It's the final countdown, da na nah nah

	17-04-15	09-07-15	Difference
Weight	142.4	121.1	-21.3 kg
Body Fat	38.2	32.9	-5.3 %
Lean Body Mass	83.5	77.2	-6.3 kg
Water	50.1	50.3	+0.2%
Deep Fat (0-12 healthy)	20	17	-3
Measurements
Upper Arm	41	37.5	-3.5 cm
Forearm	34.2	32.6	-1.6 cm
Wrist	22.8	20.7	-2.1 cm
Chest	129.3	117	-12.3 cm
Waist	128.5	110.2	-18.3 cm
Hips	130.1	111.7	-18.4 cm
Upper Leg	68.5	64.5	-4 cm
Calf	46.6	43.4	-3.2 cm
Exercises
Switch Kick	54	75	+21
Power Jack	20	40	+20
Power Knee (Right)	45	70	+25
Power Knee (Left)	40	73	+33
Globe Jump	15	21	+6
Burpee	23 (inclined)	15 (proper)	-8
Mountain Climber	n/a	70	+70
Push Up	n/a	35	+35

Exercises are based on how many you can do in one minute, with one minute rest between them.  The Push Ups are based on how many you can do before stopping.

And now, some photos.

For some crazy reason I woke up early today, which is why I'm posting this now.

Proper debrief and story later today. 

Mini update

Just a small update as I'm on my phone and its not the easiest thing to post with.

I'm all packed up and ready to go, about half an hour until the taxi arrives.

Ended up getting a final weigh in of 121kg, so it looks like Mum wins the sweep.
I also lost an average of 15cm down my torso.

The final numbers will come later.
For now, I will see you on the flip side.

And then there was one...

One kilo left until I hit 120kg.
That's right, I weighed in this morning and am at 121kg.

I was worried earlier this week, as I weighed in on Tuesday at 128kg, so somehow I fluctuated 6 kilo and then lost one.
Sometimes I hate the human body, how is that possible.  I'm fairly sure I didn't eat three family pizzas.

Anyway, that's the number that I'm at now.  If I get under 120kg, even if I get to 119.9kg at my last official weigh in, which is now less than a week away on next Thursday morning, then Mum looses the Weight Loss Sweeps, and the winner will be Karyn who I think had 111kg.

My target when I started was 99.99999kg, and I think that's still possible, as long as I keep up the exercise.  Expend more calories than you take in.  It's simple math.

Enough about that, since my most popular blog post by the numbers is the one where I passed out, I figure people only like it when bad things happen.
Schadenfreude is alive and well.

So, the last two afternoon sessions I have almost blacked out again!
Now that people are reading I will qualify it.

For the last two days, I haven't been feeling great.  The bowel movements have been too plenty, but I've kept up the water intake.
And yet, the two times I've been in the ring for the pad sessions I've started to feel dizzy and my vision gets blurry.
And even before then just doing bag work, I struggle to get through it.

Today, during the middle of the second pad sessions (with the crazy insane trainer who I haven't mentioned before) pretty much any height change in where my head was, would cause me to become dizzy.

Stupidly I finished that round and had to rest, one session short of the minimum 3 that I try to do.

Climbing out of the ring, sitting on the exercise bike, any time my head moved up or down, dizzy.
Even when I managed to get back to the room and have a shower, when I picked up the soap, bam.
Not a good feeling, so I skipped Krav Maga and rested.
I'm going to do Krav Saturday morning, but if it happens again during that, I'm calling the whole day off.

Tonight was a fun adventure though as Bonnie (A new starter this week from Canada) and oh god... I've forgotten his name... He's English via Kazikstan, but the name was very American.  Tanner... Tanner as well was there, he started today.

So the three of us (And Pierre) decided to head into the night market and check things out.  And this one was much better than the one I went to before that had the same four shops over and over.  This one had the same seven shops over and over, with the occasional weird one.

Weird in this instance would be the fish tank you put your feet into and they eat all the dead skin.  I'm going back there Saturday night, do some shopping and get my feet cleaned.
I did buy one shirt (XXL now, not 4XL) but most of them were closing up for the night as we didn't get in until about 10pm.

We stopped at an outdoor restaurant and had some drinks.  Bonny ordered what turned out to be an entire Coconut, and Tanner and I got Lemon shakes (Lemon and ice, it was amazeballs).  There was also a fruit platter and some spring rolls involved.  I regret nothing.

Catching the Taxi back was a bit interesting as naturally the driver didn't know where the camp was, it's very out of the way.
So I used my experiences so far to cobble together enough words, then tried to barter him down, but ended up at 600, which was what we paid to get in so that was fine.

Since he didn't know where we were staying (thinking it was a hotel until I mimed some Muay Thai) I had to remember back to training where we had to change from left foot to right foot stance in Muay Thai.  Muay Sai was left, and Muay Qua was right.  So I figured Sai was left and Qua was right.  And it seemed to work fine.

Although when we finally pulled up out the front of the camp, the taxi driver started laughing as if to say "Why they hell are some crazy white people staying out here in what looks like a prison!".
And too be fair, it does.

Big walls, solid metal gate, guard towers with snipers.  I understood his point.

Anyway, it's now almost one oclock in the morning, and I still want to get some reading done.

If I ever find Neil Stephenson, I'm going to slap him for taking so much of my time via a book that I keep reading even when I should be sleeping.

Night!

Certified ass kicker

As usual, it's been days since my last post, even with exciting things happening I still didn't get around to posting.

But I'm here now, so there's that.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week I had a special gun training course run by two police officers (with a third as translator) in which I learnt proper safety and stance and generally how to shoot like a cop slash commando.

It was fairly expensive (I wont mention how much as I think they are going to make it a regular thing, and I might look like a dick if it's less than I paid) but when I broke the cost down in my head, your getting nine hours of instruction and testing, ammunition, gun rental, gun range time, it turns out to be a pretty good deal.

And something that would be a whole lot harder to do back home.

So the three days training was only three hours per day, run from 1pm to 4pm for the three days so that I wouldn't miss any weight loss training.  However since I didn't get back until 4pm, and having missed the lunch window I would go out for lunch and then end up missing the first half of the afternoon session, which I wasn't too worried about.

The first day was in the gym where the three guys laid out the guns (two Glock's, a Berretta and an M4 Assault Rifle) however I was only training on the Glock 19.

They went through the different parts, how to take it apart to clean and check for faults.

Then he asked me (via the third guy, a translator) to hand him the gun that was in my holster, to see what I would do, and I think to my credit I didn't just hand it to him.  

Turns out I had to remove the magazine, slide the slide back, lock it in place, inspect it being empty, then show it was empty before giving the gun over, but keeping the magazine for myself.

Same thing with the stance, he wanted to see how I thought I should stand, and then adjust to how I should stand.

This was the biggest change for me, as I expected a diagonal stance with the gun out in both hands but to my right so I could look down the sight with my right eye.

Turns out the way he teaches (and apparently the way cops and SWAT do it) is to hold the gun directly out in front and use both eyes and "feel" where it would go.

Legs shoulder width apart, slight bend in the knees, lean forward, lock your wrist and shoulders.

Was pretty interesting stuff.

Then we practised the standing, kneeling and sitting stances, and went through what we would be doing when there was actual ammo in the gun.  And the various moves and actions to take.

I picked it up fairly quickly and they seemed happy with my progress.

Got a few weird looks from the other camp people when they come into the gym area and there's me aiming a gun at a door, with two other cops with sidearms and machine guns lying around.

Thursday was the first shooting day, and I did fairly well.

My accuracy grew as we went on, with my best results I think coming from the kneeling position.

At the end I asked if I could shoot a few rounds with the M4 (Always wanted to do that) and they said yes.

Turns out it had been altered however to shoot smaller 22 rounds, rather than the 5.56 they normally do.

Still, I hit five bulls-eyes at 30 meters using the built in sight, which I was pretty stoked with.

On the third and final day we went out and did basically the same thing again, although this time it was timed.

So I had 6 seconds to accurately shoot 5 rounds at a target with my arms out front as normal.

Then 10 seconds to do the same, but this time returning the gun back to my chest each time, like a deadly push up.

