Woke up about 6 and had some breakfast and was training by 7. It was a little misty and sprinkling but felt good with a little breeze while training. The training facility is 3 rings, one cage, a bunch of bags and padded poles, some weights and a juice bar. I did muay thai this morning and was feeling pretty good with the jet lag behind me. A typical training session is everyone warming up by jumping rope, then doing some stretches as a group. After this a trainer will grab you and wrap your hands and you'll do rounds of padwork in the ring. Padwork is the trainer holding the pads and calling out combinations of punches, kicks, elbows and knees. You also work on footwork and blocking his punches and kicks between combos. After this the trainer will put you on a bag and say "100 push kicks" or "100 knees" and then correct your technique. You may end up moving to different stations and working on a few different techniques. After a couple hours everybody does stretches and cool down as a group.
Sat down at the juice bar for a bit and then went to breakfast with Aussie Adam, Gaz and Elly. I pointed out something I wanted and Adam said it looked really spicy but I got it anyway and so did he. Turns out it really was spicy. Halfway through the meal I look beside me to see how he's faring and he is bright red and sweating like we're in a steam room. He said 'I only got it b/c I thought, well if he can handle it I can handle it.' I'm sure I didn't look much better and we ended up having to down some soymilk to kill it. Elly said she had English channels on her t.v. so they went back to her place to watch and I went and chilled in the sauna and steam room a bit. After that grabbed some stuff at Tesco and took a nap before afternoon training.
Opted for submission grappling and I am getting used to the humidity. The weather is comfortable if you are just walking around. Cooler than Texas and the humidity isn't that bad. Unless you are running stairs or training, then all of a sudden it feels like you are in a sauna and you sweat profusely accordingly. We learned some rubber guard stuff which I don't think will ever be an effective part of my game. Seems good for naturally limber guys with long legs but I had a hard time executing the moves when we rolled. The rest of the sparring went well and I was able to pull off armbars, anaconda and rear naked chokes.
After that I just went down to Jimmy's to use the wifi and get some dinner. Had a huge serving of cashew chicken and another fresh coconut. Pretty cool to have a great view of the water, eating in a lighthouse, feeling the breeze, drinking a coconut, and be on wifi. Not too many people there tonight, just a couple of salty euro sailors and myself. Couple new people at camp: Linda, from Iceland. She told me her Icelandic name and as I was trying to wrap my brain around it she said her second name was Linda which was easier. Jason, from L.A., and Tom, Eddy and Iman from Germany.
Am going to be keeping earplugs handy tonight thanks to Little Jerry Seinfeld #2 who started cock a doodling at 4 a.m. behind my bungalow last night. He and his crew hang around my bungalow occasionally. I looked up Thailand's voltage and checked all my electronics gear and found out everything I brought except for the heating pad works here. So now I get to write from the comfort of my bungalow. My bungalow is really cushy with a large wrap around porch, comfortable queen sized bed, hot shower, remote controlled A/C and de-humidifier, tv/dvd and fridge. The sounds of the jungle are all I hear at night and really relaxing; when it rains even more so. Cushy was the word of the day in a segment on the local news for teaching English. On a similar note, thanks to the varied nationalities at this camp I am the one with the new slang.
No comments:
Post a Comment