Boarding's been pretty good, I guess. Minus the fact that I got sick on the Monday of the first week. Pity that I missed rock climbing, but still, it was alright, 'cause I didn't bring track pants. ;p Overall, the first week was pretty much alright, though I had to get use to waking up early (even if I'm in Boarding) for land tutorials.
Land Tutorial. I always dread going for land training/tutorials. And I hate it when it rains, 'cause we have to do land. I know I should be pushing harder than EVERYONE during land, because I have the worst stamina in running, the slowest in sprinting, the weakest in terms of my arm strength. And since we're JH2 girls, we're the weakest lot. And I'm the weakest of the weakest, and overall, the weakest in the entire team of 72 members.
Running is the worst for me. In 201, even though I may be the top few runners, and people are like "[i]t's good enough!" but it really isn't enough if you're in canoeing. I mean, my timing is 13:29 for 2.4km, and all the other girls are clocking 12+. Jiawen can run 2.4 at an easy pace and with a shin injury and clock a timing 1 minute faster than mine. Wang Wei's tied for second in 201, with Demon. Then Nabilah is clocking 11+. I'm not sure about Sarah and Elly, but Sarah's sure fit. She could do a pull-up when my head was nowhere close to the bar. And I'm taller than her. And I think I may be faster than Elly, but she has to leave NJ anyway.
Weights-wise, my assisted pull-ups are OK, but the rest can do much better. For push-ups, all of us are struggling with the male version, but I had to drop during our 100 push-ups last night. Sorry guys, I couldn't hold out anymore.
I think the only thing that I won't be the worst at will be during water. Jiawen's the fastest and has the best balance, and she's in the AK. The rest of us are in Tigers. Nabilah hasn't been going for much training, but she's still fairly good in the Tiger, except that she has a right tilt. So does Sarah. Wang Wei doesn't really have a tilt, but she's still capsizing a bit. For me, the only thing in which I can win the three others will be my balance on the craft. But speed-wise, I still have to push harder.
And yes, back to Boarding. The JH2 girls would meet for breakfast nearly everyday to train, and we would eat with David nearly every morning. David's my LIB, and out of training, he has the mental age of about 3. But during training, the "David-ness" kicks in. He's really hardcore on the guys, but it pays off. The seniors push us too, but not as much as he does. Maybe because we're girls...
Today, we went for make-up land tutorial, and we managed to complete 2 stations before Miss Ng got us to go for land training instead. I nearly died when she said that we were going to run 3 sets of 1km. I thought I would die halfway through the sets. For the first set, Jiawen and I chased the A div girls when they were doing team run. We only caught up to them during the last 200m, but that was good enough. We started jogging behind them lightly on Lane 1, because it didn't seem right to overtake your seniors in a way. Clarissa told us to change lane and overtake them, I think, but we just followed them through. Then, they started saying , "The JH2s have already caught up with us! Come on, up the intensity!" During that time, I just felt really guilty for chasing them. I don't mind people pressurizing me to push harder, but there's always a tinge of guilt when you pressurize someone else. Our timing was 5:13, which is about 2:05 per round. Next target: 2:00 and below per round.
During the 2nd set, I ran with Jiawen, with Grace and Xiaofeng alternating between us and Wang Wei/Nabilah. Thank you for all the encouragement, super-seniors :) or should I call you Miss Tang and Miss Lin like how Humphrey and Manfred does? Haha XD
The 3rd set was by far the slowest set, but still, the best. When you're tired, it's not the muscles that keep you going. It's your mentality. At the start, Jiawen pulled away to join Wang Wei, Nabilah and Grace, while Xiaofeng stayed with me. Adrienne told me to chase Wang Wei but I could only up my intensity. After that, Xiaofeng went with Mad so I just trailed behind Noel and Ricardo. During the final 100m was the part in which I pushed most. It was only between me and Noel. We were neck-to-neck, just both of us on Lanes 1 and 2. The entire team was screaming at both us to PULL AWAY from each other and to OVERTAKE. I sprinted like mad and so did Noel, so we tied. The encouragement really gave me a huge boost. I could hear Reuven, Jiawei and Clarissa screaming most. Jiawei was like GOGOGO. Reuven was screaming COME ON PULL AWAY OVERTAKE. Then I'm not sure what Clarissa was screaming but I just knew she was :p but thank you all the same Captain :D
So, I survived the 3km. Really good land training, one of the toughest, but very worth it. Much as I love my water training, land is really, really good for me, too.
So... that's about it for boarding. Or Canoeing.
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