KAYAK STROKE Versus FRONT QUADRANT SWIM (FQS)

First up:
THE VIDEOS!

BEFORE you watch the videos.. Take note:
To compare constant velocity of the body moving through the water, DO NOT look at anything else... JUST STARE at the hip and the nearest object next to it (i.e the lane rope, line on the floor or the deck floor)... Remember to offset the CAMERA's movement with the person's velocity. When the camera is moving together with the person in the frame in the same direction, the person will look always like he is in constant velocity.

For example, Scott Neyedli's SLOW SWIM at 2:25 - 2:45 which we will use for relative comparison here.. looks SMOOTHER than what it actually was. Compare the hip with the lane rope beside and you'll see that when he don't kick that much during that 2:25 2:45 period, his hips have a start stop or deceleration and acceleration phase as well just like Front Quadrant Swim (FQS).


KK SLOW SWIM - Note my cruise speed (80% 1500m) for 50m is about 52.5seconds so this is about 28seconds for 25m.. I've slowed down quite a lot and thus the hips are sinking a little cos I am trying very hard not to kick that much and reduced my arm pull to just forms and almost effortless push backs.. all just to save energy and do a relaxed continuous pull as suggested by Teck Beng... however.. from these 2 videos, I noticed that I do have start and stop instead of constant velocity! Read on to find out what I've discovered!





Scott Neyedli -- SLOW SWIM PART at 2:25 ~ 2:4



ALEXANDER POPOV (World Record Holder Olympian)



Shinji -- T.I at Perfection Nirvana-esque level.



After looking at my video of my slow swim until I cock eyed and then finally a moment of enlightenment struck.. I realized what went wrong. It was a case of thinking too much about one thing and forgotten where we came from.

We kind of forgotten about the benchmark of comparison - The Front Quadrant swim.

Most importantly, we kind of misinterpreted what is needed to be done for constant velocity to happen.

Allow me to explain.

First of all, notice that Alexander Popov and Scott Neyedli did their swim with STRONG kicks that are SUPERBLY CONTINUAL and with no pauses at all.

Constant velocity OF THE ENTIRE BODY in front crawl swimming is very tough to achieve. It requires the kick to be continually firing to compensate for the inevitable rise and fall of speed (or dead spot) in the arm stroke phases.

Yes.. I meant INEVITIBLE.

FOLLOW ME TIGHT AND CLOSELY THROUGH THE BELOW "ILLUSTRATION".

Arm stroke phases:

1) Out Sweep and Catch (No propulsion)
2) In Sweep and Push Back (Propulsion Starts, Optimum Velocity Achieved)
3) Exit and Recovery (No Propulsion)
4) Reach and Entry (No Propulsion)

In Front Quadrant swim:

After finishing the first pull to phase 3 (to make things easier to reference, we'll say we start with the RIGHT pull)...

The LEFT arm stays extended at the front without doing anything until the RIGHT arm recovers past the Forehead.

Once the RIGHT arm passes the forehead and reaches in front for Entry (phase 4), the LEFT arm starts the Out Sweep and Catch (phase 1) and upon the RIGHT arm's entry, the LEFT arm will do the In Sweep and Push back (phase 2) for it's optimum propulsion.

In Kayak Stroke:

After finishing the first pull, again RIGHT pull, the RIGHT arm will begin Recovery and Exit (Phase 3).

At this moment, there will be no waiting extension from the LEFT arm. The LEFT arm will start simultaneously the Out Sweep and Catch (phase 1).

Once the Right arm reaches and performs the entry (Phase 4), the LEFT arm is simultaneously doing the In Sweep and Push Back (Phase 2) to achieve optimum propulsion.

------------------ Are you lost? if yes, read from "ILLUSTRATION" again and then continue below for a Flow Chart ------------------

Clear?

Now we look at both stroking technique and we will notice from this following part of the cycle to be exactly the same:

Phase 3 (Exit and Recovery) --> Phase 4 (Reach and Entry) --> Phase 1 (Out Sweep and Catch)

There are NO propulsion coming from the arm AT ALL.

The only thing we can do here is to MAINTAIN OPTIMUM VELOCITY. KEYWORD is MAINTAIN.

There are TWO ways we CAN maintain velocity:
1) ALWAYS travel at the constant velocity.

2) REDUCE number of pauses and also the durations of each pause.

BUT EXACTLY... HOWWWWWW??????

There are TWO things we CAN DO to achieve that:

1) To add a continuous and strong kick that will keep pushing us forward REGARDLESS OF WHAT OUR ARMS ARE DOING.

2) Don't glide. I.E don't do front quadrant swim (FQS).


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Before we carry on, let's break the swim down into diagrams and you'll see it much clearly in the phases.

