Category Archives: Activity

#LO5: Working together to achieve an outcome

Although I was part of the school running club and I had to train with the school team, I mostly trained with running club called Singapore Shufflers. A few of the members of the school running team are part of this club too so we trained and collaborated with each other most of the time. During days that we did not have training at the club, we would run with the school team in the mornings so that we do not fall behind in training. It was really easy to work together because we were all from the same school and training with the same club so we had a common goal to meet. Collaboration or teamwork in this sport was more like a motivation for me. Just training with a bunch of people who had similar passions as me and worked towards achieving the same goal pushed me and lifted my confidence in running which I believe made my performance incredible.

The following is the link to one of the Running competitions I attended

Singapore Shufflers Time trial

#LO 1 : Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth

Running has always been a crucial part of my daily routine. Thus I was super excited to be joining the high school running club as this meant I got to run together with other people. I enjoy long distance running and this club happens to be based on that so I believed that would just make things super easy for me. I have improved considerably in terms of the stamina I need to run long distances since I had been running a lot recently. I also run with another running club outside school so this put me in a very strong position. The reason I have struggled in some areas was because o injuries. The injuries were certainly not as bad or frequent as they used to be but at some point I had to suspend training so I gave myself time to recover and go back to form.

Lo:4 showing perseverance, resilience

The current coronavirus pandemic changed the way that I did my training in that we were not allowed to go to sports clubs. Despite that, I still continued running and made sure that I was fit at all times because the truth is that I was not just training for track and field but also for cross country and to remain fit. I always tried to remain patient and positive at all times that the pandemic would soon calm down and this made me keep going with my training. My major motivation was cross country. Just how much like cross country enabled me to continue training, taking into account also the fact that I want to become one of the best athletes out there. All those goals and dreams kept me focussed and undisturbed in my physical lifestyle. We did not have any competitions in track and field because of COVID 19 but I would like to say that having been resilient and persevering took me to another level of athletic improvement. That is a whole change in my athletic mindset and recognizing new values that I never really knew I possessed before. I helped others to stay committed to this activity by encouraging them to continue training and maintaining an active lifestyle despite COVID ’19.

Some of the activities I did were; long-distance runs, cycling, yoga, leg and ab workouts, etc

The video clip below shows how I have been running around the campus as a way to keep fit and compensate for track and field.

LO 3: Planning and initiating activities

At the beginning of the year, I formulated my own training program for track and field. The training program was not necessarily just for track but also for cross country. This was the plan I put into place to ensure my success at this sport and most importantly, I decided to join the Singapore Shufflers Running Club. In this club, we get to run with different people on certain days of the week including even those athletes that compete at an international level so having become a member of this club gave me the platform to learn valuable skills from other people as well as to improve myself in athletics. This kind of plan really worked in that every time that I trained in school I could feel a whole lot of difference in the way that I was running. Fo r instance, my stamina, my personal bests as well as my engagement overall. I faced difficulties here and there with this planning in that the club was really far from the campus and the training sessions were held in the evenings. This meant that I had to be strategic in the way that I trained and that I came back on campus on time to ensure I did not breach the curfew rules. Sometimes there were also a lot of assignments I had so this made my schedule even tighter. I overcame these challenges by simply adjusting my schedules realistically and most importantly developed better time management.

The picture below shows my member profile for Singapore Shufflers Running Group.

#LO1: Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth

Below is the initial reflection on the activity  that I am doing in season 3 of CAS:

The audio briefly summarises the following points:

• past experience of the activity
• strengths and weaknesses
• areas of improvement
• how involvement in Track and Field made me aware of areas of growth and
• why I struggled in some areas

Weeks passed, as they did, we drew closer and closer to SEASAC which was apparently the prime goal during the cross country season. We went to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, for these very competitions. It was only a two-day competition in which on the first day, we did the individual 5K run and the last day, 3k relay. Uninteresting to say but I did not come first in the individual 5k run,  rather I scooped the fourth position which is not at all that bad. Actually it was a fantastic performance given the vast runners that took part in the event. The following day I promised myself to obtain the first position in the 3k relay and it happened just like that, all thanks to my confidence and of course a bit of ego.

The course was what is called,” the real cross country course”, characterized by a hilly topography, muddy, bushy, a bit rocky and other conditions.  Despite all these, I managed to become strong and produce as best the results as I could. It is therefore not a surprise to hear that we did not come back to Singapore empty-handed, we came back as the CHAMPIONS with each one of us having a gold medal around their neck although the girls’ team got Silver medals. Up in the air, we lifted the trophy. Overall it was an eventful experience to be put into the history books and forever cherished.

Awards won: MVP, Gold Medal

5K PB: 17.44 mins

3K PB: 10.09 mins

Here are the pictures taken during the moments at KL:

Lo4: Commitment, showing perseverance and resilience

A couple of months after extensive training, I got chosen to take part in SEASAC. I never really trained consistently during the season thus by the time the competition came about I found it really difficult and challenging. The course we had to run on was the source of this challenge. It was very hilly, muddy, rocky and bushy. Taking risks and managing them has always been at the core of my values which explains why despite all these complications I still became strong and proceeded with the competition. Doing cross country was an unfamiliar experience to me so sometimes I really felt like it was too demanding and even went to the extent of trying to quit and switch over to football. However, my friends were always there to assist me every step of the journey by urging me to be patient with myself and persevere.

what mostly affected my commitment was the injury that I sustained from the start of the season. The fact that it was taking too long for me to recover and that SEASAC was approaching really quickly made me doubt that I will do well and thus at times I felt like withdrawing from the Sport. What I learned during that hard time was that indeed “indeed no man is an island”. I always thought that I could manage everything by myself and that I do not anyone to direct me anyhow but I was wrong given the lesson I obtained in the end.

The following pictures show the daily routine that I had to abide by to ensure I was back on my feet again and pave a way to SEASAC :

To give a brief summary of what is going on in the above-attached pictures, I ceased running for about 2 months and only concentrated on these low-intensity exercises just so I could get my body moving all the time. I muscle rolled both my legs, pushed weights, applied cream (to reduce inflammation), iced the injured leg every time after the gym, cycled and a lot other simple but effective activities that are not listed here. I also kept close contact with my Physiotherapist who constantly gave me advice and recommended me stretching exercises to do to get my legs back to their competitive state.

The following audio is a brief reflection of my Activity (Cross Country).