I probably missed two in ten, and by missed I mean hit the 1 to 5 point rings on the target rather than the smaller 6 to 10 point area.

One however was accurate enough to sever the wire that was used to move the target holder back and forth.  So there's that.

In the end I got a rating of 90% (450 out of 500) and got a nice certificate that says "Gold Medal" on it, which being an attention loving Gen-Yer, I was very pleased to have.

So with the shooting all done, today was going to be back to normal, until my phone crashed overnight.  I tried to charge it, but it kept flashing a ominous red light at me.

In the end it started working, but then it was saying it was charging, but the battery was going down.

But that meant that my alarm didn't go off to wake me up in the morning, which meant that I could have possibly slept until the coming Apocalypse.

So I missed morning training and breakfast.

Despite a deep seeded desire to skip the afternoon training, I managed to crawl out into the heat and into the gym, where I was promptly reminded why I didn't want to come out.

I'm just over being hot, sweaty and sore.

But I've only got 12 days left, so I guess I have to man up right?

Since this is getting a bit long, I will say that in the Krav Maga session I got a palm strike to the nose, which made it tingle, but luckily didn't bleed, and then had a very salty lemon crusted fish for dinner, which was acceptable.

Sleep now, Krav Maga is on for Saturday morning... however Gerry mentioned there might be a non-camp guy coming in who is a bit.... enthusastic, so I think it's just bag smashing tomorrow... which will probably ruin my already sore wrist.

However speaking of wrists, turns out one of the boxers broke his wrist when he punched a guys head in sparring the other week and has been training with it.

And another guy crashed his scooter and broke his forearm.

So it's injuries all around... and I've got this little scratch on my leg, so we are all suffering.

Anyhoo, good night.

Oh wait, there is a few videos of me looking badass.

Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend...

Monday update and I have suffered from Mondayitis yet again.
However for me it's a case of waking up on Sunday around 2pm, then not being able to sleep until 4am Monday morning, and then missing morning training.

However, rewinding back to Saturday, I had Krav Maga in the morning which was nice and fun as always and there was a few new people who didn't turn up today, so I think it was a one off.

The highlight of Saturday was two of the guys from the camp were going to have an organised fight in the same bar that the last guy fought it, down in Walking Street.
I wasn't to hyped about going, so I thought I would wing it and see where I ended up.

However on the way out to the bike to leave I see Barbara getting all geared up and I remembered she was having a sparring session in the ring, so I stop by and watch her get beaten up by another woman.

She holds her own, but the opponent figures out her tactics and throws a few good hits.  Three rounds and they are all done.

I get on the bike and head into the Thepprasit Rd Night Market, which I had read some good things about, plus it's only half way to Pattaya so I can bail and not be too far from home.

Weave the bike past dozens of people to the parking lot which is thoughtfully located on the other side of the market, requiring you to ride between stalls.  Genius.
I had earlier decided to grab dinner here, so I do a lap of the food stalls and scope out what's available.  And I settled on Spring Rolls, Corn fritters and Taro balls in a sweet sauce.
All in all, pretty meh.  Should have looked harder and found a classic Pad Thai or something.

After the food I go for a walk around the stalls, weaving through the hundreds of people and about half way in I conclude that there is only about five unique stalls, all copied fifty times.
The sunglasses stall, the knifes and lighters stall, the DVD stall, and so on.  With all blank space made up by women's clothes.

After I walked around the entire place I head back to the bike, scooter around the corner and head to Swensons for some dessert.
For those who don't know, it's an ice-cream shop similar to Pancake Pallor, with ice-cream instead of pancakes.
I get the Oreo Sundae and it was delicious.  Although after I ordered I saw the Oreo Waffle Sundae and slightly regretted my decision.

Checking the clock I see that it's about 10 minutes until the fight time, and I'm about 10 minutes away, so I figure that means I should go.
Back on the bike heading down the main road and taking what I hope to be the correct turn.  I've only done this trip once before, following someone, during the day, and it's now 9pm and quite dark.

Swing across the double lane road and park on the side of the road between hundreds of other scooters and walk down to the bar.  This time however I don't get the chorus of "hello sir" because I walk in like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going.
The two fighters and the third guy they hang out with are down the back so I go check on them, have  a chat, turns out since everything is run on Thailand time, they haven't even "checked in" yet.

I find the bar that another guy from the camp is at, get a Soda water and wait.
During this waiting time I lost 10 straight games of Connect Four.  I swear, it's like these bar girls do this for a living.

An hour and a half later the first fight with our guy starts.  The muscle bound New Zealander, shaved head, covered in tattoos (that also writes children's books) is in the ring all psyched up.
The bell sounds, the traditional Thai music kicks off through the ancient speakers and the fight starts.

And NZ comes out swinging.  The fight ends up being brutal.  Gloves, Elbows, Knee's, Kicks... damn.  I would have surrendered after one round.
Second round kicks off and the Thai must have been given his orders to win because his legs are kicking, but our guy is blocking really well.
Third and final round and NZ manages a good one two combo that lands to the jaw and drops the Thai fighter.
The entire bar who had been standing and cheering burst into cheers.  Was a great fight to watch.

The second fight from our guys is a straight up Western Boxing match and it's fairly sedate compared to the last one.  Lots of ducking and weaving, jabs and straights.
In the end it was announced a Draw, although the Ref and other fighter both told our guy he had won, however due to too many people betting on our guy, it was called a Draw so they didn't loose money.

For the Draw he get's $20, and NZ winner gets $40.  Not exactly a way to make a living out here.

After the end of the second match I bid my leave and decided to go for a walk and see if any of these shops were unique, or if they were all just copies of the Night Market... and take a guess.
Same lighters, same DVD's and same watches.
Then again, I guess people don't come to Pattaya for the knick knacks, they come for the knock knocks if you know what I mean.

Doubled back to the scooter and headed off home.  Got into the room around Midnight.
A pretty good night overall I guess... except for the shopping.
Surprise, no one is getting any gifts :(

Sunday was a down day.  Watching Arrested Development and sleeping, that's really the only things of note.

Today, well... I slept through the morning session, and managed the circuit training in the afternoon but before I started Muay Thai, I felt quite crampy in the stomach area, so called it a night on Muay Thai and returned to bed via a shower.

Felt better by the time Krav Maga came around so hopped out of bed for that, and it delivered good fun as always.  Bit of knife, bit of gun.  I did however get two thumbs to the right eye, and an elbow to the teeth.  That sucked...

Anyway, dinner was fish, water was consumed and now I'm here.
..... uummmm... good night I guess.

Miscalculation win

So as my Facebook friends would know, I weighed in on Thursday (or Wednesday, I don't know anymore... time has no dominion over me here) and I was an awesome 124.6kg.

And I was super happy with that, because I was under 125kg, which is a nice round number when counting down from 145.

But then, on the actual weigh in day (Changed to Friday after the revolution) I clocked in at 123kg.

How awesome is that?  Very lots indeed yes.

There was a time last week and the week before when I thought I wouldn't pass 125kg at all, which wasn't a very good feeling.
But somehow I managed to loose 5.2kg in a week, and here we are.

It's Mitko's last week, so I promised I would make it to all the Krav Maga sessions so that he wasn't stuck with any bag sessions, which can be hell on the hands and arms.  And promise kept.
Although now my right forearm hurts and has a few bruises, which matches well with my right shoulder, right Extensor carpi radialis longus muscle (boom, anatomy), and my right pinkie when punching... so pretty much my right arm hurts.

There is a fight in the same bar as last time tonight at 9pm, and I've told some people I'm going, but I really don't feel like it.
I don't like the hussle and bussle of Asia, it's all too impersonal and commercial and fake.
I was going to hit up the night market afterwards (which is an even more concentrated example of fake commercialness) to see if I could find some gifts, or maybe another Vincent van Gogh forgery for my art collection.

Another thing that's been on my mind for a while has been the smell.  The unique smell of south east Asia.  Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia all have the same few smells.

The smell of roadside food being cooked, be it roast chicken or duck, maybe a soup or a squid.  It almost always smells fantastic, so you take a deep breath in.

