Friday, July 9, 2010

I'd rather eat carbs at LA Boxing


Here's a tip:  LA Boxing is really freaking hard when you aren't eating carbohydrates.

I had a personal training session on Tuesday - which just happened to be the second day of my low-carb diet.  I was doing fine, for the most part.  I didn't feel too slow, didn't feel to overworked.  Then, the suicides came.  Those lovely drills where you run back and forth, going farther each time, touching the floor before you run back to the start to run again.

I hate suicides.

Seriously.  More than my dislike for crunches, push-ups, and running all put together.  They wear me out.  They make me feel like, at best, a clumsy old turtle.  I slowly run back and forth, just hoping that I won't fall down and roll over onto my imaginary shell, left with nothing but to sound like that old lady in those "I've fallen, and I can't get up" commercials.  It's that bad.

So on Tuesday, Donte says, "Okay, we're gonna do suicides, and you'll do a punching combination at the end."  I looked at him (like I do 75% of the time) with that "Whachoo talkin' bout Willis" face.  He laughed, and said he was going easy on me. Instead of sprinting to every heavy bag, he was letting me sprint to every other bag and instead of doing a punching combo after each sprint, I was going to do a combo at the end of a set of sprints.

That made me feel a little bit better.

(No, I lie, it didn't.  But, I told myself it should. And I knew that Donte doesn't give me stuff that I can't physically do.  Pushes me, yes, but not so hard that I die.  So there was that: I wasn't going to die.)

So, I sprint (very loose use of the word "sprint" here) the first leg, then back to the start.  Everything is fine and slow dandy.

Then I sprint the second leg, feel really unsteady when I touch the ground, but still sprint back to start.

In the next leg, things get a little hazy.  After this last sprint I was supposed to do the combo.  I'm pretty sure I did.  Pretty sure.  Then I was supposed to run back to the start.

Yeah, that definitely did not happen.

I hit a wall.   A big, brick, immovable wall.  And I hit it hard.

When you are working hard, sometimes this happens.  Frequently, because I am not the fittest boxer in the bunch, I have to take a breather for a few seconds before I start working again.  During this session I'm sure I had to do this.  We were doing a lot of weights and ab exercises.  Sure I was pushing myself -- after all, my ab's still hurt, 4 days later, when ever I sneeze -- but it wasn't like I was running up and down the steps for the whole hour.

The problem?  No carbs.  I usually have to eat a full breakfast - whole wheat bread, fruit, and some protein - before I go to boxing.  But with this diet, I couldn't do that.

Not. Smart.

I gave this low (no) carb thing one more try for my Friday boxing class, and the same thing happened.  Worse, in fact.  I barely had enough energy to finish the class, and I even came in late!  No more.  Lesson learned.

Boxing = hard work = need fuel = need good, healthy carbs.

I've never been so excited to eat a slice of toast in my whole life.  Mmmm, toast.

3 comments:

  1. I am so glad you are eating bread! yummmmm!

    ReplyDelete
  2. yummmmm....toast!

    and i'm right with you on those suicides! i cracked up at your turtle falling over reference! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. maybe baby you just need some better fuel? Try whole wheat pitas, or a protein shake, or a banana with almond butter (hey don't knock it till you try it!) And keep up the good work girl - turtle slides or not, you're kicking butt!

    ReplyDelete