April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet.

But it isn't April and those feet need more than daisies after what they have been through. We have both sustained numerous injuries over the past 8 days of Muay Thai hell, but the award for most horrific of all injuries goes to...drum roll please... Alex for her feet. Alex has never experienced being fat, obese, chunky or even bloated in a way that most other women have experienced these feelings...until the past few days that is. Now, don't get excited...she is still tall and thin with a six pack, but her feet are HUGE! We think is due to jumping and rolling over the ankle a few times coupled with sparring and kicking her sparring partner's knee straight on the bone, but her feet have tripled in size. She woke up one morning and said, "Mel, my feet feel very large and tight and a bit swollen." I had to scramble for my glasses and turn on the light to have a good old look at these dogs and boy were they barking. There was no bone or vein definition in them...they seriously looked like two large peach coloured meat chunks with 10 tiny little pink Vienna Sausages sticking out the tops of them. All around the ankle area there appears to be blood coagulating in pools surrounding the ankle bones causing more swelling and just overall tightness. I have never seen anything like it, but we have purchased two ankle braces and every day and night (twice) we elevate them and ice them with cans of Coke Zero and Diet Ice Tea (peach flavour...delish) hoping that the next morning they will be back to normal. So, Alex has obese feet and she is being a very good sport about it (under my tutaledge) and not training with so many kicks, more focus being put onto her elbows, blocks and punching exercises, but as you can all imagine, she is less then thrilled that she cannot work out to her maximum potential. I think it will be just one more day or so and she will back to her fighting championship best! As for me, nothing new to report...still have two large infected raw pulsating blisters, but we found this amazing gauze tape and when coupled with antibacterial gel and bandaids, makes a lovely wrap enabling me to fight another day. Bruising is just a normal natural occurrence so when I look down at my arms and legs that resemble that of a crack whore...(or a crack addicted individual who may or may not use prostitution to get her next fix for those PC people who read the blog)... I am not jolted or afraid. I am merely reminded of what a total bad ass I am and how hardcore it makes me that I still train and run 4kms per day with all these injuries. Ok, so Alex has two obese broken feet and still trains, but she is an athlete by birth so we expect that of her, where as I am more of a later life athlete...I just found athletics or a more athletic lifestyle, as some people do not believe that dance is a sport (not naming any names, but it rhymes with Mohn...John...and Cat...Matt) in my late 20s/early 30s so I can still relish in my injuries and how cool I am for working through the pain...can't I?!?
We leave this Saturday, early in the morning, after one more fight night and this Friday will be a good one, as one of our friends, Adrien, the South African will be fighting a Thai kick boxer right here in this very ring in which we train. I think he is a bit scared, as he went into a soliloquy about how Muay Thai just breaks you down to the nothing but a pair of boxing gloves and raw aggression and that you kind of become a Phoenix rising from the ash...he was getting quite deep. I think he is crapping himself about this Friday and to be honest, I would be too. Our whole little team will be there cheering him on and praying for him as well, but ultimately he is kind of right when he says it breaks you down, but I think it is more of a mental breakdown regarding physical pain and fear and what your body and mind can overcome. I don't necessarily think you have to have raw unadulterated aggression, though it may help...I think you need to have a lot of mind body connectedness and strength to not let the pain and fear get the best of you because that is what the opponent wants...and that opponent is yourself...