Hello Dragon Year!

Training picked up after the festive break in Jan, and everyone managed to take it in their stride. Shedding the weight gained from eating bak gua.. pineapple tarts.. and insane amount of eating.

Our annual CNY reunion was held at Ryan's place. Yusheng.. Gambling.. Mario Kart.. pizzas.. curry chicken... checkered shirt night.. and our alumni joined us for dinner too! Great to see you guys back!

We also had Wai Kit and Yan Ling who went to Subic Bay for the National Age Group Triathlon. Both Wai Kit and Yan Ling came in 2nd overall and Gold medal placing in their age group!!! Well done and congratulations! Thanks to Coach and to the awesome supporters who went down to cheer them on!

Click on this link below to watch their interview by the local media!

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/video/108733/200-atleta-sumabak-sa-national-age-group-triathlon

There is only 2 more weeks to Sing Bi before we are done with the season! I believe we are more prepared this time round as we have increased our brick training sessions. Looking forward to the remaining training sessions!

Jan Training Program

Run on 4^th Jan

Run drills for 15mins.

1200m x 5 (6’) with recovery 400m.

EZ run of 2km.

Warm down

Run on 11^th Jan

Run drills for 15mins

1200m (6’) and recovery of 400m , 1600m (8’) with recovery of 400m, 2km (10”) with recovery of 400m and 2.4km(12’) with recovery of 400m.

EZ run of 800m.

Warm Down.

Run on 18^th Jan

Run drills for 15mins.

2000m x 4 (10’) with recovery of 400m between sets.

EZ run of 800m.

Warm down.

Run on 25^th Jan

Run drills for 15mins.

Fun Relay : Form a team of 4 runners and do a 4x 800m.

Time Trial : 5km.

Warm down : Exercises

Swim on 9^th Jan

Warm Up : 20x Push Ups, Leg raise (1’) and Planks (45sec) x 3 sets.

Main : FR 100m (2’), 200m (4’), 300m (6’), 400 (8’) and 400m , 300m,

200m, 100m

KICK : 400m (1^st 25m FR , 2^nd 25m BR)

30min Swim : 50m, Exit , Walk back to start line and contd swim 50m…

Sprints : 25m x 10

Warn down : 200m

TOTAL : 3000m

Swim on 16^th Jan

Warm Up : 20x Push Ups,50x Jumping jacks and Alternate Planks (45sec) x 3 sets.

Main : FR 400m x 6 (8’)

FR KICK : 50m x 10 (1’30)

Drills : 200m (up on left arm pull and down on right arm pull)

Warm Down : 200m.

TOTAL : 3100m

Swim on 23rd Jan

Warm Up : 20x Push Ups, Alternate planks 45 sec) and Reverse planks (45sec) x 3 sets.

Main : FR 800m (16’), 400m (8’) x 2 sets.

Breath Control : Swim 25m underwater using BR, surface and EZ 25m x 10.

Time Trial : 800m

TOTAL : 3450m

Feb Training Program

Swim sets for 6th Feb 2012
WU: 200m FR drill (up on left, down on right)
Main Set: 1 X 500m FR
2 X 400m FR
3 X 300m FR
Follwed by long ez 800m FR
WD : 200
Total mileage : 3400m

Run Training on 8th Feb at 7pm
Warm up - 30mins run drills.
Main - 1200m, 1600 2000.
(On 50%. Slope drills after each run sets)
1600m and 1200.
(On 80%. Slope drills after each run sets)
3km run on 50%.
Total - 10600m

Swim training on 13th Feb.
Warm up : 400m FR.
Main : 100m x 20 (2')
Ez 200m BR.
Chasing the dragon. 500 x 2.
Warm down : 200m.

Run Training on 15th Feb.
Warm up : 800m
Main : 2.4km x 5. (13min or 60%)

Singapore Biathlon 2012

SIM Aquathlon will be training for this upcoming race which is on the 3rd of March. We welcome SIM students to train with us for the race!

Thank you!

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

It's almost the end of 2011 and we are already half way through our season! The month of December has been an interesting and fun filled month. We had our 1st ever camp held at SIM Ulu Pandan Campus, had our Xmas BBQ cum potluck celebration and supporting our friends at UOL pageant at Zouk!

During the camp, we got the opportunity to do dragon boat and pilates other than just plain swimming and running! It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves throughout the camp and we appreciate all who came for the camp. At Ben's place, we had delicious food contributed by everyone and we would like to thank the BBQers and people who contributed! We had a fun time doing our Xmas gift exchange.... snatching each other's gift... and Austin's $10 note was seriously OMG!