And then the wind changes and you get 'that' Asia smell.  The stale water and sewerage smell.  If you have been here, you know the smell.  Like salty poop that's been sitting in stagnant stale urine for days until the wind changed, picked it up from the entirely too well ventilated sewer system and threw it right down your nose.

The Ying and Yang of smell.  Food and Poop, the Ying and Yang of the digestive system.

That's my thought of the day.

Two final notes.  First up, I did a possibly stupid thing today.  I traded a weekend at a beach side resort (with buffet breakfast) for a three day training course in addition to my current training.
Mum was going to spot me a weekend at the same resort they stayed at so I could at least have some relaxation on my "holiday", however I traded that money in for a weapons training course.
Run by an ex-army police officer here, it's a one on one course that Christian organised for me on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week from 1 to 4 each day.

Not entirely sure what it will entail, but I know the first day is safety lessons, which I agree is very important when using guns.
So yeah, traded luxury for training, but hell, I can go to a resort in Australia, can't do this back home.

The other thing is I've been signed up for a small adventure race in August a few weeks after I get back.  I was signed up by a "friend" Jodi (Jody... I'm not entirely sure) who recently did a 24hr Enduro event.

Luckily this one is just a 5km night race with a bunch of obstacles like cargo nets, barb wire, ice baths... that kinda thing.  I'm going to embed the video below so you can get a preview of my future pain.

Alright, well, peace out y'all.

I was only nineteen......

Kilo's down that is... 126kg today, and as my pre-departure weight clocked in at 145kg, that makes me minus 19 kilograms.
I might hit 125kg yet....
I wonder who had that in the betting pool.

A mid-week update this time, just had lunch (chicken, surprise surprise) and waiting for the afternoon session which I will kick off with an interval jog.

I remembered something that happened last week that I should probably mention for all those prospective people coming over, Visa.

I had managed to get a 60 day tourist Visa before I came over, a very nice company VisaLink did all the hard work, I just gave them money and documents.  However, with my final date here being 85 days, I needed a short extension once I got here.

So, last Friday, with less than thirty days to go, I got on my bike and rode down to the Immigration Office at Jomthien. Arriving at 11:55am... forgetting that they close for lunch (and to clear their backlog of people waiting) from 12 to 1.

I got the one page form I had to fill in and went for a walk back up the alley to a place that does photos and photocopies and got the passport copied and my photo taken, and filled in the form.  Luckily remembering to grab the business card for Komat Group as I had to write out the address for where I was staying.

Still had some time to kill after that so I went and got a very good Thai massage which hurt like hell at the time, but felt good afterwards, and conveniently it takes an hour, which meant no wasted time sitting around.

Headed back to the office, was the second person called, gave them the paperwork, sat back down, waited maybe five minutes, got my passport back and bam, all done.
It was crazy easy, and only cost 1900 Baht (as printed on the form, so no "random fees" were required).

Other than that, I finally managed to record some Krav Maga gun disarms last night, which will be available just below.
So that's it really.

According to my new favorite website days.to/9-july/2015 I have 22 days left... three weeks and one day.
Really is getting to the pointy end.

War, war never changes

Another week down, and only twenty five days to go.

The weight loss wasn't very good this week,  To the point that I gained weight, however since it was muscle weight, I guess it's a good thing, but when society cares about flat numbers, it doesn't do much to motivate me.

I blame the baby fist sized Amino Acid tablets I've been choking on for the last little while.  Got to put it to them, they work... a little to well.

So my muscle soreness last less time which is good, and my body isn't consuming muscle for energy, which is also good, but it's been putting it on.  So I'm up 800g of muscle, which people will tell you is less mass than 800g of fat, because muscle is denser.

So, all things considered it was a "win" of a week, but not to much when I need to be less than 109kg to race in the same weight class as Josh and Karyn in Go-Karts.

I gave Krav Maga a skip this week as well.  I needed a break from the Radius bone shattering blocks we have been doing recently, and in skipping on Saturday morning session I condemned Mitko to a session of strikes on the bags, which is the hardest kinda boring thing you do in Krav, sorry.

But I will be back on board this coming week, starting tomorrow.  Back into the two to three session's a day, with a mix of Western Boxing and Muay Thai, with the Krav in the evenings on alternate nights.

Mum and Dad are safely home and regaling their friends with exotic stories of the orient, and to that end you can see the Championship Fight that we went and saw on YouTube, and you can spot us in the front(ish) row around the 1 minute mark, during the first fight highlights.

I'm already making on plans on how I'm going to change my social life for the better when I get home, and I think a slow cooker is in my future.

Ok, well even though it's our Sunday off, I'm going to do a short workout to get the blood flowing.

So a bit of a shorter post this week, as the title says... nothing has really changed.
Same same, but different.

The Twilight Zone

Picture if you will, a man standing at the corner of Pain Street and Thailand Boulevard.  He has spent his time in a six by nine cell tormented by his captors day after day, until one day the sky opens up and the fifth dimension leaks into every pore of his body.  He floats down the street in the way a brick would not, until he reaches the Resort Alley.  He has just entered - The Twilight Zone.

Normally when I wake up, I'm treated to an hour and a bit of training, and then an egg white omelet, however, in this weird Thailand I find myself in today, I wake to be treated to a buffet breakfast containing actual factual toast, and then a leisurely swim in a pool.  How crazy is that.

In the words of 4chan... "pic related".

Well it's been over a week since I posted and everything has been trucking along nicely.

Mum and Dad are in Thailand (hence being able to hang out at a resort on a Sunday) and they came by the Gym on Friday to see how everything is going, and I wasn't really able to put on a good show as I was feeling a bit unwell in the gut, so I only managed a meager two rounds of Muay Thai on the pads.

Did however have Krav Maga afterwards which made up for it a bit.

I went shooting again, this time at a different place, and I'm now confident that the first place wasn't using full loads in their bullets, as the .45 really had a kick in it this time.  Still managed to destroy a target or two, which is the fun part.

On the drive to the new place I saw a sign for yet a third shooting club, so I decided to check it out, compare and contrast and all that.  So I followed the roads, sometimes at an intersection with no sign I always managed to pick the right way, except for once, but I realised pretty quickly.  And after going for what felt like half an hour, the place was shut.

So I doubled back and went to the original choice.  They also had Archery, Rock Climbing, Fishing, Horse Riding, Water Zorbing... but I just wanted a gun.
They had some Smith and Wessons, and some Glocks.  Might try a 9mm before I come home.

Had a weigh in on Friday afternoon (as Barbara wasn't there Friday morning) and I was 500g up on my weight from the week before, however that was after breakfast and lunch, so I didn't pay much attention.
Instead I re-weighed in on Saturday morning before Krav and I was infact down from last week, but not by much.  And considering I had a few cheat meals (A day with Mum and Dad) I consider it a pretty good week.

Tonight we are heading to Max Muay Thai for a championship fight, which will be pretty awesome.  Mum and Dad haven't seen a proper fight before, so it will be something new for them.

I've started making a few lists of things I'm going to do when I get back.  Mainly things I'm going to buy, because what says "HORRAY I MADE IT!!!!" quite like spending a few thousand dollars on life's little extras.  I see a trip to IKEA in my future.

Have fun everyone.

The six day work week

Today is Saturday (And Sunday comes afterwards, la la la la - Rebecca Black), and for most of the world that is the first day of the weekend.

Not at Weight Loss at Kombat Group, Saturday is still hard work.

Woke up at the ungodly Saturday hour of 9:15 am this morning, and quickly hit Snooze.  And again the ten minutes after that.  Finally dragging my sorry ass out of bed at 9:35, which made me 5 minutes late for the morning Krav Maga.

Luckily Mitko was there, so he and Gerry were warming up.  I grabbed some water and joined in.
I had skipped the Friday night session with a sore right wrist (after some bad punches during training) which was pad based, and from what I saw, it looked like it would have hurt.

But today, Knifes and Guns.  Aka, the good stuff :)
Going back and forth we held each other up with the knife and gun, and thoroughly disarmed our opposing force.
Except for the one time I grabbed the wrong hand and would have had my throat slit... aside from that, it all went really well and the time flew by.