KAYAK SWIM STROKE CHART and FQS SWIM STROKE CHART

If you go up and look at Shinji's stroke and compare it with the diagram of FQS SWIM chart above, you'll notice that there is a phase (in RED) that is two stages of non propulsion which causes the propulsion phase (phase 2 of In Sweep and Push Back) to kick in one stage later than the KAYAK SWIM STROKE. That causes an EXTRA DECELERATION as compared to the continuous KAYAK SWIM STROKE whereby there is no prolonged pause of stage 4 which is the arm extension of the non pulling arm while waiting for recovery hand to pass the forehead.

As for the continuous KAYAK SWIM STROKE, there is only one stage of Deceleration.

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With that, we conclude that the KAYAK SWIM STROKE achieved Objective number 2 on maintaining Velocity mentioned above on reducing number of pauses. While FQS SWIM STROKE totally denied Objective number 2 by increasing the duration of the pause and even dragging the pause to the next phase (thus increasing the number of pauses).

The duration of the pause, i.e the Speed of the arm doing the recovery will then be the determining factor for KAYAK SWIM STROKE when deciding to go faster or slower.

The above points now clearly dictate that Kayak Stroke is the more efficient stroke of the two.

However, it is important to note that both strokes CAN be fast. And CONSTANT VELOCITY IS ACHIEVABLE with BOTH STROKE TYPES.

The trick as stated above, other than not choosing FQS, is to compensate with a continuous and strong kick which will continually propel you forward regardless of what the arms are doing. The strong kick will thus eliminate the deceleration phase(s) of each stroke. Of course, the kick has to be much stronger in the FQS SWIM STROKE because of the extra deceleration phase.

I hope this article clarify ALL details on the stroke cycle efficiency of KAYAK swim stroke versus FQS other than knowing exactly when to relax and when to contract while performing the stroke itself which is ABSOLUTELY vital in getting the KAYAK swim stroke to work at a slow swim state. Without knowing when to relax, your KAYAK swim stroke will feel like thrashing water and breathlessness will haunt you throughout your whole swim. I hope Teck Beng can help explain upon that if you have the time as I've passed to you and Calvin all that I could explain on that day and I hope you guys did absorb on the exertion part too and now it's your time to give~ hehehee..

Cheers
KK

On Continous Pull and front quandrant swimming

Just a few points i picked up from Coach KK last Saturday in the pool.

He mentioned that by doing a continuous pull (AKA kayak stroke), you are actually swimming smoother as compares to doing the front quadrant swim (Start catch when recovery arm pass your ear, aka TI).

Now, by smoother, i immediately think of less splashes, calmer and maybe even stealthier. But actually, what KK meant by smoother is "constant speed" through the water. Constant speed, zero acceleration or deceleration.

And so my search of evidence if this is really true, i found this....

Below is a clip of Bill Kerby's swim (he is doing a front quadrant), with very obvious glide time. He is really, really 'smooth' and the swim really looks effortless (he IS an Olympian...)but i am only looking at his butt.



By fixing on his butt, you get a clear sense of his speed and acceleration in the water (see 1:10min on). It's clear that in every stroke, there is a deceleration and acceleration phase and if you look as closely as i did, it not difficult to notice the slowing down happens during the gliding.

Now, compare this to Scott Neyedli, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND1L8I2ZY5w&feature=relmfu), he is using the kayaking stroke. Observe his butt again, you will notice the constant speed (smooth) through the waters.

now, surely there is an obvious difference in excretion. So the question is, is there a video of a continuous stroke relax swim?

Training Consistency

It's been a long time since I blogged. Mainly because I haven't found meaningful new topics to cover since I've religiously did that week after week for 1.5yrs. I miss sharing more fruitful experiences but I'd prefer them to be tried and tested and to be full of values that I can bring myself to believe firmly BEFORE I post them out here.

A few caring friends and team mates of mine has asked me to used this blog as a form of revenue generating thing by posting "teasers" or meaningful items that needs elaboration but I have to politely object because in my world, sharing is Free and sharing is a MUST in order for improvements to come by and go forth. I cannot bring myself to simply network this blog and make it into a money making thing. I am still awfully thankful for all my friends who have and are trying to help me improve my business... it is incredibly humbling and incredibly gratifying for everything I've done that is ever so minimal to giving back the world of sports.

Tonight, I'm going to write about Training Consistency.

I believe I've written or touched on about this topic before in my previous blog but I've since then experienced a much more enlightening process of consistent training and also the result when there is suddenly a lack of the consistency due to some issues (it may be injury or sickness).

As for those of you who are still following this blog would have read.. I've been training under this China Coach named Cheng Qiang. I have full trust in whatever he prescribe for me and just like Team Sapphire's devotion to my training programs, I am willing to do a thousand sets of 100 if that is what he prescribe for me one day.

