runningcoachsg

Friday, September 19, 2014

Kariel 11th in Women Open and Does 51min 13sec

Kariel - Goes one notch up, coming in 11th in Women Open

Although Kariel hardly has time to run or come for training, she does her best to find the time to train. This is what I call determination. Kariel joined us for training about 10 months ago and start gradually improving her running performance. Her progress was rather slow.

There was a time when she was missing because she was having some pain at the lower limb near the ankle area; because of her injury, she did not train with us for months.

In the past, I have never seen her doing a sub- 25min for a long period of time.

After she had recovered from her injury, she rejoined the Flexifitness group for training. She did a time which showed progress. To get a sub-25min, it seemed at first an impossible task for Kariel, until she did a 5km trial at the track on 4th August, 2014, when she did 24min 57sec. A week before that she was 1min behind this time.

In the 14th of Sept POSB race, Kariel came in 11th overall in the Women Open section. Fellow Flexifitness athletes Wang Yan and Jennifer came in 3rd and 10th for the race. All three did a personal best time. There were other girls who did personal best times as well. The time she clocked for 10km was 51min 13sec. She was happy that it was a big personal best time. We felt happy for her.

As a way to motivate people not to lose heart in running, I am writing this to inspire the ladies and others from our group to go below 25min for 5km just like her and at the same time improve one's marathon timing. This interview serves to inspire others who have been doing 30min plus in 5km to do a sub 25min overtime, if you are determined like Kariel.

An Interview With Kariel

1. Why did you join the Flexifitness running programme?
I wanted to improve my running time through Flexifitness running programme.

2. When did you join our programme?

I joined in 2013 October

3. How did you know about Flexifitness?

Mr Thow Wee and Colin told me about Flexifitness

4. Were you doing personal or group training?

Group Training

5. How has training with the group helped you?

Training in a group allows me to run faster because I would not be able to do it alone.

Group training is encouraging as you will want to catch up with your teammates, hence all of us will improve together.

6. How has your progress been, from the start of the session to the last race that you have done?

My timing has been improving since I join Flexifitness and results have shown this.

I have achieved personal records for last few races such as 1:57:37 for my gold coast half marathon and 10:44 for 2.3km in DBS community game. My training time trial has improved also by hitting new record 24:57for 5K last week.

7. What is your next race?

My next race is POSB 10K and Straits Times 10K held on 14th Sep and 28th Sep respectively.

8. Do you have any tips for improving fitness?
Discipline and consistency. I still have room to improve in these areas. Mental training is important too.

9. Do you have any long term goals?

To be top 10 in Singapore Standard Chartered Bank running in the full marathon in woman open.

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.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Imran - Finally realising his potential after a 2 year wait.

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Imran sprinting to the finish at the POSB Run 2014

Imran was one of the earliest to join our Flexifitness Programme. He used to run much slower, more for weight loss than performance. Of the three who joined us first, Ranjith and Weizhen were faster than him and he used to do short 2.4km kind of runs or 6x 400m or the most 8 x 400m kind of workout. He usually comes late and comes for our programme tired.

However, there was this something in him that made him to keep coming for our programme. He dropped at least 6kg and at the same time was looking forward to improve the 5km timing that was a great challenge for him. As others have been doing 17min to 30min, in our programme, generally, he was aiming to do at least a 30min.

He shared with us that it was last year October that he did 45min for our time trial and he was very determined to at least bring it to 42min and then to 40min and then aiming to do a 35min.

When he attained his 5km of 35min, he was more than happy to go for a faster timing and he did 32min before finally clocking in a time of 30min 29sec. We wanted to interview him but he told us that after his 10km in POSB Run, he will definitely answer our interview questions. He was aiming for a 70min for the 10km, else he felt that he was not worthy of an interview.

In the POSB race, he did a net time of 1hr 02min 12sec and made our team proud. He elated as he is now able to run well compared to his past of very slow running. Now, the slow running is all over and he would like to share his 15min improvement in 5km and his more than 30min improvement in 10km over a period of a year.

Let us hear from him.

An Interview With Imran - Story of a Big Value Add in running

timing and of not giving up

Why did you join the Flexifitness running programme?

I wanted to keep fit - running was logically the first choice since it doesn’t require fanciful equipment, sparring partners, booking of venue etc.

When did you join our programme?

I joined the programme way back in November 2012. Initially, there were sessions where, apart from the coaches and school runners, there would only be very few of us, including the likes of Ranjith, Shireena and Wei Zhen. It is of course nice to have witnessed the growth of the group since I joined and to continue to meet a combination of young champions, fitness enthusiasts and competitive runners.

