.. omg, ditto. I worked my way through college by teaching karate. 40 years ago. And yes, female, and yes, I can kind of relate to the GF.

There's a scene in a football movie from that era where a football player is recalling the previous day's game - wincing at every bad hit, smiling at every good one. And *all* of us, male and female, were going "yep, that's the day after a tournament, all right".