to keep myself in check
Mon: Hard swim
Tue: Long run (14-20km)
Wed: Long swim 1500m target 25min
Thurs: Track intervals hard
Fri: Hard swim
Sat: Hard long run and easy transitions
Sun: Long bike inclusive of slopes
hope i can pull it off. it's time to peak.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
V-day special
nothing much special, hahaha
morning was spent with the team at sentosa. 5 x transitions of 200m swim 800m run. was feeling a bit of the leftovers from yesterday's swim training, so my swim wasnt anyhting fantastic. cept for the second and last set. JJ didnt do the first 4 cause of his knee, till the last set where i shall quote him " I will whack, but not all out."
bullshit
he came out of the sea a second before me and practically sprinted to the transition point. i managed to get my shoes on faster and started on the run. that was when i heard someone catching up on me. first thoughts were that it must be josh or zebin, the 2 freak runners. then one glance to the right and it turns out to be JJ! he was macham sprinting! i surged to keep ahead of him. hitting the roundabout and he was still right behind me. wanting to crack him, i increased my cadence and kept it up. i was hoping he'll stop chasing with this new surge. o how wrong i was, when i could hear him still chasing. those last 100m was just hanging on for dear life as i could see bryan at the transition area waiting for us to end. hitting the transition area was such a relief as i gasped for air at an insane 6:07. JJ came in 3s later... that arsehole... only do the last set and push me all the way....... whew......
after cooldown and everything (including a valentines day special pair swimming), i ran out of the sea and and rolled about in the sand in what i liked to call MUAH CHEE.
zhiyun said that i didnt look like a muah chee because muah chee are usually white inside and brown outside. i was the other way round. wah lauuu...
(anyway the photo was from a previous time at sentosa, this is juz to let you guys have a rough idea how i looked, hahahaha)
lunch as usual at seah im, gave out chocs to the team as a vday present...
haha, spent vday with the what i love, the sport and the team!
morning was spent with the team at sentosa. 5 x transitions of 200m swim 800m run. was feeling a bit of the leftovers from yesterday's swim training, so my swim wasnt anyhting fantastic. cept for the second and last set. JJ didnt do the first 4 cause of his knee, till the last set where i shall quote him " I will whack, but not all out."
bullshit
he came out of the sea a second before me and practically sprinted to the transition point. i managed to get my shoes on faster and started on the run. that was when i heard someone catching up on me. first thoughts were that it must be josh or zebin, the 2 freak runners. then one glance to the right and it turns out to be JJ! he was macham sprinting! i surged to keep ahead of him. hitting the roundabout and he was still right behind me. wanting to crack him, i increased my cadence and kept it up. i was hoping he'll stop chasing with this new surge. o how wrong i was, when i could hear him still chasing. those last 100m was just hanging on for dear life as i could see bryan at the transition area waiting for us to end. hitting the transition area was such a relief as i gasped for air at an insane 6:07. JJ came in 3s later... that arsehole... only do the last set and push me all the way....... whew......
after cooldown and everything (including a valentines day special pair swimming), i ran out of the sea and and rolled about in the sand in what i liked to call MUAH CHEE.
zhiyun said that i didnt look like a muah chee because muah chee are usually white inside and brown outside. i was the other way round. wah lauuu...
(anyway the photo was from a previous time at sentosa, this is juz to let you guys have a rough idea how i looked, hahahaha)
lunch as usual at seah im, gave out chocs to the team as a vday present...
haha, spent vday with the what i love, the sport and the team!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
IHG X-campus
this is 24hrs late, since the race had finished for a day already, but i feel the need to blog bout it.
yesterday started fine, i was just hoping that everything would go by smoothly and i knew i still had a bit of preparations to do. i made a mental note of what i needed to do and went on with the day.
actually not. i skipped lecture for the first time simply because i didnt feel like going. so i stayed in my room and went through the notes for the past few lectures of social psych.
when it was near my next lesson and noon, i went out to head off for deviance lect. along the way, i bumped into 3 people from hall, and they wished me gd luck for the race. then i went into lecture.
that was when it happened. i had such a bad panic attack in the middle of lecture. i could barely concentrate on the what my lecturer was saying. i suddenly felt so tired and so stressed. at one point i was on the verge of tears. so many worries were going through my mind and it was just such a horrible feeling.
when i finally did manage to calm myself down (deep breaths and prayer), i made a physical note of what i had to do. it actually did help, and i was able to concentrate more on the lect after that...
ok now fast forward to 6pm when i met the officials (in b/w i prepared things for the race) briefing was such a mess, and there were a couple of complications that i faced. however with the help of weizhong, things managed to fall in place.
