Ok it doesn’t sound that impressive, but yesterday I completed the entire 2 1/2 hour Muay Thai class for the first time after a week of training. I’m really pleased as it was a hot day and by the first hour mark I was still feeling fresh. Now I know what to expect in order to pace myself better for the future so that I can work harder!
First Thai Massage
I had my first private, 1-2-1 Muay Thai lesson today which was really awesome. Tiger Muay Thai charge 5500 THB for a bundle of 10 private lessons, which works out to 550 THB a lesson, or roughly £10.50, which is great value as it costs that much to join a class back in the UK!
The lesson consisted of pad work, interspaced with sit-ups and massages and lasted an hour. Obviously when you’ve got a personal trainer the format of the class will be based on your own individual needs, I’m starting at the beginning so it’s mostly about technique and cardio for me.
Life Changes Quick
Johnny’s last book, 12 Weeks In Thailand is one of the reasons I’m currently here, living it up in Phuket. I flew out almost 12 months after reading it, so when I learned he was launching a new book, Life. Changes. Quick. I bought it as soon as it was out.
I read the book, cover to cover, in just one sitting. It’s only 126 pages long, so not quite Lord Of The Rings, but every page was gripping and inspiring. Documenting Johnny’s journey from living it up in Thailand with no money, no budget and no responsibilities, to creating his own business, losing weight and falling in love, very inspiring.
Around the world in 80 Girls: The epic 3 year trip of a backpacking Casanova
Around The World In 80 Girls was half good, half boring, a bit of a grind to read but at the same time quite informative. Neil decided to spend 2 1/2 years backpacking around the world, started sleeping with lots of girls then decided to blog and write a book about it as he travelled. Starting in Russia, heading through Asia, down to Australia, through South America then ending in New York before back home to Holland, quite the adventure!
Rolling With The 6.57 Crew: The True Story Of Pompey’s Legendary Football Fans
Growing up in the 80s/90s on the outskirts of Portsmouth football was everything. We played it so much that myself and some of my mates actually started to develop knee issues! As a kid the 6.57 crew were kind of legends. We all loved Pompey and there was always boasts and stories every now and again of someone’s older brother or cousin getting in to trouble for 6.57 related activity. Even now as an adult (?) when I talk to my mates from Leigh Park or Havant usually something 6.57 related comes up as some kind of brag, so there’s still something in the air about them!
How To Prevent Ringworm
All over the Internet there are dozens of posts on Muay Thai and MMA forums of fighters going down with Ringworm and other fungal infections. Most people who have trained long enough will have come in to contact with someone else that has Ringworm and possibly had it themselves. The first time I caught it was my very first session training at ZT Fight Skool when I borrowed some gloves and got it all over my hand. Getting rid of it took over 2 weeks and killed my motivation to train! I don’t want that to happen again here so am going to be a lot more careful.
The Daily Mail Is Banned In Thailand
Seriously, if I try and visit any pages on www.dailymail.co.uk I get the awesome error in the image to my left. This is probably for the best for a variety of reasons 🙂
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Pancakes
It was inevitable that at some point in Thailand I’d fall ill with some kind of stomach bug, that day was Thursday. I’d managed to wake up at 7:50 am, had a shower and was eating breakfast by 8am, but after the first bite of melon I knew something was wrong. With in 2 hours I was throwing up everywhere 😀 They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger so hopefully this will give me some kind of superman like immunity to other stomach bugs. Also it couldn’t have happened at a better time as I’m out for the count anyway due to the stupid fungal infection, which is slowly clearing up but still there.
Stupid Fungal Infections
Yesterday was Muay Thai lesson number 2, I managed to get through 90 minutes of it and it was totally awesome. We started off with running then drills again. I’ve found hanging at the back of the class is the best place as whilst doing the drills you have more access to the trainers so I had a lot of my technique fixed. After the drills we then did some partner ‘sparring’, or at least practising stand up grappling techniques, which was pretty cool. The guy I was training with had Judo experience so despite the disability of the gloves we managed to pretty much get the hang of what was going on.
The Smell Of A Figher
Is Dettol. You can smell it everywhere like cheap perfume or aftershave and it’s an instant giveaway that someone is training in one of the many fight camps along the road. It’s a necessary evil though as it’s recommended to wash all clothes and training equipment in Dettol or another anti-bacterial solution in order to reduce the spread of staph or ringworm infections. Not only is this a good idea for health reasons, it helps with my travel light policy as I’ve been hand washing the same couple of sets of clothes daily for the past week 🙂 We’ve also been given Dettol anti-bacterial soap to wash ourselves with!
Cross Training
After taking Thursday off because of DOMS and still being jet lagged I decided to do yoga then the cross training today. I went to bed at 10pm and then fell asleep at 6am just before the yoga started, which was useful. So today was just cross training. And it sucked.
The format of the class was a worm up, which killed me in itself, then 2 WODs. I prefer what we did at CrossFit Hove, which was a short warm up, followed by strength or skill training for 30 minutes and then the WOD at the end, so I’m going to have to chat to one of the Strength & Conditioning coaches to sort something out, or just do the Black Iron Beast routine I was doing at CFH originally on the side.