Category Archives: training updates

Routines can be mundane, but i find it helps get things done in a much more efficient manner. I’m settling in very nicely and it’s been probably one of my most efficient weeks, considering it’s a heavy training week. Volume on the erg continues to be heavy, 30min rate 20, 8x1000m, 3x3000m, and with a ramp up on mileage on the water. Handicap series on the Winter Sculling ended today. Managed to make the finals, but couldn’t finish up high enough to top it on points. Doesn’t help that my handicap keeps going up every week. But in a big scheme of things it means i’m going faster. Wouldn’t say it’s my best race today. Still having to learn to thread the red line to best effect. Today was a classic case of missing the mark all together. Like Sandy said, it’s easy to negative split if you’re not going fast in the middle. More racing to work on that.

Arranged for a setup with the people from BAT Rowing to help them out with their latest R&D notes. Check out their series of videos on YouTube.

It’s really good how instantaneously I engaged the heel so much earlier when the ShoePlate Pro is on. Which is what will produce more force and stability. Like any other intervention, it probably won’t be an immediate drop in splits. But it’s the immediate change in activation that i find really impressive. Overtime, the body will be able to respond to the positive change, and that is when the results will show. I highly recommend taking a look at it!

There is no better way to spend your birthday with amazing mates, $4 pizzas at Lucky Coq and a bottle of Coopers. It’s not much of a party night on Wednesdays, so it stayed relatively chilled out.

Finally dropped by the VIS to pay a visit to Nathan and Harry who helped me out heaps in October last year . It was good to step into the building again. Never fails lift my spirits. There’s a lot of focus and energy going around the place, and I’m not feeling it because I’m a visitor. It was the same last year when I was in there regularly for a month. A month might not be long. But I feel there is a consistent effort to keep the athletes constantly motivated.

It’s been a good month of training and getting to know everyone better. Completed a massive training block last week which was topped off by a grinder of a bike ride on saturday with D.Purcell. Supremely thankful that he let me sit on his wheel the entire time. Winter sculling has been great fun, apart from the low tides which means having to plough through the mud. There’s just so much to learn when doing these handicap races down a river and I’m looking forward to the scullers head which is some time at the end of August. It’s good hard training with the element of fun. Got to enjoy it.

As time passes, i don’t think there’s a single day that I regret not going back earlier. There’s something  to learn every single day. One of my favorite being the chance to train with guys that have made the AUS team. Sitting beside them during erg sessions, learning the way they approach training, their ideas and strategies to handle an elite environment brings it up to a whole new level. It might sound like it’s nothing big. But in every industry, i’m pretty sure every professional wants to be in an environment that breeds excellence.

The temperature is starting to drop again this week. It’s been quite a challenge handling morning rows. I’m glad that I get to sleep-in as I get to start at a more social time of 730am. It’s all about character building.

It’s been a good 3 weeks and I’m expecting it to only get better. In the boat, it’s plenty of work on technique and boat skills. When I mean plenty, I mean like entire sessions. Everything from a series of stationary drills, roll ups etc etc. It’s very important that I get my fundamentals on the skill up to scratch. Stuff from putting my blade into the water at the right time to setting up the body early. I’m not going to master any of it overnight, but I’m certainly on the right track. Now it’s making sure that I’m doing the right thing every single stroke, even if it means having to think about it for every single one.

I need to take risk to make change. Something that I seem to avoid doing. I’m not going to get any better if I’m always doing the same thing. Like life decisions, if I want to make the boat go fast, I have to change the way I think about rowing. Too much reasoning and excuses going on between the ears that isn’t going to do me any good. Now I know what I need to do, I’ll just have to go out and do it.

It’s been a massive lack of updates. Plenty has happened since the SEA Championships in Singapore. For one, I massively bombed out in the final, missing out on a medal. Just didn’t go fast enough. No one to blame but myself. I guess that’s the result for the lack of race work building up to it. It hit me pretty hard, anticipating the criticism that awaits me from management. And so it did.

Apparently my desire to improve and go faster is clearly not being supported. It’s clear I needed to be in a place where I am constantly pushed and challenged by others, regularly coached. I have not been able to make the boat move any faster, despite my ramp up in mileage and intensity. Motivation has been at an all time low. These issues clearly mean nothing to management because my move to row with Mercs was welcomed by a string of politically defensive and tense emails. To keep it short, I have been informed that I did not meet their standards to make the World Championship squad. Once again, I’m missing out.

Looking on the bright side, I’ll get to spend more time in Melbourne. Time here is going to be crucial as I look for the missing link that’s holding my boat speed back. An athlete shouldn’t have to be put through all the politics. I have never hoped to be involved in any way, but maybe my desire to maximize my potential is inviting all of this. Plenty of what ifs bouncing around in my head: what if I won a medal and still came over? What if I didn’t win a medal and stayed behind? In my opinion, whatever the case is, I’ll still be short changed.

Frustrated and disappointed. It’s time to put that energy in the water. The next time they see me, I’m going to leave every crew on Pandan in my wake. And that’s a promise

The Southeast Asia Rowing Championships 2011 has kicked off. It’s going to be 2 short days of preliminary races followed by the all the finals on Wednesday. All the SEA countries which has rowing, except for Philippines, are here. Stiff competition lined up the next few days.  Most are here to get some racing in the bag, maybe try new crew combination, to prepare for the SEA Games in November.