Previous to that was Fridays session.
After sleeping through the morning session (sometimes the body just says 'Toby, your staying the fuck in bed', and I listen.) I jumped on the scales and found myself to be 127.5.  That's well below 130 (so it's finally crossed off the Goals page) and totals me at 17.5 kilos lost since arriving.

While I'm super happy with my progress (and more importantly my fitness level) I don't think I will be hitting the Uber Goal of 99.99kg, as that would require about 5kg a week to hit that target, which is borderline unhealthy.

So, whoever had that in the sweeps, sorry, not looking good.
However I still might be able to hit 109kg, which is Go-Kart racing territory.

Fridays afternoon session I made sure made up for missing the morning.
Barbara's circuit session made me collapse at the end, and a few times during as well, which is a good sign I think.

And then during the pad sessions I had three Muay Thai rounds and three Boxing.
I've added boxing as I want to try to get my Boxing certificate as well, so I'm going to split my time between the two.
And for those wondering, the pad sessions are three minutes long, with a one minute break.
And your punching or moving for most of that time, just like in the ring.
That was a hell of a day.

I also jumped on the scales again to check my body composition, and while my water level was I think 49 (Needs to be 50+) it showed that once again my body was using both fat and muscle as fuel, as both ratios had declined since last measurement.

So I jumped on my bike and rode off to the Bear Gym down the road a bit to pick up some Amino Acid supplements.  And boy... they are huge things.
I'm used to taking pills, I take one every day and I can swallow painkillers without water.
But these ones are the size of a babys fist.  And I need to take TWO after every session.
Going to need to buy some soda water.  Fizzy water makes them go down easier.

Mum and Dad arrived in a few days which is exciting, as I will be able to use the pool at their hotel!  Also, egg station and buffet breakfast.  But don't tell Barbara.

Well, got a few hours until the afternoon kicks off and a new book on the Kindle, so peace out.

The veil has lifted

The darkness has receded and the light shines in.

I'm more up beat at the moment, which is funny, because my body is about to die.
The blister on my heel is slowly healing, the cut under my big toe is getting bigger, I've got a new cut on my shin, and naturally, I hurt everywhere.
Especially since Barbara was trying out a new circuit for the weight loss program that had us to 30 travelling lunges, followed by 10 jumping squats..... five times.....
And that's only the first half.
For those wondering, or thinking "bah, pansy boy" go and try it.

Don't worry, I'll wait.... go on.
150 lunges and 50 jumping squats.
Now, for those that didn't do that, here's a graphical representation.

Rewind to Friday and I jumped on the scales and I was 129.9kg.  Which is still to much, but it's under 130kg, so I can cross that off my goal list.

However, I did have a hamburger on Saturday night, so maybe not :)

Saturday night (Night of the OK Burger) three of us scootered into town, ducking and weaving past buses full of horny Chinamen.

Rode past a giant "massage pallor" that employed around 300 "specialists" and out front was five empty buses.  Wonder what happened to all those horny Chinamen.

Past that place and down onto the main beach side road of Pattaya, and since I was the second bike in convoy, I was guided by the guy in front, so when he took a trip down a side alleyway, I followed.

This alleyway was Soy 6-1.  Also known as the backalley for Soy 6.  Or as I named it, Soy of The Hidden Schlong.

It's the alley where the girls from the bars in Soy 6 hangout.  And when I say girls, I obviously don't mean it entirely.

I must say, some of them are convincing.

But we motored through and then cut down Soy 6 between all the bars lining both sides of the road, and weaving around drunken farungs and mini-skirted hostesses.

Back on the main drag we set off to "The Bear Garden" for dinner.  It's set on a jetty out onto the water right at the entrance to Walking Street.

I had a burger, not nearly as nice as the one from Kellys, but the nachos and deep fried seafood made up for it.  I was stuffed.

The reason for the visit into Pattaya was Gino from the camp was set to fight in one of the bars (Don't worry, there's a ring and such, not an actual pre-arranged bar fight).

So we walked down Walking Street to go to where we thought it was.

And it was surreal.

Lined on both side by Go Go bars and a few eateries (Not like that, get your head out of the gutter), and each bar as a contingent of girls out the front in the hopes of funneling anyone into their bar and not the one next door.

Bit the weird part, was 90% of the people walking up and down were tour groups.  Usually led by someone with a flag on a stick so everyone knew who to follow.

And again, 90% of them were Asian.  I didn't stop to ask, but my guess would be China or Nice Korea.

Groups all wearing matching hats being led like innocent lambs into the street lined with lions.

So we made it to a bar that had a ring in the middle near the end of Walking Street, and asked one of the fighters if an Italian was fighting today, and nope, wrong bar.

However, there was a man playing with a live Cobra in the ring, which was pretty cool.

So, the only other bar where there was a ring, was right next to the Beer Garden which we had just left.

So we treked back against the flow.  Was actually easiest to move along and cut between the entrapping girls because most of the tourists were giving them a wide berth.

So back at the fighting bar near the Beer Garden, we walk in, and suddenly are affronted with a sexier version of the scene from Finding Nemo, where the seagulls all yell "MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE".

The layout of the bar is in the middle there is a half ring.  Rather than a square, its a rectangle, like a boxing ring cut in half.

And surrounding that is about 20 little bars, each with serving girls and stools.

You pick one and you get your drinks from them and no one else.

I picked one for us that gave us ring side seats for the fight, and to be honest, the girls weren't to bad looking.

And, it turns out that in order to keep you at their bar, they keep you entertained with their hands.

By which of course I mean they rock out two sets of Connect Four and challenge Chris and I to play them.  Not even joking, Connect Four.

After three games of winning for myself, I watch a fight between two Thai's and it looks pretty rigged.  I turn around and there's one of those twisted metal tricks that you have to try to untie, but you can't, because it's impossible.  Naturally they can, because hell, it's their job.

I finally loose a game of Connect Four that I had been encouraged to place a bet on.  She won and I had to buy her a drink.  Looked like Orange Juice, but I'm sure it was top shelf.

Finally Gino comes out and he and the opponent do the traditional dance around the ring and then get down to business.

It was pretty entertaining.  He landed a few good punches breaking through the guys gloves.

At the start of the second round an old man comes up and sits beside me, having seen me cheering for Gino, and he brings out a 20 baht note (76 cents) and points to the Thai fighter.

So I get 20 out and point to Gino.

We place it on the bar under a coaster and the fight continues.

In the end it was a draw, but I thought Gino would have won on points.

The old man and I take our money back, I pay my bill and go over to the other people from the camp who had setup at a different bar.

Turns out the guy I had bet was the owner/promoter and if large sums of money are involved, has been known to rig the fights, to the point that had I put a few thousand on Gino, the guy might have stepped up his game a bit and thrashed him.

Luckily 76 cents isn't a sheep station, as they say.

I made my way back to camp after that, the other guys I was with kept the tab running at a few other bars.  But I was exhausted.

That pretty much get's us up to date dear reader.

Mentally feeling better, even if my legs are made of jelly (not steel springs).

Night.

The dark days

This week hasn't been great.
Which culminated in yesterday which was probably my worst day here so far.

I was feeling exhausted (Par for the course), which meant I was quite irritable, and there was a negative vibe coming from a few of the people which rubbed off on me a bit and I became very angry and just "over it".

The main thing that annoyed me was Gategate.  There's a big sliding steel door that cuts off the scooter parking area with the road, and also waist high gates after the "carpark" to get into the accommodation area, where in this story, the dogs live.

Now, I like dogs, and they have two very friendly pitbulls.  Simba and Nala.  Great dogs, they always come up and sit next to your when your eating, hoping for a little snack thrown off the plate.

Anyway, Gategate came about because one of the residents is terrible at closing gates, because he's nuts.  And so it was deemed that we would keep the big gate shut so that if someone leaves the small gate open, the dogs wont get out and kill something, be it human or canine.  (Apparently they have attacked other dogs before).

This meant we got no breeze while training.  There are no fans, but this took away a much loved breeze, because some numptie wouldn't close the god damn gate.
Anyway, it seems like a small complaint, and really, it was.  But it grated on me, and some negative vibes were added from external parties.

In the end it was sorted and the gate remained open during training, and today appears a spring load on the small gate making sure they are slammed shut.