i was actually quite glad the race managed to start more or less on time, with little delay (of course, having a loud hailer helps)
even though my guys came in 4th, i was happy with the effort they put in. it was all over their faces when they came in. for this i was really thankful and appreciative of them. well done guys!
the post race meeting was quite draining and tense,as all the captains came together to thrash out some of the controversies that arose. all in all, i think everyone was quite satisfied with the outcome, and thanks all for the positive feedback i recieved!
this x-campus captain stint was quite a journey. im glad that it's over, cause now i can balance my training schedule better, though there is a bit of me that just seems to be lingering on the event... i dunno, call it whatever u like, but i believe that this event helped me grow.... maybe just a little bit. but i did.
Thank You Lord for holding up the weather, answering my prayers.
now the only thing i can do is to stop thinking the dreaded question of what if......
yesterday started fine, i was just hoping that everything would go by smoothly and i knew i still had a bit of preparations to do. i made a mental note of what i needed to do and went on with the day.
actually not. i skipped lecture for the first time simply because i didnt feel like going. so i stayed in my room and went through the notes for the past few lectures of social psych.
when it was near my next lesson and noon, i went out to head off for deviance lect. along the way, i bumped into 3 people from hall, and they wished me gd luck for the race. then i went into lecture.
that was when it happened. i had such a bad panic attack in the middle of lecture. i could barely concentrate on the what my lecturer was saying. i suddenly felt so tired and so stressed. at one point i was on the verge of tears. so many worries were going through my mind and it was just such a horrible feeling.
when i finally did manage to calm myself down (deep breaths and prayer), i made a physical note of what i had to do. it actually did help, and i was able to concentrate more on the lect after that...
ok now fast forward to 6pm when i met the officials (in b/w i prepared things for the race) briefing was such a mess, and there were a couple of complications that i faced. however with the help of weizhong, things managed to fall in place.
i was actually quite glad the race managed to start more or less on time, with little delay (of course, having a loud hailer helps)
even though my guys came in 4th, i was happy with the effort they put in. it was all over their faces when they came in. for this i was really thankful and appreciative of them. well done guys!
the post race meeting was quite draining and tense,as all the captains came together to thrash out some of the controversies that arose. all in all, i think everyone was quite satisfied with the outcome, and thanks all for the positive feedback i recieved!
this x-campus captain stint was quite a journey. im glad that it's over, cause now i can balance my training schedule better, though there is a bit of me that just seems to be lingering on the event... i dunno, call it whatever u like, but i believe that this event helped me grow.... maybe just a little bit. but i did.
Thank You Lord for holding up the weather, answering my prayers.
now the only thing i can do is to stop thinking the dreaded question of what if......
Monday, February 9, 2009
bi sprint time trial
i held off doing the sprint trial for quite long, due to my hamstring injury that put me out of action for both sprint trials conducted a while back, so iw as pretty determined to do it today and do it well
since my knee ached since the early morning bike ride on wed, i rested by knee all the way, with some exceptions of trying (in vain) to do my x-campus time trial, all which ended up with me stopping within less than a 100m due to the pain in the knees.
i was so glad this morning when i woke up and my knee didnt ached anymore! but juz as a precaution, i taped up knee before heading out for the trial.
dom and daniel were the other ones who were doing the trial with me, so at aldrich's call, we went off in 10s intervals, myself first, followed by daniel, then dom.
i started out quite fast for the swim, and maintained a strong stroke throughout, keeping in mind to watch my stroke so as to not waste the energy i'll need for the run later. maybe i conserved a bit, since coach david that i could have done a bit better than the 12:56 i clocked for the 800m swim. i dunno, cause i know i pushed myself a bit when my arms were starting to ache at the three quarter mark, but i was quite pleased with my swim time nonetheless since i had aimed for a 13:20 at first.
averaged bout 48.5s every 50m for the swim, which i managed to lap the other two in the process. i knew that dom's run was very strong, so i wanted to build up a good lead in the swim first. however, i must say that my neighbour's swim has imporved by quite alot since he first came for swim training with the bi team. from someone who splahses about quite a bit to now a pretty decent average swimmer, i must say i'm proud of how far he had come, and i'm sure he will continue to improve with more training.
coming out of the pool for a very fast transition, juz slotting my feet into my shoes and grabbing my watch and top and ran off to the track. i did attract some attention, since i was only in my trunks, but heck, time is more important, especially since this was a sprint race.