Singapore are fielding a mix of newcomers as well as the frequent faces. Not expecting any outside spectators at all. Don’t think anyone outside the community knows of it. And the whole setup doesn’t seem to cater for spectators. There’s good internal support, plenty of people helping out in the organizing committee which is good. It’ll be good for the younger singaporean crews to have a glimpse of what the international scene is like, especially the newcomers.

it’s the end of the week and only the weekend left. Like i told nadzrie, there’s really nothing you can do within the week to make you any stronger or fitter than you already are. Making the boat go faster? Most definitely.
Another 2x outing on the morning of day 4. Couple of 1000m race pieces down the course, the usual commuting bike rides, keeping the cadence super high. Lots of stretching and trigger ball work in the arvo and done.
I decided to have my morning off in day 5, counting back when the finals are: Wednesday. Very satisfied with my erg pieces as warmup for my weights session in the arvo. Surprised myself with my splits actually. Major confidence boost. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s outing already. I know I’m ready.

Almost mid-way through the week and things are looking pretty good. Didn’t manage to fit in quite enough distance as planned. Thundery clouds started to the swarm over the pontoon bay area. Started with some practice starts and I decided to row out to the end of the course where it was clear. Always keeping it strong at the finish. Very important at this stage. Rougher conditions as I came back down and I knew more rain clouds are coming this way. Some 20 stroke pieces along the way.

Wednesday weights sessions has left me with serious soreness for the past few weeks. With a shorter row than usual in the morning, the session was much more enjoyable. Kept the intensity the same but I dropped one working set. Feeling pretty good now. More trigger ball work and stretching as I chill out to the Giro.

It’s day 2 of my 7-day taper going into the SEA championships. Not a bad start. Everything going as planned. short and sharp erg session later this arvo. I’ll be keeping an eye on the weights training as it has been the one that has been causing some irregularities in my recovery throughout the past 6 weeks. I’m confident if I stick closely to the fundamentals of tapering, I can get this right.

With the power of Google, I have managed to pull out next week’s racing schedule. Though not fixed until Sunday’s team managers meeting, it gives me a good insight on what to expect. Apparently none of the other guys competing were given the schedule either. Maybe because I have always been on my own when I race overseas, but  I much prefer to know the race schedule to plan everything from training to logistics. We’re hosting the regattas and I’m not feeling much of an advantage. Weird.

Elsewhere in Lake Karapiro, there was the epic battle of the m2x where the Kiwi crew came up tops. It was a real honor to have met Scotty last October. Him praising me for my work ethic in the gym was exceptionally motivating as well. I’m confident he and Crawshay will getting some super fast boat speed in the coming months.

Right, so I was recently threatened that I would be excluded from the Southeast Asian Championships and Asia Cup regatta, if I didn’t send in my training schedule. By the way, both regattas are held in Singapore. Reasons given to me was because I’m a carded athlete, I’m under the selection policy, must comply with the designated planning and quote “MUST be training under Coach ___ or myself”.

Although I do not need to justify myself, I felt the email was extremely uncalled for. Is it really necessary to start naming policy regulations? If you ask me, the odds are against you. It is really necessary that there has to be a display of power? In my opinion, it’s an act by insecure individuals.

Yes, the athlete is the lowest among the food chain. I get it. We get pushed around, have no say in anything. We just put ourselves on the line every single day. What do the rest do? Go figure. We just have to be the bigger man and/or woman. That’s what keeps us going. That’s what keeps us focused. That’s what makes us special.

My time trial this morning was not quite how I planned it to be. It wasn’t all bad. There were some good things to take back. Consistently working on my starts, or for that matter of fact, consistently working on my overall technique, does reap some improvement. Al talks about consistency down the course, and I seem to be getting better judging from gps and speedcoach data. It’s your next best friend considering there’s no one else to race with. Smoothness of the recovery and the catch was better than previous timed pieces. Surprisingly, my steering and balance was just pretty shitty. Trying not to be too analytical. Boils down to my focus throughout the stroke.

Things have changed throughout the years, and being in the situation I have been in the past 4 years, have certainly taught me to zoom in on what’s important. The people who manage the sport here have absolutely no idea what I had to overcome to get to where I am today. Listening to all the crap about how newbies are trying to stick together and rise to the occasion to make the most of the financially dire situation, to be honest, disgusts me. I have been there, done that and more. I slogged it on my own when everyone else decide to ‘retire’. I have been caught right in the middle of a storm alone. I opened up the gates every single morning before sunrise and would close up when I’m done because there was no one else there. The place was literally ghost town for years. But did I ‘retire’ like all the other quitters? The training had to go on. I have managed to break into new boundaries and covered more ground than any single one of them have tried. Bearing in mind, everyone else in the past have had management support. I was simply given a nice boat, a pair of sculls, and left to fend for myself. I suppose it made me tough. Thanks.

Because of all I have had to go through, if you ask me, everything that I see happening now is just a facade. The YOG last year and The SEA Games in November is a ray of hope that a coach would be hired. It has attracted retirees to make comebacks, newbies to think that rowing is an easy sport, and free loaders who will definitely be given a free ride because there is now pressure to develop the sport. To me, for someone who made the sacrifice and have proved his dedication and commitment, when everyone else chose to quit, it is clear I have been taken for granted. It’s hard to swallow. It will be hard, but I have to put my mindfulness and focus into full force if I want to go on. I can’t wait to leave behind all the crap and head to Mercs.