, the lower cartilage is painful and Lyle's declared no more sparring until it feels better. I feel like a wimp, but I have to agree. If I start cringing and closing my eyes every time I see a fist coming for my face I'm going to be in trouble FAST. (Yes, I realize this is probably the most instinctive reaction to seeing a fist coming at your nose, but instincts would serve me better if they told me to DUCK! SLIP!)

Have your instincts ever led you wrong?

making progress.

@ 5 weeks

@ 8 weeks

Damn.

And I still have a long way to go!

Standing tall against sexual violence.

A week ago Pia asked me to write up a blurb on what the upcoming fight means to me. You may be thinking, isn’t that your Haymakers fight? Actually, no. On May 21st I will be participating in a smoker for a really good cause – the fight is at Redline Fight Sports in Central Square, and I hope everyone will be there! I will admit, I kind of fell into this fight. When it was suggested, my first thought was what a good practice round it would make. However, that doesn’t make it any less meaningful – it’s an actual fight and it’s for a really good cause! All proceeds will benefit the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and I think it’s an excellent way to empower women and raise awareness. Since this fight is not my starting point but a byproduct, I did a lot of deep thinking on what it really meant to me, trying to formulate a thoughtful response. Hopefully I succeeded.

Standing Tall Against Sexual Violence. This fight is not just about empowering women… it’s about creating an environment where they can be empowered. This journey has brought me into contact with an amazing group of women who give wings to my self confidence. A group of women who aren't just there to fight, but are there to empower and raise each other up. I believe firmly in embracing truth and being open: my past includes its own run-ins with sexual and physical violence. Until now, openness and a willingness to share have been my tools to reach out to other women, and I am honored to have this opportunity to broaden my reach. We learn from our mistakes and I can only hope that in doing this fight, I may be able to give some other impressionable women a brief glimpse of what it means to be empowered and to find your own path.

I hope to see you all there on May21st!

maybe not so lucky...

So I may have been a bit quick on the lucky part. Yesterday I went through a wonderful vinyasa yoga flow session with Whitney which felt awesome - my hero was rockin! (For those unfamiliar with the yoga lingo, see the position here - a great quad stretch.) After hearing about the previous evenings multitude of heel raised squats, Whitney kindly put together a flow that transitioned a bit quicker from standing strength than usual and helped me focus on twists (to help with my slip/head turn.) We built a fair amount of heat and I felt great by the end of class. Quads tired but working pretty well!

Before bed I rolled out my legs with my trusty stick, focusing on my quads and calves and giving a quick roll to my back. A little extra love never hurt anyone! (I highly recommend use of the stick and a foam roller, its a great way to give sore muscles a boost.)

So what happened overnight? I had a great nights sleep, and woke up to find stairs suddenly a challenge! Ugh... when Lyle starts yelling at me to sit tonight... grrrraarrrr.

I'm starting to wonder if this delayed onset soreness is age dependent? This is a very recent development for me!

My pretty face and a fist.

I have never taken a punch to the face. 


Ever. 


Yet, today, I am putting myself in the way of flying fists.


Why would I do this? In honor of my father, to raise money to put his killer on the ropes. 


My last post spoke about the loss of my father… It was quick: six weeks from diagnosis to death. A sudden infection took this competitive racquetball player down fast.  Before we knew it he had lost 20 lbs and within six weeks he was gone. In those weeks my father, who was 57, went from looking about 40ish, fit and athletic to looking like a withered 80 yr old man-- I still cannot bring myself to look at those final pictures of him. 


In the year and half since his passing I’ve been trying find ways to honor him as best I could.  I simply didn't feel comfortable asking people to contribute money to the usual charity runs, rides and races. These are things I do anyway-- can I really ask people to donate money for doing what I do every day?  Along came Haymakers For Hope, which raises money for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.   Given my father’s passion for wrestling and his life long devotion to sports, I finally have found a way to raise money and awareness in a way I feel he'd respect and appreciate.