last friday, after the majority of the team had completed their trial, zhenghong was telling me bout how he timed himself to do 1:40 for every 400m and how pleased he was to accomplish it for all 12 rounds of the run. being the very competitve runner that i was, i aimed to do my 400m's at bout 1:37-8. i was quite pleased when i managed to keep this up till the last 3-4 rounds, which were at 1:40 thereabouts.
i was more surpirsed when i lapped my 2 contemporaries. apparently the transition from swim to the run was taking a toll on them. i was glad that i had a strong base on transitions, from training myself for last year's sing bi, which i would do a 10k run after a 1500m swim at tamp SAFRA. i believed this helped me to adjust and shorten the recovery process from changing from one sport to another. just another thing in the past that i appreciate now that im doing these races competively.
on the last 200m i gave it my all. i remember that at the 7th round i was panting like mad, but i pushed myself telling myself it was only another 5 (or 2km) to the end. it was a very mental process, and i gotta thank aldrich for clearing the obstrcutions on lane one as well as the encouragement that he had given me along the way. however lame it may sounds, it really did help and i really appreciated it.
finsihed the run at 22:03 (or 04), which i was very pleased with. it's just a very good feeling knowing that you have given your best in a race to hit a good timing, and to be able to say that i had no regrets over the run. i had put in the effort, and i was satisfied with the knowledge that i had put in ALOT of it.
panting my ass off at the finish line is a good feeling, when u push the pain aside and find the inner you all happily fat and satisfied, well-fed on effort.
thanks aldrich/boss for coming down earlier to help us conduct the time trial. all the effort you've put into the team, really really thank you for the many things you've done for the team.
Thank You Lord for holding up my knee, and helping me achieve what i did today. without You i wouldn't be able to do anything at all.
and thank you, if you have read the whole entry. think this is the longest entry so far. so thanks for reading!
since my knee ached since the early morning bike ride on wed, i rested by knee all the way, with some exceptions of trying (in vain) to do my x-campus time trial, all which ended up with me stopping within less than a 100m due to the pain in the knees.
i was so glad this morning when i woke up and my knee didnt ached anymore! but juz as a precaution, i taped up knee before heading out for the trial.
dom and daniel were the other ones who were doing the trial with me, so at aldrich's call, we went off in 10s intervals, myself first, followed by daniel, then dom.
i started out quite fast for the swim, and maintained a strong stroke throughout, keeping in mind to watch my stroke so as to not waste the energy i'll need for the run later. maybe i conserved a bit, since coach david that i could have done a bit better than the 12:56 i clocked for the 800m swim. i dunno, cause i know i pushed myself a bit when my arms were starting to ache at the three quarter mark, but i was quite pleased with my swim time nonetheless since i had aimed for a 13:20 at first.
averaged bout 48.5s every 50m for the swim, which i managed to lap the other two in the process. i knew that dom's run was very strong, so i wanted to build up a good lead in the swim first. however, i must say that my neighbour's swim has imporved by quite alot since he first came for swim training with the bi team. from someone who splahses about quite a bit to now a pretty decent average swimmer, i must say i'm proud of how far he had come, and i'm sure he will continue to improve with more training.
coming out of the pool for a very fast transition, juz slotting my feet into my shoes and grabbing my watch and top and ran off to the track. i did attract some attention, since i was only in my trunks, but heck, time is more important, especially since this was a sprint race.
last friday, after the majority of the team had completed their trial, zhenghong was telling me bout how he timed himself to do 1:40 for every 400m and how pleased he was to accomplish it for all 12 rounds of the run. being the very competitve runner that i was, i aimed to do my 400m's at bout 1:37-8. i was quite pleased when i managed to keep this up till the last 3-4 rounds, which were at 1:40 thereabouts.
i was more surpirsed when i lapped my 2 contemporaries. apparently the transition from swim to the run was taking a toll on them. i was glad that i had a strong base on transitions, from training myself for last year's sing bi, which i would do a 10k run after a 1500m swim at tamp SAFRA. i believed this helped me to adjust and shorten the recovery process from changing from one sport to another. just another thing in the past that i appreciate now that im doing these races competively.
on the last 200m i gave it my all. i remember that at the 7th round i was panting like mad, but i pushed myself telling myself it was only another 5 (or 2km) to the end. it was a very mental process, and i gotta thank aldrich for clearing the obstrcutions on lane one as well as the encouragement that he had given me along the way. however lame it may sounds, it really did help and i really appreciated it.
finsihed the run at 22:03 (or 04), which i was very pleased with. it's just a very good feeling knowing that you have given your best in a race to hit a good timing, and to be able to say that i had no regrets over the run. i had put in the effort, and i was satisfied with the knowledge that i had put in ALOT of it.
panting my ass off at the finish line is a good feeling, when u push the pain aside and find the inner you all happily fat and satisfied, well-fed on effort.
thanks aldrich/boss for coming down earlier to help us conduct the time trial. all the effort you've put into the team, really really thank you for the many things you've done for the team.