As a result of my faith, I've followed his training with utmost diligence. Trust me, having a coach to coach you personally, and I mean WATCH YOU SWIM from the deck at least once a week is a difference between heaven and earth as compared to when you train by yourself. I've improved to an extent whereby I've about 5-8 minutes ahead of my team mates in a 1500m swim and I am consistently doing 1:30-1:40 in my 100m sets. They are not crazy fast timing but to think that I've came from 1:45 - 1:55 for my 100m sets just 3 months back.. I think it is not a step but a leap of stairs up the ladder of improvement.

To set the record straight, Coach's rule of thumb for training consistency is never stop training for more than 2 days. I.E 2 days of rest is the max you can allow. I've stuck to it to a level whereby I will not allow more than 48hrs of non training.

The reason is simple to understand but I'm going to put it into details here. If you're yawning now, you should click the 'X' on the top right of the browser (windows) because it's going to get worst. If you truly care about what you're doing in the pool or whatever training then read on. A cup of coffee should help.

I started with alternating days of training.
I.E Training Monday - Wednesday - Friday
Rest Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

I stuck with that for 4 weeks at the start and I've experienced tonnes of improvements. In terms of technique and also a very consistent swim timing.

Subsequently, I trained on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Rested only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It was rather manageable and I carried on for 4 weeks and at times, I found that recovery was a little tough especially when one has work to juggle unlike a professional athlete.

But Coach always says that you'll definitely feel tired once in a while and it is important to push through the tiredness and just finish the session.

He further supported the statement by prescribing all my training with just percentage effort requirements and no timing requirements except for the sprints.

And then after 2 weeks of that, I noticed my timing in swim training has been going up and down despite holding the same effort level day in and day out. However, after 1 day of down in workout, I'd come back feeling much stronger once I fully recover.

Very soon, I finally embarked on training 6 days a week with only Thursday as my rest day. Improvements was leaps and bounds for 3 weeks straight. Then I went to holiday and I couldn't find any pool to swim for 5 days. Then things started going downhill and I had to train 7 days straight to recover my fitness. Now I'm almost 80% back to pre holiday state of fitness.

I was doing 24:00 for 1500m at RPE of about 8/10 on the week before I go 5 days without training, after I came back, I was doing 25:30 - 26:00 for 1500m at RPE of about 9/10. And I am into my second 6 days cycle of fitness recovery training and I still can't get back at 100% pre holiday.

That is a brief account of what I went through.. I've spare the details of the training till next time.

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You see, what actually happens is that when a person train in a workout, the fitness improves once he recovers. However, when you follow a scheduled routine.. say training every alternate days and you start on a Monday.

By the time Friday comes, you'd have done 2 swims and going for the 3rd one. Imagine you're doing the following set every time you train:

Warmup: 400m
Main set: 1500m at 80%
Rest 5 mins
10 x 50 on 1min
Rest 5 mins
400 freestyle kick only (25m sprint, 25m easy)

When Friday comes, your legs would have felt pretty used up if you're like me training kick sprints for the first time. In fact, on Wednesday, I was already feeling the drag in my 50 on 1min sets.

But if you do nothing on the Saturday and completely rest it up, you'd probably recover much better than the Tuesday and Thursday which is a work day and you have to be busy while recovering from your workout. Then on Sunday's swim, you'd probably feel a boost of energy because your fatigue has dropped but you fitness is higher than Monday before you trained.

As I mentioned before, Fatigue and Fitness rise TOGETHER.
Which means:

If you Train, you get fitter once you recover and adapt to the workload. 
If you DON'T TRAIN, you lose your fitness because the body don't feel the need to adapt and thus goes back to sedentary state to "survive" or just live your normal daily life. Period.

Using that simple sentence, you can see that if you can train every single day and recover well, you ought to become fitter and fitter and there will be no limits to how best you can become!

HOWEVER, the limit here is fatigue. If there is no fatigue, we will all be superhumans, at least for those who are willing to train everyday. When you train, you get tired right? And because fatigue increases simultaneously with fitness, you'll not be able to ALWAYS BE ON FORM and be at your best in every single training 100% of the time. It is just near impossible to be that perfect unless you live your life with no life and just eat-train-sleep with no friends or family or work to entertain at ALL.

Thus that brings us to the fact that we have to manage our fatigue level while training consistently in order to get the fittest state we can possibly be.

Managing that fatigue level will mean:
- Ignoring swim timing and focus solely on effort percentage and stroke integrity only unless it's a speed work set or time trial.
- Put more focus on the recovery things to do rather than just solely thinking about doing more.

I feel that the above are the absolute important points to understand in terms of training consistency.

Because serious athletes who train all the time will measure their performance in terms of timing results. As science has taught us, only quantifiable results can be useful in tracking milestones and benchmarks.
And that has led to many people forgetting about the other part of the Fitness equation, which is the fatigue.

Fatigue can come not just from your training but your external stress factors such as sleep deprivation and work requirements.

And like the example sets I prescribed above, if you carried on doing that for 2 weeks and somehow, you always have Over Time to work on Saturdays and maybe Tuesdays then you'd probably not recover well and thus your swim time on Wednesday and especially on the second week of continuous training may probably reflect pretty badly.

