Tuesday - Day 5 afternoon

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Oh, there will be bruises after today….. The march to the gym was uneventful. But as I approached the hidden sign, I saw someone jogging up ahead. When I got to the gym, there was one other person there, and one arriving just in front of me. A total of 4 foreigners plus me were there for the afternoon session. We were all lined up for Fahlaep. He had one busy day today. I have to say today was probably the most fun training session I've had here, but there are going to be some bruises tomorrow! But first for the boring parts. It was much more humid this afternoon. I was sweating by the time I walked into the gym. The routine began with 6 more laps. Just as a note, today has finished with 18.44 miles/36655 steps. Thats probably part of the reason my feet hurt. 15 minutes of jump rope followed up the run, while the other guys were run through pad work. Once finished, some shadow boxing and light bag work was done until the queue emptied and it was time for whatever was planned for the afternoon. I was hoping to keep it light, just to ease into the routine, but the story was 4 more rounds on the pads. The first two were pretty standard from the morning, but the fun started with the last two. They were more like sparring, but Fahlaep seemed to be having a good time letting me get into clinches and getting me to use knees until I couldn’t breath. Then he would toss me around or sweep me to the canvas. At one point he just bear-hugged me and lifted me off my feet. Not a whole lot of options at that point. We did work more foot sweeps, and I had a couple get high, around his knee and felt really bad about those. The rounds still finished to the buzzer, with kicks, knees, or teeps. It was exhausting, but I felt good all through the rounds except for the very last 10 kick series. The weather was getting pretty dark, so I walked a bit quickly to the BTS, but I was smiling all the way down the alley. The rain started just as I got to the hotel, so I had dinner at the closest restaurant and was back in my room quickly. For the first time, the power went out in the area, and the hotel was very dark for about 15-20 minutes. Glad I wasn’t in the elevator. Things came back on slowly, so there must be a sequence to restarting all the systems in the hotel. Another first for the trip.

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Photos

Map of the BTS skytrain stops
When I first came here, the train didn’t even go to the stop near the gym. We had to get a taxi back and forth. After our workouts, the drivers really didn’t want to pick us up because we were so disgusting.

“Watch your head Dave”
These metal supports are not a problem with most Thais. For some of us though, it does cause problems especially if distracted by something along the way. Right Dave?

A “Before” picture
Well, before the pad work, but after the running and jump rope. Obviously didn’t realize what was coming next.

Why is this guy smiling?
This is Fahlaep, and he’s smiling because he just wore me totally and completely out. 6 rounds in the morning and 4 more this afternoon? I should have brought more chocolate for him!

End of first double day
I’d like to say I fought to a draw, but that would be a big fat lie. I feel lucky to have survived!