Kickboxing 101

Today was the 3rd session in an 8-week kickboxing class that Cherie and I decided to take at the gym. Don't misunderstand... there are no dreams of participating in some mixed martial arts tournament, or getting a guest appearance on a future episode of TapouT. Nope, this is sort of a beginner's non-contact course, primarily intended more for fitness rather than combat training. We thought this would be a good way to mix things up a bit and kick-start our bodies heading into spring, so when the weather warms and the time comes to venture back outside, we can hit the ground running.

The question I have is this: If this is a non-contact class, why do I leave each week feeling like I just got my ass kicked?

We did this circuit course today, and one of the exercises involved moving up and down the length of a rope ladder on the floor, jumping in and out of the "squares". Fun, right? Actually, that's not bad. The part where we had to lift a medicine ball over our heads on each jump "in" was slightly less fun. OK, even that's not too bad, as it's not a particularly heavy ball. And this was a circuit course, so you only spend about 2 minutes at each exercise before moving to the next. Somehow, the 2 minutes I spent on the medicine ball thing lasted exactly 72 minutes, at least in my head. Remember that scene in the movie "Risky Business" where Joel is staring at the clock, waiting for the bell to ring at the end of class, and the clock suddenly ticks backwards and he's really pissed off? Yeah, well if Joel had been jumping around hoisting a medicine ball over his head, that would have been how I felt.

And so it goes in the struggle to build Jason 2.0. It's all for the best, however. The way I see it, the more pain I endure now, the easier it will be fore me when I ride the 100 miles in August. Eye of the tiger. I'm hoping that next week, we can play "catch the chicken."