How did you know about Flexifitness?

Stumbled upon Flexifitness website when searching for running groups. When I emailed my enquiry, Coach Rameshon called me the very next day and when you receive that kind of personalised service, you know you have made the right decision.

Were you doing personal or group training?

Prior to joining the group, I was doing personal training only. It wasn’t easy to find interested parties to join me on my 11pm or midnight runs in the park connector near my place except for some bats and the occasional monitor lizard!

How has training with the group helped you?

The best part about training with the Flexifitness group is that the runners are always motivating each other. During time trials, just when I think I cannot carry on, I always hear Divya and Mariviv echoing “Jia-you” in the background. I am almost always the last to arrive for training given my work commitments and end up starting my runs just as the group is finishing theirs. Running alone is never easy, and recognising this, Coaches Ernest and Marcel have regularly taken it upon themselves to pace me despite having just completed the run with the earlier group. There is also a great deal of attention to the whole works, such as stride speed, Loughborough circuits, core strengthening, visualisation, hill training etc and it is not just about endless and mindless running.

How has your progress been?

My last race was, in fact, my first race, and I have commented on my performance in a separate interview. I have seen tremendous improvement in my 5km timings. From 44 minutes as recently as last October, it is down to 30:29. My vf has also reduced from an unhealthy 11 to 7.5 and I lost 7 kg in a space of about 4 months.

What is your next race?

No plans as yet.

Do you have any tips for improving fitness?

I am not an expert on fitness and my timing is far from fantastic. But I will share the 3 factors that made the biggest difference for me:

First, discipline. You must have the discipline to train consistently either on your own or as part of the group training. I was extremely inconsistent for the first few months and my running time didn’t improve. I repeatedly asked Coach Rameshon why my timing wasn’t improving and out of sheer frustration, I stopped coming for training for about 3 months. My weight increased, I was getting tired from the most rudimentary of tasks, such as walking up a flight of stairs and I then decided I had to put a stop to my slumber. With a renewed vigour, I resumed training late last year. I used to skip training as long as I was not able to leave the office in CBD by 7.15pm. These days, no matter how late I am, I still make it a point to come for training at least for a steady run. I have also followed Coach’s advice to go for steady runs during the weekends on my own.

Next, diet. A lot of people neglect the importance of diet. I was able to bring down my per km time from 8 minutes to 7 minutes fairly quickly but hit a roadblock. It was then that I was recommended the book “Serve to Win” by Novak Djokovic. I delayed reading it as I first thought it was a book on playing tennis! I took away some of the pointers mentioned and substantially cut down on my gluten and sugar (mostly in the form of condensed milk) consumption. The change in diet helped me to finally break the 35min barrier for 5km and brought my time down both further and faster.

Finally, make each run about yourself only. When you focus on trying to be as good as the other runner, you are already setting an artificial ceiling as to how much you will improve. Worse, if you don’t reach the other runner’s level, you feel dejected and demotivated. By making the run about yourself, you are quite rightly removing all such inhibitions and barriers.

Do you have any long term goals?

I started off with fitness in mind, and I am toying with the idea of taking part in a full marathon at some point but only to strike it off the bucket list. As my overall pursuit is still fitness, I don’t have any time targets as of yet. I also hope that Flexifitness continues to grow from strength to strength and groom the next wave of young champions and competitive runners.

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.

2014 POSB RUN : Women Open and Men OPEN and Corporate Challenge Results

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

POSB 'KIDS RUN' 2014

Women Open and Men OPEN and Team Corporate Challenge Results

Men Open Individual Results

Division: 10KM MENS OPEN

1. WONG MELVIN - 35min 38sec
2. NEO SHUN JIE - 36min 13sec
3. SHIAIL - 37min 39sec
4. RONNIE TEO - 38min 02sec
5. ZI LI POON - 39min:12sec
6. LEAN SENG GOH - 39min:57sec
7. LIU ZHI YONG - 40min:05sec
8. WES MULLAN - 40min 38sec
9. SUQIAN WU - 40min 53sec
10. MOSES KO - 41min 00sec

