Kevin Muldoon

It is 2 weeks to the day that I came back from Thailand. In that time I have not been to the gym as my calf muscle is still sore and I didn’t think that there would be much point going down because I wouldn’t be able to do any cardio.

I have been semi productive though and have did my best to maintain my core strength by doing 1,000 sit ups a day, 300 press ups and light dumbells every other day. But I don’t like being stuck in the house all day (a problem when you work on the internet) so I got off my ass today and joined back up with my local gym.

My fitness is definately down from when I was training 5 hours a day in Thailand but not as much as I thought it would be. I did struggle with a few things though. Sit ups and press ups were easy but pull ups were really tough. When I was at the Muay Thai camp I wasn’t really using the weight machines much but I was still doing about 50 pull ups every day. Today I was really struggling after 3 or 4, which surprised me a little as I have been doing light weights in the house.

Clearly there is only so much you can do without using machines or a weight bench. You can achieve a lot using light dumbells, press ups, dips and sit ups but it is no substitute for proper training equipment.

I’m not too disheartened though, far from it. I’m sure after a week or so I will get into the swing of things. Infact, it wouldn’t surprise me if I had a body like this after a few weeks!!

My pulled calf continues to be a real pain in the ass. Last week my leg was feeling a lot better. I wasn’t limping in any shape or form and touching my calf didn’t hurt either. So I decided to go for a 30 minute run around 6 oçlock in the evening (when it’s cooler) last Thursday.

After a little stretching I started to run. I was staying in Ban Ruk in the north of Thailand so I decided to run to the island Big Bhudda which was a few kilometres away. The first 5 minutes of running my leg was a little sore and it felt like it was going to pull again. I was being very cautious and was jogging really slowly and shortly afterwards the pain was away and my leg felt great.

I continued my run, which by this point resembled a pedestrian version of crazy taxi as I had to manoeuvre pot holes, cars, motorbikes and crazy dogs. This was no easy task and I ran on the road for most of it as the Thailand goverment have no idea what a pavement (sidewalk) is. It took me about 12 minutes to get to the bridge at Big Bhudda so I headed back out to the main road and continued up for another 5 minutes or so. Along the way a sleeping dog decided to spring into action and bit my shorts and then just as quickly, went back to the ground and lay down again. I didn’t have time to check if his tail was tied to a lampost or something but I was just happy that it had stopped trying to attack me.

I then headed back to my bungalow but at around 20 minutes my leg started getting really sore. I ran through it and got back to the apartment about 7 minutes later but close to the end I had to really slow down, I don’t think I could have gone on much longer (For the record, I’m not a time freak, I was just checking my stopwatch a lot as I was hoping to run every day).

Later that night my calf was much sorer but it wasn’t til the next morning I really noticed how bad it was. I was back to limping again. The next day my leg was even worst and it was really sore walking. I’ve never pulled my calf muscle before so I’m still unsure about when you should start training again. I was under the assumption that a light job might help speed up my recovery but clearly my leg is not at that stage yet.

This has changed my plans a little. I was hoping to do some light jogging for a week or so and get to the stage where I could go back to a gym and do some bagwork and light boxing sparring but the best thing for my leg at this stage is rest. Or as I like to call it, boredom!

On a plus note, I felt great during and after my run so my fitness must still be pretty good. I was scared it would have dropped more. My mate Kev suggested cycling. That could be a good option as it puts no pressure on the calf itself, though I could still overstretch it. Swimming remains the best option but I’ve found it difficult to find a place with a good pool for swimming. They are ither too small, too shallow, too busy or part of a hotel which is too damn expensive!

I mentioned the other day that I got cramp in my right leg at the end of Mondays afternoon training session. I assumed it was cramp at first, mainly because thats what the trainers said it was. But after a few days I still cannot walk and the symptons appear to be little different from cramp.

I searched online and found out that I have pulled my calf muscle. According to this article :

A calf strain is similar to an Achilles tendon tear or rupture, but occurs higher up in the back of the leg. A sign of a calf strain is similar to that of an Achilles tendon rupture – you may think you’ve just been hit in the leg and hear a “pop.” There is sudden pain at the back of the leg, pain, swelling or bruising in the calf muscle, and you have difficulty standing on the toes.

The above describes exactly what happened to me. It felt like someone had just hit my calf with a baseball bat and my muscle contracted and I hit the ground. Since then I’ve been unable to walk properly on my right leg and have been walking on the front of the foot only. My friend Sonya also noticed yesterday how big my right calf is compared to my left calf, obviously this is due to swelling.

I’m not 100% sure but I believe I have a grade 2 tear, which takes about 6 weeks to heal. I’m hoping this isn’t the case but after 3 days it hasn’t really got much better.

I’m really bummed about the whole thing as I’m unsure if I will be able to train anymore during my time in Thailand. Rawai is the perfect place to train as there isn’t much to do but if you’re not training, it’s incredibly boring, something which I have found out the last few days.

