There is a price to pay

#5: 13/09/06  (see last post to read the beginning of the story)

... and I start to do the pad-work. 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 "Eyyyyy!", 6, 7 "Nooooo!" With questioning eyes I turn to the side. With a serious look on his face the youngest of the trainers climbs over the ropes: "Not like this!" He grabs my glove and places it on the other side of my head. "Like this!" I am a bit confused, staring at him. But what is about the counter cross of my opponent? Is my guard not on the wrong side of the head now?

It seems as if he could read my thoughts and believes it to be the most naïve thing he has ever heard. He steps back and raises his foot in a smooth and controlled movement to the same level as my head. „You kick and your opponent answers with a headkick. Boom! Knockout!“.

I repeat the movement slowly several times to engrave it in my mind and then I focus on the pads and start again. More than once my glove passes my head on the wrong side while kicking, but to concentrate on this little detail makes it easier to forget how exhausting the exercise is. 20.

It is Piak´s turn again. It does not seem as if he is tired. I turn around, take a deep breath, and spit out of the ring. 30. My turn, the other leg. 20. Him again. 30. The pad-holder comes to my corner: "30! Come on!" - "Ay! Ay! Ay! Fifteen! Come on!" A small step out of the line of your opponent, the abs contract, a slight rotation of the torso, the hips move forward, the leg leaves the ground, and the ball of the food turns over the rough canvas of the ring. Through the rotation of the whole body, the shin accelerates into the pad. Sweat flies from the pad, dripping onto the floor and spraying throughout the ring.

Piak again. 40. I am starting the last round: Double kicks. With clenched teeth I give my best to appreciate it. Repetitions 15 – 20 are more symbolic kicks than effective ones, but I survived the extra rounds, improved my skills and finished the class successful.

While taking of my wraps I start to stretch, lean back to one of the pillars of the roof...

                                                                    Team Quest Chiang Mai outside area

 

... until my stretching gets disturbed: "Faster, faster!" - I look up: An arm in front of my face, an elbow, an index finger pointing on my sports shoes. Finger, Elbow, the eyes of the trainer – "Running?" I ask carefully. He nods.

Conditioning? Now? After all this? That is definitely not what I would like to do right now (I do feel more like having a bath in ice-cold water and drinking three liters of it), but it does not seem as if I have a choice. While I am getting into my shoes I find out the scaring truth: We will not go jogging. No. We will do sprints.

The pad-holder joins us and we start to do some running: Starting slow and getting faster, so we sprint the last meters on the concrete track of the Team Quest site. We do push-ups between the sprints. Then Nut draws an imaginary line on the concrete: We line up, our upper body leaning forward, and sweat drips from our noses on our shoes. He explains the rules: Three sprints and you should better be fast if you don´t want to do more push-ups – 5 for the winner, 10 for the second one and 15 for the loser. My pectoral muscles start to scream silently. This is enough motivation.

"Ready? Go!" all three of us jump forward, no one wants to do more push-ups than necessary, on the half of the track, Piak falls back, a few meters before we cross the finish-line, I can get a small lead. Relieved I walk back to the start. Just five goddamn push-ups. But my thigh aches.

Round two. I try to give my very best, but my legs do not want to work anymore. With a slight lead I am able to be second. 10 push-ups. Better than 15, I think. But I am done. The pain in my thigh has become worse. I massage the shaking muscle.

The last round. We breathe more heavily. Nut shouts "Go!" and I try to use all the energy I still have. Piak rushes forward leaving us in the dust after a few meters. After five or six seconds the pad-holder and me are still on the same level, he screams grim and pushes himself to be faster, I cannot keep up with him, my groin starts to hurt, I lose this round. The guys walk back to the ring, I limp. 15 push-ups and it is done.

I lie down on the mats. Wow! This was not easy. But I did it.

Before leaving the pad-holder shakes my hand: "Nice to meet you!". Maybe there is some praise in his voice or maybe this was just an ordinary training session for the fighters.

But not for me. The following night I sleep 14 hours. I have a headache the next day and stay in bed. My body is not used to the weather. Sunday I stay at home too. I am feeling better even if I could not sleep for more than one hour last night.

I have fully recovered by Monday and start to train again. Hopefully the body adjusts faster to the climate now.