It is important to note that this bad timing reflection is not a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) of just your fitness but it is an indicator of a combination of how well rested you are versus how trained/fit you are.

Thus having a bad day or two in a week is actually very normal especially if you work in high stress environments or basically not getting enough social supports or simply not able to sleep well enough.

However, after having such bad days then you'd have to take particular notes on recovering well on the following rest days or going easy on the next one and focus solely on technique if you're training every day like I am.

The key here is to maintain the effort and push on in the training and do your best to maintain that 80% RPE and STROKE PERFORMANCE INTEGRITY regardless of your fatigue level AS LONG AS YOU MADE SURE YOU'VE DONE YOUR BEST TO RECOVER.

The reason that you do at 80% RPE in swim is that it is an effort level whereby you can do a hard long swim (At least 1500m) and thus it is aerobic. Training aerobically or near the aerobic threshold when you're on good form, is fantastic for building fitness because you train your body to use Oxygen at the maximal level your body is capable of and many studies have confirmed that training at Aerobic threshold is the best way to improve fitness.

And by knowing that your timing may fluctuate due to many external factors, the only compounding factor in training will be your mental strength. When you look at a Wednesday's swim time and see that it is 2minutes slower than the Monday swim time, your body will definitely shout "TIRED!!!"... But after 1 day of complete rest or whichever way you ensure you are completely rested before the next workout, physiologically your body should be ready for the training unless you fell sick.

But from my experience, the Friday's swim are always the toughest despite I have a full rest day always on Thursday. The reason is my mind always tells me "Wednesday's swim was tough to maintain at 80% and good form man.. I could hardly complete it!"

What the mind didn't take into consideration is that I had a full day of rest on Thursday and the micro torn muscles would have recovered by now and adapted to the training.

By ensuring that you follow the 80% training effort in your long swims unless speedwork requires you to go all out.. you can be sure that whether you're tired or not, you're performing your best AEROBICALLY and thus not increasing the intensity to something too much that will complicate the recovery to get ready for the next training session.

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On the other hand, for those who don't have a coach to manage your swim time, you have to note that in a training program, you have to take note of the intensity, duration and also the weekly volume of workouts.

Fatigue rise way way way way way way faster than fitness while it takes years to cultivate supreme base fitness to build the speed on. If all athletes look long term enough in terms of achieving your goal, then the overtraining side of training will probably not happen at all but most people wants results fast and with less work.

Commercial training always tell you "FASTER, HIGH INTENSITY = MORE GAINS". That is right in a way provided you can recover.

If you can't recover, then doing high intensity workouts for days after days, you may simply just be breaking your body down again and again without allowing it to recover adequately.

Note: It is possible to ALWAYS stay and live in that overtrained fatigue state. Some people think it is normal to be tired all the time. Not true. A good athlete should feel energetic all the time because of good recovery.

We come back to the point whereby fitness is only gained when you recover and body adapts to the training load. Without that happening, the fatigue will accumulate and the body will not adapt and when that happens, you're just on a one way ticket to overtraining and consistent fatigue with minimal to little fitness gain or even fitness loss in long term because of the inability to train due to injury or burnout exhaustion from the overtraining.

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I know the article is alittle messy here and there but I write as I think and if you lost me somewhere, comment here or write me an email at enquiry@sapphireswimming.com or SMS me at (+65) 8180 0621 and I will gladly reply you what you wish to know.

Cheers
Coach KK

My Progress after 8 weeks with Coach CQ.

So far, I've shaved 5minutes off my 1500m swim time and it's my 8th week into the training given by Coach Cheng Qiang. I've did today's 24:45 1500m with a pull buoy and without any kicking.

I am very very satisfied and very very happy with the progress but I have to keep myself in check because I know the progress gonna halt really soon if I don't take care of myself and my technique. Also, the rewards will eventually slow down to 1-2 seconds gain in a month or so's time because of something call "Plateau".

Honestly, the progress was way less painful than I expected it to be. Maybe I've a little more tolerance for mundane solo training and thus the RPE is always a little lower. Except last week when I was asked to do repeats of 400s. It was just very uncomfortable to go at a "comfortably uncomfortable" state and for the most part, I was too bothered by my timing rather than focusing on my effort.. Reason was I was just very excited to improve to an avg 1:41 pace for each 100 in the 400 repeats.

Monday: 6:53, 6:42, 6:44, 6:45
Wednesday: 6:42, 6:42, 6:40, 6:39

Eventually the constant hard exertion caught up to me on the 3rd training (Last Friday Morning) and my timing increased drastically. It hit me pretty hard in my morale but I kept telling myself to have faith, nothing comes easy and Coach always tell me "When you hit a phase where you feel tired and fatigued, you have to push past it constantly to breakthrough. That's when your fitness will improve.".. I kept replaying that sentence in my mind like it's my last life-line.