Thank You Lord for holding up my knee, and helping me achieve what i did today. without You i wouldn't be able to do anything at all.
and thank you, if you have read the whole entry. think this is the longest entry so far. so thanks for reading!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
pocketful of little hopes
it was a day where i had all these leeetle bits and pieces of hopes, with varying results
1) as i stepped up to the block for the first event of the day during IHG swimming, 50m freestyle individual, i was hoping that i wouldnt be made to look bad, hoping that i would not false start (remember RP bi), and hoping that i would not let the supporters down. turns out i didn't false start, i didn't look too bad (was glancing towards my left and right as i sprinted and was actually surprised that i didn't see anyone level with me) and i managed to get the hall's swim off to a gd start (alot more gd news was to come)
2) hoped that the TH butterfly guys relay team would hold off the specialist breaststrokers from RH. not only did we managed to hold them off, we actually won by quite a few seconds!
3) after the swim, dom, nic and i were gonna do our timetrial for x-campus. i was hoping my knee would hold up, even though when i woke up in the morning it was still aching a little. we started and less than a 100m i felt the ache again, and with my long term racing future in mind, i stopped. dejected.
4) after that, all i could do was to stand around at SRC carpark, mulling around and wait for dom and nick to return. i was hoping that they would do well, that they would not suffer too much in the afternoon heat, that they would sprint down the slope safely. they came back, in good time, and i was glad. as nic puts it, "it was just painful all the way"
5) on my way to ameal's bday party at MC's at King Albert's Park, i was hoping that i had taken the right bus.
i did not.
this mistake made me 45 mins late.
oops, sry ameal.
6) met up with the NUSSU bash people for dinner at marche's. we were playing the extreme number game (translate into mandarin for zong ji mi ma) with a mixture of disgusting sauces. i was hoping i wouldnt kenna (mainly cause i had helped create the disgusting mixtire).
i didn't. =)
now i have one more hope, hoping that my knee will recover by monday so i can do my long overdue bi sprint time trial. God help this hopeful one.
1) as i stepped up to the block for the first event of the day during IHG swimming, 50m freestyle individual, i was hoping that i wouldnt be made to look bad, hoping that i would not false start (remember RP bi), and hoping that i would not let the supporters down. turns out i didn't false start, i didn't look too bad (was glancing towards my left and right as i sprinted and was actually surprised that i didn't see anyone level with me) and i managed to get the hall's swim off to a gd start (alot more gd news was to come)
2) hoped that the TH butterfly guys relay team would hold off the specialist breaststrokers from RH. not only did we managed to hold them off, we actually won by quite a few seconds!
3) after the swim, dom, nic and i were gonna do our timetrial for x-campus. i was hoping my knee would hold up, even though when i woke up in the morning it was still aching a little. we started and less than a 100m i felt the ache again, and with my long term racing future in mind, i stopped. dejected.
4) after that, all i could do was to stand around at SRC carpark, mulling around and wait for dom and nick to return. i was hoping that they would do well, that they would not suffer too much in the afternoon heat, that they would sprint down the slope safely. they came back, in good time, and i was glad. as nic puts it, "it was just painful all the way"
5) on my way to ameal's bday party at MC's at King Albert's Park, i was hoping that i had taken the right bus.
i did not.
this mistake made me 45 mins late.
oops, sry ameal.
6) met up with the NUSSU bash people for dinner at marche's. we were playing the extreme number game (translate into mandarin for zong ji mi ma) with a mixture of disgusting sauces. i was hoping i wouldnt kenna (mainly cause i had helped create the disgusting mixtire).
i didn't. =)
now i have one more hope, hoping that my knee will recover by monday so i can do my long overdue bi sprint time trial. God help this hopeful one.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
training schedule for the weeek
shall put up my schedule for the week so i can keep myself in-line with training
monday: bi swim
tuesday: bi run plus slope training and core
wednesday: th swim and swim trial, plus x-campus
thursday: bi sprint trial
friday: x-campus time trial
saturday: ihg swim
sunday: bike plus lifesaving swim, and maybe a long run in the late afternoon
God help carry me through all this
monday: bi swim
tuesday: bi run plus slope training and core
wednesday: th swim and swim trial, plus x-campus
thursday: bi sprint trial
friday: x-campus time trial
saturday: ihg swim
sunday: bike plus lifesaving swim, and maybe a long run in the late afternoon
God help carry me through all this
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