I believe that over the course of the season (especially the month of December), the club has come a lot closer. The camp, training sessions, cohesion, has bonded everyone and this has improved the culture of the club. Although there has been improvements... there are still areas to be further refined in order for the club to move to greater heights.

It is per say, that it was fate that brought us all together in this club, pursuing our individual interests (be it for healthy lifestyle or for excellence/perfection), and for the EXCO to lead all of you through the season. As much as we would love to improve the many aspects of the club, we are limited by the time that we have to accomplish all these task. Which means we are only able to do certain things in the club's adolescence phase. There will be different challenges and tasks faced at different stages.... and we believe that we managed them well and are on the right track!

We will be training for Singapore Biathlon 2012 which will fall on 3rd March 2012. That leaves us only 2 more months to train for it. Remember to train hard and safe towards the built up to the race! This will ensure that we remain injury-free and enjoy doing Aquathlon!

Let's turn up the heat and let the competition begin! :)

SIM Sports Award Night 2011

Congratulations to Team Aquathlon for clinching our first ever Team Merit Award!

It is a great honour that the Team's efforts and achievements are being recognised by SIM. Being only a 2 year old club, this is definitely a milestone to celebrate. Wei Hoong and I hope that the club will achieve greater heights in years to come. Congrats to all who got individual awards too! And to those who did not, don't fret! Your time will come soon.

Keep it up Aquathletes! The best is yet to be!

Mental Skills Workshop

We recently attended Mental Skills Workshop conducted by Mr Edgar Tham. We learnt about how important mental toughness was and how it is possible to fix our thoughts in order to achieve greater sporting heights. Setting of goals, playing mind tricks, cue words, self talk, imaginary etc..

Here are some of my views...

I believe SIM Aquathlon Team is definitely capable of achieving more with a positive attitude and enthusiasm while remaining calm, composed and humble at all times.

This is a sport with no age limit. Anyone is able to do this sport as long as they are able to swim and run. It does not matter if you can perform both disciplines well or just adequately.

The most important thing is to enjoy Aquathlon as a sport for life!

Into the monsoon season

Swim and run training has been constantly affected by the unpredictable weather these days. This can't be help as we are now in the year end monsoon season...

Training at UWC has been good so far. The whole swimming pool to ourselves, plenty of equipment for our training... really a great environment! On top of that, we are now saving our $1 entrance fees (some of you saved your $0.50... tsk tsk).

Our training sessions at the swimming pool are more focused now compared to the times at Clementi Swimming Complex. Program is written clearly on the white board which allows everyone to know what is the training program for the evening. Lesser talking during intervals are a good sign that everyone is getting more focused as well as putting in more effort during swim training.

A lot of last minute changes has been done prior to the start of run training lately due to the crazy weather. Coach and EXCO had to work out the contingency plan and at times make crucial judgement based on our intuition and experience. Safety is our number 1 priority! Therefore we hope that you guys understand and respect the decisions we make!

It is great to see many of you improve on your run with the constant training you have been putting in. Dannel, Josephine, Wai Chong, Mei Yan, just to name a few, are improving on your run. On a separate note, do train with enough sensibility and be safe.. don't be like me kena shin splint.. and in the end have to stop running and it will be another uphill task.

We also celebrated Ben's birthday after one of our training! We wish him a happy belated birthday once again!

All the best to those running marathon this weekend!

14th Nov Swim

Warm Up: 400m Drills

Main: 5 x 200m (4")

Free kick 10 x 50m (1"30)

Free sprints 10 x 50m

Warm Down 200m

Total: 2700m

16th Nov Run

Warm up : Ez run to Rifle Range Road.
Main : 400m x 8 with 400m downslope recovery.
Ez run back.
Total Mileage : approx 8.8km.

21st Nov Swim

Warm Up : FR 400m
Main : {100m (2') , 200 (4') } x 8
Kicks : 50m x 8 (FR and BR) (1'30)
Warm Down : 200m

23rd Nov Run

Indoor interval trainings.
2.4km Time Trial.
Total : 3400m

Brick Training and Run

800m swim and 5km run was done on our Monday's brick training. Yet another great turn out and we appreciate everyone's attending on a public holiday.

We tried running at the Rifle Range Road for our run training. It was a refreshing change from the usual route at the canal. It was a little dark but other than that, it was still a pretty good training!

Next week training will be a UWC. Look forward to seeing you guys!