I wake at 5.45am and eat a large breakfast; ceral, fruit, yoghurt and baked beans on toast before I hit the road by 6.45am. I run down via the beach and up through Nai Harn to the camp which is about 6 km's. This gets me to the gym at around 7.15am and for some skipping for 15 mins before wrapping my hands and getting ready for training.
The gym has all the expected facilities including numerous heavy bags, speed balls, free weights and 4 full size boxing rings. The gym is open air with a wall only on one side and some small ceiling fans to move the hot air around.
Rawai caters for everyone from beginners looking to get fit and try a new sport through to intermediate and advance students. The final group are the fighters, both Thai and Farang (foreingers). They have about 10 trainers working each session most of whom used to be fighters themselves and have now retired to become trainers. Many of the Rawai trainers have fought at the top levels with +100-200 fights each.
After the run and skipping we start with some stretching before doing a little shadow boxing. The beginners and intermediate go into separate groups for some technique training and the advanced group and fighters start doing pad work with trainers. After 30 mins of pad work we then move into sparring with the trainers. Next we move to work with a partner on one particular technique ie Monday is clinching, Tuesday is boxing etc etc Finally everyone comes back together for a warm down and stretches. The fighters then have to do 200 teeps (front kicks), 200 knees all on the heavy bag and then finish up with 100 situps.
This has us finishing at around 10am. I then walk back to my villa where I sit in the shower for 10 mins just trying to cool down. I then have a little lay down and read while my muscles start to seeze up. I then normally head to the beach for a swim and get some lunch. It is often 1pm when I return home and again watch a little tv or read before heading off at 2.30pm to do it all again.
We do this 6 days a week (Sundays off), although Saturday morning we have a pure cardio session which is based on us running to the beach from the camp and doing nasty sprints and pad work in the loose sand and some leg work in waist deep water.
I love the training and feel my fitness is improving every day. I know I have many more weeks of training before I get close to the levels I want. I have all the normal nagging injuries including cut-up feet from the canvass flooring and muscle soreness that just couldnt be believed. Most of the pain comes from sparring as once the trainers know you are preparing for a fight they mercilessly beat you like a red headed step-child. Yesterday I sparred 8 rounds with Hehm (ex Lumpinee and sth Thailand Champ) and today just walking was a real effort as I have bruises up both legs from checking kicks and some on the ribs where I didnt get the block up in time.
I need to ensure I am getting a good healthy balanced diet as it would be impossible to keep this up without the right fuel. This was a big part of the reason for moving to my new villa as it has a small kitchen which allows me to make basic pasta etc for dinner and good breakfasts. I still get to enjoy thai food for lunch and the occasional dinner. I havent had a drink since I arrived almost 3 weeks ago although I do have some friends in town this weekend and we are meeting Saturday afternoon to rectify that.
At this stage I am focussed on my training and getting as fit and strong as possible. Once this starts looking good I will then begin to focus more on my first fight. We havent set a date for this yet as it is all dependant on my fitness.
