Activity: Dragon’s XC team & Run club, role: team member 18th August – 3rd April
Official events that occurred during this time: inter-school competition LO1, LO2, LO4
Throughout the last 8 months, I have been training with the cross country team and run club. We train in the mornings (6:30 – 7:40) and race for the school. This has been great for me as I have been able to work on my running alongside others and help supervise & guide younger kids in training. Unfortunately, due to covid-19, there are almost no competitions because of the strict regulations. Although this is the case, we have still been training hard and improving our strength, fitness and health through the 2 morning running session, and the 1 morning gym session.
LO1 [Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth] – As a competitive runner, joining the school team again an easy decision for me. In order to further develop my ability as an athlete and runner, school team training works in conjunction with Shuffler’s training in order to help me excel. My aim in this activity is to support the running of my fellow teammates, as well as develop my aerobic running capacity by following the school coaches program. For example, I have been running longer and slightly slower in the school session in order to develop my aerobic capacity, this is illustrated in sets such as tempo and easy runs, as well as doing hills. Doing hills is one of the highlights of my school training, as hill reps are quire difficult for me and greatly improve my muscular strength and aerobic capacity. Moreover, training alongside teammates keeps me in check and ensures I am pushing myself to the correct extent.
LO5 [Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively] – This activity has allowed me to both develop myself as an individual, as well as develop my collaboration skills. Not only do I run alongside, support, and encourage fellow athletes during training sessions and competitions – but I also help to pace the younger athletes and coach them to run better to an extent. Running is a way of life, and it can be improved by not only running, but whatever you do in your daily life can have marginal impacts on your health and running ability. For example, something very important is recovery, if you are not able to recover well, perhaps using ice baths or rollers – you will turn up sore, or tired to the next training session and the likelihood of injury increases. This can be minimised using tools such as good nutrition, effective recovery, and controlled running. Moreover, I have met new people, and younger runners which I am now friends and getting to know these runners better allow me to better support and work with them.
LO4 [Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences] – I have shown commitment in this activity by making sure to show up, no matter how tired I am and the amount of work I have. Although Dragon’s training is my secondary training, and Shuffler’s is my main and more serious training – I still make sure to show up to Dragon’s training as it benefits the community as a whole, and my perseverance is illustrated by this as well as running as much as I can in the Dragon’s sets. In the situations where I could not, I still made sure to show up to training and pace slower runners to help them complete the session. This perseverance has made me a better runner as running slower with others has actually further improved my aerobic capacity. As a competitive athlete, commitment and showing up to training is in my nature, and I do not miss sessions without a valid reason (such as injury). Making sure I stick to my plan is essential in maintaining and developing my fitness, so I make sure to follow my own plan as well as the coaches plan for the session when training.
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This month, we managed to secure one inter-school race, where our school raced against SAS head on in a 3km race. During this race I ran alongside some of our team mates, and managed to finish in a time just over 12 minutes, not a fast time or a PB, but I was satisfied with the race with my fitness at that point in time. During this race I was also able to cheer on and support my teammates.
Pictures below are from the inter-school competition with the school team, a windy 3km race through the school finishing on the track:
