Better Than Yesterday... Sunday, April 21

Today was a short work day at Hulk’s – 4 hours. It was a short day on account that one of our friend’s was having Sports Day at his school. He’s the same age of Snickers, 28, but when he was younger he quit high school early to work, to help his family out with money. He is now a sushi chef but a little while ago he noted that he wanted to get his high school degree so we encouraged him to do so. I think it’s super adorable, my pudgy little King Kong running off to school on the weekends with his books in hand and pencils shoved in his pocket. He’s such a great guy and I’m all for someone bettering themselves, whatever that “bettering” means to them. We had lots to do at the boxing club but had promised to join him for dinner after his Sports Day.

In addition to making today a short day of work at Hulk’s, I also made today my last long run. I have my half marathon race next weekend and I’ll be the first to admit I am not as prepared for it as I should, could and would be if I wasn't so consumed with renovations.   With renovations keeping me on my feet for 14-17 hours a day, my feet on that hard, cold tile floor are definitely left aching at the end of the day. As soon as my work boots come off, my feet surely start screaming “NO MORE!!!” and every step in bare feet suddenly becomes so painful. My heels are still recovering from when I was in that fight awhile ago. It’s been some time now but with me keeping up with my running and working at the club with renovations, they rarely get any resting time beyond my short night's worth of sleep I've been getting.

Headed out for my last long run tonight and it surely was my hardest run in quite a long time. For the past month or two I’ve been running with some really awesome running partners but tonight I headed out alone. I didn’t have the accompanying interesting conversation or encouragement I normally get when I’m with a running buddy so it was just my iPod and me. Round and round the Dankook lake I went. My motivation to continue was lacking as was my energy. I wanted nothing more than to go back to Hulk’s and finish up some renovations I had started earlier. What really kept me going round and round the lake was knowing that soon enough I’ll be running as “Coach Amy”. There’s definitely a different kind of pressure put on me now that I do own my own boxing club. Perhaps the pressure I feel has been all brought on by me but I surely do feel a responsibility to set an example. After all, I can’t expect anything from my members that I myself can’t do.

“Intense” has been a word many people have labeled me as being and though I originally thought this was a negative label, I’m quite liking it now. I am intense, maybe too intense when it comes to my own health and fitness. I of all people could have justified skipping out on training tonight – my feet are swollen, am still nursing an injured heel, experiencing lack of sleep and definitely a sore body because of renovations, and preparing the boxing club has been surely draining me of all my time, money and effort. But I didn’t skip out, that’s the thing. I figure that though I may let others get away with their excuses as to why they don’t train or eat right I’m not going to let myself use one as a crutch. Everyone has an excuse and my excuse is that I’m sick of excuses. People who say they don’t have time to train hard or eat right will sooner or later have to find time to nurse themselves back from being sick, that's the truth. As for me, sure I push myself to extremes with my training and I try super hard to eat clean, but I very rarely get sick and I’m usually the one with the most energy. I get punched in the head on a weekly sometimes daily bases – hello, I’m a boxer – yet I’ll be the last to skip out on training. I train hard not because I hate my body but because I love it enough to want to make it stronger; make it better -- better than yesterday which, ironically enough, is Hulk’s club motto.