There was so many drills in tonight class, the most we ever had. Legs were very tired from all these drill....
The highlight for tonight was the 10x50m sprint - hard swim. I was doing quite OK for the first few laps until the 5 lap; I think, I sprint too fast in the beginning and this tired me down for the rest of the remaining laps. Nevertheless, managed below 1 min for 7 to 8 laps, and the rest was slightly over 1 min.
The coach ended the training by doing some relay. The distance was quite short though; 20m. And one was the relay swim was butterfly and it seemed that most of us could not manage. I swam the butterfly by pushing up from the bottom; the stroke looked very impressive hahaha!! Some swimmers complained that I cheated. What to do cannot swim butterfly mah?hehe!!"
.
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
26th May 2009 Tuesday - Supposed To Be A 14km Slow Recovery Run, But....
Today's run was Ridley-Holland-Margaret Dr approx 14km. The weather was cool especially after a heavy downpour in the afternoon. I was planning to do a very slow comfortable recovery run enjoying the cool weather and music, and also gave my calf sore muscles a break. Since my speed box was out of order, I decided to maintain HR of max 152bpm thru out this 14km run. And with Sundown this Sat, definitely a slow comfortable run would be ideal.
Started the run accordingly to plan for approx 3km and was running with Julie. Along Ridley I felt my tempo was good and with a very comfortable pace (HR showing 156-158bpm) running along side with Julie who was picking up her speed a little bit; decided to hung on to her pace of probably 5.5min/km. Noticeably this was not Julie's usual pace for weekday training or any training for this matter, she normally run faster than this, so mercifully I could hung on to her pace. Pacing with Julie was always good as hanging on with her speed, I always end up achieving an excellent workout. While running on Margaret Drive, Julie suggested to run on the Park Connector and this was my first time. I found it more interesting and safer running Connector route than running along the boring Margaret Drive.
At the last km along Henderson Rd, we increased our speed and my HR was above 164-166bpm. We finished the run at 1hr 24min according to my stop watch. So sorry to my calf sore muscle that did not have a break and thank to Julie for a good run!!!
.
Started the run accordingly to plan for approx 3km and was running with Julie. Along Ridley I felt my tempo was good and with a very comfortable pace (HR showing 156-158bpm) running along side with Julie who was picking up her speed a little bit; decided to hung on to her pace of probably 5.5min/km. Noticeably this was not Julie's usual pace for weekday training or any training for this matter, she normally run faster than this, so mercifully I could hung on to her pace. Pacing with Julie was always good as hanging on with her speed, I always end up achieving an excellent workout. While running on Margaret Drive, Julie suggested to run on the Park Connector and this was my first time. I found it more interesting and safer running Connector route than running along the boring Margaret Drive.
At the last km along Henderson Rd, we increased our speed and my HR was above 164-166bpm. We finished the run at 1hr 24min according to my stop watch. So sorry to my calf sore muscle that did not have a break and thank to Julie for a good run!!!
.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
24th May 2009 Sunday. My Family Passion Run and "A Minute" Satisfaction
I have signed up 15km for myself and Nathaniel, 10km for Lucille and Thaddeus for today Passion Run. The 2 boys in particular do not quite like running; well youngster being youngster sitting in front at a PC or watching movie enticed them better, but somehow they knew it was family time to do thing together and to cultivate a healthy lifestyle together. This was something we have been doing for the last few years.
We started heading to ECP 6am and due to congestion at Coastal road and spent time looking for parking, I managed to get to the start point just on time for my wave which was also delayed 5 to 10 min. Nathaniel who was supposed to be in the same wave with me was held up in the loo, so he joined Thaddeus and mum in the 10km race, doing his 15km.
What was my deal today? The deal was to run anything below my last year timing 1hr 28min. But up in my head egoistically I was targeting below 1hr 25min. When the race started; as usual it was crowded and I had to squeeze and manoeuvre around with the human traffic to look for more space ahead so that I would not be running slower than 6 min/km. That was not too difficult. My plan was to keep at slightly below 6min pace for the first 10km with HR between 152 to 158bpm and finally speed up at the last 5 km. But some how my HR showed 162bpm after approx 4km. My split time for the first 10km was; at 5 km - approx 28min, at 10km - 58min, well! quite on schedule I thought.
