You know you're ready to fight when you become a bit of an asshole.

It's not on purpose, I swear!  But in the last week or so I started becoming really anti-social at the gym, especially while training.  I've started becoming kind of an asshole.  Normally I say hello to everyone and exchange pleasantries during training but now it's just focus focus focus.  I've seen this  happen to other guys that are getting ready for a fight as well.

I remember GSP saying on the Ultimate Fighter Reality Show once,

"You can tell he's ready to fight, he's quite, doesn't laugh and is focused."

Social time should be reserved for after class anyway, but I noticed myself getting pissed off whenever someone would try to joke around or even ask me about my weekend during the session.  I can't wait to get this fight over with already so I can go back to being a happy, social guy.  Tonight, a bunch of us had dinner together after training and it was nice.  As always whenever there are seven guys around, the topic of sex came up.  Two of the guys joked around about going into town tonight to try to hook up....one of them wasn't joking but didn't want to go alone.  

I talk about it quite a bit in my upcoming book actually, about hooking up and also long term relationships while you're in Thailand.  I just got out of a fucked up relationship with a crazy Swedish girl and am pretty happy to stay single for a while.  It's refreshing to just focus on Muay Thai for a bit and not have any girls in my life.  Although, I may or may not have hooked up on New Years Eve, but let's not get into that here on the blog.  

Anyways, here's the warm up run we do every day before class a month ago, I was running a 12 - 14 minute mile pace and now i'm consistently down to the 10:12-10:58 minutes per mile range which I'm quite happy about, especially since I started actually enjoying the runs and not dreading them.  I'm sure I could run them a bit faster, but since it's just a warm up before a long Muay Thai session and it's under the hot sun I don't want to wear myself out.  But one day, I'm going to push myself to see how fast I can actually do it.

As tempting as it is to set a new personal best, start running a 7-8 minute miles and signing up for a 10k or a half marathon, I know it's not the healthiest thing for my joints, knees and back.  It's also not my goal, this GPS watch is almost kind of a curse.  It helps me because I can see my improvement, but at the same time, if you give a guy metrics, he will measure them and attempt to break them.

I think at least for a while, I'll be happy jogging a 10 minute pace, hopefully it'll be sub-10 minute soon but either way, I have more important things to focus on than how fast I can run around the block.  Like training for the Estonian wife carry race!  Just kidding.

Oh by the way, today we did 5 rounds of pad work and I got paired up with the new trainer.  He doesn't speak much English but he has really good technique.  Judging from his worn out shorts, I'm pretty sure he used to compete in the Toyota Muay Thai Tournaments   He looks like he might still be an active fighter as he's definitely in shape for it.

The pad work was great, I was a bit tired from the 110 Burpees yesterday but I pushed myself though.  It's always a bit different having a new pad holder, getting used to his style, but it's nice to mix things up.  Some guys like to use the same trainer everyday, which has it's benefits, they get to know you and your style.  But personally, I love having a different trainer everyday and mixing things up.  

After pads we did a long clinch session.  We rotated and I must have clinched with at least 5 different people for around 10-15 minutes.  I was tiring as hell and I know my traps and neck are going to be sore tomorrow, as I can already feel it.  But I'm really glad we did it today as it's been a while and I really needed it.  To be honest, I actually hate clinching.  I'm decently good at it since I pummeled at lot in high school when I used to wrestle, but I hate the idea of exchanging knees with my opponent.  It's also really draining on you stamina.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to continue avoiding the clinch in my fights. Anyway, off to bed!  I'll try to be less of a knobhead tomorrow!

Update:  Good news, I just broke the sub 10 minute pace.  I followed the Thai guys on their run and although it was a bit hard to keep up.  Average pace time: 9:12 mi.  Yeah!

Warm Regards,

Johnny @ MyFightCamp.com