During the camp I learnt a great deal amount of what they had to offer- that included the body positioning in the water, or what Luc wanted, ON the water. We also taught on the arm recovery to "throw the ball", reach out far and keep a high stroke count. Kicking was just as crucial to keep to relaxed torso afloat, while the emphasis went on looking straight at the bottom of the pool.
Running side, I learnt how important it was to have a slight lean, with the arms up and right against my chest, "scratching my chest" and keeping the arms bent and "punching your chin" on the arm swing.
On the bike it was basically balancing skills that included dead still balancing, cornering, bottle pick-ups- I was pleased to say I absolutely nailed it! The fooling around during bike sessions have paid off!
We also had a 400m/200m swim TT and 1600m/400m track TT.
We weren't told of our swim results but I was pretty chuffed with my runs, clocking 5.07min and 1.07min.. No I wasn't anywhere near the Brownlees, but no hint of disappointment to do a 5min mile on my very first TT ever!
The final day came with a blink of an eye. It was a cool Sunday morning, which started off with the 4th discipline- Transition.
We worked mount/dismount, Helmeting, and manoeuvring around obstacles. I was glad to be able to go through them smoothly from all the transition training we went through in the past with Peter's aid.
Had a good swim later continuing the taught drills (kicking faced down, relaxing entire body till back and butt surfaced the water, small unforced rotations, "ball throwing" recovery, exaggerated high stroke count...)
The rain poured straight after and we were forced to delay the mini-triathlon. 2hrs later it finally stopped and we pulled our suits back on for the 100m-4km-1.5km super sprint race. My god it's no where near as easy as it sounds!! I put all my focus on what we had learnt (swim tech, transition, bike skills on drenched Tarmac, run tech) and it ended very well. I'm hoping it put a positive impression on Luc and Kee.. What a way to end the camp!
Another great part, which I'm sure was also part of the camp, was the get togetherness, socialisation and friendship we built between us, out teammates and the Singaporean buddies! Nick and Joel of SG were the 2 boys with who our relationship really blossomed.
It was very pleasant when Mr.Kee also kept a high interest in constantly coming up to me with a bucket of encouragement and wise words of his mind that I will be an Asian champion above Japanese and Koreans, as well as a future olympian. It was more than just cracking up a smile for me, to have been told such things by not only a coach of the korean national coach, but also an ASTC member/(I think) president..
All in all it was a very educational and great 3 days, excluding the few little problems that surfaced which were caused be none other that the ones who had the job of organising the accommodation and plans and some naughty naughty athletes (won't mention names!).
Got some pics up as well!
Riki
Kudos to Daniel Sng for photos!
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