Sunday, September 25, 2011

Nicholas Eugene - Improves by 10min in Mizuno Wave Run 10km (25/09/2011)

Note:

If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)

By Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)
Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Nicholas Eugene - Does 46min in Mizuno Wave thus breaking away from his past of doing near 56min plus in 10km races.

Picture 1 - Nicholas, left of the picture does 46min in Mizuno Wave Run, after running his own time-trial and running in the Yellow Ribbon Run 10km last week.




Nicholas Eugene, called me one day that he would like to train with me. I told him that he has to be dedicated and told the price. He took the coaching seriously and attended the training sessions very seriously. I found that Nicholas always finds it motivational by training alongside Ashley Liew, who is now the second-fastest marathoner in Singapore. 

Recently, Nicholas told me that he found the Mental Training talk, by our consultant Dr Edgar Tham, very beneficial. He was participative in the talk and asked important questions to improve the performance. He was also thankful for Flexifitness Consultancy for organising the talk which has finally allowed Nicholas to improve the timing of 10km by 10mins. Nicholas is now aiming to do a sub 40min and he has told me that the days of doing 50min plus all the time is all over by having full trust in our program.

Not only Nicholas trains very hard but he has shown me a lot of respect since day one of training until now. He has all the qualifications to do a sub-40 min and 'undo' the wrong things that he was doing in the past. 

The keyword here is unreserved faith in the coaching. Hence, with the 4 weeks training and doing 10min faster for 10km run, I thought that it would be good to interview this gentleman. 

An Interview With Nicholas Eugene
Q1. What are the races that you have run in the past?

As of this year, it would be the:

-2XU Compression 12km
-NTUC Run 350 10km
-Energizer Night Trail 12km
-Passion Run 12km
-SingTel Run Against Cancer 15km
-Tri-Factor 21km
-Marina 21km
-AHM 21km
-Yellow Ribbon 10km
-Mizuno 10km
and on top of that
-1 biathlon Singapore Sprint Series
-1 Tri-Factor Triathlon Sprint Category


Q2. What was the personal best time for the 10km?

Proudly I would say my current PB now would be 46mins, as compared to my past timings of an average of 56mins in most races. It is a huge improvement of 10 min.

Q3. When did you do this time?

I did my run at 2011, Mizuno Wave Run at Bedok Reservoir Park behind Temasek Polytechnic, on the 25 Sept 2011.

Q4. How is your preparation now?

As compared to my past, I am now doing proper warm-up, cool down with some specific stretching for running before a race or training. With proper training by Coach Rameshon, and encouragement motivation from Ashley Liew, Brendan Lee, Wong Ken Mun, Jonathan Kang, Jonathan Lew, Dr Benny Goh, Lim Thow Wee and other training mates of mine and the talk we had by Dr Edgar Tham recently on Mental Training (organised by Flexifitness Consultancy), I feel that my preparation is going very well. 

Q5. Did you do any time-trial recently?
Yes, I did a personal time-trial at Yishun Park, doing 48min plus recently by my own doing 3.5rounds. I believe that the training held at CCAB we had with Coach Rameshon and Coach Donald Ng has improved my timing tremendously.

Q6. What race did you run recently and how did you fair in this race?

My most recent race was the Mizuno Wave Run 10km. It is a different terrain. My usual run is on the road. At around 5km mark, there were constructions going on making it difficult for us to run, I would say that race last week, the Yellow Ribbon Run would be a better choice for those who are aiming to do a personal best time with an accurate route, although the Yellow Ribbon run had a lot of up and downhills.

Q7. Are you happy with the timing?
Certainly, much more improvement as to compare with my last year timing, and it seems that running 10km for me should be a no issue, only just to improve my timing.

Q8. How was the race organization?

The race was fairly well organized, but not that organized.

A) As the water points were not evenly placed out in the short 10km run, with 7000 participants taking part, there should be enough water points.


B) There was only 1 distance marker for the entire race which was seen only at the 5km mark, there were none for 2km, 6km, 8km etc. I hope that race organisers could take note of this and improve so that the 7000 participants would appreciate.


C) The race organization team should be more aware of hazards in areas near construction sites. 

Q9. Are you enjoying training and racing?
I believe that my race could improve more with proper training and practice which I am getting now. as compared to my past  Now, I really enjoy running,

Q10. What is your next target?

My short term and immediate target is to do a sub- 45mins for a 10km race. Over time, using the help of Coach Rameshon who is assisted by Coach Donald Ng, I am aiming to do sub - 40 minute overtime.



Note:

By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’  by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).


He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.