Training: Day 1

Today’s workouts are over. And I survived. BARELY. The day started with my 7am session, which was hard but not too bad. I got a little beat up and it was clear that my body wasn’t used to sweating that much, but all in all, I was ok. I then, like the idiot I am, tried to lift weights at the camp’s gym. That didn’t go well, as a serious headache formed from working out or sweating too much, so I went to the room and rested. Aside from taking a scooter across town to get some kickboxing gear, all I did was rest until the 5pm class. I was debating whether or not I should go, as I figured starting camp with three workouts in one day was probably a stupid idea. Anyone reading this probably knows that I’m too stubborn for the smart option, however, so off to class I went at 5. It was a longer and harder class, but it somehow helped my headache. It didn’t help anything else, however, as I definitely took a few tough knocks in the second session and now can’t do more than have a quick dinner—of delicious seafood pad thai—and stay in tonight (given that tomorrow is a rest day, most others are going out to either a local bar owned by the guy that owns the camp or to one of several nearby fullmoon parties that apparently are going on).

I mentioned in my last post that bruises will be aplenty. I did not lie. This is a picture of my legs at the end of the day (I know--sexy legs). For those that aren’t aware, I want to note that bruises don’t get their worst after just an hour or two. They take a day or two to reach their full potential. The fact that this picture was taken just after my second session of the day means that tomorrow I’m going to have some GEMS. I am actually in a lot of pain unfortunately. I iced my left shin three times today and have applied boxing liniment as well as Tiger Balm on both legs and my elbows, but I’m still pretty achy. My left leg is particularly sore, and doesn’t do well when bending is needed (such as on stairs). Thank God tomorrow is a rest day with no training classes, so I can relax and recover (hopefully). I’m sure I won’t be back to normal by Monday, but hopefully I’ll be in decent enough shape to do classes again. We’ll see. I’d hate to miss a day when I’ve only got a month, but given that this situation will get worse before it gets better, I may need more than one day of rest. For now, I’ll get to bed early and hope for the best.

PS, today was clearly an anomaly as there were some clouds and about 5 min of rain. I’m glad it was cooler (upper 80’s) for my first day. If it was one of the regular days, which are supposedly in the mid-90’s, I think I would have died. Even with it being a cooler day, I still drank 5 liters of water and sports drinks.