Day 360 - Blood, sweat and more sweat in Phuket, Thailand

I've heard pain referred to as a barrier. It's not. It's multiple barriers.

I feel like a wheelchair Olympian doing the 110m hurdles. I race through one barrier, with no choice but to allow it to smack me full-force in the face, only for another to follow shortly afterward, adding to the pain.

Our days begin just after 7am. I drag my sore body from bed - my calf muscles feel like old, gnarled tree roots - and we make our way to Tiger Muay Thai training camp. There Randy from Michigan, who has a chest that would make Arnie green with envy, puts us through an hour of what is best described as 'Aerobics' Evil Twin at the Beach'. He makes us contort out bodies in ways that simply don't seem natural or possible. But contort we do. Amazing.

Then we break. Head for the Tiger Grill, to wolf down egg-white omelets and wholemeal toast. We watch the fighters in the rings either side of the eating area beat the living crap out of each other. We marvel at their fitness, the chiseled nature of their lean bodies and the verve with which they kick, punch and knee each other over and over and over again.

After a kip - sometimes a swim - it's back to the gym for a weights session. The heat of the day has risen palpably.  We were sweating in Randy's session. Now the water drips off us like we are showering. Up go the weights, down go the weights, drip-drip-drip go our foreheads.

Then at 4pm, we head to the Muay Thai training area. We start with running, jumping and stretching. I'm buggered already. Then it's technique. Kick, punch, block, knee. Then sparring. I take a few to the head, but I land a couple of nice ones myself. Pad work. High intensity. Bag work. 200 kicks. 200 knees. 200 elbows. 200 punches. Then, to warm down, to finish it all off 100 push-ups and 300 sit-ups. We do them, sitting in our ever-present pool of sweat. Teacher Dan - or Mr Miyagi as he is known with understandable justification - threatens that "I heet you wis my stick!" if we don't finish.

Two and half hours later, it's over. I lay panting on the floor, spent. Rach is the same. Agony over for another day.

We came here to get fit. One week on, I can feel muscles firming. The ache is being replaced by strength missed during our year away. Fitness begins to surge through my veins, making me look forward all the more to the new football season waiting for me back home.

There are people who come here to train for months. They come as novices to learn Muay Thai. At the end of it all, they fight. They go to a stadium here in Phuket, line up in front of a proper paying crowd and they fight a professional bout.

Rachel and I have talked. When we arrived, that seemed like a ridiculous idea. Brutal blood sport! Why do that?

Suddenly, the idea seems far more appealing. Enticing. Possible?

Still, one more week of agony. We'll see what we think then.



Photos from hell are here