Category: Activity

Posted on

Running Club

Monday 1st September

Investigation:

Today, I had my first running session with the running club and ran 6k around the school. It was a bit tough but not too bad, and through this activity, I hope to get better at running. But more specifically on my stamina. I don’t run particularly slow or fast, but at some point, I do feel very tired and need to walk which was what happened after 4k today. But by pushing through (so for instance when I do get tired run slower rather than walk) I should be able to improve my stamina.

#LO1

Tuesday 22nd September

Today  I had another running session which was a bit more interval training in away. In the sense that one circuit around the school was an easy 4-5 RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) and the other a 6-7 RPE. It was slightly difficult but I know that through this activity I aim to improve both my speed and my stamina, and through stamina, I will improve my speed so it works hand in hand. To really improve on my running, I aim to run at least twice a week or even more in order to build that momentum. It doesn’t have to be very difficult and could just be 3k, but even then, it is good practice and regular running sessions will help me to run quicker and longer.

Thursday 19th November

Now I have had quite a few training and now two times a week during the mornings. We are no training at Bedok reservoir and we do a mix of long runs, 5ks, intervals, and pace run. So far I feel like I am getting better, already I can control my pace better and I am running a lot faster. However, what I am noticing is that I don’t mind the distance, but my pace is still quite slow, or at least, I feel like I can pace myself slightly faster. I can run long distances but I am very slow and my average 5K time is around 25-30mins. 10km is about an hour and usually more. So I am not that fast at running. If I try pacing a little harder I can get 21 minutes as a 5k time. My ultimate goal is going sub 20 minutes for 5K. It has been difficult because I can pace myself quite hard for 1-2K but after that, I drop down really quickly. This is a challenge I am working on and hopefully, I will be better at running and especially at running faster at the same distances I can run now. So I plan to try and go easy first and go faster and faster towards the end of a run or end of a 5k for instance.

We have a schedule every week so we are always ready and now what our training session will be all about:

#LO2, #LO4

Thursday 17th December

Although I will be continuing with the running club and track and field next year, I feel that the running club this semester has been quite fun and challenging at times which is good. I have been able to run faster and keep my stamina in long distances. Even though I am not a particularly fast and great runner, it is still enjoyable and worth undertaking the many challenges in the club. Sometimes, despite it saying perhaps an easy loop around Bedok Reseviour on the schedule, I still feel as if it is a big challenge. However, that isn’t a problem because I need those challenges to grow as a runner, to build speed and so on. Reflecting on my time, I have been very consistent with my running and have always shown up to every session. This has allowed me to become focused and to maximise the hour in the club two times a week. During this holiday, I will try to run a few times a week to continue that stamina and build up so when I come back I don’t have to start from scratch.  I will continue running in the future and at school.

#LO1, #LO4

Posted on

Track and Field

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

Posted on

Rock Climbing

September 9th, 2019

Investigation:

I decided to go rock climbing (see full explanation in the CAS profile post) for a few reasons. I have climbed for a long time and was in this activity a part of grade 9. This is a sport or at least an activity that I find really enjoyable. Also, my brother, who climbs with me a lot, will be joining which will make the experience even more fun as we are quite experienced climbers and get along really well.

Preparation:

During this session, we had a coach for the day, were we just revisited some basic skills of climbing, bouldering and belaying. My brother and I have been to this particular gym before (located in Our Tampines New Town Hub) called The Rock School Climbing Gym. We have belay cards and since my brother and I have climbed for quite some time, our role in this activity could be to mentor and help others to improve their climbing ability. I, as a quite experienced climber, will challenge myself on new challenging routes including those of 6b and 6c as well as harder bouldering routes. If I have the time, learning to lead climbing may be a new skill I could learn.

#LO1

Here is my climbing above 

Here (above) was our warm-up area where we did a few pull-ups and other warm-up activities.

#LO1

September 30th, 2019

During this session, we’ve been preparing for a climbing competition on the 29th and 30th November, at Climb Central (a climbing gym in Singapore) hosted by Dover (the other UWCSEA campus)

In this Climbing Team Invitational, there will be three categories: Bouldering (climbing without a rope), top rope (including climb a high wall with rope and belaying) as well as speed climbing. We will compete for both individually and in collaboratively in our groups usually with a partner. In this session, I have been climbing with my brother for the top rope as we may be competing in the same age category (even if my brother is a little young) to improve our climbing together and being able to climb collaboratively together. In top rope, it is very important to have a good connection with the belayer (the one on the ground) and the climber to prevent any mistakes and to ensure a smooth climb. A belayer has to always be aware in case the climber falls or needs help with something. Also, the climber must have trust in the belayer so maintaining a good connection and relationship is important, especially when climbing on difficult climbs or in competitions. Besides, the benefit is that one can gain a good friendship and relationship.

