Bounced awake after 8 hours sleep. Feeling pretty good. Sore in places but not so stiff I can’t move. Did some work on the computer before meeting Erica for breakfast at 8. Our first class wasn’t until 10:40 so we had a couple of hours to kill. We decided to play with the murder puzzles (https://www.huntakiller.com/). I brought three of the six in the series with me. Was fun because it was like old times working together. Stuff she spotted I wouldn’t have and vice versa. Erica, “hey what are these funny white dots in this painting?”, me “that’s Morse code!”.
We then did hot yoga. Its yoga done in a studio heated to 105 degrees. No that’s not a typo. You sweat like a pig. Theory is that it forces a lot of toxins out of your body, and lets your muscles get warm so they stretch. Can’t say whether I think it’s better for your muscles, but for sure you sweat like a pig. About 10 minutes before the end of class I got nauseous. Probably not dehydrated as we have been drinking so much water, but just overwhelmed by the heat. Erica could barely stand up afterwards. She was thinking it was food related. After some debate we went up to the restaurant and ordered her some coconut water. They have piles of coconuts delivered every morning that have been machettied down so they are easy to pop open and put a straw into. We’ve seen other people drinking them down. So we gave one to Erica – and sure enough 5 minutes later she was fine. So electrolytes. So I decided to have one after my second work out too as a preventative measure. I’m not crazy about the taste, but the folks here swear by them as restoring electrolytes.
I had a protein shake – this time protein powder, coconut milk (as opposed to coconut water), and some avocado. No better than yesterday’s mix. But Erica tells me that the ProClub has a new shake mix that is vegan – meaning its plant material now instead of soy. She says it tastes great. So, if that’s the truth, I might be able to go back to shakes in the morning. Whoo hoo.
I’m sore but not unmanageably so, and better after the yoga. And I noticed this afternoon that the stairs are getting easier. There are 4 floors – my room is on 2. Main gym on 1. Restaurant/pool on 4. So you go up and down all day. There is an elevator but I am determined not to use it. As I headed upstairs I realized I wasn’t dreading the stairs anymore because they don’t seem so hard. Progress and its only day 3.
I then headed off to take a shower to cool down before kick boxing class. This was 1:1 with an instructor. They just smile and laugh when you pound on their padded hands or belly. If you do it right and really land a punch they light up. It is pretty funny really. And a good workout. We shall see what kind of bruises I have tomorrow. You learn not only to pound with your fists (punch, upper cut, etc.) but also to land elbow jabs and kicks pretty hard. So I warned Erica not to freak if I show up tomorrow with a lot of black and blue. Don’t hurt at all – just thinking how easy I typically bruise. We shall see.
Meanwhile Erica did her workout too – she is deceptively strong. She keeps fooling her trainer because he doesn’t believe her when she explains what she can do.
Then a second shower, followed by lunch – a chicken salad. And then more murder puzzle game – solving the second box worth. After that we had our daily massage. The woman who did my massage was a masochist. She asked if I wanted a Thai massage and I was like “yes!”. It’s my favorite kind. But she wailed on me so hard I must have said ouch 50 times (no exaggeration.) Ok, admittedly afterwards I feel less stiff and sore. Yes, I know that breaking up the scar tissue helps. But man does it hurt at the time.
Then we piled in a van to head to the beach for stretching yoga at sunset.
Gorgeous beach. It’s the “off season” so there are not very many people here. Still too many for my taste though. I can’t imagine how many there are in high season. We were told we would see 50 (seems about right) and in high season there are 500. There are wild dogs here but they are tame. One came to join us for our yoga session.
Since its Dave’s birthday today (tomorrow his time), I wanted to send Dave a “happy birthday” message. So Mel helped me write “Dave” on the beach so I could take a photo and tell him he was here in spirit with us for his birthday. The ocean didn’t exactly cooperate though – attempting to erase her writings before I could take a picture.
After that we headed back for dinner – salmon and a salad. Then off to bed. I was sound asleep by 9:30.