Division: 10KM WOMENS OPEN

1. MOK YING RONG - 40:02sec
2. RACHEL SEE - 40:58sec
3. YAN WANG - 44:57sec (Personal Best)
4. MARY TAN - 45:31sec (Personal Best)
5. SERENE YANG - 46:25sec
6. JILLIAN SEE - 48:19sec
7. LAURA WONG - 48:09sec
8. TAN GEOK PHENG - 49:08sec
9. CINDY YAP KAH LAI - 50:27sec
10. JENNIFER QUEK - 50:48sec (Personal Best Time)

Corporate Challenge (Men)

Division: 10KM CORPORATE TEAM CHALLENGE

1st Place FLEXIFITNESS TEAM A, Team Total 03:58:45sec

THOW WEE LIM - 38min 09sec
COLIN CHUA - 38min 45sec (Personal Best)
YOKE KEN LEE - 39min 17sec (New Personal Best - first time running 10km)
MOSES NG - 40min 13sec (Personal Best)
BENNY GOH - 40min 24.sec (Season Best)
ERNEST WONG - 41min 30sec
VIJAYARAJ - 43min 35sec
RAMESHON MURUGIAH - 45min 25sec

2nd Place FLEXIFITNESS TEAM B, Team Total 04:33:04.705

JONATHAN KANG - 43min 06sec
LEE GUAN LIM - 43min 46sec (Season Best Time)
NATHAN - 44min 24sec
LOUIS STAUFFER - 44min 35sec
TREVOR LUM - 48min 18sec (Personal Best Time)
RYO THAM - 48min 23sec
SZERK LIM - 49min 07sec
JOSEPH HO - 54min 05sec (Personal Best Time)

3rd Place TEAM IBM, Team Total 05:26:11.413

MIKE LIAN - 47min 45sec
DAPHNE ONG - 48min 47sec
MARTIN JOHN ESSER - 51min 18sec
KIN WAH LUM- 51min 57sec
CHENG KONG S. KHOO - 01hr 01min 12sec
HWE KING SIM - 01hr 02min 36sec
MING SIONG SIM - 01hr 04min 53sec
KARTHIK - 01hr 07min 01sec

KIDS Competition 2014 - Children's Results

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Coach Ernest Wong, 44, Does 41min 20sec in 2014 POSB 10km Race

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 Marcel Sng

Coach Ernest, 44, does 10km in 41min 20sec for 2014 POSB Race.

Ernest Wong would routinely run 35 mins for 10km in his prime. Now as a Coach at FlexiFitness, he still does respectable timings at races.

Ernest Wong did a 41 min 20 sec at the POSB Run last Sunday. He planned to follow the FlexiFitness team- FlexiFitness sent 2 Corporate Challenge teams- but had to slow down " I was with the team till the 4km but had to slow down at 5km as I had no training, I speed up at the 9km'

He is happy with his time as he does not train much for this race. He felt good just running with the team. He is happy with the route, organisation and water points. I myself feel that this race was truly well organised. There were no blockages throughout the race, which is very rare in races organised in Singapore.

Back in his days, Ernest Wong was rather fast. He did a 35min 15sec for the Malacca 10k Run in 2000, and 16min 06sec for 5km in 1999, Japan. He was a competitor to Coach Rameshon in his younger days.

Coach Ernest has a personal best time of 2hr 37min in Hong Kong marathon in the year 2004.

Ernest has been injured for 3 years now. Although injured, he manages to do 1 hour runs 3-4 times a week and 400m workouts weekly. He has a relaxed mindset and will run his next race when he feels good.

Now, he is working as a coach in FlexiFitness running group and shares his
vast training and running experiences to us. He is very knowledgeable - athletes frequently go to him for advice. I myself like to hear his past experiences as a runner.

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.

Wang Yan, 42, Does 44min 57sec in 2014 POSB 10km Race

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Wang Yan - A compassionate runner.

I was asking Wang Yan on her timing etc. She told me her past stories and I found that she was not running until she joined Flexifitness. Before that, she used to do a 2km run twice per week.

Even now, she trains about 3 to 4 times per week as she has to do full-time work as well. When she joined us for training, in the past, we knew that she was talented. After my steady run, one day, I decided to pace her for her 8km tempo run and at the last 200m, I realised that I had a tough time with her as she nearly overtook me for the last 200m.

From last year, she has run about 4 to 5 races. She will reveal her goals and future races in the upcoming blog post. Stay tuned for it as it only shows that as when you age, one can go faster. Age has no barrier for veteran runner Wang Yan, who ran in the Women Open category.

Yesterday, I was asking her on when she is going to break the sub-45min barrier. She told me that she doesn't know. Only today, I found out that she has done a 45min 04sec gun time and 44min 57sec net time for the 10km race.

