Friday - Day 8

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MORNING: Woke up a little early today after a great, uninterrupted night of sleep. yesterdays workout was completely exhausting and I’m feeling it now. Everything is really sore. Not from getting hit, but I guess just the extra rounds in the afternoon. The legs are really tight, so the extra few minutes were spent on stretching and getting a little loose. Decided to head in a bit earlier so I could get all the running in and try and avoid a backlog of us waiting on padwork. The day looks very nice, and I did 9 laps today, followed by 10 minutes of rope. The running is about 30-35 minutes. Just a couple of random statements…. It’s 90 or 91 steps from the ground to the BTS platform. Doesn’t seem like much early in the day, but it’s a killer on the last trip to the hotel, even if it is just going down. Or when the escalator at the end of the day isn’t working. One thing that will make sense to those who’ve been here, the gym has upgraded to actual flush toilets!!! Yes, it’s exciting, trust me. It used to be just a basic hole and a bucket of water with a ladle in it to “flush”. Running was 9 laps today. I was going to try 10, but will save that for tomorrow. I took some video of the run, but watching it made me queasy, so I’ll try again in the afternoon. 12 minutes of jump rope finished the warmup, and everything was feeling much looser and ready to go. About that time, Fahlaep walked over to the scale to weigh himself, and I couldn’t resist just sticking a toe or two on. It was so funny because he was doing a double take at the scale, and didn’t realize what was going on for longer than I thought! Just a little payback for being carried around like a sack of potatoes yesterday in the ring. I told him yesterday was great, but I am really sore. He said it would be a bit slower this morning. The pad rounds were a bit slower paced to start, mercifully. It still took a few minutes to get loose and into the rut hem of what he wanted done. There were still 10 quick kicks, and the second and third rounds did have the usual set of power kicks. He was ready to stop at 4 rounds, but I was feeling good and still had some energy left, so I asked for one more. We went a bit harder and worked more of the kick blocks and sweeps. I still have trouble sweeping the back leg when it’s catch the right kick and I am to sweep with right. Same with the left to left. It’s something to work on this next week.

AFTERNOON: again, left a bit early, hoping to get done early so I could go out somewhere different to eat. A bit warmer in the afternoon, but half of the run is shaded, which makes it much more tolerable. Tried a video again, but I’m just not motion stabilized enough. I can’t load them here, so I’ll put them somewhere else. Ran 7 laps, mostly with one of the other guys training. He told me a story of how he ran across a snake last night while he was walking near the open canal. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but never really considered there to be snakes (the reptile version) in Bangkok. Another guy from Singapore showed up and was in the ring first. He goes to the Eminent gym in Singapore. 12 minutes of Jump rope and 3 rounds of pads, with a little more intensity. after Those 3 were finished, Fahlaep sent me to the other ring to spar with the new guy from Singapore, and he was working out the other two guys. This guy had never sparred before and has only had a few classes here. We took it pretty easy as normal sparring would, but he was really overwhelmed. i worked with him a bit to try and get him to relax and understand he won’t get hurt with what we’re doing. We went 3 or 4 rounds, not really sure because I lost track of the ring bell while talking to this guy. But my plans of getting in early and out early went up in smoke. Don’t think I left the gym until about 5:30 as it took a bit to cool down and drink a ton of water. Today was the day where I could have slept on the train and not really cared. I was pretty tired and was counting the stops until the Nana station. I can already feel I will be sore in the morning, so it’s an early night tonight. Tomorrow will just be a morning workout and then rest and some shopping. No matter how much water I drink at the gym, my weight changes by 2-3 lbs just from the sweat. When I get back to the hotel, I finish a 30g protein drink, along with a bottle of water. For some reason, the hotel keeps giving me 2 a day, even though I don’t need them. I have a complete bowling alley of water bottles right now. Tonight, treating myself to some cookies and Brownie Bits that I got at the airport when I left, and an extra icy bottle of Pepsi Max, assuming I can stay awake that long.

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Photos

Trash and Recycling
This is how you know people are serious about recycling. Look hard inside the back of the truck. Guys on the street toss in the bags, and there’s a guy knee deep in the trash sorting through it to pull out the recyclables. That’s dedication.

Blog Office
This is a picture of the Espresso Cafe at the hotel. I come down here after my shower, grab a quick bite for lunch and most days a nice frozen coffee drink.it’s pretty quiet and I spend a couple hours here typing up the blog inputs. To the right is the bird cage remodel.

Old running trail
This is the empty lot behind the gym where we would climb over the wall to run back and forth. Looks like it hasn’t changed at all. Through the shacks further to the right was the path to where we initially ran, years ago.

Picture filler
One of the pictures where it was “punch body”. I need to check and see if I have any space on my video cameras to capture some action next week.

Another gym cat
Only one ring dog that I’ve seen, and even on the run, there are more cats than dogs. Which means less crap to watch out for. Today, this one had a whole fish it was carrying around for breakfast.