But honestly, if a gate is open, leave it open, if it's shut, shut it.... if it has a sign on it in three languages that says "SHUT THE GATE", you shut the god damn gate.

And around five o'clock when we started Muay Thai training there came a booming sound from next door... Karaoke.... turned up to the proverbial eleven.
We are in the sticks a bit, and there is only us, and our one next door neighbor, and they decided that right against the wall shared with the gym, to sing, poorly... for around eight hours.
And this was stadium level loud.

I couldn't even try to sing along or pop along to the bass beat that invaded my room, because it was Thai music, which seems to have a very wonky beat.  It was infuriating.
Around midnight I put in headphones and turned my music up to drown them out.
Christian went next door at 12:15 and they turned it down a bit, but they didn't finish until 2am.
Close on NINE FREAKING HOURS OF KARAOKE!!!!
Who does that.

On top of that I had a blister on my right heel from my shoes rubbing on bad socks, so that was annoying me, and I've got a split on the bottom of my left big toe which is also painful depending on how I step.
And my lower back is still hurting.

So all that combined into a pretty terrible week.

But today was better.
I slept in past morning training (as did most people it turns out) skipping breakfast and didn't get out of bed until lunch time.

The afternoon session was good, as I skipped Muay Thai in total and just did gym and cardio stuff.
Muay Thai gets a bit repetitive, so it's good to break it up a bit.

Tomorrow being Friday is the new weigh in day.  After a short campaign from a few of us, we were able to move the day from Monday to Friday.
As Sunday is our one day off, it's nice to have a proper meal, I am very much looking forward to a Burger and Chips and Kellys.
However, this was sort of discouraged by knowing the next day we had to weigh in.
Pretty much negating the stress relief of eating quality food.
So we moved it to Friday, and if today's test weigh in is to be trusted, I should finally be at 130kg.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to Mum and Dad coming over for a visit.  11 days and counting.

And speaking of counting, I'm now down to 47 days before returning.
Which for those playing along at home, gives me four days until the mid-point of my adventure.

Time for some YouTube and sleep.
Night.

Fifty three bottles of soda water on the wall, fifty three bottle of soda....

53.

53 days to go, meaning I've been here for 32 days. 4.57 weeks. 768 hours.
Oh and how it feels like yesterday it felt like only 31 days.

I write to you dear reader from inside of my prison camp.  Because, that's what it is.
Small self contained room, three boring staples a day, and a chance of getting beaten up in the exercise yard by a big Russian guy covered in Tattoos.
<political>It's probably cheaper than keeping someone in prison, eeyyyoooooo</political>

This week has been quite good.  After weighing in for a zero loss last week, this week I'm on track for around four kilo's, but I'm trying hard for five, in order to hit 130 flat.  Which would put me in good stead for the remainder of my time here.

Earlier in the week the power was cut at the camp while someone did some roadworks, so, with the heat rising and the rooms not staying cool, Chris, Gavin and I ventured into town on our motorised scooter contraptions.

Down along Jonthiem beach road, which was clear and green (the good green not the bad green), and then up and over a hill into Pattaya proper.
Parked our bikes in an alleyway and went in search of two things.
A fishing shop that stocked remote control items, and Iranian Buffet.

Luckily both are on the same road, Second Road, which is the second road back from the beach at Pattaya.

We had a poke around the remote control shop and after comparing the prices and thinking "This one is only 300 baht more, oh, and this one is only 400 baht more than that" and so on until I landed on a 3400 baht ($125) quadcopter with attached camera that streams to the phone.
I bought the model that has a useable on/off switch, and Gavin bought the one you need to unplug.
That seems to be the only difference.

They are kinda weird.  You can fly them without a phone, just like a normal quad.  But if you turn on the Quad, it creates a new Wifi network, which you can join without a password.
And then start an app on your phone and you get a stream of what's going on on the Quad.
It can take video and stills but it's not a HD camera, and in low light it's terrible.
But still, it's a cheap entry to the world of QuadCopters.
HT F-805C in case you go Googling.

After our purchase when kept on walking to find this feast of a million animals.
And lo, we found such a find.
For the measly sum of 200 baht ($8) we had an all you can eat Iranian buffet.
I would say it was a mix between Turkish and Indian.
There was curries, rice, lamb, chicken, this kind of chickpea patty, and what I swear was little chicken bites coated in crushed corn flakes.
Oh the tastes were amazing and the texture.... when your used to pan fried chicken breast and cabbage, crunchy chicken tastes amaze-balls.  A few lemon sodas washed it down quite nicely.
And as we are getting ready to go, who should rock up on his bike right out the front, but Moen, the Iranian guy from the camp.  So you know it's quality, and or the only Iranian place in Pattaya.

We took the long walk back, out along "Walking Street" which should be flipped the other way around to instead be "Street Walker Street" as it's the main street for the GoGo bars and Ping Pong Shows.
However, like the Red Light District in Amsterdam, during the harsh light of day, it just feels depressing and sad.

Back on the bikes and back to Jomthien where we found a nice big hotel on the beach, with a detached pool.  So we walked into the pool, I faked the sign-in sheet, picked a name and room number to remember if queried and went for a swim.
Luckily some Chinese tourists took the heat off us when they started the horrendous notion of daring to swim with a shirt on.
Suddenly they were pounced on for doing so and arguments ensued as they were escorted out of the pool area.
Apparently no shirt while swimming, skin cancer is better.

We rocked back to the camp after that and the power was back on early, so I played around with the copter a bit, and then did training.

I skipped a few mornings training this week due to exhaustion and my body just thinking "No, fuck it, stay in bed and ignore the yelling."

The Krav Maga again is the interesting part of training.

Friday evening we did gun disarms using solid plastic molded guns, which turned out to be quite fun and easy.  Granted they only work if the gun is pretty much held to your head, such as a hostage situation.  And it's quite simple, and it starts with ducking your head away.  Gun to your forehead and your dead, flinch a few inches and the gun is no longer at your head and your alive.

And then on Saturday morning we did baseball bat (or baton) attacks.  And they were good.  As you might have guessed, it starts with charging the person in order to get inside their range, locking their attacking arm, and then going at the balls, as per usual.

And we had a round of attacks where two people with bats took it in turns to continually attack the other person.  The very last attack of the session was myself against Chris and I charged him so fast I ended up crash tackling him to the mat.  Except he won, because he got the bat and simulated breaking my ribs with it.  Touche.

That afternoon however I was feeling a tad sore, perhaps from the tackle, so I took my bike into town to find a massage.  Now, stop laughing.  A proper massage... not a Gavin massage.
I had two criteria and in the end had to ditch one.
a) Not a dodgy sounding name.
b) Not "down an alley".

Ended up finding Angel Massage (yeah....) but it was on the main road facing the beach, so I figured it would be more respectable.
Had a one hour Thai massage where she dug her elbow in my calf muscles, drove her knees into my back, all the good stuff.  And then finished with a one hour oil massage to relax.  All that for 500 baht, which was cheaper than the two hour oil massage I got last time at a place closer to the gym.
Going to go back during the week for probably a foot and neck massage.
But it was quality, and I learnt some new Thai words like "pain" and "hurt".

Stopped by a big Tesco shop on the way home and picked up some instant soup and noodles as well as a kettle so that I could stay in on Sunday and not worry, which is what I did.  Until I put the entire chili packet in the minced Pork one and then I worried.

And, that evening an unusual beast was spotted by a few people.  Often hinted at, but never seen before... the wild Toby emerged from his cool sleeping place around ten in the evening and proceeded to "work out" in the gym for a full hour, before retiring to his hovel.

Sunday however was fun as aside from sleeping in until 2pm, I also did a bit of Quad flying around the MMA ring (THE OCTAGON!!!!!!) got it flying in and out the door of the ring (THE OCTAGON!!!!!!) which was neat, but the battery went flat, so I called it quits.  Will buy a spare one when I get back to the shop.

So now I'm watching QI re-runs on YouTube, and relaxing.
Thus ends by 37th day in Captivity.

Number One Kung Fu Panda

That's me.  Number 1 Kung Fu Panda.

My trainer PI now calls me this as I've thrown vanity to the breeze (Not wind, we don't get wind...) and started to train in Muay Thai without a singlet.
After all, the "breathable" fabric mine are made out of don't seem to function very well when drenched in sweat.

