Becca Borawski’s Blog

We have moved! Come visit us at ModernAthena.com!

Alright, I couldn’t contain myself and I sat down and put the finishing (for now) touches on my newest project tonight…

So, I present you with — WWW.MODERNATHENA.COM

My new website and my new business.

Lots more features will be added in the near future…and far future…but here she is for you to start reading. I will be posting new articles and features regularly.

And…this site will be retiring. Starting in a few days beccalosangeles.com will forward you to modernathena.com — I have officially evolved!  Thank you to all you regular visitors, I hope that you will continue to be visitors of both modernathena.com and nerdjockprincess.com — they are both true expressions of who I am and how I intend to touch and inspire the world.

Thank you.

-B.

Big things are on the horizon! Keep an eye out for something new to pop up here in the next couple weeks…probably not THIS week because I am super busy prepping for our U of MMA amateur fight show at the Avalon in Hollywood on Sunday. BUT, soon after that! It is something brand new and VERY fun!  Well, at least for me it is — hopefully it will be for you, too!

6:30pm – Muay Thai, at Robot

Good sized class tonight – around 8-10 people total in the Intermediate/Advanced Muay Thai class.  I was trying to remember how long it’s been since I’ve sparred…it’s been a really long time. Like…a few years.  I had gone back to Muay Thai for a few months last fall, but hadn’t gotten back into sparring.  Now, somehow I’ve gone straight back into it.  And really, there’s nothing other than sparring that gets you back in gear and sparring properly.  I mean, having good technique is paramount and will pay off in your sparring, but when you’re actually fighting you figure out some things real fast.  ‘Cause otherwise it hurts.

Needless to say, my sparring sucked, but it was really fun anyway. I ate a lot of punches to the face, but managed to remember a few things by the end, too.  I do love body shots and I managed to get a few good ones in here and there.  We also worked the clinch a bit, which is my other favorite part of Muay Thai, and I got some compliments on my clinch work from my coach, so that was really nice.

I’m all about clinch work and body shots…my problem, of course, is getting past people’s hands and feet to get in and do that!

5:30-7:30pm – Muay Thai, at Robot

Wow. Okay, so I did the 5:30pm class at Robot, then sat on the side of training area, unwrapped my hands and was drinking my water chilling out…and the coach was like, “Why don’t you do the next class? We’ll just work on hands.” And then I thought, well, why don’t I?  So I stayed a second hour and did the second class.

Worked on tons and tons of really technical stuff tonight. It was really great. Feeling a little more in my groove. Getting my timing a little better and opening up more on my punches. Still sluggish in general. Hips are not totally working yet, but better than last time. Still have to work on kicking higher/flexibility. Created some more blisters on my feet and my middle toe on my right foot turned purple again.

So, we seem to be back to normal.

12:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

Ugh, some days highlight where I am NOT currently in my fitness. lol! This was basically three things I’m not so good at…but strangely I don’t mind doing any of them, so I guess it wasn’t so bad. Good practice!

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
9 Deadlifts (100#)
12 Push-ups (Games standard)
15 Box jumps (20”)
5 rounds, 9 deadlifts, 12 pushups, 3 boxjumps
204

The push ups just crushed me. The other stuff I could at least move through steadily, but the push ups killed me.  Special thanks to Danny Lesslie for getting me through this one. Kinda wanted to cry at one point. It just hurt.

Did a lot of foam rolling on my right calf afterwards. It’s a very unhappy camper. Hoping all the mobility work during this challenge will get it better!

9:00am – CrossFit, All Levels

Wahoo for moving weights around! I was dreading working out all morning and I’m not really sure why, because I like both these movements. Just a momentum thing, I think. I am half asleep for the last few weeks since I got off the Diet Rockstar and now being on tea instead of Diet Coke has me sleepy again, too. It’s just not the same!

15-12-9-6-3
Handstand push ups (1 abmat + #5 plate)
Hang Power Cleans (95#)
9:12

Had fun on this one! Awesome crew and energy in class today – people really went for it and it was great. The first round I thought maybe I should only use an abmat for my HSPU’s and go lower, ‘cause I did 15 unbroken, but then when I went to do my first HPC I felt the impact. Woah. Both the HPC’s and HSPU’s were harder from that point on. Was glad for my little plate under my abmat.  I stayed strong on the HPC’s though, tried to stay conscious of form and kept moving forward. I was happy to get this done in under 10 minutes.

7:30am – CrossFit, Instructor Training Program

So we didn’t do our regular ITP routine this morning, instead we all measured each other and then did the workout to get ourselves going on the Whole Life Challenge.  My total girth (both biceps, waist, hips, both thighs) came out to 135.5—my weight is basically back up to where it was before I cut weight for rowing in January. It’s more than I like to weigh and this last month has not been one of my favorites, so I’m excited to use this challenge to fine tune what I’m doing with my body.

AMRAP in 12 minutes:
5 burpees
10 situps
15 squats
12 rounds + 5 burpees, 4 situps
369 reps

This was way more painful than it needed to be. Wasn’t warmed up at all, so just dove in and tried to keep a steady pace. I was right next to Logan, who I thought was way ahead of me since he did his burpees in a fraction of the time I did, but Michael informed me halfway through the workout we were actually on the same round, so that motivated me to keep my pace going.

Squats were definitely the worst part. Not sure why, if it was Muay Thai and running, or not being warmed up, but they were excruciating from the first round and I refused to break up any of the sets. We’ll see how tomorrow feels!

Happy with my score and will be happy to beat it at the end of the Challenge in 8 weeks! Totally confident I will be fitter and faster then.

12:00pm – Muay Thai, at Robot MT & BJJ

Yay! I finally made it back to Muay Thai after….oh….four or five months off? Yikes. I am full of excuses, it turns out.  Which is funny, because I love Muay Thai. Robot even moved into a new beautiful location while I was gone, but are still halfway between CFLA and my apartment, just closer to Trader Joe’s now. So perfect!  I really like the way they teach at Robot – it’s way more technical than anyplace else I’ve studied Muay Thai. I’ve had boxing coaches teach me in a technical manner, but most kickboxing I’ve experienced was less organized and less detailed. It’s really great.

…and I am really out of shape right now and also can’t remember anything I ever learned in Muay Thai and I lost my callouses on my feet so I have blisters. But it was completely awesome anyway.

I decided today after my class that I need to move Muay Thai back up on my priority list. I am committed from here on out to go 2-3x a week and get my act together and really start making progress.

Also, my foot apparently is just going to turn purple after every Muay Thai class I do now. I clearly broke something in my right foot last fall and now I can’t kick a bag without it turning purple, even when I don’t mess up any kicks, and sometimes it aches after a CrossFit workout, too. Just lame. Feet are silly.

Oh, but on the plus side, I bought a pair of “Skins” for my calves and wore just the right one today to see if it helped my Achilles/calf situation. I was worried about being on the ball of my foot for an hour and if that would anger my Achilles injury. It definitely felt crampy and tight at times, but no pain and it feels good now post-training, so I think I’m going to stick with wearing a Skin for a while.

12:00pm – Run

I wanted to get a run in this week and seized today as the day! It felt good to get out and move and to just have some space for my head.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I just tried to stay relaxed. I walked a few times, but I’ve also realized that when I do that I can keep a faster pace on my running, so it actually doesn’t slow me down in the end at all.  Really glad I made it out to do this and plan on making running a regular part of my weeks from here on out.

35 Minute Run – my regular loop around Brentwood Country Club and then some.