Friday: 6:44, 6:54, 6:56, 6:54

Last friday evening I approached Coach to have a word and I found out he actually wanted me to train again on Sunday instead of resting the weekend to prepare for Monday's session with him. It was a little shakening because I felt pretty tired from the 3 days of 4x400 on 8 minutes... the morning's 4x400 was shitty to say the least and then now I gotta do the 4x400 AGAIN on SUNDAY?

When sunday came, I could choose to workout in the evening at Sam's place but I decided to skip lunch to do it in front of Coach when he is on LG Duty. Well, I arrive the pool pretty worn and I told myself "look, if you're gonna give yourself more rest, it'd be the same as before you met him. Do not disappoint. Just do your best, like he said, RPE at 80% is most important, not the timing. As long as you do each 400 on 8minutes, it'll be good enough."

Sunday: 6:53, 6:48, 6:46, 6:43

As I went through the first 400 and saw my watch, I was like "sigh.." for 5 seconds and then immediately I caught a glimpse of the tallest figure on the pool deck watching me. Snapped right out of it and upped my tempo throughout the last 3 and I am so glad I got my flow back despite the fatigue.

It felt just like what it was: A Breakthrough.

Upon reviewing what happened in those 400s that went 6:53 and above, I was too focused on maintaining a high elbow and stretching in front that I glided instead of doing the kayak stroke. I felt that gliding stroke is so tiring to swim fast with because I couldn't move my arms relaxedly through the recovery and catch phase to rest them actively.. holding the stretched out position became a very annoying chore. As to why I turned to that on Friday's swim, it was probably because I was becoming tired and when I tried focusing on the high elbow and stretch, I couldn't maintain the continuous pull motion.. and that led me back to my old swim ways.

This week's swim was supposed to be 1.5km everyday.. however I took a rest yesterday to prevent any mental burnout because too much of that is just no good at all even if I get some results from the burnout. I want to do this long term and I got a long way to go to get my swim to 1:10 per 100 or less. I need to manage my own emotions, motivation and spirit/morales a little better.

Monday 1500m: 31:49 with breaks in between a few hundreds as Coach stopped me to correct some stuffs.
Tuesday 1500m: 26:37
Wednesday 1500m: 25:14
Thursday Rest
Friday: 24:45

I know I can go faster if I add the kick and that was not my best effort but I gotta save for the 10x25sprint 25easy and 400m Kick at 25sprint 25slow after the 1500.. besides, the instruction was strictly 80-85% except the last 200 for each 1500.

Looking forward to next training. It's gonna get tougher.. I need to get ready.

Cheers
KK

A short post on today's OWS.

Guys, I know today's "training" isn't much but I really had only one key point to drive through and that is to ease your anxiety and nerves.. Knowing exactly what you're facing is the best way to tackle an obstacle.

I know I made it sound really simple and some of you may misunderstood that because I'm a good swimmer I don't take it to heart that it is a Olympic Distance Triathlon.. It is still a big challenge for the untrained people and a strain even to the well trained ones. A 3.5hrs to 4hrs affair is as long as a marathon can take you.. So make no mistake, I am concerned for you guys, to say the least.

Remember that you need to have different things to focus on to drive yourself to perform continuously. Read my previous post on what "doing your best" is about.. Then formulate a strategy on a piece of paper and read through it. I do that for ALL my races, from 50m freestyle sprint race to my marathon to my half iron man.

Don't leave anything to doubt or guess work. Cover every single possible detail you could manage to think of. Once you do that, you'd have "gone through" the race once. Read through it several times whenever you have free time and then write down KEYWORDS that your mind can easily remember and think of during the race to remind you of what is next to come and expect.

Here's my very simple try. Mind's shutting down after training in the hot sun in the afternoon, so bear with the mistakes if any.