I really only have myself to blame. I should have rested my legs longer because of pulling my left hamstring. I believe my hamstring pull played a large part in pulling my calf. Apparently, a calf pull commonly happens when a person overstretches the leg. I was kicking ok with my right leg on Monday and kicking about shoulder level however I didn’t have great control over it because my stationary leg is the one which I have pulled my hamstring on. Which means that I would have easily extended my leg longer than usual.

As I said, I’m a bit down abut it all because I was excited about coming to Thailand to train for a long time and I was enjoying the training. Now I’m not sure what to do. If my leg gets better within the next week then I could train everyday and just box but there would still be a risk of pulling it more and doing so could make things a lot worse long term. I know the best thing for me is rest but in the last few years I have trained at least 5 times a week and I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if I’m not training.

I consider myself a positive person and in the past I have tried to look at the positives in a bad situation. For example, when I pulled my hamstring I thought, well it will give me a chance to improve my boxing. I’m sure that not training is going to give me an opportunity to do something else. I just don’t know what that is as yet.

I’m going to relax over the weekend, clear my head and think about what my options are

Earlier today I briefly spoke about a Canadian guy called Vincent who fought last month the Thai fighter threw the fight. Officially, the Thai fighter didn’t but have a look at the video below to see what I mean. I didn’t know Vincent but a few of my friends did. He looked pretty good at training so if I was him I would have been pissed off.

Hey all,

I have now been in Thailand for about a month so I thought I would give you all another update.

All in all I have been having a blast and have enjoyed training, though it has been frustrating. Pulling my hamstring meant that I couldn’t kick so I had to limit my training to punching, elbows, knees and front kicks (even though front kicks still hurt my leg a little). The only problem with this solution though is the language barrier between you and the trainers. They all have very basic english so trying to tell that that you can’t kick is difficult to say the least.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

When I told them the first day that I couldn’t kick they just replied ‘Ýou kick, it’s ok, just kick’. When I tell them I can’t they continue and ask me to kick. This happened every day in the ring but the main problem was the technique section. In this part of training you go through 3 new techniques, which usually involve kicking and blocking. Most of the time you have to kick middle to high, which I couldn’t do. Instead of being in the ring with one trainer, everyone is on the mats and each trainer wanders around correcting everyone and making sure everyone is doing the technique correctly. There are probably around 6 or 7 trainers doing this.

This means that I have had to explain to several trainers in the last 3-4 weeks that I cannot kick. This has happened every single day in the last 3-4 weeks so you can imagine how annoying it gets. Sometimes I just laugh at how easy they forget but at 8am, it’s easy to get annoyed with this sort of thing. It’s actually got worse in the last week or so as I have been trying to do low kicks on the bags (my hamstring pull meant I couldn’t do middle to high kicks) but doing so gave them the impression my leg was ok. They just suggest a massage and say that my leg will be better the next day (even after a month it’s still bad and I’ve read it can take a few months). Rest is not a word in the thai dictionary!

Improving

Last week I paid extra to do VIP training, which is where you get an additional hour of training every day with a trainer. That was really good. I think I learned more last week than I did in the rest of my time here. New combos, new blocks etc. And everything just seems to click when you are doing it with the same trainer every day.

In the middle of the week my right knuckle swollen up really badly. This is an injury I had last September/October from punching the boards at Taekwondo. It hasn’t swollen up as bad as then but I was doing 5x3minute rounds twice a day on the pads plus an hour vip (which is mostly padwork too), so my right punch got lighter and lighter as I was holding back because of the pain.

On the friday night we went to the Wat Chalong market, which is a huge market which is only there once a month or something. I went to the herbal/medical stall and was recommended some type of ointment to use on my hamstring and my hand (cost : 1 UK pound). It smelled like vicks but there was a good chance it was just a mosquito repellent. Nevertheless, I gave it a try. After a minute or so of rubbing it in, my leg and hand feels really warm. Basically, it draws all the blood to the area so this speeds up recovery, I guess a bit like Deep Heat. I was very skeptical at first but I’m a believer now. After a few days of using it my hamstring was feeling a lot better.

Getting back to kicking

Yesterday, my hamsting was feeling a lot better. I was applying the ointment before training and it seemed to help a lot. Plus I was trying to do a little bit longer warming up.

So I was kicking the bag and was getting higher. Fin, the head trainer, noticed me hitting the bag hard and came over and asked me how long I was here for. I told him I had another month or two. At which point he asked if I wanted to fight. I told him I couldn’t kick with my left leg but he just laughed that it was ok and that would find me some easy thai guy. Seriously, they will put you into a fight here regardless of injury, sickness or whatever : they just want to provide fighters for the fight nights.

After hitting the bag he told me to go to ring 1. Ring 1 is the ring where 99% of the people training have either fought or are training for a fight. The fact that I had been here for a month and had never been put in there illustrates that they are trying to convince me to fight. They did this with a few other people who fought i.e. they just kept annoying them and asked them to fight and then they did.

The training in ring 1 was better. I was training with Petsila, a nice thai guy who is incredibly laid back and still fights. This guy never trains, never runs and no one ever sees him hitting pads or practicing kicks. Yet he still fights every few weeks and wins!

I was kicking great with my right leg and it felt good. My left leg was a different story, I could only kick up and could only do that at waist height. I’m actually really happy to have at least one leg working again!!!

