Thursday

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After a well needed afternoon off, its time to get back to it. The morning is a beautiful sunny day, and strangely it might even be described as comfortable. I dont think I've ever used that word to describe the temperature here in any of the trips. It's crazy, there was a nice cool breeze coming up the BTS steps, but that was soon forgotten arriving at the gym. Even though it wasn't nearly the 115 heat index from last year, and the temperature was only 85F (probably hotter in Savannah) the sweat still pours out. After the 10 laps and 10 minutes of jump rope, if you can imagine stepping out of a nice cool pool and watching the water drip off your body before you towel off - that's what it's like here. My socks were so wet, I had to wring them out and put them on the wall hoping they'd dry enough to wear back to hotel.

The cramps of the first few days are gone. The total exhaustion on the pads is also nearly gone, even with all the running and jumping, oh and weights and sit-ups. Now its just the normal exhaustion. The morning session was 5 rounds - 4 in the ring, and one on the floor. There were 3 new faces this morning, and there was a needed rotation through the ring. The mats outside were so slippery from somebody sweating all over them (wonder who...) that I nearly fell trying to kick. After that, it was no more kicks, but everything else was fair game. It seems like training is longer now, or maybe it only seems that way since I am usually at the gym by 7 am and pounding the pavement.

After a clear morning, it is starting to get a little cloudy, but luckily no rain yet. And now at dinner, it still really hasn't rained much at all. So much for those 80% probabilities of rain. This afternoon was 5 laps and 15 minutes of jump rope. I'm really starting to hate that jump rope.... next was clinching again with the same guy, this time for 3 rounds. I did pretty well but I did get clipped in the jaw, which still is a little sore. Unfortunately, that is nothing compared to what happened to one of the Thai boxers. He was in the ring clinching with one of the foreigners, and either fell or was thrown to the mat, and landed directly on his finger pointing into the mat. Its either serverly dislocated or broken. It didn't look good and he was off to x-ray. Hopefully he'll be ok. Its the first time I've seen anyone really get hurt here.

To finish my workout, it was 4 or 5 rounds on the pads. I actually don't remember, but the power was back. Must have been obvious, because now I'm having to do pushups between rounds. And before lifting weights there was a session of 50 knees on the sandpaper wrapped heavy bag. I spent 2.5 hours there this afternoon. Future reference: takes 3 days to get used to the weather, sleep, workout routine, temperature, etc.

Now, looking forward to getting back to hotel and crashing. Amazingly, I can't even finish a normal meal since I've been here. I've have leftovers again tonight.

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