believe in power

feeling very good for tomorrow (:

i think today shawna and van showed us that anything is possible. first, heats was already some real man and they put up a very strong fight. semis was where you had the entire team on the edge of their seats/grass, watching you all imba monster glide to a first position finish. and the finals was extra real man, rain plus wind.

the other pple in the field were the usual contenders, the 32546502485278 nj teams, b div champions/medalists from gess, recently arrived new-kids-on-the-block from pjc all loaded up with competition experience +++. but you showed us, and them, that there's room for those who have the passion to row. thanks for the inspiration (:

let me re-quote this again:
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Just after the semis, ketupat javine was saying she finally knew what the Coach Carter quote meant. yea... i'll never forget today's race (:

to ximi, bernice and hannah and man, take pride in knowing that it was a brave fight, and that you gave your best, no regrets. the harder the struggle, the sweeter the victory. a very courageous race from ky, eugene and shenglin. kane, peter and kong, this is only the beginning...

no competition is complete without a team believing in you.

believe in power

actually i'm feeling very excited about the race. the plan is to just go out there, and enjoy our race; row like we've been rowing all our lives. yay, the orignial pokemon theme song keeps playing in my head (the one that starts "i want to be the very best" )

gtg to do the usual pre-race day/training day routine.

raffles row!

pre njcc

exciting day!

muddy passed geog E after moderation by 3 % pts. disappointing but nonetheless it means there's work to catch up. econs C! yay (: didn't finish part b of the essay yet i got a decent grade on it! wheeeeeeeee and news is i got at least a pass for physics.

SPA lab session was as usual our weekly rehab day (: yay, mr kadir!

PE was real man... or rather, ironwoman. pinnacle of pe lessons, let it be known as H3 (how about H4) PE! girls were in the indoor gym, let's see the exciting program:

1. "run until i say stop" ms lim. that's 7 rounds around the sports hall... for warmup!
2. 3 rounds total of side-step, running backwards, some weird psychomotor leg thingy and sprints
3. (by now most pple are ggxxxxxxxxx)
4. suicides! 1 set= touch 4 white lines. we did 8 i think. <28seconds>
5. max situps in 1 minute: 50 (:
6. standing broad jumps across the breadth, slow walk back x 3
7. 2 sets (or was it 3?) planks around 20-30s
8. single leg hop 1 minute

whole thing took around 30 miuntes max.

ggxx muddy loves H3 pe (: wheeeeee, ironwoman training! go ms lim!

water today was good, better than yesterday. first time doing 4km warmup, 3 all out 500s and a couple of 250s. weather conditions were pretty much the same as yesterday, heavy rain, stop, cool weather with strong winds (less today) and imba monster waves... waves in a reservoir!

expecting weather this weekend to be either super hot and windy or cool, but with imba waters. 2 more days to njcc! let's go out there and do our best, now's the time to focus on our strengths. keep the race plan in mind, row your race; not your opponent's race. if the backwash comes, ride it or siam it, better still, feed your neighbouring competitors wash. hang on to your nerves (and paddle and seat), might have monster strokes counting from other boats but we will focus and do what we've been doing in practice. Place your faith in something and keep it there throughout the race... the race isn't over till the last buoy. and always remember, we're out there rowing for raffles. Be a good competitor, respect your competitors, fight your hardest and whatever the results, keep your heads up cos you know that's the best effort you have given and simply because you belong to the raffles canoeing team.

raffles row!

wednesday

i admit i got owned by physical geog (and physics mcq)

first time i studied but get ggxx grades. 1.5/9 for the last physical geog qn. right.

but nvm, a couple of setbacks won't get me down. yes, muddy's rather distraught but the way to go is to look ahead. once muddy gets back all the other results, time to launch another battle plan to stake out those 5 As. and this time it's all out. july nationals and common tests ftw. let's see how crazy things can go and how far i can push myself. training for a gold. mugging for a goal. may this be the toughest time in muddy's 17 years.

my back's in good shape now (: not too tense, but strong (: yea... take muddy on any day muddy can close eyes and do 10 pullups. 18 and counting. yep, muddy has this to say to the real men who can do 20+, 30++ pullups: respect

yay, can feel all the strength and endurance accumulating, all the way for nationals in july!

after njcc muddy resolves to work more on cardio stuff, cos now it's a matter of bursting the first few buoys up to 200m then strokes not very nice after that. come nationals we'll burst 500m!

anw javine, my k2 partner (ketupat) and i have decided to name our k2 boat, rjc 13, steam boat! wheeeee (:

cool rite? full name of "rjc 13": full steam boat (as in full steam ahead!) also known as er... steamy and hot stuff! yay

first step acknowledge the problem: muddy takes very long to warmup, 4km+

2nd step reason out the problem: muddy needs to get slightly exhausted first, then will be forced to use back muscles + rotation instead of arms + more arms

