Week 2 Begins - Day 8

Week 2 Begins - Day 8

Day 8 already, we're into our second week in Thailand, and the time has absolutely flown. It only feels like yesterday when we were sat in Gatwick Airport having food, it's crazy how fast this last week has gone. Hopefully time will start to slow down just a little, as before we know it we'll be flying home again, and that is going to be a really sad day!

There was no Yoga on Friday morning for Nicola, her body was struggling with the sunburn received on the previous day at the beach. She woke up looking like a patch lobster, which understandably left her in a little bit of discomfort. After another slavering of Aloe Vera gel she was right as rain though, and out of bed.

The late morning and early afternoon turned out to be a pretty lazy one, just chilling on the sofa with Nicola's newly reddened nose deep into her book; a book she duly finished before swiftly moving onto her second book of the holiday. Not a bad effort reading a book a week, she's just gonna have to hope she's got some left by the time we get away from the bootcamp section of the holiday and into something that actually resembles a 'proper' holiday.

4pm came around quickly and we headed off to my first proper training session since Monday, 2 and a half hours of Muay Thai! This session actually went a lot better than our first Muay Thai session. I completed the 20 minute warm-up run without a break, and other than the final round of bag work completed everything asked of us. My t-shirt certainly felt the strain though, it was so sweaty by the end of the session, it needed ringing out before being put into our bag.

I actually managed some success in the sparring section of the training too. Once you get over the fact that being punched in the face doesn't actually hurt, you become more comfortable and start actually trading strikes. I think the moment I gained this realisation came as a right leg came flying towards my head. I'd managed to block a few of these previous, but this one connected, and once I got over the brief shock of actually being head-kicked I soon got over it. By the time we moved on to round 2, and a fresh partner I was feeling a lot more confident. Partner 2 got a good beating. He landed a couple of strikes, but I was landing kicks on him with regularity, he didn't seem to have remembered the blocking techniques we'd drilled in the class! Was nice to actually enjoy the sparring section for once!

After the sparring we did 200 knees on the bag, 100 elbows and then a minute standing behind the bag, pushing it away, straightening our arms and holding it. When we were told Beginner Muay Thai was very Cardio oriented I didn't really think it'd be quite this cardio focused, it's a bloody good workout! We then sat down for the introduction portion of the class before lining up behind the head trainer (the dude with the stick) for the section of the class we both skipped last week, due to how brutal it looked. 3 rounds of walking up and down the matted area on your toes throwing alternate knees, much more difficult than it sounds, especially after already working out for 2 hours. I managed it this time, as Nicola watched on, and hoped that was it. It wasn't. 

For the final section we were given 10 minutes to do 300 sit-ups and 100 press-ups. I didn't quite manage that, but did the 100 press-ups plus 125 sit ups, my muscles were burning! Neither of us had ever felt like this after a session at the Gym in Kingston, which gives me the impression we're not quite doing enough. It actually feels good to do this much, and get this sweaty, because at least you know you're doing something, and it's going to have a positive impact on your body. Doing an hour in the gym at Nuffield before heading to the pool wasn't really providing the same impact I don't think!

8pm came around, after a dip in the pool and a quick Skype session and we headed out for tea, to our new favourite restaurant Tony's. Disappointingly our meal was more expensive this time, a ridiculous 200thb, which works out at £4, crazy prices! Nicola had the BBQ grilled chicken I had had the night previous, whilst I went for chicken and fresh chillies in a mild chili sauce with rice and chips, was delicious!

We had planned on going out to watch the football, but the 1.45am kick-off time was too much for us, and we decided on a sleep instead. It did allow us to make our plans for the following day though, and a day that should lead to a slightly more exciting blog, with hopefully more pictures and hopefully a video or two! We're going back to Phuket Town for the night market. It's supposed to be hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of stuff, plus a whole section of freshly cooked Thai food, can't wait!

Ready to head out, just counting the dough for the evening

Nicola looking lovely ahead of our meal at Tony's