At the last 5 km I increased my pace and the HR raised from 162 to 168bpm. I was quite sure I would do better than my egoistic target, less than 1hr 25min. But at the last km my calf cramp, I slowed down and I lost some minutes. Finally I crossed the finishing at 1hr 27min; only "A minute" better than my last year timing. "A minute" sense of achievement and yes "A minute" sense of satisfaction, though it was not a lustre performance.
We started heading to ECP 6am and due to congestion at Coastal road and spent time looking for parking, I managed to get to the start point just on time for my wave which was also delayed 5 to 10 min. Nathaniel who was supposed to be in the same wave with me was held up in the loo, so he joined Thaddeus and mum in the 10km race, doing his 15km.
What was my deal today? The deal was to run anything below my last year timing 1hr 28min. But up in my head egoistically I was targeting below 1hr 25min. When the race started; as usual it was crowded and I had to squeeze and manoeuvre around with the human traffic to look for more space ahead so that I would not be running slower than 6 min/km. That was not too difficult. My plan was to keep at slightly below 6min pace for the first 10km with HR between 152 to 158bpm and finally speed up at the last 5 km. But some how my HR showed 162bpm after approx 4km. My split time for the first 10km was; at 5 km - approx 28min, at 10km - 58min, well! quite on schedule I thought.
At the last 5 km I increased my pace and the HR raised from 162 to 168bpm. I was quite sure I would do better than my egoistic target, less than 1hr 25min. But at the last km my calf cramp, I slowed down and I lost some minutes. Finally I crossed the finishing at 1hr 27min; only "A minute" better than my last year timing. "A minute" sense of achievement and yes "A minute" sense of satisfaction, though it was not a lustre performance.
For my 3 non seasoned without much training runners I think they did well. Gauging from their starting time and finished time, Lucille did 1 hr 20min - not bad for someone who was not a seasoned runner and had only been running on the thread mill (max 7 km) in a very comfortable environment with air conditioning, she indeed did well. Thaddeus did 1hr 05min and Niel approx last than 2hr. As for the race, indeed it was a very well organised race.
After the race I brought them to their favourite Ng Ah Soon Bah Kut Teh in Owen Road for breakfast. We then went to book a 5.30pm Angel & Demon show at North point. It was a day we would like to have it everyday or at least every week ends but it was not possible as we do have our own activities everyday and weekend. Therefore effort put in for this kind of outing is worth it.
'
Our next outing will be on 16th Aug whereby all the 3 will be "tortured" happily by the Army Half Marathon. Lucille promised herself to get out of her comfortable training environment and to run with me on the road, max 15km 2 week before the race.
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Saturday, May 23, 2009
22th May 2009 Friday. My 7th YF Swim; I Was Moved To Lane 3 - Longer and Harder Swim
On last Friday 15th May YF training, while still swimming in lane 2; coach told me that I was his 4th swimmer in the lane 3. A lane for faster swimmers who will have to swim more laps than in lane 1 and 2. I was actually hoping that he would not move me to lane 3; reason being I have just begun to be in this comfort zone.
I arrived the pool quite early this evening and after 200m warm up swim + 2 x 25m flutter kick with buoy, Coach told me that he moved me to lane 3; I thought of requesting to stay on lane 2 but decided to take the challenge for harder and longer training. Any way I don't have a choice.
It turned out to be my most tiring YF swim ever since I took up the class. We started the training with various drills with pull buoy; sculling 2x50m, flutter kick 2x 50m, side kick 2 x50m' he introduced back stroke kick hugging the PB (2 x25m) which I had problem with this particular drill as this was my first time doing back stroke flutter kick. This was not easy for me at all, I literally sank while doing it but this drill was very useful for FC. Definitely need to do more on this drill.
After the 1 hour drill, Coach told us that tonight we would do hard swim, and having all eyes stared at him, he repeated with a smile:- "just a little hard only". Contrarily it was not a little hard, but was hard. We did so many sets that I could not even remember how many we have done.
.
I arrived the pool quite early this evening and after 200m warm up swim + 2 x 25m flutter kick with buoy, Coach told me that he moved me to lane 3; I thought of requesting to stay on lane 2 but decided to take the challenge for harder and longer training. Any way I don't have a choice.
It turned out to be my most tiring YF swim ever since I took up the class. We started the training with various drills with pull buoy; sculling 2x50m, flutter kick 2x 50m, side kick 2 x50m' he introduced back stroke kick hugging the PB (2 x25m) which I had problem with this particular drill as this was my first time doing back stroke flutter kick. This was not easy for me at all, I literally sank while doing it but this drill was very useful for FC. Definitely need to do more on this drill.