So again I've missed the two day schedule, so let's just forget I ever mentioned it.

Had the weigh in yesterday, and came to a resounding Zero.
All my numbers were the same as last week.  Well, all the "medical" numbers were.
After the weigh in, each Monday has a fitness test.
Six exercises that run for one minute, with one minutes rest.
And you do as many as you can of each, and Barbara writes them down.

And my numbers were up from the week before.  So, while my body numbers were stagnant, my fitness level had increased.  So it wasn't a bust week.
And I know when I didn't loose anything, it's because I had to many delicious meals.
On Wednesday's fight night I had a burger, and on Sunday I had the same burger for lunch, and then a chicken panang with rice for dinner.
But no regrets, because that first burger was a magical experience.
Nothing has tasted so good, after three weeks of salad, then a nice Bacon Cheese Burger.

However, I weighed myself on the unofficial scales today, and it looks like I've already lost two kilos.  So, just need to work to keep that off.

Plus, I'm now forced to do extra workouts, which today was a 40 minute walk in the morning (After already doing an hour of Muay Thai and thirty-ish minutes of Core work).... thanks Gavin....
But, we dobbed the two French guys in for having a Pizza delivered for breakfast, so overall, pretty happy with how the training went.

Oh, and on Sunday we went again to the stadium, but this time it was packed full.  They had a bunch of fighters of much higher quality and it was a good night out.
One of the guys from Kombat Group was fighting as well, but he got.... well.... he got creamed.

Elbow to the head, massive kicks to the left leg, it was a TKO in the first round because he had "gone down" three times.  I think that's the rule.
The TV was covering it, so if they post it to YouTube I will be sure to provide the link.

Oh, dinner tonight was meatballs.  Oh, so good.  The non-Weight Loss guys had toast and Parmesan, but I was happy enough with my delicious balls.

Alright, time for this Panda to take a well earned nap.

The other fight of this Generation

Manny v Mayweather might have been on pay per view, but I was ring side for the biggest showdown I've ever seen...

But since I'm terrible with names, and even worse at foreign languages, that means I'm really bad at foreign names.  So we will call it Trainer vs Chinaman: Fracas in the Far East.

Rewind....

I realise I haven't posted since Sunday, and it now being (checks clock) Thursday there has been some time passed by.

Some people have gone, and some have arrived.  The natural turn over cycle continues.

Two French guys have arrived, one of which has been here before, and a nice guy from Iran.

The Frenchies seem to be able to speak English fairly well, but seem to keep to themselves or the people the one guy remembers from last time.  Apparently they are only here for the Muay Thai program... and I know I'm not one to talk, but they could do with switching to the Salad menu if you know what I mean.

Moen the Iranian though is nice.  Speaks good English, good for a chat, and is doing Krav Maga as well, so now there is three of us.

(Aside: I am humbled by all these people who know more than one language.  I blame both Australias isolation, and our poorly structured language courses in the Education system.)

The "vibe" continues, with people disappearing entirely, or just not showing up for lessons (*cough* French guys *cough*).
Pierre hasn't been seen in a few days, and Chris decided to take a few days off and get a hotel room in Pattaya.
So we go from 10 for Muay Thai in the afternoon, down to as low as three.

My motivation has been waning a little, but it's come back in the last few days.  Ain't nothing to it but to get down to it.

I did get a little annoyed when the lunches went Tuna Salad one day, Salmon Salad the next, and Tune Salad again.
I dislike both Tune and Salmon.

The second time it came up I ate some watermelon, the boiled egg in the salad, then went down to the shops and got some Peanuts, Pringles and one of those bread roll things again. (Oh, delicious Carbs).

So, Wednesday night comes around, and Gavin is heading into town for the fight, so I tag along on my bike.  We end up getting there an hour early and just hang out.
The 1500 ticket ($56 AUD) came with a free bottle of water, and entry into this really new and good looking stadium.  12 air-conditioners blasted everyone, and the place only ended up being about a fifth full.  Being a weekday fight and all I guess.

The first fight was between the Trainer and the Chinaman.  It started a little slow, I guess each one feeling the other out.
Then a few big hits and the guy later told me that he took a shin to the ear that if it was any harder would have knocked him out.
But it stayed on his feet and mid way through the second round he threw a hard right elbow to the guys forehead.
During the round intermission (At which point the lights in the stadium resemble a rave, and they pump LMFAO's Sexy and I Know it at full volume) they try to patch up the wound that appeared on the Chinamans head.  But they can't, so it's given to the Trainer as a Technical KnockOut and the guy later required 30 stitches.

The next two matches were fun to watch, but not spectacular, and I was a little underwhelmed at paying close to $60 for only three fights of three rounds each.  But I was still glad I saw the guy fight, and it was a good night out.

We jump back on the bikes and head back to the camp, with a little detour nearby for some dinner.
And boy was it some dinner.

A local place just down the road called Kelly's Bar and Grill.
Very nice place, well appointed, and both Cheap and Delicious.

I had chicken satay skewers which came with toast for some reason, and then a Bacon CheeseBurger with sauteed Onion.... and chips.
And it might be the salads speaking, but it was one of the best burgers I've ever had.
It wasn't huge, probably a bit smaller than a Big Mac, but the patty was thick and juicy.  Oh, it was great... I'm heading back there on Sunday, I don't care if I gain weight this week, this burger was worth it.
Oh, and with two lemon soda waters, it came to less than fifteen dollars.

So that's where we are now.  Some photos and a video of the fight below.

And as a side note, one bedroom apartment, walking distance from down town Pattaya, on the beech, for less than a house deposit in Australia ($37k).

Best laid plans...

Well, I wanted to post every two days, but I guess the last four days have been a bit samey, didn't want to bore everyone with useless details.

Training is going well still, and there's been a few new people join, three Italians I think.  Two of them seem to know each other already, might be brothers.  Here's hoping for a Mario and Luigi.

There has been a bit of a weird vibe around the camp recently.
Training sessions have been half empty, trainers sitting around with no one to train.  Just a general feeling of flatness hangs over the place.
I'm hoping it will clear up this week.

I'm half guilty myself, with my still sore wrist and ankles I skipped the Muay Thai and did just weights and cardio instead.
The Saturday afternoon session I was the only weight loss guy in the gym.
One of the trainers decided to do a boxing session with the boxing trainer.
I kept plugging away with my various ups, downs and round abouts.

Sunday however (Today as I'm writing this) was a bit more interesting.

Rather than my usual of sleeping until midday, I got up at 8:45 to convoy with a group from the camp down to a pub called Frasers somewhere closer in towards Pattaya.
I thought we were taking the big minivan that had appeared that morning, but nope, scooter time.
So I strapped on a "helmet" and after a bit of uncertainty on how to start the damn thing, I was off and going, following the group.
It's been a while since I've ridden, and even longer since I've ridden a scooter, but it all comes back to you.
The poor handling, the dangerously low center of gravity, the wooden brakes.  Ah yes.  Scooters.

We seemed to travel all types of roads, from the two land back roads with pot holes, crossing a six lane highway, riding down a sidewalk to skip an entire block of jammed up traffic.

So we all reached Frasers and got setup to watch "The Fight of the Century".
Floyd "Money" Mayweather vs Manny PacMan Pacquio (Or something).

But who cares about the fight of the century when there is a breakfast buffet!!!!!
Toast... oh my god.. I had toast. And an egg that still had the yoke!!!  Can you imagine such a thing.
A few little hashbrowns and a very very very delayed glass of Soda Water.  Breakfast for a king.

After the disappointing end to the fight, we all got up pretty much as soon as they said his name.
Back on the terror bikes, heading back home.
And, just like the morning trip TO the location, I had no idea how to get home.
So I had to follow, which got hard when I got stuck behind this slow moving grandpa scooter who just wouldn't get out of the way.

Once I knew where I was, I split off in search for a Seven Eleven.
At this point I had about 14 Baht in my wallet, not enough to buy a bottle of water for the next days training.
Finally found one with it's ATM, and just like ours, a very handy language selector made it nice and easy.
I felt quite pimp taking out 10,000 in cash.  Until it turned out to be just 10 notes.

