Went into camp with a positive frame of mind, both physically and mentally. The bulk of the work has been done and what I needed more was familiarity, with all the elements of the track, equipment especially. I probably should have psyched myself a little better because by the third day in, I was beating myself up pretty badly for the lack lustre times. Somehow I’ve always managed to screw things up between the ears. Maybe I’m not as mentally tough as I think I am. Okay, obviously I’m not.
As our host starts to prepare itself for the Bangkok edition of the Track Asia Cup, I can’t help but sense that the feeling of elitism is very much still present. I miss having that team element. Hell the last time I ever felt like I was in one was back in 2010, 2011 with Mercs.
It was great to touch base with my mentor and to hear of some awesome news. Words of encouragement from people you trust goes a long way.
Tag Archives: training camp
Camp and the rest of it all
Filed under training updates
Welcome 2015
I was meaning to do a round-up of 2014, including an excellent training stint with CCC Shuzenji. It has just been a whirlwind of events, on and off the bike.
The CCC Shuzenji training camp takes you back to the basics, and it’s something worth re-visiting every now and again. Form and posture, numerous efforts on small gears. Times aren’t so much of a concern, but with competitiveness and pressure to perform, riders always use times as a benchmark for either improvement or performance. This edition of the training camp housed a great bunch of up and coming junior riders with heaps of potential. So I’ll be looking out for their names in the near future. For me, it was more like a good solid 2 week training block, form check and to see where I am physically on the Wingate test at the keirin school.
In the department of good news, after deciding to give the 2014 Asian Championships a miss, I’m up to compete at the 2015’s edition.
http://cycling.org.sg/selection-into-scf-national-training-squad-for-mtbroadtrack-and-acc-2015-track-and-road/
I’ve been making progress but at the same time putting a lot of pressure on myself to prove my worth. Well it’s kind of inevitable when you’re a noob, unless you have a coach/system/program (whatever you want to call it) looking out for you. So here I am, back in sunny Perth, to get them track legs ready. Thank you TCWA for the warm welcome back. A massive shout out to Rudy Project Singapore, for all the support and belief they have in me. BikeGearNow, Solitude of Strength, TRG, Restwise, Maxinutrition Asia, G8 Performance, MSTI, thank you for being part of this gruelling journey. Your support has helped keep me going.
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Filed under Randoms, training updates
Moving forward
So it’s still not too late for a lowdown on my time in bkk. 2 weeks well spent with the people from CCC Shuzenji and a great training group. Because I knew how the camp would be run, I could get straight into the thick of things, not wasting any of the efforts. This time round, there were a few more peps who weren’t that fluent in English. So I did my part to translate the best I could.
This is my fourth time with CCC Shuzenji and I felt I got the most out of this one. I made very sure to apply everything I picked up from Carl and the aboc squad right from the get go: Getting into the right frame of mind, like I would in order to chase down the motorbike. With the ACC Track Asia Cup scheduled after the camp, it’s pretty much just over a week’s of proper training before they need to tone it down to taper for racing.
Even though my Track Asia Cup results aren’t exactly newsworthy, the improvements made were certainly encouraging. Having the coaches tell you that you’ve made significant progress and seeing your times drop by the second, is sign that I’m on the right track.
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CCC Shuzenji mobile training camp + ACC Track Asia Cup
I was certainly looking forward to getting some quality time at the CCC training camp prior to testing my legs again at the Track Asia Cup. Couple of hours north of Bangkok is Suphanburi, where one of four velodromes in Thailand is. The hotel we stayed in, which would also be the official race hotel, is about a 10min bus ride. It’s a nice quiet town. Little distractions, only problem were the mozzies at night. There was no way of sitting still for more than a minute without one flying in your face or attempting to put a stinger in you.
There was a vast improvement from the first time the CCC Shuzenji coaches saw me. I’ve always preferred doing interval sets as compared to a 4hr ride. Now i can focus on a lot more things on the bike rather than just chasing the set and/or distance: posture, leg speed. Every effort was the opportunity to feel the different elements. The program was the same as in Shuzenji, so it was all about leg speed and chances to practice some all important standing starts.
A CCC Shuzenji camp would be not complete without a roller session.
As the training camp came to a close, I started to shift towards thinking about how I wanted to race the Track Asia Cup. It was a large turnout. 10 countries. Things had to be done differently from my previous race in order for results to change as well. I entered the sprint, kilo and keirin. The sprint was more for me to try my hand at the flying200 and track my progress. Unfortunately, both that and kilo didn’t turn out to be anything to celebrate about. To be honest, I really wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong, or what was I not doing. My last chance would be in the Keirin. It was only after my heat, when I was chatting with Bom that I understood what I needed to change. However the weather gods decided to show their presence and the last few events of the night were cancelled, which included the 7th-13th place final, so I didn’t have a chance to give it a good go. At least I took something back.
Going old school in the kilo on the standard bars. Thanks Kee Meng again for the race wheels. Really appreciate it. I really need to have my own.
Photos courtesty of Thai Cycling Association.
I’m in the midst of sorting out my next (hopefully few) race (races). No point spending on race wheels if I don’t get a chance to use them. I did see a set of FFWDs on a fixed along east coast park bike path this arvo.
Laters
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Filed under training updates
Believe 