I Can Take Intense... Wednesday, March 8

I think my coach tried to break me today and I'm pretty sure those who stayed and sat on the side bench watching me train were waiting and anticipating me to break too. 

My coach here in the Philippines is Coach Gary.

I saw people start training after I already had started and then I watched them finish and leave, but I was told to continue.  Coach Gary kept on throwing more exercises for me to do.

It was my first day of boxing here in the Philippines, at Elorde Boxing Club.  The other day phone call had been made to the club, telling them that I wanted intense training.  "She wants to go home and either cry or puke", she told them.  In all honesty though, she was only repeating what I had said on an earlier day but I didn't anticipate her to relay that message.  I honestly think they did try to push me to exhaustion but I wasn't about to give up or show weakness.  I knew coming in as not only a foreigner and a female was one thing but I was also coming in as a professional boxer and the owner of a boxing club.  Only once did I express that I was having a rough time but that was more so to encourage a fellow boxer who was clearly struggling with the agility ladder exercises he was doing.  He leaned over on the shelf unit, looked up at me with eyes of exhaustion, and that's when I told him "don't worry, we're all dying here".  I then bumped fists with him and continued on with my training.  

As soon as that round bell went off, it was go time for me.  The bell was set for three minute rounds and the only kind of break I got was the 30 second break in between rounds but even then it wasn't really a break.  Coach Gary stuck to pouring my water in my mouth because I didn't even have enough time to take my gloves off to help myself.  It was only after we finished the boxing technical work that he gave me a bit of a break and even then he limited me to only one round, 3 minutes.  Every so often, after a couple of rounds, during the 30 second break (of course), Coach Gary would approach me from behind and stretch out my arms and then it was go, go, go again.  

TODAY'S BOXING WORKOUT:

WARMUP

3Rs.       Jogging around the ring

1R.         Stretching

2Rs.       Jump rope

10mins. Cardio circuit (30reps of about 6 exercises followed by 1 jogging lap for each)

BOXING TECHNICAL WORK

2Rs.      Shadow boxing
2Rs.      Speed bag

3Rs.      Pad work

2Rs.      Heavy bag work

2Rs.      Weaving work

3Rs.      Pad work

2Rs.      Double end ball

FOOTWORK

10mins. Agility ladder work 

ABS TRAINING

20reps. Bench ab crunches (with 10lbs weight)

20reps.  Bench abs twists (with 10lbs weight)

20reps.  Bench RIGHT side oblique crunches (with 10lbs weight)

20reps.  Bench LEFT side oblique crunches (with 10lbs weight)

I was quite surprised at how many females there were and being that it was International Women's Day, I wished them all a happy Women's Day and then I asked them if anyone had wished them a happy W-Day.  All the male coaches were teased for not knowing what today was; us female fighters in the club thought it funny to give them a bit of a hard time for that.  

I was told the other day that a session with a personal trainer here usually lasts an hour, an hour and a half at most.  My session today with Coach Gary lasted exactly 2hrs and I was left soaked to the bone and with blisters on my feet.  At the end of training I asked Coach Gary if he was happy with my training and he responded by telling me he thought perhaps the training was easy for me.  I didn't want to correct him and tell him the salt from my excessive sweat was stinging my eyes and that I could no longer feel my feet or lift my arms above my head so I just smiled and said, "No, it was good... It was really good, thank you."  We then snapped a picture together, made a plan to train together on Friday morning, and then I packed up my gear.  

An uber was called for me so I threw on my sweater, my measly attempt at hiding just how nasty sweaty I was, but once I arrived back at the condo entrance off my sweater went.  

It had been a good training session, a very good one, but training wasn't done for the day.  I then had weight training to do in the evening -- lower body.  They still haven't figured out what membership to offer me but I'm training there regardless of not having paid anything yet.