Ok, so we weren’t really in the ring. Not the actual ring with ropes, just the on-the-floor training ring. The one with bags.

Before boxing class, the girl at the front desk told me that she overdid her first time last week and almost fainted. But I am older and wiser and “overdo” is no longer in my vocabulary.

My trainer introduced me to the young instructor before we started, told him what I princess I was and they both told me to just go at my own pace. And thank God, I know what that means and actually do it. Because I can see how she almost fainted.

The instructor took me in hand and as we walked over to the corner, he turned and asked, “did you bring a mouthguard?” The look on my face must’ve been something. He was kidding, of course.

But I must confess: what quickly went through my mind was “I have loaner gloves but I am NOT using a loaner mouthguard!!!”

The class was half girls and half guys. Everyone, especially a young woman and a couple of the guys, helped me learn the lay of the land.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE boxing. I like everything about it, from wrapping my hands, the conditioning sprints, runs and lunges, the punching with weights, jumping jacks–all of it.

Then, putting on the gloves and hitting the bag with the instructor calling out cadence. The instructor then called each of us individually to hit with him individually–he had on mitts and we each hit his mitts in various cadences that he’d call out. In between, more jumping jacks. It’s a GREAT workout.

I LOVE hitting the bag.

But it’s HARD. And exhausting.

At the 18-minute mark, I could feel it. I know I’ll suffer tomorrow.

I was happy when the instructor told me I did good. So I’ll be buying me some gloves and wrap of my own. I really want pink ones, but this is a real bodybuilders’ gym and I don’t think they’d appreciate the statement as much as I do. I saw blue ones, and black. So maybe purple.

A friend told me today, “I don’t know if I’d like the idea of having a wife who boxes. The only upper body strength she needs to have is enough to support ‘the girls.'”

(grin) That’s one way to look at it. But I like to think that my own “girls” will be much perkier after all that conditioning.

Boxing. Something I’ll be doing more of. Who’d have thunk it?