Venturing into the store I bought some water, deodorant, sunscreen, some gum, and a little USB speaker set for music.
Mainly I needed to split some of the bills.
Can't really by a 10b bottle of water with a 1000b note.

On the way back, stopped in at the same massage place I went last time, and had a very relaxing two hour massage.  And like last time, it helped spread the pain all over my body.  Not bad for $23 AUD.

Swung back to the camp and paid my rental for the bike for a month, and had a rest, catching up on Facebook and the like.

Last fun part of the weekend, a short bike ride back down to the shop three down from the massage, Mama Lak's, for dinner.
A can of Lemon Soda water, Chicken Fried Rice and four Spring Rolls.  Another good feed from Mama Lak.

And now I'm writing this sentence, which is a bit of a paradox, because once I finish this sentence it will no longer be true.  See?

Might watch a movie tonight, or read... probably a movie.
After all, it's only 8:30, and I've got some time to kill.

Night.

Inspiration, Perspiration and all the other important "ations".

Before reading this entry, you are required to watch this video by ZeFrank.  You don't really need context to it, but if you want, it's the first episode of a new series of YouTube videos he made after a very successful first series years ago.


I watch that video all the time.  I'm fairly sure by the time I'm done here at Kombat Group I will have single handedly ticked that one video over to a million views.

The section I like the most is about how when your loved ones fail or disappoint you, you forgive them and give them infinite chances, and yet people often forget to extend that same generosity to themselves.

Yesterday and Today were pretty much standard days.  I was feeling better about the weight loss, and I had a bit of Mojo back.
And then I threw a kick and didn't straighten my left foot all the way and bam, tweaked it.
Then a few sessions later, bam, the right foot.  That was yesterday, and I'm keeping them moving, but I dropped kicking from my pad session, much to the sigh of my trainer, but he understood and compensated with a tonne more knee attacks.

And then, just to finish everything off, this morning I threw a punch with my right, and rolled it a little.  I blame it on fatigue and general looseness of my skill.  Stupidly though I just strapped the hand a bit tighter, put the glove on tighter and soldiered on.

However, when I took my wrap off after the afternoon session, I could see a bit of discoloration around the knuckles.
Off to the kitchen to get some more bags of ice, and laid myself up in bed watching YouTube for the rest of the afternoon.  And at this point, it's actually not to bad.  Will still take it a bit easy on it for tomorrow sessions.

The highlight was however, Krav Maga.
Even with the dicky joints I was still able to take part.
Chris and I did some more choke escapes which are fun because you actually get to man handle someone, and make light contact.
Not doing a proper hammer strike to his skull, but slapping hands and swiping arms is there.

Today we learnt some knife disarms, for when someone tries to mug you and holds a knife against you.  The key is pretty much slap the knife away from you and cheese it.
But we got into it, demanding wallets and phones and such, bit of role play.
But as Gerry (Correct spelling finally) said, if your in a situation where you have a knife to your neck, you already fucked up.

Well, that's the mid-week review, time for a bit of reading and some sleep.

It's just another day, in paradise...

Apologies for those expecting an update this morning, I intend to update the blog every two days, but yesterday I just ran out of motivation.

I had some emails to respond to, an afternoon session of Muay Thai and Krav Maga, and I just couldn't bring myself to do them.

All my muscles hurt from day one, and the rest on Sunday wasn't enough, I just couldn't find the drive.

But I'm here now.

Sunday was nice, slept in until midday and went for a walk into the shops close by, about one and a half kilometers away.
Had a massage which was quite nice and it worked to relax my left calf muscle that I had a cramp in on the plane over.  So one less pain, which is good.

After the massage I went next door to Mama Lak's restaurant for lunch, but at this time it was about 3pm.
I had Pad Thai with Chicken, and some Veggie Spring Rolls.
Was delicious.
I tried to order a drink I used to get in Thailand called Na Manaw, which translates to Lemon Water, but they didn't make it.
It's basically very very lemony water with ice.
Instead I got a Lemon Soda Water drink that wasn't too bad.

Deciding I didn't want to walk back down for dinner in three hours time, I strolled down to "Big C" (Which means something different in English) which is a close convenience store and picked up some food for dinner.
Small pack of salted Cashews, another of Salted Macadamias and a bread roll they claimed was "Hawaiian Pizza" flavored because it had two pieces each of ham and pineapple on the top.  And as always, a bottle of water to drink on the walk back.

Consumed the food for dinner while watching some random Top 10 videos on YouTube and went to sleep.

Monday started as always with the hour of Muay Thai, and then the weigh in.
138kg.  A total loss of about 3kg this week.
That was a loss of fat and muscle, my water level was low, and I dropped one point of some measurement from 20 to 19, and it should be 12.

This was the point that I lost my motivation.
I was really hoping for a decently big number in the first week.  Everyone around the breakfast table talks about their 5 or 6 kilo loss in the first week.

But really, I just need to change my thinking.
Everyone looses weight differently.
I can't judge my success against someone elses, in any part of my life, let alone weight loss.

This morning though, I got up, did the Muay Thai, did the Ab work out, did the stretches.

I'm taking the view that this is my job now.  For the next 75ish days.
I may not always like my job, and I get up and I do it, for the outcome.

Work to live, which in this case means a better quality of life.

All the Krav, all the time

I had my first sleep in yesterday morning, I had trouble sleeping the night before.  All the muscles hurt, and every time I got into a comfy position my left elbow would ache and I would need to move.
So I didn't really get to sleep until 2am.

So, I dismissed the morning alarm and slept through the first training session of the day, with the promise of doing the entire afternoon full ball.

That consisted of 16:00-16;40: Functional Training.
Which was a repetition of Squats, Plank, Wall Sit, Push Ups, Crunches.
Each for a minute with a 30 second break between them.  And yes, I was once again relegated to knee push-ups because... well... you would be too.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat.  For 40 minutes.

16:40-18:15 was more Muay Thai as per the norm.
The afternoon sessions always start with technique, which I really like.  Trying to remember the Thai names for the various moves and blocks.
I remember if it ends with what sounds like KLAT, then it's a half spin attack.  For example you punch with the right, take a step the left and spin that way and bring your left arm behind you.  Kind of hard to explain.

Then I had a quick break before Krav Maga with Jerry (Shout out to website Krav Maga Thailand) the eternally chipper Irish man, whose every second sentence ends with "and then a knee to the balls,"

Krav was from 19:15 to 20:15.  But it felt like weeks.
Chris had taken the night off, so it was just Jerry and I, which meant we focused a bit more on technique and drills rather than sparring as we had the other session.  So the carbon fiber (extra large) box I had bought was for naught for this lesson.

I was doing three minute drills against a wall mounted bag.
Flick the eyes with a backhand, upper cut palm strike, elbow to the temple and all together now... and then a knee to the balls.
Then there was the eye-stab variant as well.
And as a cool down, I practiced kicking a punching bag in the nuts in three different ways.

Saturday morning rolls around, and everyone is fast asleep, no Muay Thai on Saturday mornings... but there is Krav Maga, so I'm out of bed with a small sleep in of half an hour.

Chris joins in and we learn a few more maneuvers to get out of situations we shouldn't have been in in the first place.  Far and away our favorite was what to do when being choked from the front, or it also worked for a double lapel grab.
Basically it was twist really quick and you end up with their arms caught under your armpit, then your arm is in the perfect spot for an elbow to the eye socket, and when he's bent over, a knee to the balls.
The Krav is a lot of fun because your actually dealing with someone, physically grabbing them and kneeing them, rather than a guy with pads.

Being Saturday (And ANZAC day by the way) we still had Muay Thai in the afternoon.
No respect for the Australian public holidays...

Two things of note from this session.  I was in the ring today, unlike other days down on the mats (Which is sooo much cooler its crazy), so I walked up and rolled into the ring under the low rope, pulled my gloves hands up to my head and used them as a pillow.  Was quite nice.
Until I had one of the Thai trainers come and lay down on top of me.
Muay Thai turned into Grecko Roman Wrestling to get the guy off me.

