Workout Recap - Week of October 22, 2023
I woke up with mysterious bruise streaks under both of my eyes on Sunday morning, one of which took most of the week to fade, so I was something of a spectacle at the gym (starting out with the kru saying, "holy shit!" when she first noticed it). Part of me wishes I had a better story to answer their incessant questions, but really, I'm mostly glad that there was really nothing to say but to brush them off and get to work. Nobody there is my friend, and feigning familiarity for the comfort of others is tiresome.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This was a head-to-head boxing defense day, working mostly on blocking while also mixing in some parries. It was a solid fundamental class overall; I got a couple of harder rounds with the competitive fighters, but I was mostly working with newer people, so I kept it light (so that only their egos would get hurt when I inevitably caught them being lazy with resetting their guard after attacking) while pushing the pace and giving advice where I could. I am becoming the Sheng Long of the gym.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
We did head-to-head defense again this day, this time focusing on kicks. I was doing well enough until we finished up doing a round of parrying front kicks from either leg, where I somehow got a scratch on my elbow. It wasn't bad enough to be a real problem, but it bled enough to warrant bandaging, which was even more annoying to be missing time with a superficial injury. My body is so inconveniently fragile at times.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
The kick focus continued on this day, though with padwork rather than fleshy targets. In all honesty, my mind wasn't fully connected to reality this day, so I would've considered skipping the class if it hadn't been for knowing I was going to missing Friday's sparring. Even so, I dare say that I acquitted myself reasonably compared to the two humanoid meatbags that I partnered with. I was too zoned out to do much in the way of helping them get better, unfortunately, but at least one of them hurt their knee while I was holding a kick shield for them, which was satisfying in the context that both of them missed the pads and actually kicked me at least once during the class.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This class was a mix of head-to-head drills and padwork, covering a variety of situations. My rear leg's shin was a bit beat up from slashing into too many knee caps between Tuesday and this day, so I dialed back the power on my rear round kicks partway through the class. On the other hand, my lead leg round kicks were feeling quite nice, which was pleasing. That said, I am a little glad about having an extra day to recover before next week. Not the greatest end to a week of training ever, but passable enough for my purposes.
