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!

Let's Push!

This week's training was pushed up a notch. We completed 3500m for swim and a 8km run training. Fun and games are now a popular item in our training these few weeks. I must say that the 8x50m sprints were really demanding and the 8km was done with such breeze!

Mini race will be coming up soon so I hope that all of you will be preparing to do your best for your team!

<<< Swim Training on 31st Oct 2011 >>>
Warm Up - 400m Drills.
Main - FR 150m x 10 (3')
FR Kick - 50m x 10 (1'30)
Endurance - FR 500m (50m fast and 500 slow)
Sprint - FR 50m x 8 (1'45)
Warm down - 200m
Total = 3500m

<<< Run Training on 2nd Nov 2011 >>>
Warm Up - 400m
Main - 600 x 10 (3'30) with 200m recovery walk or jog.
Touch rubgy.
Warm down.
Total : 8000m.

Swim Video and Brick Training

It was our second last training at Clementi Swimming Complex. Coach took the opportunity to show us how top swimmers execute their flawless technique through some video clips. The sharing session was an eye opener for some as it gives them a better perspective of how better and efficient swimming strokes are suppose to be. 2 relay teams competed against one another wearing a t-shirt. It was fun to see everyone struggling with the "transition" of passing the t-shirt to the next swimmer.

Brick training was held on Deepavali and it was really good to see such a good turn out once again. The hot sun and high tide was a perfect combination for an amazing swim and run at Sentosa. Everyone slapped on a thick layer of sun block lotion before heading out to sea to block the harmful sun rays, and for the other not so obvious reason of warding off sea bug bites. The sight of the guys wearing our striking tri tops was just beautiful. Training officially ended and the morning continued with volleyball at the beach!

Swim Training on 24th Oct

Warm Up: 400m Drills

Main: (100m - 200m - 300m - 400m) x 2

FUN: Relay with T-Shirt

Total: 2450m

Brick Training on 26th Oct

EZ Swim of 200m with sighting

800m Swim followed by 5km run.

Fun Training Week!

Coach introduced the "fun" factor in our trainings for the week. It was a good change from the usual training sessions which we have been used to doing. This is possible as we are in our lull period now.. and doing other activities can help spice up our training!

It was also great to see many of you turn up despite the unpredictable weather on Wednesday.. fortunately the EXCO made the right decision and we definitely enjoyed the training!

I think we should totally do more of this wheelbarrow swim, sprinting and captains ball! :)

<<< Swim Training on 17th Oct 2011 >>>

Warm Up : 400m drills

Main : 20 x 100m FR (2') (2.30)

EZ : 200m BR

Sprints : 10x 50m (1st 25m BR followed by FR)

FUN : Wheelbarrow 100m

Warm Down : 200m (Any stroke except FR)

Total = 3300m.

<<< Run Training on 19th Oct 2011 >>>

Warm Up : 800m EZ

Main : 10 x 400m (Main pack 2' with 1min rest interval) (Chasing pack 3' with
1min R.I)

: Main pack EZ 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m

FUN games : Buddy pull and sprint, Captains Ball.

Warm down

Total Milegae : 5800m and 4800m.