Workout Recap - Week of November 26, 2023
Well, some progress in that I'm getting back on track with not being unreasonably delayed in making the recap post this time. I'm still somewhat sleep-deprived and accruing further consequences from that, but improvements often come in increments.
Monday
Muay Thai class
We did head-to-head drills this day, working on defending different levels of round kicks from either side. One of the competitive fighters decided to mix up levels on me without warning when we were supposed to be doing a head kick drill, and they were going relatively hard on me, but I didn't have much reaction to tanking a couple off the side of my body despite probably being around 20% lighter in weight since I try to be diligent about my defense (which I believe includes being prepared to be hit in the body or legs so that I can prioritize focusing on protecting my head). My willingness to roll with the improvisation seemed to frustrate that person, though whipping in a couple stingers under their elbow later in the round might've fed into that, too. For some evidence that I'm not just pumping my own ego, that fighter took the following round off to sulk against the wall and then (in the next drill they participated in, which was blocking head kicks on the other side) dropped the relative-newbie they were partnered with on a body kick, so I think it's fair to guess that they failed to get through my body armor despite really trying to.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was a multi-kick padwork day. It feels like my hip involvement on my front kicks regressed some compared to recent weeks (especially with my lead leg), so that's something for me to focus on going forward. On the plus side, my knee strikes were blowing my partner back consistently despite a significant size difference between us, so it was some good, some bad. Towards the end, the person I'd been working with had to leave early and so I partnered up with one of the competitive fighters who'd been working in a trio previously. They complimented me on having improved a lot from where I'd started and guessed that I must've been training very often to have made so much progress in a few months over a year, with the implication that I was moving and hitting like an actual fighter now. That was cool to hear.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
Yet more multi-kick padwork this time, with an emphasis on front kicks, so I got to immediately work on cleaning up that weakness. Indeed, my hips were popped better compared to the previous day, though I think there's still plenty of room to improve further. Frankly, my partner was very new and in lackluster shape, so once I got a read on that pretty early on, my main focus was trying to get both of us through the class safely. There was a nice flourish on top, though; the same fighter who'd complimented me the previous day noticed and vocalized that the two of us were the last ones going during our finishing calisthenics. I often joke that part of why I seem to have a lot of stamina is that I'm moving around a lot less weight than just about anyone else in the class, but that fighter is actually pretty much the same size as me (though a little shorter in return for having a more muscular build), so it was amusingly fitting that they kept up with me.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
We did head-to-head work on blocking various round kicks again. I mostly did lighter rounds since I was tending to go with newer people, but I got in a few harder ones for a nice mix. We finished up with some freestyle combo-for-combo, where I got to work with the same competitive fighter mentioned in the previous two summaries. One of the "gym assistant coach"-figures had stopped by the class, and they admonished me for going too lightly with that fighter (I was trying to match their intensity, but admittedly, my hyposensitivity makes that challenging to judge), so we mutually escalated until we were laying in some solid attacks on each other by the last thirty seconds or so of the round, which was a lot of fun (certainly helped that we were also both defending well, but I would've had fun with it even if I was getting smacked around). I miss sparring; hoping I can get some in before the new year, though it's not seeming likely at the moment.
