Return to Thailand to pursue a lifelong dream: compete in Muay Thai in Thailand (Pt5)
(Entry # 5) I never felt so old
I had an epiphany this morning. I realized why older people are always so irritable. Aside from the fact that they must be upset seeing young people do stupid things, chances are they are experiencing some kind of pain in their body. The more they try to live among the young and do things with the young, the more pain they are probably experiencing. It hurts in places I didn’t even know I had.
To say I’m sore from yesterday’s training session would be an understatement of monumental proportions. When I went to bed last night, I couldn’t find a comfortable enough position to sleep. I thought about walking to the Family Mart and buying ibuprofen, but that would have meant walking up a flight of stairs. Needless to say, it was another night of little sleep. However, I think I saw all the Muay Thai documentaries on the web, so it wasn’t all a waste.
When the sun came up, I was able to gather the energy to get out of bed, and my Muay Thai high got my blood flowing enough to get me into another session. I call it a Muay Thai high, because there is something about him that touches my heart in a way that few other things could. I love Muay Thai. I love being around that. I love hearing it, watching it, and nothing makes me feel more alive than getting punched in the face.
I was definitely moving a little slow during the race to start class. There were a couple of 10-year-old Thai boys from the competition team who were also running. They would run past me, then when they were out of sight of the coaches, they would walk for me to pass them. When we got back to the coaches, they ran past me so the coaches would yell at me for letting me pass by the little kids. They laughed a lot at that.
After warm-up, I was paired with the Goliath-sized German for drilling. Apparently his name is Mustafa, not Lucifer as I wrote yesterday. It’s so big that I couldn’t hear what he said where my ears are. However, it is a good partner to practice with. I started chatting with him a bit. It seems like we’ll be here for roughly the same amount of time, so we’ll see each other a lot.
They also paired us to spar. Today was a decisive match, so everything is within work. He was strong as he seemed. I just had a lot more experience with rivets than he did. The rounds would be like this. He would move hard and I could get angles and score him. Then I would get tired and he would beat me with brute force and make me rag dolls until the end of the round. All three rounds were pretty much the same way. If it had been a fight, hopefully I could have finished it early, because if not, he would have kneeled me next week.
During the pad rounds, I got to work with a trainer that I had never worked with before, but had always wanted to. He looks like a curmudgeonly old man, but he’s strong as an ox. I’ve seen it hold giant pads and they can’t move it. It pushes you beyond your limits. I’ve seen him hit Thais when he’s training them. He accepts nothing but the best of you. Today it pushed me to the brink of vomiting. I literally had to stop the round and crash over the wall. When this happens, all the other coaches give props to the coach who made the ‘Farang’ vomit. I could see them over my shoulder giving him a thumbs up. Other than that, the rounds were incredible. When I came back after throwing up, I had a burst of energy and finished the round with some of the best muay thai I have ever done.
I’m super sore again today, and I’m headed for a Thai massage. Without them, I don’t think I could get through this. They are my piece of heaven in a week that feels like hell. Besides Muay Thai, Thai massages are what I miss the most about Thailand when I’m in America. I’ve been to a few massage places that claim they do Thai massage, but it has always ended up being like going to McDonalds for good Thai food.
The lady in the henhouse stopped me when I was coming back from training. She invited me to go to a Buddhist ceremony very early next Tuesday morning, and then asked me if I would help her feed the monks when they came to bless her chicken coop the next day. Apparently a lot of them come and she wants to make sure they are well taken care of. I am very excited to be included in something so important to her.
Next Thursday is Songkram, the Thai New Year. Here is a bit of information about it. http://songkranday.com/songkran-2017-dates-when-is-songkran-2017/
Basically it is a fight for water at the national level. Tiger is closed that day, and everyone will squirt with squirt guns or launch water balloons. Everyone around here is very excited about it. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Day 2 of training in the books.