• Race day, wake 4hrs before, finish breakfast, do all tagging.
• Reached Race venue 2 hrs before start. Nerves creeping in stomach.
• Unpack things at transition area. Rack bike, place helmet on aerobar, shades, bike shoes, bottles, run shoes, socks. Fingers cold -- > Remind warmup will cure all coldness.. =)
• Take goggles, swim cap, Anti fog, apply anti jelly fish sun block.
• Take small expendable bottle of H-TWO-O OR water and gel.
• Recce Bike in, Bike out.
• Recce Run in, Run out.
• Recce Swim start, Swim exit, Swim route - How many buoys are there out there and divide equally to the distance (200, 350, 200) so you get some pacing knowledge and know how far you've covered. The math will take away a lot of anxiety and worries.
• Warmup at sea. Check Tides and Current. (Porpoise, 3-4x20 strokes out easy, Moderate to Hard come back) Make sure goggles don't come out when porpoising.
• Start of swim, everyone will be rushing, I stay cool and calm from start to first turn.
• After turn, I ease into my rhythm with the waves.
• Sight frequently (Every 4-5 strokes if choppy, every 8-10 if not) and conservatively, don't come up too high if not needed.
• Do not follow crowd unless in lead pack. (Even if in, check once in a while, maybe leader HOLLAND.)
• Upon exiting the first loop, walk 5-6 steps or more.. don't run immediately as blood is in the top of the body and you will cramp up easily. The run will not earn you much time unless you're chasing lead/draft pack.
• DON'T BE SHOCKED IF YOU GOT INTO THE NEXT WAVE'S START. Handle it calmly and watch where the main crowd go, if you are a flanker, FLANK ACCORDINGLY. Nobody will penalize you for staying on shore for a longer run across the beach to get yourself into a more comfortable position to swim.
• Repeat same strategy and find rhythm ASAP in second round of swim.
• Once out of swim exit, walk a little, then jog.. If need be, walk up the ramp. Across the bridge then jog down slowly. It's gonna be WET, SANDY AND PAINFUL a little bit.
• Into the transition area, get your HELMET FIRST, then bike shoe then bike and drink on the bike if you are aiming for timing, else drink then go. After 1.5km of swim, will be a little disorientated and getting a sip on the bike may prove a little more difficult to balance than whatever you've experienced before.
• Push the bike out to the mount line and mount and go. 
• Start with easy gear for first 2-4minutes. Ramp up gradually to your Time Trialing gear if you're aiming for timing. Else just keep shifting to a gear you can hold at 85-95 RPM according to how you feel throughout the race.
• It's 6 rounds, if you have a speedo, press LAP on every time you pass the bike out.
• Every 15minutes DRINK SOMETHING.
• Every 60minutes, eat a gel.
• POINT OF CAUTION: when you pass the bike out, most likely they'll make you do a U Turn near the toilet area. It is really pretty tight if there are more than 2 bikers turning with you. Last year, they placed COOLING WATER SPRINKLERS AT THAT CORNER. (Like What the.....).. so it was slippery also. JUST BE PREPARED. I saw NUMEROUS CRASHES at that area.
• POINT OF CAUTION 2 : They may make you do another U turn at a LONG KANG, if that happens, it is EXTREMELY TIGHT. Only 1 biker will squeeze through. Reason they gave was they don't have enough fundings to get another chip sensor to spread the whole width of the road. Ridiculous but true. BE PREPARED TOO. 
• POINT TO DRIVE THROUGH: ECP IS JUST NOT A NICE PLACE TO TIME TRIAL. 
• Upon finishing the 6 laps of biking, dismount at the dismount line else you'll be given some 10seconds penalty I think.
• Get the bike on the rack THEN remove helmet.
• Change into running shoes, go for an easy 10km run. It's 2 loops of 5km, I assure you it'll be H.O.T. But I'll be there. --> Got link meh? =p
• 
  
• 
  
• That's all, for my simplified version of race day draft.

Cheers
KK

A maturing tale of "Doing Your Best".

Why "maturing", you ask? Read on if you are keen, skip if you feel I'm too long winded, you know I am.. but you don't know what you're missing. =)

First, in my short 27yrs of life, "Doing My BEST" have been the center of my universe where my Sun revolves. Since how long? Since the first time I saw the world.

I've been competitive since I started knowing things, but I lived in a sheltered life. My parents were so protective of me that I wasn't given a chance to try and Be competitive at all.

I've never had friends that were competitive, that kind of made things worst. I don't like to lose but I don't have anyone to win, let alone lose to. It was such an ironic situation that even till now I couldn't really understand the complexity of that vicious cycle.

As I was about to get to know my true self in study, I was kind of a "work my ass off to get what I want" kind of person if you look at my report book but I easily get distracted. Because my dad and mum thinks I'm working too hard and getting too many Band 1 and Distinctions so they introduced me to gaming. Like real, but it did happen, so it is real and unfortunate.

Luckily I regained that edge when I knew Gwen in Poly. I remember I cried when I lost to her by 2 marks in a Calculus TEST. She got 100, I got 98.

In basketball, a game where I picked up since 16, I've made many true friends and many enemies because of my "I'M GONNA KILL YOU TO HELP MY TEAM WIN" way of playing defence.. Again, I found myself there, if you've seen me play in a match seriously, you probably won't come over and say "Hi Coach KK.". Every game I play in turns up in intensity because I don't like to play for fun and I just unknowingly boost the "WIN OR DIE" feel in them.

In NS, there's 40 people in a platoon/squad, I only have 1 friend, that is myself and 39 other enemies. If I don't win them, I brood, I work harder and I challenge them in the face telling them things like "I WILL SWIM FASTER THAN YOU, MR PANG.".. I did not manage to even pick up freestyle during that period of time, and I was UPSET that I didn't even get my breast stroke sorted out, let alone win him. But I worked hard and swam 88 laps with my just-can't-farking-move kind of breast stroke in the attempt to get better.

