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:

Activity: Singapore Shufflers, role: team member              18th August – 24th November

Official events that occurred during this time:                                                                LO1, LO4

1. Training, in groups of 5 during the covid-19 pandemic 
2. Benchmark time trials and events

I joined Singapore Shufflers in January 2020, and since then I have been training every Monday and Wednesday in order to develop my running capabilities and speed. Since then, I have improved a lot, dropping almost 2 minutes in the 2 months after I joined shufflers in February. Since the start of the school period, we have been in a big training session- and had a time trial around every 4 weeks for benchmark on progress. During this training period, I kept fit and my speed on the track was increasing slowly, but my endurance was lacking- that’s one of my goals for 2021. From when I started, I advanced for the b1 subdivision up to A4. Recently, me and my group have moved to A3, and have been doing the more advanced A3 sets.

LO1 [Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth] – This is expressed through my consistent goal setting, strive to be the best version of myself. Currently, I am working on improving my 5km time by regular attending training sessions, doing my own long-runs and easy runs as well as training with the XC team at school. My strengths are in faster and shorter distances, for example, track sprints such as the 100,200 and 400. I am & will continue to  work on my endurance in order to pursue longer distances, such as the 5km, 10km, 21km, and longer. This is not only useful for running, as well as multi-sport disciplines (aquathlon, duathlon & triathlon) but also in spartan, an obstacle course race in which I compete competitively. Something I also need to work on is going EASY paces on EASY runs, I tend to run faster as it’s not enjoyable to run slow- however, it’s scientifically proven that running slower and aerobic up to 80% of the time is the most efficient way to develop you running.

LO4 [Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences] –  This is clearly shown through my training commitment, not missing any shufflers training session aside from competitions. As well as my dedication itself, I strive to get better and I continually want to develop myself by comparing myself to the best of the best. One being my fellow teammate and friend, who runs an incredible 15:40 in the 5km. By surrounding myself with teamates who are better and also striving for the best, I learn myself how I can be better, not only running, but also lifestyle choices and learn about their ways of developing their own running. Though I had a bit of a plateau this season after that start of the year, I am working hard now in order to do better in 2021 and hit new PB’s and achieve new heights. I am aspirational and will continue to be resilient in my training- always giving 110% (when I need to).

 

PB= Personal Best

At this point in time, my 5km road PB is 20:21 from a (Shuffler’s) Parkrun in February 2020, another significant PB is an 8:46 2.4km on the track. Goal is sub 19 minutes in 2021 in the 5km.

Below is an example of 2 main sets (training sessions) on Monday/Wednesday respectively. In the current Rota, we are doing more speed work on Monday sessions and Longer, endurance sessions on Wednesday.

Below is a picture from a 3km Time trial @ Kallang HOA