Also, I have noticed that even if speed climbing is a new skill, I have noticed that I am pretty good at it. This may because I have climbed for such a long time so that unconsciously, I know where to put my hands and where to put my feet. However, there are new skills, which are extensions of some that I know, that are needed in speed climbing. One skill is more of a mindset—usually, when climbing, one looks both down and up to find a hole and really plan out, but for speed climbing that takes too much time. So when speed climbing, one has to look up all the time and only glance down at times. Another skill that is needed, that I and developing is the skill to jump rather than reach. By jumping up, one is covering more distance in a short amount of time, and it is a useful skill to have when speed climbing.

Bouldering can be quite difficult and it is a skill I have had for a long time. This is a skill I am always developing by challenging myself during each session as well as asking a question to instructors on how to complete a move. Bouldering involves many skills including strength, agility, balance, good articulation ( in that one uses good technique and placing foot and hands in a sophisticated manner) control and focus.

 

#LO1, LO2, LO5

November 18th, 2019

Unfortunately, I have fractured my wrist in skateboarding accident (despite wearing wrist guard and full protection) doing a big 180 frontside air. This will definitely impact my performance in rock climbing for a few weeks and since I cannot climb it may mean that I will not be able to climb in the competition. However, during the weeks and sessions before I fractured my wrist, I improved a lot on my speed climbing where now I can climb up an 8m climbing wall at an average of six seconds. and sometimes under six seconds. I’m also quite comfortable on 6b climbs and 6c are not too difficult. Besides, my bouldering skills have also improved quite a bit.

     

This is one of the walls and with top rope like these, 6C isn’t too difficult to climb as I can rest.
  

However, climbs like these, which are auto-belay, doesn’t allow me to rest so sometimes 6bs can be more challenging, due to more difficult holds

 

 

This is speed climbing and the key thing is not looking down and jumping as far as you can to reach the next hold. The helmets are a bit of a nuisance (but a must from the school due to safety issues) and would rather not have them but in some cases, especially real rock climbing outdoors, than it is a good idea to have one.

 

The bouldering has an unusual scale but in reality, every gym has its own rating and scale for bouldering. Bouldering is something challenging but a lot of fun. It requires a lot of strength and in some cases mental strength even if half the skin may be all that’s holding you. It requires also a lot of skill to know how to place one’s ha hands and feet to maximise strengths and steadiness in order to climb higher. As you can see, I am still injured, however, I won’t be able to compete in the climbing competition.

#LO1, LO2, LO5

November 30th, 2019

Action, Reflection, Demonstration:

The climbing competition was held over two days including a gala dinner. I attended both the gala dinner and the second day of the competition. I was very disappointed that I could compete because of my wrist injury. It looked like a really good competition with lots of activities and fun. The challenges including bouldering and top rope (my brother told me it was really tough and there were a lot of climbs), and there were also mini challenges including hang times, group speed relays, climbing with oven mittens, speed climbing, climbing with sticks and a few more. Some were a bit unusual but still sounded fun. Unlike most competitions, there were some group competitions instead of only individual climbs which were interesting.

I wish I could be there and compete to not only compete with and against others and compete in these peculiar challenges mentioned before, but also to grow as a climber and to find a connection with other climbers. My brother told me that he became good friends with other climbers from other schools and instead of being competitive, the competition was challenging yet inclusive.

However, hopefully, I will be able to compete next year.

  

My brother competing in one of the challenges.

 

IMG_1823

Here is also a video, and unfortunately, the person on the right is not me despite the similar hairstyle.

#LO4

———————————————————————————————–

February 10th, 2019

Unfortunately, I am unable to participate in this activity anymore because of the New Coronavirus outbreak. The Singapore government and the school have put tight restrictions on activities outside of school like rock climbing, so I cannot participate more in this activity nor will I do Project Week. I wish I could climb more with the school but that won’t be happening any time soon.

Through this activity, I feel like I have been able to grow as a climber and building relationships with instructors and schoolmates. This activity has further pursued my interests in climbing as well as my brother’s relationships with his interest in climbing. It is a great benefit to climb with others as one challenges oneself, even more, when others around, perhaps to boost one’s ego, but even then, the support can drive one’s ability. I perhaps won’t have the chance to do more Rock Climbing at school as I am thinking of investing my time into other sports like Track and Field, Football (maybe) and CrossCountry. But I will try to compete in the next competition of which I great opportunity was missed. Although I haven’t progressed immensely as a climber, I still feel like my skills in collaborating with others and my spatial awareness and strength have in some way improved through climbing. I do a lot of sports that involve with the legs but not much with the arms, so it is good training with rock climbing so that I am exercising the whole body, and rock climbing is a very whole body thing. However, despite all the drama with the virus, I will continue climbing outside of school as it is a really fun activity and challenging.

#LO2, #LO5