Oh my ... thai

Oh my - thai, what was I thinking. Training for 4 hours a day is in itself a challenge, but throw in the heat and humidity and it's a whole lot worse.

I survived a full day of training yesterday. I actually quite enjoyed it. Once you get past the fact that you (and everyone else) have become a river of sweat. Now I'm not talking a little shine here, I'm talking about rivers of the stuff running off you. Probably a good thing the gym is open air!

We do get lots of short water and wipe-the-sweat breaks, but each break starts with 10 push ups and 10 sit ups. That's a hell of a lot over a 2 hour session.

I had plans of having the sleep of my life last night. But although I was knackered, I hadn't factored in the sore body business. It hurt to lay down (beds in Asia are very hard), it hurt to roll over and I'm just lucky it didn't hurt to breathe.

But I got my sore self down to the gym this morning to do it all again. Things were going swimmingly (think sweat) when one of the trainers stepped forward just as I launched a big right kick. The top of my foot and his knee cap are never going to be the same again. After the VERY loud swearing (me) and yelps and giggles (him) we surveyed the damage. Ice was administered and I was able to finish the session - punches and elbows only, no god damned kicks.

I hobbled home feeling sore and sorry for myself and wondered if my career as a muay thai fighter had come to an end. I had a swim and a snooze (the fighters daily ritual) and headed back for the 3pm session. There were cheers from the trainers - I don't think they expected me back for a while. I swapped kicks for more punches but otherwise survived the session quite well.

Might hobble back again in the morning.


- Posted from somewhere round the world...

Location:Happy elephant resort