A little unexpected down time

As I'm sure you all have memorized my rigorous schedule by now, you're probably wondering why in the world I'm typing out this post and not being entirely too tough on the mats. Unfortunately, my loyal readers, I've fallen victim to my first bout of sickness here in Phuket and, to be honest, it couldn't have come at a better time. The training is just about as rough as I could have imagined and without my trusty supplements here to supercharge my body, I'm bruised and battered, to say the least.

The training facilities here are incredibly scenic; the backdrop of the rubber forest is harshly juxtaposed with the blaring AC/DC and disgustingly sweaty men, and a few incredibly tough girls, rolling around very ambiguously. My lush digs are located across the road in front of the gym and after adjusting myself to looking right, as opposed to left, when crossing the road, I report that I have yet to fall victim to the infamous traffic accidents that you here entirely too often about. I'm still steering clear of the mopeds for the moment; I'd sooner hoof it than put my driving skills to the test, even though I doubt you'd find a better Sega Rally driver around.

At all hours, you can hear the slap of shins to thai pads and the encouraging, and sometimes discouraging, words of the trainers; unlike back home, when training Muay Thai (kickboxing) you are matched up 1:1 with a trainer who peppers you with commands that are often indescribable. I jabbed when I was expected to cross and ended up landing myself ass backwards on the floor, sent there justifiably by my 140 lbs trainer, who just so happened to be a infinite-time thai champion and someone with whom not to fuck.

The food is also delectable, though as aforementioned, I can't seem to get enough of it; you're burning more calories than an ox and sweating out 2L of water a session, so satiating oneself is difficult at times. Just now, I'm going to head off to the Tiger grill and have the lady cook me up some Phad Thai before heading to some conspicuous road-side stand to refill my dual 6L bottles of water. One is strongly advised against drinking tap water and I am smart enough, thank you McGill, to heed the warning of the locals.

I've got some nice war-scars at the moment, but feel that postponing uploading them until I get a tasty shiner. As for my schedule, I'm going to start hitting the computer at 6:00am or so, before yoga, the 7-10km run, and morning training. Catch me in the late evening, if you feel so inclined to chat with Matt "Spaghetti Arms" Charleton and catch up on the times.

Sawatdee