3rd step solution: run, do longer warmup, do starting bursts

4th step celebration: WHEEEEEEEEEE (:

went through visualisation with the team today, trying to picture how things will go on saturday.

wake up
what time is it? 6am
open the door, grab specs, washup
change into black fbts and ahhh canoe singlet (:
breakfast! double bread with peanut butter
tape+ plasters+ shoes
check bag
put on windbreaker (:
car ride to macritchie, dad drops me at bus stop (sees van walking on the overhead bridge)
walk up the hill towards sji bag shed
it's quiet and the air is fresh
meet javine! go get steam boat, lifejacket 27 and paddle mudzi!
start our warmup row
around the pond, out to 500, back and bursting around shiok (:
out of water, watch teammates' races
2nd warmup, go running, got our lane draw, secure lane card, off to row
just us, our paddles (joshua and mudzi) and steam boat
paddling to the start line, see the other boats there
wait for 2-3 boats to align
then we move in
"1 minute to start"
"30s to start"
"all boats align"
we move up
we are at the start line, ready, we're ready
"start within 10 seconds....
GO!"
burst, backwash kill our competitors! 3 buoys, 4 buoys, keep going! competitors out of sight, no boats closing in on us
surge forward to maintain a bigger lead
250m buoy
feel a challenge coming up from the other boat
we pull harder and move forward, out of reach once again
twist, pull follow javine's strokes
up frequency
burst! steady balance, 6 more strokes, 2 more
race over (look behind)

100m bursts today was very exciting!

anw happy birthday pingni (: and onward boon and comrade, we will get 5 As!

camp, training, stuff (:

canoe camp last friday to saturday!

wheeeeeeeee

camp started out well, had icebreakers= captain's ball (: wheeeeee, ball sense deteoriates with improved canoeing skills (: then dinner! yes, food is very impt, everytime we try to talk abt camp inadvertently it'll turn to food! woohoo, then our J2s came back, yay (: but cos of that we delayed the rest of the team... and ximi, i like your style (: that's the way, no one is too big for the team.

guess what? hannah brought her sleeping bag to share with muddy... again! haha, throughout the night kept waking up to check the time, in the end woke up at 5.30am. wah, usually i'll just wake up at 6am for normal saturday trainings. yep, then breakfast (never knew skippy peanut butter comes in 1kg bottles!!) and it's off to macritchie!

the 1km we did was imba, ate the backwash from the guys' k2s. part of jiaolian's plan i suppose. did a few 500m and 250s. ketupat (k2 part-ner) we're getting the hang of starting burst!

did some imba monster sets, 12 pyramids, 2 x 50 pushups, 2 x 2 min plank then another 8 pyramid. selene came back to see us, she's still super powerful, though she was all dressed up and stuff, did the pushups with us! first set of 50 all the way! exciting! ahhh and the night before jasmine came back with the others, then in the afternoon too... have alot of respect for her; she brought the team through nationals and she still cares for the team.

anw back to school and lunchtime! wheeeeeeee

after that was sharing session, yay, ours J2 guys came back and also the J12s! that's like 10 years older than us. yea.. their batch had 7 girls and they got second. seeing their old pics (some black and white) and hearing abt their trainings was very inspiring. super pumped up lah. yep, and the age-old question, why did you join canoeing. quote the J12 capt, "cos i must have been a little psycho then" wheeeeeeee

then had the closing ceremony, first part was ouch. pushups be sacred thing to muddy. but anyhows i'm glad they all pulled through. next up was the run, the run of hopes and dreams. the team ran in a single file and the last person had to sprint to the front, shouting out why they joined canoeing (or their goals). total we ran 6 rounds around school, didn't feel that long at all. was pretty inspired by a couple, ky's "cos i'm sick and tired of seeing rj canoe getting third" and eugene's "cos nj said i couldn't win without them" joohui's "I row for my paddle, my boat, my team and my dream" prav i think who said "i join canoeing so i could be part of a team that i love" and of course everyone who said they rowed for the love of the team and for the challenge and discipline.

to nurture thinkers, leaders and pioneers, men and women with character, confidence and commitment, who will serve by leading and lead in serving whatever their chosen paths may be.

whatever their chosen paths may be

i really can't put a answer to that question, since sec 1 i knew i wanted to join canoeing after hearing about AKE from our part a ncos, then when they came back the following year and some of them joined canoeing, i knew my heart was set. then perhaps it's cos i think raffles (rgs, rjc) is the best thing ever and i want to pia my guts out for it. or maybe it's not really knowing why i joined, but knowing why i'm staying. cos no where else will i find a team like this, we train together, we play (club!) together, eat together (very very important)... and the dream that binds us all.

