hard work never betrays

Eid Mubarak! I'm not very Muslim, but I'm a big fan of Ramadan. It teaches us about being more empathetic to the less fortunate, and it's a great way to connect with family and friends over food. The issue is that my boxing training doesn't align very well with my boxing training: in terms of hydration or calorie intake or timing. So, I took a month long break!

Frankly, a break was in order regardless. Whenever I ran my shins hurt something awful and my left wrist felt kinda funky. I think I might have ramped up to working out five times a week too quickly? Regardless, I'm feeling much better after a month worth of resting.

Two days ago was my first time back in the gym. Coming into it I was all sorts of anxious, what if I had lost all my muscle memory and did something stupid? What if everyone I had met and befriended forgot about me during my month hiatus? What if I completely gassed out and couldn't even finish the class? What if I was sore for the next week? (that actually happened to me the very first few times I started working out)

To much of my surprise, none of my worries actually occurred. My coach and friends were glad that I'm back from my hiatus and I can still throw some solid punches with okay-ish form. I did regain a bad habit of dropping my hands on the return from a punch, but that's to be expected.

But holy hell, the next day my body was sore all over.

... and then I was fine the day after that.

It takes a month to forget what took a month to learn, and a lifetime to forget what took a lifetime to learn

I don't remember who said that, but it's a good quote. My hard work has not betrayed me and will not betrayed me, and a hiatus is not a setback. It made me really happy to see that I'm not starting from ground zero again, and that there's only a few days of training between me, and getting to where I was and growing further from there.