The Gear

Training days are getting to be harder and harder as the trip progresses. 6 weeks in, I'm starting to feel the brunt of the overtraining; the fact that even I am hard pressed to go to the gym is a little disturbing. Nonetheless, I believe a lot of this would have been avoided if I had the foresight to have brought my supplements along with me to Thailand rather than attempt to purchase them here.

Everything in Thailand is cheap and many of the guests here are of a similar mindset to mine; if you're going to try it or buy it, do it in Thailand. When people ask how expensive a certain activity is, say my bungee jump, I just say "less". Everything is cheaper than it is 'back home' as we fondly refer to everywhere that isn't here. Last night I went to a very nice restaurant and purchased a large thin crust pizza for about $4.50; last week I went to Journey to the Center of the Earth with my least favorite person in the universe, Brandan Fraser, only because it was hot outside and $3 for luxury reclining seats and air conditioning is too good to pass up (not a horrible movie in the end and only slightly scientifically inacurate, ha).

Back to the supplements; with the cost of living so low in Thailand, so is the average wage. People live here in pretty scant conditions just to get by; the workers commute into building sites in the morning, packed 30 deep into a truck's flat bed and live in shantis alongside the job site most of the time. That being said, those things that aren't domestically produced are obscenely expensive. While most things are 2 or 3 times cheaper here, supplements and 3 or 4 times more expensive, which is a dilemma for the athletes here. Thus many turn to 'the gear', as the Aussie's affectionately refer to it, or steroids. Everyone at camp has some horror story about the stuff, but still I can imagine how many people have dabbled or are currently dabbling in the juice. You need not worry about me; after an entire science degree and too many pharm classes, I will never, ever touch the stuff for fear of all of my organs simultaneously failing.

Still, training is hard going and I think there I can almost see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. One more week then I'm off to Phi Phi Island for a few days of tropical relaxation before I come back for my last 2 weeks of training. I still can't be sure whether or not I'll fight as now it's not so much a question of my ability, but rather the availability of opponents. So I'll put that to the back of my mind and train today, sans roids.

PS: This is me against Mr. Thailand competitor Peter, AKA the Thai hulk. I had him, but he's a big fat cheater.

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