The other being to finish off my pad session in the ring, which got to about 5 rounds I think, I had to do 100 consecutive punches to the pads.
The trainer is standing there rattling off where I'm up to... in Thai... so really I have no idea.
I just keep throwing punches.  Eventually he stands back and we are done.  So totally done for the week.

Shower, Rest, Facebook, YouTube.
Found a rendition of the ANZAC bugle with a minutes silence in it, so played that and stood and remembered the ANZAC's as best I could.

Then off to the kitchen for dinner.  Tomato soup (With actual potato chunks) and five huge king prawns also in a Tomato type soup.
Very tomato-y dinner.
Looking forward to Breakfast/Lunch tomorrow down at Mama Lak's.  Get some Pud Thai into me :)

Finally here is a few photos, and the video of a pad session.

They even brand the Cups :)

Haven't watched it yet, uploading as soon as the gloves came off.

Posted by Toby Wild on Friday, April 24, 2015

All abord the Aaaarrrgghhhhh Train

Hanumn listened to my prayers and we have had a few days a bit cooler.

Today was actually quite excellent, which was a pity as I was to exhausted and sore to finish the Muay Thai session in the afternoon.

Yesterday first, what day is it... right..

Wednesday was yesterday.
Pretty standard morning I think, except I remember doing 25 jab punch combos in one of the pad sessions, that was a killer.

Oh, but it rained in the afternoon which was fan-freaking-tastic.  Thunder, lightning, it was brilliant.  Turns out it created a small cyclone, and a street a few kilometers away had been hit pretty hard, knocking over power and telephone lines, fences, the whole bit.

The gloves weight 400g each, so it's like doing everything with those little cardio weights on, I'm sure the extra heft hurts when you punch someone, but right now... it's just heavy.

Although my arms are getting stronger, I can hold them up in the guard position for longer that I could the first few days.

So after the afternoon session of Muay Thai, I was packing up when Barbara said the Krav Maga guy will be there in about an hour.  Nothing serious, just light technique.
So I go back to my unit, shower, change, then in an hour, head back out.

I meet the Krav Maga instructor.
For those that don't know, it's the close quarter combat system developed by the Israeli army, and has spread to the American special forces and such.
It's aggressive and holds nothing back.
The guy I met, Jerry, is a very nice talkative Irish man who lives in the same street that got hit by the mini-cyclone.
He's tall and kinda lanky, not a muscle machine like you would expect from a MMA or Boxing instructor.

Tuns out only one other guy has signed up for the Krav lessons (Three times a week), Chris from Manchester, who is on the same program as me.

So we jump into the ring, and already I'm sweating through my change of clothes, that shower was a waste of time.
He gives us a spiel on what Krav Maga is about and a bit of history, and why he likes it, and the "style" he teaches.
It's not so much traditional Krav Maga as it is how to get out of a real life confrontation in an explosive manner.

The first move me get taught is what to do if someone grabs up by our arm.
Ignore the grab and use your other arm to open palm strike upper cut into the guys chin, then when he's arched back, knee to the nuts twice, then when he's doubled over, hammer fist to the back of the skull.

It's dirty street fighting, but that's what the other guy is going to do to you if you let him.
Then we did what if they grab both your arms, pretty much the same move.

Then the all important shirt grab.
A favorite opener for all the "YOU ME CARPARK NOW" yobos out there.
This time you grab their hand that's got you and you keep it pinned to your chest so they can't get away, get them off balance and again, nuts nuts skull skull.

It's really interesting, and I'm fairly sure I learnt this stuff fighting in Primary School.
But it work's, and that's the key.

He also had a rubber knife and gun,  We get to play with those later on.

So by the end of this "easy" session Chris and I are both drenched (As the rings are about 10 degrees hotter than anywhere else) and both have slightly tender manly areas where a few knees went a bit to far.
Need to invest in a cup methinks.

So, that was yesterday.

Today, well... sitting here typing... I'm fucking knackered.

I did every session today.

Muay Thai in the morning, then functional training, which was lots of leg and ab work.
Breakfast, break.
Then back into it for more functional training, which destroyed my legs even more.  Three minutes stepping, then push ups, crunches, lunges, squats, then all again with 5 less reps.
Oh my freaking god.

After that was more Muay Thai, and we did the forms again, which involve a superman punch and a flying knee.
I did one flying knee and almost collapsed on landing, my legs were DONE.

Still managed three pad sessions, which is always fun.  The trainers are funny as well.
Do a big knee into the guard and they pretend to be winded and stumble back.
When I was looking a  bit woozey before my second pad session my trainer called for some Cocaine.  Which is actually tiger balm they rub onto their palms, then your take some deep breaths.  And boy does it prop you up for a few minutes. :)

I called it a day shortly after my third session, The outside of my hands were tingling as was the end of my nose, which I took as the first signs of full on exhaustion.
Last thing my trainer did was rub tiger balm on my forehead and temples... what an asshole :)
It burned, but then the burn turned into a cool burn which was actually really nice.

Oh, before I finish... dinner was really good.
About two fillets of fish, very lightly grilled (maybe poached) with this really nice broth at the bottom, with veggies of course.
But the fish was so good I ate most of the veggies my themselves to savor the fish even more.
And washed it down with a Soda Water.  mmmmm, fizzy make feel good.

Ok, peace out.
Might get some photos tomorrow.
Night.

60 years of it being hot in Thailand and I'm here now...

The end of Tuesday and time for another update.

Yesterday was I guess the first full day of training and it went pretty well.
Muay Thai in the morning, lots of bag work and some pads.
Breakfast was the Egg white omelet with veggies.... think I might mix it up tomorrow and get the pancake (No ice cream or syrup allowed).

The afternoon was stretching first up, and cardio, which was good... but bloody hot still.
Luckily they opened the big sliding gate and a fantastic breeze came in which easily took 10 degrees off the temp (Down to 30).

This was the point last time that I passed out, so from here on out was all new.

After the stretching and cardio and such was some Muay Thai Technique.
How to stand at the start, the six stances before a fight.
Everyone was standing in a line and we had to sound off in Thai, which was easy for me, remembering how to count.  If you got your number wrong you had to do 10 push-ups.  Safe in that respect.
Although, full honesty, I have reverted to doing "girl" pushups on my knees.  That's how damn hot it is.

The Technique bit was very interesting.
We didn't have gloves on, which was great, because they weigh your hands down something shocking.
We stepped out combos, punch, jab, uppercut left, knee right, superman elbow.
I really like that aspect, learning the moves and jumps.

That was Monday.

Then came Tuesday.

38 degrees Celsius by 9am.
Hottest day on record in 60 years.

So naturally, we train in it... and even the guys who normally last the whole time are taking long breaks.
I did some bag and pad work again and had to call it quits, way too much for me at the moment.
Meanwhile, the Thai's that sweep the walkways are wearing Jeans, plastic jacket, gloves, two hats and a towel across their face.

The afternoon session was still too hot, so I skipped the first part of it.  Waited for the sun to go down a bit before venturing into the heat.
Did a bit of cross trainer and chest presses on the machines.  My biceps are killing me.
Having to hold my hands in the boxing pose for soooooo long.
I thought I had some guns, but damn, this hurts.
So trying to get a few more muscles in that department.

After that, last thing as some people filtered out was some technique work in the ring.
And by the way, the rings are only about 2-3 foot higher than the ground, but with no breeze it's the hottest muggiest part easily.

So a few of us climb in one ring with a trainer and we go through what I would call the "Kata" of Muay Thai.... until someone corrects me.

Cycle through each of the moves for each body part.

Knees Blocking:
Low left block, low right block, medium left block, medium right block, high left block, high right block, stupid high left block, stupid high right block.

Knee Attack:
Forward, 45 degree to the ribs, slap to the ribs, to the chest to the leg connects, and finally a big jumping uppercut with the knee.

Ok, you get the point, lots of moves, lots of heat, sweating so much that at the end I was wearing sweat with elements of a singlet in it.

Dinner was good.
A nice clear chickenish broth with veggies, pork t-bone (thin) with a really nice gravy dipping with wilted spinach and salad, plus the standard serving of 6 slices of fruit that comes with each meal.

Time for a bit more reading, then wake up and do it all again.
Please Hanuman, make it cooler tomorrow.

Edit: Here's a nice sunset over my room.