We would like to thank the organisers for their quick response in putting the website result as soon as possible.

I am wondering about what is Wang's next target. As a coach, I hope it is to go faster. We hope that her interview will get many out there to take up running. She did not know that she had talent in this and she is very happy to be aware now.

There was a show of compassion as she had to overtake the third runner and she is feeling sad about it as one will be a winner and one will be a loser. As for me, both have won, as the two runners ran valiantly and did big personal best times.

Note:

By Narayanan

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Team Flexifitness - Support Charity in POSB Run 2014

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Flexifitness Supports POSB Run 2014

Picture 1 - United We Stand

The main reason for us to run in this event is to support the underprivileged kids. Another reason is to do well in the race. Almost all team A runners did a time of sub - 41min for 10km. We came in champions in Team A and second in Team B for Men Open category. We won $800 for winning the championships and $640 for coming in second in the team event.

Picture 2- Wang Yan, non-runner a year back to a winner (3rd placing in Women Open)

Wang Yan did 45min 30sec (unofficial time) while our forty-six athletes from Flexifitness took part in the race for Men Open and Women Open, and for the kids' race. Three of our runners, from the men side, did sub-40min for the 10km race. Six of our Team A runners were all in front of me, while I did 45min 42sec (unofficial time).

Picture 3 - A photo with the Mascot of the race (courtesy of Lincoln Han)

Two of our women runners were 3rd and 4th for Women Open. Wang Yan won the third placing. We did very well in the kids' race as well.

I will be putting our team results on our website soon. However, I would like to write about some who did very well.

Firstly, let me talk about Imran, who did 42min plus, 3 years back, for 5km. In 10km, he found it a struggle to do a 1hr 20min, an impossible feat. He was training once or twice per week and was not training with us consistently. Currently, he did a 30m 29sec for 5km. We told him to take part in 10km POSB Run, and he reluctantly took part, as he was wondering whether he could do even a 70min. He did a trial run of 65min before doing a 63min plus for this race. He was smiling throughout when he knew that his time has improved drastically.

Kenny, who just starting running competitively without any history of running seriously, did a sub-40min run, a 39min plus for the POSB men open race. It took him 5 months to do it. This is really incredible.

There are many heroes in our group who ran well and I would like to share this in the next post.

Note:

By Narayanan

POSB RUN 2014 - My Experience Today

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

2014 Paris Marathon to POSB Run 2014

After 2009, Oct, I realised that I got myself injured at my knee area. I went to see doctors and other professionals who could help me to come out of the knee problem. I was not able to run and I had problems walking down the stairs.

Picture 1 - An interview for doing well as a team (courtesy of Doris)

Somehow, I did some yoga exercises taught by my yoga teachers in the past and also did exercises to align my body, that got me out of injury. I realised that it is important to align the body, and all will be well. The next important thing I learned is that when a person overexerts in stretching, one will not do well in running and at the same time, one may get themselves injured if they do that.

Picture 2 - Team A and Team B came in champion and second, respectively, today (Courtesy of Moses)

When I got myself off an injury, I ran in the Gold Coast Marathon and did about 4 hrs. While I was running, I told myself to complete the race and get at least the finisher t-shirt, in order to show myself that I can complete a marathon again, having won 2008 Stanchart Marathon, in the past. As for Lim Thow Wee improved his time to 2hr 53min in the race. Two months before that he did 2hr 57min in Seoul Marathon. It was another feather in his cap.

Over time, I did 3hr 10min for the Stanchart Marathon 2013, December, coming in as the fastest local veteran for 40 years and above and 10th in the international category, for men veteran.

Later on, I did 7min 56sec for 2.4km in March, while Lim Thow Wee did 7min 44sec. We went to Paris Marathon 2014, with Jennifer joining us as well. It was an achievement for us as Lim Thow Wee did 2hr 48min 49sec breaking the sub-2hr 50min barrier for the marathon. During the trip, I realised that I did not clock good mileage and I told myself to just complete the race. It was an experience.

After that, I got a sharp pain which restricted me from doing competitive runs. Now, I got myself back to running by doing a 45min 42sec, an unofficial time for the POSB Race. Our coaches also ran to set an example to our athletes.

Now that I am cleared of injury, I am going to train for the Chicago Marathon 2014, which is coming on Oct 12. I am hoping to do a 45min 42sec for each 10km splits, throughout this marathon race.

I will share the race experience today in tomorrow's post.