Every Muscle in My Body Hurts - Days 4 and 5

Every Muscle in My Body Hurts - Days 4 and 5

Apologies for the lack of updates. I did start updating last night, but Blogger crashed I lost  a whole Day's worth of writing, so gave up. I should get chance to write Day 6 today as well :)

An early start beckoned on Monday morning, with Nicola rising at just after 6 to head off to her Yoga class. I can't even remember the last time I had to set my alarm for 6am, it was not a pleasant experience. Nicola headed off just before 7 and I crawled out of bed to prepare breakfast ahead of my first MMA session. I thought I'd go with a hearty breakfast of cereal and a protein shake, and seeing as I got up at 7 I thought it'd have plenty of time to settle in my stomach. This is where the day began to go downhill. First off, my first attempt at a bowl of cereal, some frosties, ended up full of ants. There were a few Ants inside the box, but I washed the foil and presumed that would be fine, but as soon as I poured them into the bowl, ants spread everywhere, so that got binned. Then the real downward turn began.

The MMA classes are held inside, on Tiger's new indoor matting, and to say the air conditioning isn't up to par would be a massive understatement. After a 20 minute, sweaty warm up we moved into some drills, effectively learning 2 good ways to break someones arm. It was during drilling these moves that I suddenly made a turn for the worse, and was forced to sprint outside for some air. I'm glad I did, because as soon as I made it outside, that 'hearty breakfast' I decided on 2 hours previous came spewing back up into the sandy Tiger Muay Thai plant arrangement. Strangely though, being sick made me feel a hell of a lot better, and I managed to convince myself to power through and complete the last hour and a half of the class. Fortunately, there were no such worries for Nicola, she really enjoyed her first Yoga class, and got a good, but not sick-inducing work out at body fit, it's alright for some!

Upon returning to our apartment, we decided a nap would be a good option, ahead of our 2 and a half hour Muay Thai session later that day. The nap certainly helped, and I felt a lot fresher after that than I did post-MMA. After a light lunch and a bit of chill time around the pool we headed to Muay Thai with a little bit of apprehension of what was to come. 

As we arrived at Tiger, and the beginners area we were both relieved, the class had started, and had begun with some light stretching, a warm-up that was in stark contrast to the one experienced earlier in the day. This relief didn't last long though, as we were quickly thrown into a seemingly timeless jog around the matted area. We lasted about 10-15 minutes before having to stop, Nicola in desperate need of a drink, and me struggling with stomach cramps thanks to the sickness of earlier. It was a lovely start to our session.

The rest of the training consisted of learning the 8 basic offensive strikes of Muay Thai plus knees, and kicks and then some defence. After this we were taught some combinations and put together in pairs to drill them. This section of the training was actually pretty fun, and it was good to finally be learning something as opposed to running round in circles in pain. From here we did 3 rounds of pad work with an instructor, 3 rounds of bag work and 3 rounds of sparring. This again was hard work, but enjoyable. The session was then brought to an end with us all introducing ourselves before being told to do 300 sit-ups and 100 press-ups, or face being hit with a stick by the head trainer. It was an interesting way to end a session that's for sure.

After a quick muscle relaxing swim when we returned to our apartment, we headed out to the restaurant at the hotel again for a bite to eat. Was another excellent meal at the restaurant we'd eaten at every night of the holiday so far. Once tea was eaten, it was chill time and then bed time, in an attempt to be ready for more activities the following day.

Stunning views to the rear of our apartment

Views of the pool from our front window

Our bedroom

Waking up on Day 5 was not one of the most pleasant experiences of our lives, as every muscle in our body was aching. Muscles we didn't even know existed were aching, and there was no way I was doing any form of sporting activity on Day 5. Nicola managed to drag herself out of bed for Yoga at 7, but that was it for the day training wise. I hope we don't feel like this after every training session, it turns out we're not the Olympic athletes we thought we were, 2/3 intense training sessions a day is HARD!

Once Nicola had returned from Yoga, we decided we needed a lie-in, as well as the rest of the day off to rest, in order to get our muscles prepared for the following day. Once we'd woken up, the rest of the day was spent feeling like we'd woken up with the bodies of 90 year olds, doing the smallest of tasks such as standing up in stages, with grimaces of pain at each stage. It wasn't quite how I'd imagined we'd be spending Day 5 of our holiday. 

The next portion of the day was spent laying on a sunbed by the pool trying to relieve the pain in our muscles, as well as having the odd swim when the heat got a little too much. It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon in the sun, but the pain in our muscles sort of negated that relaxation time. 

After sunning ourselves for an hour or two we decided we do something a bit more active, and walk down to 2 shops Nicola had been wanting to go in since we'd first seen them. The first promised Thai souvenirs at local prices, which sounded promising, and the other, was called the Latex Store, my expectations were unsurprisingly low. We only got as far as poking our heads in the Latex shop, as it appeared to be some sort of bed showroom, very bizarre. We might end up needing to go and have a full explore later in the holiday. The souvenir shop, Happy Elephant, was surprisingly good however. They had some interesting little bits and pieces that we were tempted to buy, and Nicola now has her eye on a few items to bring back for our room next year!

We didn't end up purchasing much from the store, only a little present for Daddy Manley, which will make up part of his fathers day present, but I'm sure we'll go back for another look later in the holiday and buy a few more bits. 

The walk in the blazing afternoon sun got us in the mood for another dip in the pool before tea. The sun in the middle of the afternoon really does get seriously hot, and the heat mixed with the constant humidity can be a little uncomfortable when you're dressed in more than just swimming shorts and not sat by a pool. It's really nice to have actually experienced some sun though, as the prospect of sunbathing seemed somewhat unlikely given the weather on the first day and a half in Thailand. 

We pushed the boat out a little when it came to deciding where to have tea, instead of heading to the hotel restaurant again we headed down the road to another hotel restaurant called Signature. The prices were lower than the hotel, and the actual restaurant looked really nice, all brand new furniture, air con and staff that were actually in a uniform, it almost felt like a proper restaurant. Nicola went a bit crazy with her food selection, going for chicken noodles, I know, you can't have seen that coming! :P I went slightly less Thai again, and opted for the 200thb TBone Steak. I was excited. I'd not had a steak for a while, and TBone is supposed to be one of the nicer cuts of steak you can get, with it being a mix of Fillet, Sirloin and Rib-Eye. When my food finally arrived, I was massively disappointed. There was very little actual meat on the bone, it was very thinly cut and also cooked in some sort of oriental mustard. Fortunately, Nicola's chicken noodles went down a bit better, and she really enjoyed her food. I wish I'd gone with something a bit more Thai on reflection, I imagine the Thai Green curry would have been a lot nicer!

I was still hungry after getting back to the hotel, so ended up eating there after all, and proceeded to order my second main meal of the evening. Steak and Swordfish in one evening, that did the job! With a full stomach at least, we headed back to the apartment, watched a bit of TV and went to bed in the hope that upon waking on Day 6 our muscles would have recovered sufficiently to be able to train hard again. 

Dan on sofa

Crazy waves on Patong Beach

Another Thai lizard

Nicola in the sea

Nicola Posing

Patong Beach

Malia Strip, oh sorry, I mean Patong Strip

Dan eating a boiled potato, Impressed?