I have to win in every single 2.4km run. The only person I'd lose to is the best runner in the squad. I fucking hate to be 2nd but I'd rather die than to be 3rd. I'd run 10km every free night I have, I'd do 2.4km run at 95% effort on the night before IPPT and tell my Sir I am doing it easy to prepare for tomorrow. I HATE LOSING.

In every relationship I have, I'd give my best. EVERYTHING. So much so that everyone of them left me because I gave too much without knowing what they want. I just give what ME want to give, not what they need or want..

It was Horrible to say the least...

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So, from all the above, you can already tell my definition of doing my best = JUST GIVING MY EVERYTHING.

Is there a limit? Probably somewhere in the hemisphere.

Often in my mind I'll ask "Am I giving enough?".. There was never "Is this too much?".

Often, the question is "Is this good enough?".. There was never "What exactly am I working on?".

JUST DO. JUST FREAKING DO IT AND DO YOUR BEST THEN THINK LATER.

That kind of just implode in me and made me the person I am today, both successful and failing in many many aspects of my life. Coach KK is an image of me that is a self-motivated and rationale, knowledgeable and self contained person..

But that is only half as true. There are so many things in life that I could have done better.. not because I've not given my everything but its because I have no idea what I'm actually working on before I started doing.

I'm not gonna give a life lesson here but relate to life in anyway you want.. I'm sure it'll make sense. The thing I'm gonna touch on here is about training and racing.

Doing your best does equate giving your everything. But in order to do our best, the pre-requisite is to KNOW what exactly we're working on and the purpose of doing them.

For example, in a swim training, I set the following as training program:

Warmup:
SKPKS x 100 each (Easy, raise HR)

Pre-set:
4x100 build (getting ready for main set of speed work)

Rest 3 mins

Main set:
20x50 Hard on 1:00

Rest 5mins

Cool down:
300m easy mixed strokes

What does doing your best mean in this training session then?

If it was me 6 yrs back (with the swim skill i have now), I'd tell you:
"That's so easy, I'd go hard from the first metre to the last.. I'D SKIP ALL THE REST TOO! Else, I won't feel the kick in the workout at all.".

Right now, I'd tell you:
The rest times CANNOT BE SKIPPED. Without the rest times, your body are just not fresh to perform perfect technique. Every stroke is a practice. If you screw up technique for hard swim then you might as well don't swim because you will NEVER improve.

Warmup you better do it easy and gradually build up the heart rate. When you go too hard at the warmup (from non workout state to hard workout state), lactate and oxygen debt will build up quickly and take a very long time to go down. If that happens, the rest of the workout will be screwed.

Pre-set is to get your body ready for the intensity of the main set and is highly relevant to whatever is to be done later. If its a high technique focus main set then the pre-set will be something to kick start your focus like a fist drill swim. In this case, I'd say better start very easy from the first 100 then build to flat out in the last and 4th 100m to shake the body up and get ready for pacing.

Main set here is 20x50 hard. It's pretty straight forward here. The whole idea is to go very hard and get more rest. However, swim is a skill base sport that is so affected by drag factor. Your BEST here will not equate to swimming every 50 til you're completely breathless and fainting. Your BEST here WILL MEAN to do every 50m as hard as YOUR PERFECT TECHNIQUE allow.

Cool down is named "COOL DOWN" for a purpose. Take it easy and slow down the heart rate slowly by doing easy swim. Your BEST here is to make the swim AS EASY AS POSSIBLE so you get ready for a good rest and recovery. Without recovery, your training is just potential for falling sick.

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In a racing situation, doing your best will mean to savour every single second of the race. If it means you have to draft somebody to take it easy for a minute before making that last burst to lead the pack then let go of the lead and do the draft first. If it means slowing down to a walk to relieve that cramp before risking to tear something then WALK.

Often, we, especially MEN, are so taken over by our own pride and ego that we can't see the balance between rate of exertion and the technical aspect of everything we do in life.
We were so often overwhelmed by the need to give our best in a competitive environment and with a competitive heart, we forgot what is the reason and rationale behind doing some things.

For example, what's the point of being able to Fly 80kg, bench press 150kg and Bicep curl 50kg if you can't lift a damn TV off the floor with ease and walk up 10flights of stairs when the lift breaks down?

Or another example, what's the point of going so hard in your warm up and pre set when you totally exhaust yourself and then could only force yourself to give half effort in the hard effort main set?

To become successful, at least in sports, we have to have the patience to know the reason behind doing all things and performing the purpose of the training to the best that we can possibly achieve. Only then can we see the returns of the training.

With that, I'd rest my case and I'd rest my bod. And yes, I can rest with ease because with the above realization in mind, I have seen so much improvement over the past 6 weeks for my swim. I hope they benefit you too.

