Travel day 7 / Training day 5

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It’s Saturday!! That means only 2 more training sessions until a day off. Slept a little better last night and feel good right now, eventhough it’s 4:40 in the morning. I’m planning to get a little extra stretching in this morning. Legs are feeling a bit tight and sore, but nothing terrible anyway. It was surprisingly overcast and a little windy this morning. Felt really nice walking to the gym. Eventhough I got there about 7:25, the gym, and everything was pretty quiet. You can see from the picture of the street the difference in traffic. Santafaa was just coming out to run and the overcast was even darkening. I was out there just behind him enjoying the fortunate cloud cover. After a couple laps, even the cloudiness and breeze really weren’t that helpful. Just as I was finishing lap 5, it started to lightly rain. Nothing I haven’t run in before at home, but the Thais don’t like us to run in the rain. I did keep going but at a faster pace to finish my last two laps, and luckily, it never got to be much more than a sprinkle. As I was running I was noticing people starting to gather outside the gym. They didn’t exactly look like they were training, so I was thinking maybe it was more movie time. By the time I finished running, there were 7 or 8 gathered outside. They seemed to be waiting for a couple of the people I’d seen training earlier this week. It was the first time I’d seen what looked like a real “Intro to Muay Thai” for beginners. Some of them may have had some training, but most did not. Santi started them with jump rope or jumping jacks, and was working the basics of punching and kicking like they were in a class. They all had time on the heavy bags, padwork with Santi or Santafaa, and had to do push-ups after each round. They also go a taste of 10 push-ups, with Santafaa repeating “ 9“about 5 or 6 times. They even brought someone to video their workout. While that was going on, I was working with Fahlaep on the pads. The routine is much the same, but now that I’m attuned to where the pads are, I know what to throw. That makes things go just a bit faster also. Those first two rounds went pretty well, but they were still exhausting. My nemesis was still round 3. Those multiple sets of kicks, knees, and teeps just wear me out. I'm hoping that putting in the time and effort this week will make next week easier to work through. The 20 kicks are still brutal. Round 4 was tough to get through, with the focus mainly on hands. But there was still time for 10 kicks. This round seems to always finish with 30 seconds or 1 minute of left, right punches, or until my arms fall off. There were a couple of rounds on the bag and a couple rounds of shadow boxing, all the while working around the large group on the floor. I did enjoy seeing how Santi trained them in this “beginner” class. As I was walking to BTS, Fahlaep rolled by on his motorbike and gave me a ride to the station, which save a lot of walking!

The exchange rate is now just over 36/1, so I went to try Starbucks for a change of lunch settings, as it’s very near a good money exchange. But not as good as I hoped, which meant a bit more walking. This afternoon session will be the 9th one so far, which kind of surprised me. I even had to count on my fingers to make sure I was correct. On Thursday, Santi invited me to dinner after the Saturday workout. He’s reminded me about it each day since. I’ve packed some extra clothes and plan to shower at the gym because no one will want to be near me in a restaurant after a 2 hour workout! But first the workout. When I got to the gym, the gate was mostly closed, but I was a few minutes early. There were two guys in there just lightly working on the heavy bags. I dropped my bag, drank water, and started the running. I thought I would be used to the heat, but it seems to be getting hotter every day during the run. I pounded out the 7 laps, noticing that more and more people show up at the gym each time I pass it on the run. It was another packed session This afternoon. Santi says it’s because it’s the weekend, so everyone comes out, because it’s a day off. It was hard to find a corner to jump rope but I started my 15 minutes, and then Satanfaa started next to me. I’m not sure he even broke a sweat, and I was dripping. While jumping, I noticed that my legs were, not shockingly, a little tired. I decided to ask Fahlaep to skip the speed 20 kicks and instead, do single kicks for power. I don’t think we really did those specifically yet. I made the request and the rounds started slowly as he saw i was a bit tired. Still, no matter how tired, or slow I wanted to go, the pace just naturally picked up. One of the series is cross, hook, cross, right elbow, left elbow, knee. As the round goes on, more elbows and knees get tossed in. At the end of the round he likes to burn out any energy left with 10 kicks left and right, or 10 punches. At least he counts the punches accurately. The second round gets a bit more strenuous with kick blocks and counter kicks in rapid succession. And then the 3rd round which will be the power and not speed round. So I had thought. Started with 10 speed kicks each side, then 10 knees, 10 teeps each side, and of course 10 punches. Whether he forgot my ask, or he decided I needed these, it really didn’t matter. Next, we did go to power kicks, alternating left and right. And the 4th round was power punches and elbows, pushing hard through the round. He stopped before the round was over, which was weird. Then said speed punches until the timer stopped. What a way to finish. My arms were like well done spaghetti noodles after that seemingly forever minute of punching. After a small break, I was looking for an open bag or floor space, to finish with a couple. I was pretty well finished by 5:30, but with so many people all the trainers were still busy. It was a good chance to take a break. I took a quick shower, changed and tried to stay out of the way of everyone else. They didn’t finish up until after 6. I’ve been used to being the last one out of the gym on many days, but it’s nice to see so much activity.

After Santi showered and changed, we jumped on his motorbike and drove back into the neighborhood to a Thai restaurant. I didn’t realize at first, but Santafaa and two other students were on the way also. With all my trips here, I don’t usually go out for Thai food, so this was the perfect chance to get what I’m sure will be excellent choices. And on my solo trips, I’ve not have beer, but tonight, I did. The bottles they brought were huge, and they keep them in an ice bucket at the end of the table. The mug initially comes frosted, but doesn’t last more than about 15 seconds. Once the beer is poured Into the mug, ice cubes are added. I’d never seen that before, and thought it might affect the taste. It made no difference, and really kept the beer cold. The waiters never let the glasses get even close to empty, and kept refilling and bringing more. Santi asked what I wanted to eat, and I left it up to his discretion. I only ruled out coconut, and the very spiced food for me. He ordered a variety of things, each one he said was very good. Luckily, the two other students both spoke English and were able to translate most of the conversations when needed. Only Santafaa had no beer because his fight is coming very soon. I asked Santi if I can go with them to the fight, so hopefully that will work out. The Tom Yam soup was really good, but even not spicy, ended up being spicy. There was a shredded mango salad (can’t remember the name), one not spicy and one with chilis and Thai anchovies. Guess which one I went for. There was a pork plate, and huge plate of rice, and breaded shrimp or prawns. Everything was community plates, and it was all amazingly good. We sat around talking for a couple of hours, which by the time I got back to the hotel was long past my normal bedtime this week. That may have something to do with the 6:45 wake up this morning. Longest and best I’ve slept all week. Not sure if it was having some beer, or staying up late, or just the extremely relaxed and enjoyable dinner, but glad for the rest and ready for a complete off day today. That dinner was such a great experience, I only wish my Thai was better to really understand all of the conversation. Something to work on in my spare time !

I had wanted to do a bike tour of the temples on the other side on the Chao Phraya river on Sunday, but the tour company said restrictions on visiting the temples has made them cancel. That’s disappointing, but I’ll take advantage of the day to do some other things that I hadn’t had the time or energy for this past week.

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Photos

Road to the gym
Same road I showed in earlier posting. Normally packed with cars, motorbikes, and people walking, in addition to the people selling the street food, you can see it’s a relative ghost town early on Saturday morning.

Outside the gym.
I hadn’t noticed the flowers on this tree on any other trip, since it’s usually fall when here. All along the running route the trees have lots of flowers making the smells amazing along those roads.

The dinner crew
Santi on the right front, Santafaa left front. I can’t remember the two girls names. It was a great night, and temperature was great for sitting outside.