After the 1 hour drill, Coach told us that tonight we would do hard swim, and having all eyes stared at him, he repeated with a smile:- "just a little hard only". Contrarily it was not a little hard, but was hard. We did so many sets that I could not even remember how many we have done.
For lane 3 we did 4 to 5 x 100m slow to hard swim. ( between 2.10 to 2.28min ) in between mixed with 3 to 4 x 300m ( laps between 7.20min to 7.46min). Finally we did 4 to 5 x 50m sprint swim (approx 60sec).
After the swim I could feel my arms were aching badly. Nevertheless, I was happy to be "promoted" to lane 3 where I could improve further and increase my intensity in the swim..
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
19th May 2009, Tuesday. Flutter kick and catch-up drill with pull buoy.
I decided to skip MF hill training tonight due to some strain on the muscle and bone around the back of my right knee so I thought it would be good to rest my leg and more over Passion Run is on this Sunday. Anyway swimming helps in recovery too. Since not running, I decided to leave office late to clear as much work as possible; arrived MF pool at 7.45pm.
Enough focus on hand entry in the last few swim practices, so tonight decided to fully concentrate on my flutter kick. I started with a 100m slow warm-up swim w/o pull buoy, followed by the 100m flutter kick with hand on buoy. I tried the kick with bilateral breathing thru body rotation, but I started the kick too fast on the first 2 laps; it tired me out actually; pant pant pant. So I slowed down a little on the rest of other sets.
I noticed I took approx 2 min+ per lap, it means roughly equivalent to 2 laps for normal swim. I decided to gauge 2 laps as a set to take some breather, quite similar to 1x200m normal swim in term of timing. I focused on my kick practice to rhythmise with the bilateral breathing thru body rotation. The next drill was flutter kick with catch-up drill -hand 0n pull buoy.
1x100m warm up swim
2 sets x100m flutter kick - hand on buoy drill
2 sets x100m flutter kick with catch up drill - hand on pull buoy
Repeated above;
2 sets x 100m flutter kick - hand on buoy drill
2 sets x 100m flutter kick with catch up drill - hand on pull buoy
Wow!! 16 laps of flutter kick drill, amd drills were tough.
Tonight the pool was not crowded, therefore did not expect any collision with any swimmers. Alas, still collided with a swimmer coming in the wrong direction. Hello swim CCW please, CCW in your own lane please.....!
Good work out, kind of enjoying it; though could feel my leg was so so tired; I have a pair of 'agar-agar' leg after the all these drill. I know I still need to focus on these drill in the next few weeks of practice.
.
Enough focus on hand entry in the last few swim practices, so tonight decided to fully concentrate on my flutter kick. I started with a 100m slow warm-up swim w/o pull buoy, followed by the 100m flutter kick with hand on buoy. I tried the kick with bilateral breathing thru body rotation, but I started the kick too fast on the first 2 laps; it tired me out actually; pant pant pant. So I slowed down a little on the rest of other sets.
I noticed I took approx 2 min+ per lap, it means roughly equivalent to 2 laps for normal swim. I decided to gauge 2 laps as a set to take some breather, quite similar to 1x200m normal swim in term of timing. I focused on my kick practice to rhythmise with the bilateral breathing thru body rotation. The next drill was flutter kick with catch-up drill -hand 0n pull buoy.
1x100m warm up swim
2 sets x100m flutter kick - hand on buoy drill
2 sets x100m flutter kick with catch up drill - hand on pull buoy
Repeated above;
2 sets x 100m flutter kick - hand on buoy drill
2 sets x 100m flutter kick with catch up drill - hand on pull buoy
Wow!! 16 laps of flutter kick drill, amd drills were tough.
Tonight the pool was not crowded, therefore did not expect any collision with any swimmers. Alas, still collided with a swimmer coming in the wrong direction. Hello swim CCW please, CCW in your own lane please.....!
Good work out, kind of enjoying it; though could feel my leg was so so tired; I have a pair of 'agar-agar' leg after the all these drill. I know I still need to focus on these drill in the next few weeks of practice.
.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
18th May 2009, Monday. Certainly Front Crawl Technique Has Improved
This evening I continued my swim practice on my hand entry again. I started with a 100m warm up swim before I went for my 30 laps with pull buoy again.