Cheers
KK

ps - Thank you Pang and Gwen for guest "appearance". :P

An overwhelming appreciation for "Coaching".

The "Coaching" I'm referring to here isn't me coaching somebody else but it is about "Being Coached".

As I've mentioned before, at least I think I've mentioned before because I've mentioned so many things before and even the words "mentioned" and "before" need to come up so many times in this sentence because.. well, I've indeed mentioned them before...

... That being a passionate guy about the things I choose to do, I've ALWAYS given my 200% in everything that I've willingly partaken in. From basketball to studies (yes I was in director's list in my dip.) to running to swimming to personal training and gym works. However, I've almost never podium-ed in my entire short 10yrs of sporting life.. I honestly felt a little short changed for the effort I've input and the heart and soul I've given.

The reason is not that I did not work hard enough but nobody was really there to guide me in what I should do correctly and what I should not. I've never had a proper certified, qualified/accomplished(optional) and capable coach who is there to WATCH ME and correct my mistake and tell me what I need to do.

I've read everything I need to learn to improve on every subject myself. Believe it or not even my lifesaving 1,2 and 3, a paid course, was taught by a extremely disappointing instructor that I have to re-study everything myself to get ready for the next level. This is a personal post and thus I hope sam will not be bothered by this.. She often proudly told people that she taught me how to swim at the start but the fact is that she didn't. All my questions was answered with "LIKE THAT LA, WHY CANNOT? I DON'T KNOW LEH."..  Ok, she wasn't a coach yet then but that kind of described the answers I get every single time I tried to work with my peers about something I want to improve on, not just swimming but almost everything else.

I've got some seniors in basketball that I need to thank to have helped me by sharing with me what they know, but they are not coaches and i'm forever a point guard who is good at using his brains to set up and improvise plays for his team instead of learning the proper pick and rolls and other set plays that can establish me as a "stable" PG..

As a matter of fact, ALL THE SWIM STROKES were picked up by my consistent disturbance on other "swimmers" or anyone in the pool that is better than me and then further practiced and confirmed by the long hours of trial and errors of drills and swims. Even up till the start of this year, it was a frustrating and continuous process to believe and coach on something I only have 95% faith that it is the right way to do. Until 6 weeks back. Everything in my swimming world changed.

With that, I am so overwhelmed with appreciation in today's training with my very own China Coach who is so well coached himself that every word he said makes me feel tinier and tinier-er in terms of knowledge base.

So to recall...

The first time I got a proper coach was Mr Chan, a 50+ years old man who can do one arm pull ups with ease. He taught me a complete set of gym training that made me more than just a functional being. He introduced me to proper joint alignment and kick started the process of learning how a body really work. His teaching and sharing is so valuable that if I had not been coached by him, I've be nowhere near who I am right now because I won't know how to activate all the muscles I need to, let alone coach the people to do the right things (insert Russel Peter's "be a man!" joke here :P)!

Then came Nicole Gallagher, the many many times podium sprint coach who inspired me to do better in triathlons and taught me what result a routine and consistent training can bring. She is the one who gave me the realism on what periodization training and scheduling of workout is about. Without that, team sapphire won't have such improvements to today already.

Then now, it is Cheng Qiang. One of the tallest lifeguard in Seng Kang. To have a feel about how he has changed my swim (perspectives and physical ability).. let's take a look at my swim times.
First sessions of:
2 x 400m on 8mins - 7:22, 7:33 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9/10)
20 x 50m on 1min - 0:49 to 0:54 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9.5/10)
2000m - 39:00 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9/10)
800m fist swim with board shorts - 22:30 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 8.5/10)

NOW:
4 X 400M on 8mins - 6:53, 6:42, 6:44, 6:45 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 7.5-8/10)
30 X 50m on 1min - 0:41 to 0:47 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9.5/10)
2000m - 37:00 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 8/10)
800m fist swim with board shorts - 19:41 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 8/10)

I have no idea how to express how excited I am in the training and I just felt SO motivated to do whatever he asks me to. I wanted a coach SO much. My desire to win and compete at the highest level is SO F*CKING GREAT. I can't better describe it.

When I felt the nerves and anxiety as he asked me to do my 400m warm up with a straight face.. I recalled how Team Sapphire members will reserve in the warm ups and pre sets to "prepare" for the main set... I recall Lawrence saying "Reserve a bit ma.. don't know what you'll throw at us later leh~!"... And I felt so so excited because I am finally being COACHED and I so want to reap the benefits and pure enjoyment of just being in the water giving my everything in the sets pre-determined by somebody else and that somebody is one I respect so much!

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Honestly, I've come a LONG WAY to where I am today without much proper coaching. And getting a proper coach in SG who knows what he's talking about is just SUCH A DIFFICULT MATTER. With that, I need to exclaim and remind myself and everyone else reading this subject thus far that Being Coached is a PRIVILEGE - and I appreciate it So F*cking Much.

Cheers
KK