February 13th 2020
Investigation:
Last year, I also took part in the track and field team where I was not too bad at running long distance and quite good at high jump. So it is an experience I have done before, but I will try to challenge myself more, by running more often than I usually do, and jump higher and farther in the high and long jump part of the field which I have decided to take part in. Also, I have been thinking of joining the cross country team next year instead of pursuing football. This was because I have started playing football during breaks as I have always done before, and noticed I was a bit rusty but also that with football, the sport I love the most, is the sport I just want to play for fun and not have to worry about competitions, just for the love of it. But with cross country, I feel like it would be a good challenge and something I wouldn’t be too bad at it. With running, one needs to train quite often and keep that momentum going sort of like swimming. My father is a great long-distance runner, and running with him perhaps once a week might make that momentum going. We have run quite a lot together in the past.
February 19th and 21st 2020
Preparation:
Today (February 19th), long jump and the high jump was on the schedule and despite being almost a year since I last trained, I was still able to regain my former strengths and skills. Since I have grown, I able to jump over 1.60m which was the highest I jumped last time. I have a feeling that I will able to easily beat my personal record and perhaps even able to jump over 1.70m. So my goal for this season is to clear 1.70m.
Today (February 21st), I went back into the long-distance running I did last year but started challengingly with interval training. After a hard session of interval training, I did some full-body exercises, and it is a bit different from last year because of the virus. Now we are running in quite unusual places like the Bus Bay for instance or anywhere around the campus. I am looking forward to and hoping to gain some more stamina in my long-distance running and running longer with a slightly higher pace than I am usually comfortable with. In other words, I hope that through Track and field, I will not only jump higher but challenge myself to increase my stamina and running faster.
#LO1,
16th March 2020
For the past few sessions, I have worked quite a bit on my high jumping, beating my personal best of 160cm and now stands at 165cm. With high jumping, it is a bit of luck because it is sort of the jumping at the right time and hoping that when you arch your back as well as lifting your legs you will go over. Also, the more you jump the worse you become in a session because you are putting all your effort in one jump. But I am really happy that I was able to clear 165 and I want to preserve to go higher.
In terms of running, I have been doing some interval training to try to increase both my stamina and speed. I am not a particularly fast runner nor a runner which can run really far (but still a relativity good distance without stopping). However, I am really good at maintaining my speed. Below is an image of the times I did for one 800, then twice 1600 and finally 800 with a relatively fast pace with 3 to 5 minutes rest in between:
What this shows is that I can hold my pace in between 14 seconds in this case and that I can maintain my pace for a sustained period of time. What I need to be working on now, is to increase my speed. Yesterday I tried the Parkrun at East Coast Park for the first time where you can volunteers can time your 5K run and show you where you are at among athletes and the average your age and fitness. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 virus, it was cancelled just that weekend, but I still did a makeshift run for 5K and resulted in a time of just under 25 minutes. That is not a bad time but not a very fast time if compared to many athletes. So my aim and goal for the next few weeks are to increase my speed in middle distance running.
Aside from track and field, I also climbed with the UWCSEA Dover Climbing team both at the East Campus and the Dover campus this week and last week. It was exciting to climb with others that are really good and it invites a challenge and insight into what a climbing team goes through and how they train. Although the holds and routes are relatively easy at both our climbing walls, to challenge our selves, we tried climbing with only the rock face and smearing, or using only specific holds and routes or climbing with no hands-on an inclined wall. It was a great opportunity and a chance to develop my skills as a climber.
#LO1, #LO2 and #LO4
2nd May 2020
We are unable to have track and field training because of the pandemic but there are still ways that I can exercise and continue my running. My family and I have created a challenge for all of us to run a marathon but split it up to 2 km a day every day. So we have been running 2k every day and right now I am on my tenth run so 20km in. The route is quite small as we are not allowed to go so far from our house and my challenge is to go at a slightly paced run so it is still quite a challenge. I actually injured my knee from roller-blading just before the circuit breaker which is sort of Singapore’s version of lockdown, but it is getting better and hopefully, by the end of the challenge, my knee and my pace will get better. This is a great opportunity to continue my training and to prepare for Cross Country next year. Yesterday, it took me just over 10 minutes to run 2k and I am hoping that time will get smaller.
Not only that, but I am also doing some other exercise at home from time to time to improve and train other areas of my body that running might not. I guess it is important to stay fit and healthy during this circuit breaker because we aren’t moving that much and are almost only at home. One realises how much one moves every day on any given day.
Anyways, track and field was a great experience because running, in some ways and sometimes, is quite fun especially when running with others. I met a lot of new people and improved my running over the course of just a few weeks. I pushed myself from the very beginning despite not attending the cross country early this year. Also, what I miss most about track and field is the high and long jump part of it. I beat my record and jumped 165 and that was amazing. I wish I could try harder because I know I could, or rather have more time to do it. However, hopefully, next year I can be apart of it. The high jump was really the highlight for me of this activity because of how much joy I have of jumping over a bar and landing without the bar falling. This will be an experience I miss but there are other similar opportunities next year.
#LO4
12th May 2020
Today was the last day of the 21-day marathon challenge where I split each day to run 2k. I feel like it was a great experience for my whole family and me, and a good way to stay fit and exercised during the COVID period. Through this experience, I noticed that even though I was getting faster, it wasn’t by that much and some days I ran a lot slower. In total, if I add up the time, I would have run a marathon in 4 hours and thirty minutes but taking into account that I would be much more tired in a marathon than 2k, it would more realistically take me 5 hours. Although much slower than the best marathon runners, I still feel it was that bad of a time and I can get better. I do aim to do at least one marathon in my life and this is sort of like a warm-up to it. I am not a particularly fast runner nor a runner with great stamina, but that is something I can continue working on.
My fastest pace was 4:42 per km meaning that it took me about nine and a half minutes to do 2 km. Although the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge would have easily run 2 k in less than 6 minutes, I still feel like under ten minutes is a pretty good time for myself. Perhaps in the future, I would aim to run less than 8 and a half minutes and I feel like this can be very realistic because 2k isn’t particularly long and sprinting for a large chunk of the distance wouldn’t be that difficult I think.
#LO1, #LO4
14th June 2020
In some ways during the Circuit Breaker period, I feel like I have been running a lot more often than I usually. This is obviously because there isn’t much to do, and is an easy way to do some exercise. I have definitely noticed an improvement in my stamina and speed. For instance, running a 10k would be very difficult for me and I would stop many times to rest or stop. Now, I don’t need to nearly stop as many times to rest in a 10k and last time I did a 10k, I only stopped for 4 times compared to about 8. I haven’t really been that great at speed and stamina at very long distances, but this is a great chance for me to improve those skills.
Track and Field, as I have said previously, was a great experience and hopefully I will join the cross country team next semester. I am a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to attend track and field training sessions as they were quite fun. A lot of activities are of course closed and it’s the same feeling for all activities as they were all great in each of their own unique ways. I guess what I have to do is to make most of the situation I have now and one way is to, because I have more time on my hands as I don’t have as many activities, running more often can help me to improve many of the skills in running and ultimately make me a better runner.
#LO1