Following was the timing and certainly there was improvement as compared to last Monday, timing as follows, all the 3 sets were below 13m20sec:-
1st set - 12m 04s, (ave 1m 12.4 s per lap)(rest 30 sec)
2nd set -12m 22s, (ave 1 m 14.2s per lap)(rest 1m 30s)
3rd set - 12m 54s (ave 1m 17.4s per lap).
I also calculated strokes per lap; ave 60stroke per lap, so for 30 laps, it was 1800 stroke for both arm; and 900 stroke per arm, wow no wonder, my arm always so tired after each swim. Have to work harder because Half IM is 38laps, 2280 stroke for both arm. So if one can swim efficiently, then theoretically he should be swimming with less stroke with longer stroke length and lesser effort.
I think it is time that I focus on my kick. Planned to skip hill training and swim tomorrow.
.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
17th May 2009, Sunday. My 4th YF Sea Swim Incoporated With Lazy Brick Training. Jelly Fish attacked Yellow Fish
This morning I headed to F2 ECP for my 4th YF sea swim. Melvin Jur joined us too. The training started punctually at 8am as usual. After Coach David gave a short brief, sorted out and reconfirmed all swimmers into respective group; gp 1 and 2 fastest swimmers (more seasoned swimmers), grp 3 moderate speed swimmers and grp 4 slow swimmers. Melvin, PS and I were were in gp 3. Grp 1,2 and 3 swam a bigger loop marked by 4 orange buoys and approx 320m, gp 4 swam a smaller loop marked by 3 white smaller buoys and approx 150m.
We started our swim with a loop of slow warm up swim. Next set of training was longer slow swim; grp 1 and 2- 3loops, grp 3 - 2 loops and grp 4 -2 small loop. Many swimmers ran into trouble in this set as most, included PS, Melvin and I were all stung by jelly fishes. Jelly fish attacked Yellow Fish. I was attacked on my left hand and it happened at the 1st loop approaching the second buoy. This was my first time stung by jelly fish, and the pain was like thousand of tiny needles poking on the skin, not exactly needle and pin sort of feeling but more painful than that. The pain lasted thru out the training. I reminded myself to bring along vinegar in the next sea swim. Coach Lim left it to individual to decide if we would like to continue and it seemed that no one backed out; wow what a bunch of brave yellow fishes.
The 3rd and 4th sets were 1 loop with increased swim speed intensity at subsequent loop. I managed to clock the time for both sets, 10min+ few sec (which made me think that the distance could be 350m,= 7 lap pools), no bad as a non seasoned sea swimmer, I guessed. I also felt that I was not panting as much after each set compared to the last 3 sea swim; I think I was getting use and more familiar to this sea swim. I remembered in my last few sea swims, I was alway uttering breathlessly after each set; pant, pant, pant.
We ended the swim with relay competition by divided into 8 gp with 5 swimmers. I was in the 7th gp 3rd swimmer. We were told to swim the smaller loop around the 3 white buoys. My first 2 swimmers did quite well, came in 2 and 5 spot respectively, but blurred me, DQ my team because I unknowingly swam passed only 2 buoys, that means I took shot cut hehehe. After the first buoy, I headed for the the 3rd buoy which I thought was the 2nd buoy. Bad navigation haha!!Fortunately there were no prizes for this race or else my team mates would "kill" me. Anyway all enjoyed the relay challenge as all swam in the spirit of speed. We end the swim at 9.45am.
After the swim Melvin and I discussed what should we do next, and since we have already brought our bikes along, we kept to our plan to bike, and for me I was planing to bike 40 km and run 8 - 10km. It was a lazy brick as we took our own sweet time to get ready for the ride. We started the ride at 10.15am with 30min-transition haha!! As I was not so familiar of the distance in the ECP I agreed with Melvin to only to cycle up along Coastal Coast Rd and headed up to Changi Village and back. I tried to maintain at 30 km/hr thru out the ride to made this training fruitful but just to lazy and only occasionally got to 30km/hr. I noticed Melvin was very fast. We made a u turn at one of the car park at coastal rd, and the total distance was 28.5km.
