Pumped and ready to bang

Tonight, for the first time in ages, I feel really good - confident, strong, ready. Bring it on Iowa!! This is a good feeling, one that I hope stays around for the next week (positive thinking, positive thinking, positive thinking). I had a rough session at lunch on the bags - minor meltdown of the "I'm tired, I'm sore and I'm hungry" type with tears and an attempt to beat up the banana bag.

Note to self: the banana bag has no feelings and does not care how hard you hit it.

After the minor meltdown (thankfully I was flying solo in the gym at the time so no one was there to witness the female moment), I gathered myself together and did a few more rounds, followed by some cool down and called it an afternoon. This evening, I spent an hour sparring with two of our guys - light, technical sparring. I have a small worry that doing only light sparring will make me forget how to hit hard, but I'm certain this is just me being dumb and not really the truth!! It does make me think, take time to put combinations together, and gives me a chance to say "stop, let's work on that". i.e. catching teeps. Tonight, something just clicked in my head about working the head then taking the lead leg out, or vice versa (C, follows on your "if they're busy upstairs, the downstairs is open" comments from a few days ago). I pity the girl who gives me the room to start destroying her lead leg!! She'll never walk right again!! (insert maniacal laughter here). But yes, it was one of those light-bulb type moments.

All in all, a very productive sparring session that has left me pumped up and ready to bang!!! Iowa is a week away. I have 3, maybe 4 days of training left, then a couple of days to recouperate and heal the 'owies' on my shins, foot, knee, etc. Oh, and the bruise I gave myself by my own elbows yesterday while defending body shots... Stupid corner drill...

Now it's midnight and I can't sleep. Too excited, nervous. I have visions of being in that ring and having a big bling-y belt put around my waist. This time next week, I will be sitting in a hotel room in Des Moines, shedding the last water weight lbs, psyching myself up and, most likely, trying to get some sleep!! Melatonin will be my friend next week, I'm sure of it.