Which brings us back to why my face and a fist have a meeting this evening. I’ve reached the point in my training where it’s time for me to spar! This is something completely new to me, totally outside my comfort zone… a whole new skill to undertake. Sure, in only four weeks, I've learned a lot of punches, a few slips, a lot of technique that I am still struggling to absorb.   But now it’s time to find out what happens under pressure and learn from it. Cause all the technique in the world won’t help me if I just crumble under pressure! I’m really excited… and understandably scared.   While I’m hoping to avoid remodeling the nose my father gave me, I do know that taking a punch is inevitable – and the sooner I do the better I will be at it! 


So here’s to taking down cancer with a solid one two punch!

Poll: Have you ever taken intentionally (or unintentionally!) taken a punch to the face?

http://haymakersforhope.com

Loving boxing. Just maybe a bit too much, too soon. :)

When introducing one’s self to a new sport it’s easy to become so enthusiastic/involved that you try to do everything as quickly and as fast as possible. I want to learn EVERYTHING. NOW. I'm LOVING boxing. It's challenging, it's new, a total body workout. But quick changes and/or increases to your workload set up the perfect scenario for overtraining. You've been there right? You try so hard - and then you hit a wall… you just can’t seem to get your heart rate over 120 and lift even your dinner from the table. So how to prevent that wall from sending you straight back to go?

First one must understand. What is overtraining? Quite simply you body says enough. Hits the wall. Reaches the limit. It can’t heal the tiny microtears/trauma you are creating quickly enough, can’t load glycogen fast enough, and therefore your muscles can no longer respond. In fact they are probably getting weaker! But it’s more than that. It’s a mental and emotional battle! You don’t want to appear weak, you don’t want to give up! So what are you to do? There is only one solution: rest. You have to be honest with yourself. If you are aware, honest and smart about it to catch the symptoms early, you can make it just one skipped workout, maybe a day, max two’s rest instead of possible injury and a week or two setting yourself very far back.

So what are the symptoms? There are a lot of articles out there but here is a quick overview of what I find most easy to track and the earliest symptoms. Track your heart rate on a daily basis, both resting and during workouts. Heart rate elevated in the morning? You’re probably worn down. This is a sure fire signal you are worn down, though can also signal an oncoming cold. As you progress further without enough rest your heart rate becomes slow to respond… you try to sprint but it doesn’t budge. Finally you just won’t be able to keep yourself moving – when it gets to its worst you’ll feel like your heart is about to explode out of your chest even at a normally easy pace! By that time it’s gone too far… you’re going to need a few days rest.

A great test using orthostatic heart rate, developed by Heikki Rusko:

· Lay down and rest comfortably for 10 minutes the same time each day (morning is best).

· At the end of 10 minutes, record your heart rate in beats per minute.

· Then stand up

· After 15 seconds, take a second heart rate in beats per minute.

· After 90 seconds, take a third heart rate in beats per minute.

· After 120 seconds, take a fourth heart rate in beats per minute.

Well rested athletes will show a consistent heart rate between measurements, but Rusko found a marked increase (10 beats/minutes or more) in the 120 second-post-standing measurement of athletes on the verge of overtraining. Such a change may indicate that you have not recovered from a previous workout, are fatigued, or otherwise stressed and it may be helpful to reduce training or rest another day before performing another workout.

So you know the symptoms. So what’s the hardest part? Accepting its time and acknowledging them! I don’t claim to be an expert. Where am I right now? Somewhere between complete failure and possible injury. My load right now is between 1-3 workouts a day… while not an increase in load for me, the introduction of new movements and recruitment of previouslyuntrained muscles requires more rest! I was so excited to keep learning new skills in boxing that even when I saw my heart rate becoming slow to respond earlier this week I told myself I could go a few more days before rest – don’t want to miss a training session! But instead by this evening my hip was tweaking at the slightest stress and despite being able to get my heart rate up, it wasn’t coming back down and while I could start an exercise strong, 15s in I could barely lift a weight. Time for at least a solid day of rest. At least the weekend is nearly here!

I highly recommend reading Gray Cook’s book Athletic Body in Balance (http://www.amazon.com/Athletic-Body-Balance-Gray-Cook/dp/0736042288) There’s a great article he wrote describing it’s premise here: http://www.newliving.com/issues/nov_2003/articles/athleticbalance.html

What signals overtraining to you? How do you convince yourself to take a day off?