Day #1- Anticipation


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Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
October 13th 2019
Published: October 14th 2019
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The walk in....The walk in....The walk in....

Is also part of the running course. I have no idea how far it is, but the 9 laps took a little over 30 minutes.
It’s finally here. After all the planning, booking, training at home, it’s time to see just where all that work has gotten me. The butterflies are with me this morning in excitement of getting back to training here. Breakfast is wide open at 0600, which is fine since I’ve been up since about 3:45. I’m not really hungry, it at least it gives me a chance to get out of the room and gather my thoughts for the day. Right now, I don’t feel tired, but let’s see how if feeling lasts in a couple of hours. On the way home from dinner last night, I got trapped by an epic thunderstorm with lightning crashing right overhead, so I have just enough money to get the train up and back this morning. Obviously it will be number one on my to do list after this mornings training. Already it’s time to close up and start the trip to the gym!

The timing for travel was based on worst case waiting for the train and a very slow walk. I got to the gym about 7, which was early. I did so partly because the train arrived just as I climbed
End of the running for todayEnd of the running for todayEnd of the running for today

I just managed to spring the last part of the run to beat the heavy downpour. Rained like that for about 20 minutes, and then the sun is out making things nice and steamy
the last of the stairs, and also the sky was clouding up the entire trip, so I walked fast. Nobody was around, so I decided to just start running before the rain started. The first thing I noticed was that the temperature didn’t feel like I was running inside a pizza oven. That could be because the sun wasn’t out due to all the clouds, and there was a fairly nice breeze also. I guess the adrenaline of being back was flowing and the first lap felt like I could go much faster. I did manage to stay at a good Muay Thai jogging pace. I managed to get 9 laps in, and stopped on the last one, just as the rain poured down. The running was not a problem, unlike the last time. Of course, doing that again in the afternoon later this week will probably have me eating my words. While running I saw Sam and Fahlep arrive on their motorbikes, and when I finished running Ajahn Len was at the gym sweeping and hoping things down. I decided to give him a bottle of Maker’s Mark whiskey that I brought from Savannah, before we started to train.
End of Day 1End of Day 1End of Day 1

Still amazed at the quiet gym. View from the bleachers where I enjoyed the feeling of being done with session #1. Only 18 or 19 to go....
I’m not sure if it’s available over here or not. I hope he enjoys it, it’s really good. At the end of the run, I was sweating pretty bad. Not sure how much was rain and how much was sweat. As expected, jump rope was next, for 10 minutes. Got through that only tripping myself up once. I think it was 7:45 when the Fitbit did it’s thing and let me know I had reached 10000 steps. (Right now as I’m typing, I’ve tallied 17200 steps/ 8.98 miles/2002 calories.). As I was jumping, I noticed I was still the only one there. One of the other fighters came out, but possible because of the rain, wasn’t training in the morning anyway. Just a side note, the gym too has updated facilities. The old “toilet”, I.e. hole in the floor with bucket rinse has been replaced with a fully functioning toilet! Apparently there is also a shower, as I was offered a couple times when finished that I could shower. I decided to just let the passengers on the BTS enjoy the sweet smell of hard work, or whatever you want to call what I did.

So it was a one-on-one session in the ring. Never before have I seen there gym so quiet. The first round was really pretty good, seems like Ajahn picked up almost exactly where we left off 2 years ago. Four minute round finishing up with machine gun punches. The next round I could feel the running and heat, and the restless sleep start to take its toll. The good first round was followed up by a couple of not bad rounds, and finished with a fourth round of, should have quit while you were ahead.... it was all the normal combinations of jab cross then adding hook and uppercuts. Of course there are the kicks, left and right, with knees thrown in, oh and elbows too. The second round was topped off by 10 “rapid” kicks on each leg. I got through the right, but slowed down near the end of the left. That was way better than I had done at home though. Third round was more of the same, although I needed more breaks to catch my breath. Each time I did, Ajahn would laugh, but he would say slow, and each day will build up. At the end of the 4 pad rounds, I was feeling a little light-headed, but not done yet. Maybe because I started so early, or mane because the gym was so quiet, next up was some time on the heavy bags. When you are the only one training, there’s no way to relax even a bit. I guess I was starting to take it easy a little too much, so Ajahn graded a chair and sat next to the bag I was hitting, telling me i needed more power in the punches and kicks. Then he held the bag while I was kicking. Maybe because I told him no afternoon today, he decided to add in a couple sets of weights, and of course sit-ups. Once I finished that, it was time to leave. The walk to the BTS was much, much slower than the morning walk in. The sun was out and the temperature was climbing. A nice cool shower helped recovery, but my shoulders are amazingly sore already. I know the bruises are soon to show, as the pads were really hitting me as hard as I hit them.

I finally got the money exchanged- 30 baht to the dollar. Sitting in the Ambassador coffee shop by the Bird Oasis, I’ve noticed it’s really quiet, and that it’s more of a plant sanctuary now. I can’t see even one bird in there. More changes....

That’s probably all I’ll do today, except for dinner. I’m going to need to recover this afternoon, so I can be ready for tomorrow’s session, and see if I go back for the afternoon. If I do, it will certainly be a light session if anything. First day in the books. Kicking the bags wasn’t as bad as I remembered, but working the pads wore me out just as much as I remembered. I guess I thought I would be able to get through those rounds better. It’s just like starting over every time here, especially when I think I’ve kept myself up to speed, only to be shown there is so much more to go. Hopefully, I’ll get acclimated quickly this week and start to accelerate next week.

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