Day 5.5

I know it has been far too long since last we blogged and at risk of just digging ourselves into an excuse hole, perhaps we will start this entry with a list of our combined injuries in a chart I have outlined below:

Alex
2 massive greenish/purple bruises that are actually made up of over 50 smaller
bruises on the lower part of the quadricep muscle of each leg
2 brownish/purple bruises on each knee cap
1 extreme sharp pain jutting upward from the left ankle through the shin bone to
directly below the knee
2 ripped bits of toe (were initially blisters, but have developed into just rips in
the flesh) one on each foot right under the big toe
2 pulled arm muscles (not sure the name of the muscle, but it is either the flexor
carpiradialis muscle or the brachioradialis muscle) on each arm
We think there are a series of bruises on the arms, but it is hard to identify them due to the tattoos, but feeling of pain is there for sure!

Mel
8 bruises (in various stages of agony) on right arm
3 purple bruises on left arm
10 reddish purple bruises on right leg between hip and ankle
3 bruises on left leg between hip and ankle
1 possibly broken 4th toe on left foot (brownish purple in colour)
4 open blisters that have developed on top of 4 already ripped blisters (2 on the
right foot, 2 on the left foot)
1 calloused blood blister on the left pad of my foot
1 black right eye
1 extremely sore back (middle of the back, the muscles surrounding the spinal cord)
making breathing difficult
1 tender pain deep within the metacarpals in the right hand...specifically between
the thumb and pointer finger (you know, that meaty chunk) rendering it impossible
to put my hand on my hip or spread my thumb too far away from the rest of my body

OK, so not to make any excuses, but as you can see, we have experienced some major fatigue and just have not had the energy to get to the Internet plus it is just very difficult to get to these Internet cafes. Needless to say, so much has happened so we must update you all accordingly. First of all, this place is totally awesome and everyone here has a myriad of injuries and plethora or ailments, so we are by far NOT the only ones. Even the professional fighters who train here begin their morning and afternoon workouts with a 20 minute Tiger Balm (Ben Gay) regimen of rubbing their whole body down from head to toe, icing various parts and massaging legs and backs and all sorts before their rigorous work outs begin. The people here are also quite interesting. The moody girl from Holland continues to be moody and you never quite know where you stand with her...sometimes she says hello, other times just walks on by. We have learned a lot about the Californian...she studied at UCLA and was recruited by the CIA, but when they interviewed her and discovered that she had brain cancer as a teenager and had her pituitary removed and is on lifelong medication accordingly, they denied her. She now works in Korea as an English teacher and makes a lot of money from that, as well as gets to travel. She still talks loudly and has a foot infection, but I am keeping my eye on it and offering alcohol swabs a plenty...thought what does it really matter at this point, Al and I are broken and infected with so many ailments, what is a one more infection going to do! Ryan, the guy from Wisconsin is actually a lovely guy and he is strong and tough and has a lot of pent up rage and anger that he extricates from himself while training in the ring and it makes for a great watch...I like to stand there and get some moves from his training to use on my trainer whenever he smacks me in the face...retribution is a bitch Mow, isn't it! The South African guy, Adrien, has a fight in a week or so and he also trains hard. The other day, the trainers made him do 100 sit-ups in increments of 20 punching him in the stomach each time he went down...this left him with a very red belly and he almost puked as well...there is no messing around here when you are training for a fight. A whole load of Swedish people came today and 1 of the girls looks quite strong and good, but the other one does not look that interested and we think she got dragged here by her friend. All the guys are trying hard, but they just don't want to look like big wimps...It is funny to watch sometimes, as they just push themselves too hard and look ridiculous and all to save face!
The second day of training was a bit better than the first in that we knew what to expect and what was happening...now that we have been here almost a week, we can see the fear and trepidation in the eyes of the newbies (yes, we consider ourselves pros at this point) and we have a chuckle when we reminisce on how scared we both were the first day and how awkward it is when you just don't know where to go or what to do. So, a basic day consists of waking up at 7:45am, getting dressed in our choice of sweet body odor smelling damp clothes, dog shit smelling wet clothes, or pseudo sun dried with a faint smell of toe jam smelling clothes and then get out there quickly to get the best jumping rope...there are only 3 acceptable skipping ropes, as the others have weighted handles (can you believe it!!!! Weighted handles, as if we do not get enough of a workout, they have to make jumping ropes with weighted handles) and then begin jumping rope for about 15 minutes. Now, jumping rope when I was a child was a very different experience from Muay Thai jumping rope. For example, you have to do 5 sets of 100 jumps (as a warm up to your warm up) and this includes switching from straight jumps with both feet to hops on one foot at a time to criss-crossing the rope to doing this weird baby kick move and so on. You may try to get away with only doing 75 or 80 jumps, but there is ALWAYS someone counting from a dark corner and they will bust you and you will be punished, severely. Now, I would be quite satisfied to end my workout there, but there are 3 options for what happens next...I suppose it is like the choice for someone on death row...death by hanging, death by electric chair or death by lethal injection...you can either go for a 4km run, do bag work (kicking and punching a big bag filled with sand and clothing) or you go into the ring with one of the hardcore fighter/trainers for 3-4 rounds of hell...I mean training. Each day has been different as far as the order in which we have worked out, but all have been excruciating. The first 3 rounds are 4 minutes with a 1 minute break and the last one is 3 minutes with a 2 minute break, though these breaks never truly feel like the full minutes you are allotted. The buzzers sounds and you meet your trainer face to face and slap hands (kind of street cool stuff you wouldn't understand unless you a true fighter like us...hehe) and then you kick and punch and block (unless you have my trainer, Mow...pronounced like Mauw). You spend the next 4 minutes kicking, punching and elbowing just waiting for the break buzzer to sound. Sweat is flying everywhere, spit follows the sweat, sometimes there is blood and blister puss, but when the sweet buzzer rings its' sweet sound you retreat to your corner for some water and breath...but not until you do 10 fast kicks on the right side, 10 fast kicks on the left side and then 10 punches...all of which cut into your break time so you want to make it fast. Then, back to the ring for round 2. Sometimes, you work on blocking and my trainer, Mow, has adopted the method of whacking me about the face to teach me how to block, which has resulted in a baby black right eye...it does look cool in the ring, but it really looks shit everywhere else! However, I have really begun to block much better now...based on the fear of further black eyes or worse. Alex has informed me that NONE of the other trainers seem to use this method and NONE of the other trainees have been the fine recipients of such a method, to which I replied, "I am Meow...I am special...they only use these special techniques on the Meowwwwww." What can I say, you have to laugh to keep from crying...this place is insane. You somehow make it thorough your 3rd and 4the round, heaving and gagging the whole way there and then you hop down through the ripes out of the ring and kind of feel endorphiny...like you are levitating and floating along the ground...you can hear other fighters and trainees getting their turn in the ring and various moans and yelps and grunts from the punching bag area, as you just glide along to a nice corner to gather yourself for either a 4km run or some sit-ups and bag work. Every so often, another trainer (different from your main one) will teach you some wrestling techniques or various across the floor work and that can be quite useful for the next day so you can advance and feel a bit more confident. Slowly, everyone dissipates, one by one, until the whole gym is empty and nothing can be heard except the croaking of the frog that I shook out of my running shoe this morning, and you retreat to a cold body shower and a bowl of cornflakes and some fruit and decide just how much energy you can muster to either go to one of the dozens of spectacular beaches surrounding this place, the pool, errands, Internet or just laying, which is what Alex and I have done because in just 6 tiny baby short little hours, you do it all again...and that is the Suwit Muay Thai experience...in a nutshell.