Travel day 5 / Training day 3

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Yesterday was the first double training day, and it sure feels like it today. I was feeling the leg cramps after the session yesterday, and that feeling made itself know again last night. After about an hour of sleep, I had the worst thigh cramps I’ve ever had. Almost made me cry. It was one leg followed immediately by the other. I staggered around the room for about 10 minutes until they subsided. I grabbed some water, added some electrolytes, and drank it all and hoped for some serious sleep. Guess I am still in the jet lag area because I woke up for good around 1:30 am. Tried to be productive and even tried to go back to sleep around 4, but no luck. Maybe an afternoon nap will be on the agenda. I may have to ask Fahlaep to cut down on the legs this morning, and hope I’ll be in better shape for the afternoon. Right now, everything feels ok, but it doesn’t take much to tip into uncontrolled spasms.

After stretching for a bit, and having extra fruit juice at breakfast, I headed out and found myself at the gym really early for some reason. I think I’ll leave later this afternoon. I arrived as Santi was sweeping the never-ending falling leaves. It was off to running, nice and slow, to see if the cramps were coming back. It feels more like the normal temperature I expected, although there was a nice breeze blowing this morning. I made it through 6 laps with no issues, so I went for one more. I never thought I’d get through 7 laps in about 35 minutes after the cramps from last night. Next up was 3 rounds of jump rope. About this time some others started filtering in. I recognized a couple from last trip. One guy who rolls in on a scooter at about 8 or so, gets in the ring for his few rounds then out the door. It’s probably the way he maximizes the use of his time. Seems pretty consistent and any exercise is better than none. There were about 4 others also, one guy was here last time. He’s now working in Bangkok and training here. He’s also had a couple fights, winning one and losing another. i think he said he lost very quickly by an elbow right in the middle of his forehead, requiring multiple stitches.

I was doing a light workout on the bag, trying to focus more on footwork and balance. Fahlaep points out that I don’t always put my foot in the right place after blocks of kicks, causing some balance problems. After a round or two of that it was into the padwork again. I was a little worried that all of the knees and kicks might be too much, but rounds 1 and 2 were no problem. The rounds contained the regular jabs, crosses, and elbows, with the random kicks sprinkled in. The pace seems to be picking up, although he is giving me a bit more time between rounds. Instead of the normal gym timer, he has one fixed in a corner that he uses. Round 3 is really getting to be the toughest one, and should just be called Round 10, because that’s most of what gets done there. 10 knees, 10 right kicks, 10 left kicks, 10 punches, repeating some of the first two rounds sequences as a short break, and then finishing with the 20 kicks each side. Today power kicks were rolled in, just to make it interesting. I have to watch twisting on the kicks because my feet are feeling a little raw. Can’t have blisters this early in training. The last round this morning was mostly a boxing round, with a little impromptu clinching that he likes to do. That’s is more exhausting than anything else right now. This last round was a bit faster paced, or at least it felt like it. Mostly punches and elbows, with some blocks and counters. The end of the round was just like yesterday where I just punched until the timer went off. I don’t even want to know how long it was. Either it was really short and I’m a wimp, or I’ll be trying to judge the time the next time I have to do it, and not focusing on just punching until I stop. Slow walk back to the BTS and hotel. Relaxed at the Bird Oasis and typed with a nice cold beverage, and thinking about heading to the room and see if I can have a short nap. It’s a nice, warm 94 degrees today, but I think it almost always is.

Ended up reading to try and sleep and maybe I got 15 minutes. Not enough, but close to finishing my book from the flight anyway. I timed the travel to the gym well this afternoon, arriving at about 3:25pm. As I was getting ready to run, I was talking to a guy, Steve, from Brisbane Australia. He and his son are here on holiday and training. He runs a Muay Thai gym there, and has been visiting Eminent Air for about as long as I have. He said his favorite trainer was Pet, who we know passed away some years ago. They went out running with me as it seems they hadn’t done it on the new local route. He remembers running where we had to climb over the wall, cross the parking lot, and walk along the aromatic canal to run. Those were the days. We did 7 laps, and of course his 9 year old son runs at home, and is like a gazelle. Steve and I talked the whole time, and have very similar experiences and philosophies. I felt good, but was running a bit faster than I preferred. I don’t usually see monks walking on the running route in the afternoon, but today on my last lap, there was one coming towards me and gave me a thumbs up. How can that be anything but a good sign? That made the 15 minutes of jump rope, in three 5 minute rounds go rather easily.

The gym was busy this afternoon, like the old days, so it had a good feel. Lots of banging on pads, and the heavy bags were all swinging. I got in the ring for my afternoon pad work. Four rounds again, the first two same as the morning with the first round a warm up with punches and a few kicks, and the second round a bit more vigorous with blocking kicks and counter kicking. These were done with left and right for maybe 6 or 8. We started 10 teeps, but when my 4th slipped of the pad and went a little low, Fahlaep decided that was enough of those for now. The dreaded third round didn't seem quite as bad. There weren’t as many sets of 10, but certainly enough to keep it interesting. Today, round 4 was the killer. This round usually focuses more on boxing techniques rather than kicks. Lots of machine gun punching, now it’s 20 at a time. I didn’t get off the hook for the 20 kicks, they showed up at the end of this round As a nice surprise. And what’s even better, as great as one set of 20 kicks feels, two sets must be twice as fun !! it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was a good way to finish off the pad work. A couple of rounds on the heavy bag, working footwork, and then a little weighlifting finished off the day.



Dinner at the German beer garden tonight. No indoor seats so it was a quick meal, eventhough there was a good breeze, it was still warmer than I was looking for. I had typed most of this at dinner but looks like it never got saved. This website is a bit buggy, have to double check and make sure pictures get ordered correctly and entires get saved. A little sore this morning, but not more than I expected. Now, it’s off to training day 4!

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Photos

Sunrise in Punnawithi
BTS was empty again this morning, and the windows were clear for a nice sunrise picture.

Leaves
The people here sweep up these leaves every morning. And the next day when I come in, this is what it looks like

The setup
Just before the kick get thrown, you can see how he is set.

Power kicks
Santafaa powering through some kicks while Santi holds the pads. Both are getting a hell of a workout