At the very end of round 5 the whistle blew but Petsila told me to do 2 more kicks. On my last kick I collapsed to the ground. It felt like someone had run up behind me and hit the back of my calf with a baseball bat. It was incredibly painful but I was confused more than anything. The manager, Tuk (who is a lumpini champion) must have saw this as he came running over and said it was cramp and that I should try and walk it off. I tried walking it off but I just couldn’t, so I had to hop to my bag. They suggested a massage but even touching my leg is sore. I’ve had minor cramp before but it usually came on slowly. When this happened I was ok one second and a second later I was on the ground.

So I have to take another few days off for the cramp to go away. Which I’m actually not concerned about at all as it will give me some time to rest my hamstring some more and my knuckle, and the cramp should just be temporary. I still can’t walk but it does feel a little better after a nights sleep. Apparently this can happen when you train in the heat and you haven’t had enough salt in your diet (it could be dehydration too).

Training

I’m really looking forward to the cramp going away and getting back to training. I can’t kick with my left but I’m excited about even practicing with one leg as I have been kneeing every day for a month. I have 6-7 weeks training left so I feel like I’m just starting in a way because training has been a little frustating so far.

Will I fight? Mmm, probably not but I won’t rule it out. I doubt my left leg will get to a good level plus fighting means no drinking and running 10k+ every day. After training 5-6 days solid I enjoy having a few beers on the Saturday night.

The other reason is, it could be a waste of time. A guy from Canada called Vincent fought a few weeks ago and it was a total fix. He threw an elbow and completely missed the guy but the guy fell to the ground. The thai fighter realised he hadn’t connected and got back up but then went down again with just a small push. It was a complete joke. I heard Vincent was really pissed off and I can’t blame him, he had been training 5 hours a day for 3-4 weeks and then that happened. Whats the point.

Perhaps I will think differently in a few weeks if my left leg gets better. Not all fights are rigged and it would be a good experience. Though my main priority this year is my black belt grading in Taekwondo and the risk of getting another injury is high in a fight. Perhaps it would be better to come back next year and do a fight?

Moving

My accomodation runs out in the bungalow this weekend so me and my friend James are looking for a new place, Specifically, one with a swimming pool. We have been looking for places but havent found anything as yet. Hopefully we get something in the next few days.

I’ll take some pictures and do an update once we move.

Some pictures

A lof of this post has involved me complaining about one thing or another but training frustations aside, I’m having a great time here and would definately come back. It’s not like I’m the only one who has been injured. Many people have caught ringworm and someone even caught some variation of the superbug, which doesn’t surprise me as all the cleaner does is remove the leaves from the floor i.e. the bags are never cleaned.

I haven’t taken many pictures of myself training as yet. I’ll maybe do that before I leave. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the gym.

The pictures below are of Rawai beach. It’s a pretty poor beach. No one really sunbathes on it, it’s used more for boats etc.

This beach is called naehorn beach and is where we usually go. They were taken around 5.30pm so it looks cold but it was actually quite warm. We don’t go down in the afternoon as it’s too hot, so we wait til 4.30pm+ as it’s a bit more bearable.

Hope you all enjoyed the update. I won’t lie to you, it’s funny seeing the news about all the snow back in the UK as it’s been 35 degrees+ every day here since I got here.

I read today that Jon Fitch has been dropped from the UFC because of his refusal to give up his name and likeness rights for a lifetime.

From GameSpot :

Thanks to a reported dispute over an upcoming THQ game, a group of Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters are about to discover if the only thing tougher than going into the Octagon is being locked out of it.

According to Yahoo! Sports and Sports Illustrated, welterweight contender Jon Fitch was cut from the mixed martial arts organization yesterday, and UFC president Dana White wants nothing more to do with the fighter or his fellow American Kickboxing Academy members. The dispute reportedly centered on licensing agreements for the upcoming UFC game published by THQ.

According to Yahoo, Fitch said he didn’t want to sign away his name and likeness rights in a lifetime contract for the game. He said he tried to negotiate a shorter term agreement, but the UFC refused to change its terms.

“I’m more than willing to work with them, but I don’t see why we have to give up our whole lives for this,” Fitch said. “Why not a time limit? If we did a 10-year deal with them, is that that unreasonable? I don’t understand how this happened, honestly. It’s tough.”

As of press time, a THQ representative had not returned a request for comment.

I agree 100% with Jon Fitch’s refusal. It’s crazy for them to ask for his name and image rights for the rest of his life. I’m actually surprised he’s the only one causing a fuss about this.

What happens if a fighter signs away his name and image rights and then leaves the UFC in say 5 years time. If they went to a different organisation to fight (for example K1), their name and image likeness would still be owned by the UFC and I doubt they would just hand it over for free.

I have nothing but respect for what Dana White and what he has done for the UFC. The UFC was fading away and was going bankrupt when he took it over and is unrecognisable from what it is today. But this kind of thing is disgraceful. It’s the kind of thing Vince McMahon from the WWE would do (and has done).

Hopefully they reinstate Fitch as it would be crazy to lose a great figher over this.