As Melivn called it a day, I put on my running shoes and ran toward Fort Rd intended a 1o km run. Again, another long lazy transition. I started the run at 11.55am when the sun was blazing hot. I u turned after 30 min with a running speed guided by my HRM. Was trying to push up t0 150 to 154 bpm, but was lazy to push my self HR of above 15o bpm. Only on the return route that I maintained at 152 to 154 bpm and push up to 158 bpm at my last km. My timing was 61min with a 2+ min including rest at the u turn point and refueling isotonic drink. When I finished this run in the hot blazing sun, I could not wait to buy a ice-cold bottle of mineral and sprinkler myself. "Shiok man", feeling great with those ice cold water flowing down my body. And by then, my tummy was also screaming for food; as I only took 2 breads and 2 packet of coffee for breakfast in the morning.
A well spent Sunday for endurance training and guess what; I have fallen fall in love with this East Coast Park. How nice would it be if there is a permanent distance -buoy marker in the sea that we can do brick training here in other sunday, right Melvin Jr?; who will propbably saying I " siao liao" (crazy already). Right Melvin Jr??
.
We started our swim with a loop of slow warm up swim. Next set of training was longer slow swim; grp 1 and 2- 3loops, grp 3 - 2 loops and grp 4 -2 small loop. Many swimmers ran into trouble in this set as most, included PS, Melvin and I were all stung by jelly fishes. Jelly fish attacked Yellow Fish. I was attacked on my left hand and it happened at the 1st loop approaching the second buoy. This was my first time stung by jelly fish, and the pain was like thousand of tiny needles poking on the skin, not exactly needle and pin sort of feeling but more painful than that. The pain lasted thru out the training. I reminded myself to bring along vinegar in the next sea swim. Coach Lim left it to individual to decide if we would like to continue and it seemed that no one backed out; wow what a bunch of brave yellow fishes.
The 3rd and 4th sets were 1 loop with increased swim speed intensity at subsequent loop. I managed to clock the time for both sets, 10min+ few sec (which made me think that the distance could be 350m,= 7 lap pools), no bad as a non seasoned sea swimmer, I guessed. I also felt that I was not panting as much after each set compared to the last 3 sea swim; I think I was getting use and more familiar to this sea swim. I remembered in my last few sea swims, I was alway uttering breathlessly after each set; pant, pant, pant.
We ended the swim with relay competition by divided into 8 gp with 5 swimmers. I was in the 7th gp 3rd swimmer. We were told to swim the smaller loop around the 3 white buoys. My first 2 swimmers did quite well, came in 2 and 5 spot respectively, but blurred me, DQ my team because I unknowingly swam passed only 2 buoys, that means I took shot cut hehehe. After the first buoy, I headed for the the 3rd buoy which I thought was the 2nd buoy. Bad navigation haha!!Fortunately there were no prizes for this race or else my team mates would "kill" me. Anyway all enjoyed the relay challenge as all swam in the spirit of speed. We end the swim at 9.45am.
After the swim Melvin and I discussed what should we do next, and since we have already brought our bikes along, we kept to our plan to bike, and for me I was planing to bike 40 km and run 8 - 10km. It was a lazy brick as we took our own sweet time to get ready for the ride. We started the ride at 10.15am with 30min-transition haha!! As I was not so familiar of the distance in the ECP I agreed with Melvin to only to cycle up along Coastal Coast Rd and headed up to Changi Village and back. I tried to maintain at 30 km/hr thru out the ride to made this training fruitful but just to lazy and only occasionally got to 30km/hr. I noticed Melvin was very fast. We made a u turn at one of the car park at coastal rd, and the total distance was 28.5km.
As Melivn called it a day, I put on my running shoes and ran toward Fort Rd intended a 1o km run. Again, another long lazy transition. I started the run at 11.55am when the sun was blazing hot. I u turned after 30 min with a running speed guided by my HRM. Was trying to push up t0 150 to 154 bpm, but was lazy to push my self HR of above 15o bpm. Only on the return route that I maintained at 152 to 154 bpm and push up to 158 bpm at my last km. My timing was 61min with a 2+ min including rest at the u turn point and refueling isotonic drink. When I finished this run in the hot blazing sun, I could not wait to buy a ice-cold bottle of mineral and sprinkler myself. "Shiok man", feeling great with those ice cold water flowing down my body. And by then, my tummy was also screaming for food; as I only took 2 breads and 2 packet of coffee for breakfast in the morning.
A well spent Sunday for endurance training and guess what; I have fallen fall in love with this East Coast Park. How nice would it be if there is a permanent distance -buoy marker in the sea that we can do brick training here in other sunday, right Melvin Jr?; who will propbably saying I " siao liao" (crazy already). Right Melvin Jr??
.
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