I think canoeing gives all of us a second chance. to finally realise those unfulfilled dreams. It could be looking for friendship (people who will stick with you no matter what), or winning a medal (perhaps tired of losing and being laughed at and looked down?) , or challenging yourself to go beyond your limits (personal satisfaction) dare i say this is a sport for people with dreams.

anw after that was closing, jing i'll remember your words, we must aspire to inspire before we expire (: seems like we're forever faced with the same challenges: lack of money, lack of resources and lack of support. but one thing i know for sure that nobody can ever take away from us is our spirit. and that's what makes the raffles canoeing team that special.

throughout the camp i saw that spirit within us and this is where i'm drawing my strength to fight on for raffles. now i know why i love the college anthem... because it means so much to me

College Anthem

When Stamford Raffles held the torch
That cast Promethean Flame
We faced the challenge of the day
To give our school a name
The eagle eye and gryphon strength
They led us to the fore
To reign supreme in ev'ry sphere
The sons of Singapore
Come heed the call Rafflesians all
And let our hearts be stirring
We'll do our best whate'er test
And keep our colours flying
Let comradeship and fervent hope
With one voice make us pray
Auspicium Melioris Aevi
With God to guide the way

today was monster training. apart from doing more than 1000 pushups and crunches and hitting 140 pullups total and 6min 23s team plank, i got gged big time. first time ever where my forearms refused to untighten themselves and i got owned damn badly, like 1 ipu (not talking abt pullups here) also ggxx. teammates i'm very thankful for you all, for everything you did today (:

muddy's promise is this saturday i'm not just rowing for 13, javine and myself. this one's for you teammates

ahhh and today was feeling a bit off in school. like the whole weekend for rahrah-ing and pumping up then come back to lessons and pple are just so nonchalent about stuff. during camp we talked about contesting for the championship, and how we'll give it our best shot with no regrets, go all out for that small chance of bringing glory to the school, and it's time for a change of the dynasties again. seems like some sort of secret life, haha, canoe cult. once you're back with the normal pple then you realise something's not quite right, and you just don't see that same fire within them.

for today at least muddy will agree with javine that it take discipline to train; but it takes even more discipline to stop training. thanks for catching me before i sunk too deep. training is highly addictive cos i know training will get me where i want to at the end of the next few months.

ahhh i can't imagine what life would be like after nationals. no more canoeing for muddy? now that's scary. can't imagine not being able to do a pullup or what if walking up stairs leave muddy totally wasted? ahhh the horrors. anw life is good with canoeing (:

flex!

exciting

water on saturday was good, the open-close door thing works (: 2.23, 7s from the last time we did 500. yea.. thanks javine (:

was super shiok during the second 250, bursting our way back.. felt powerful... unstoppable (: like i've been doing this all my life and no one can beat me at my game (as k2 backman) anw, javine thinks she needs to run more to get even more imba stamina= muddy must run till ggxx but we'll do it anw (: so hopefully we've be able to burst 2kms in the future.


the first time i raced with the seniors was in april.10 april. and some of the brave kids j1s (soolin, deborah and bernice) are racing with us now in march. it's a very steep learning curve initially... and scary. yes, it's scary. welcome to competition canoe-style. the trepidation (wah cheem word. lol i just spelt it wrongly for a gabillion times before opening MS word to check) while rowing towards the start line, aligning at the starting buoys, the surreal (another cheem word thanks) "Paddles up. Starting in 10 seconds.... GO!". trying to keep your balance yet chionging as hard as you can, crossing the finishing buoys and suddenly it's over, you wonder what just happened to the last few minutes of your life... how exciting (:

keep going team, it'll be worth it.


back to saturday, kept the weights, went to check the shed and er... was quite weird though, some j1 guy was still in the water and he got back at 11.30? c1. wondered how he carried the boat all the way to the shed alone. and he didn't have the keys! lol. anw, good reminder for everyone to be more alert to pack up when it's time. yay, i think mr koh very nice, first person/teacher/adult who actually said CTs not that impt cos he know we'll eventually perform (: cool stuff rite? what's more he motorbiked down at 7am sharp to open shed for us.

yep, couple of pullups to end the day nicely. happiness (: macritchie playground is fun!

revision's pretty good, roughly covered everything i want to except vectors which will have to wait till econs and geog are over.

some stuff on the net, rowing triggers. the word/phrase given before rowers go into a frenzy at the last bit of the race.

"NOBODY BEATS US!" -- Brad Alan Lewis and Paul Enquist race trigger '1984 from Assault on Lake Casitas

"FLEX!" -- National Team race trigger '1997

"DROP THE HAMMER!" -- Saint Joseph's University race trigger '1998

"KILL THE KING!" -- Saint Ignatius Crew (Cleveland) race trigger '1993

haha, i like "flex!" the most. anw for now we'll be sticking with burst! then again, most of the time we're severely out of breath already (:

njcc here we come (: raffles row!

some cool quote

Marathon runners talk about hitting 'the wall' at the twenty-third mile of the race. What rowers confront isn't a wall; it's a hole - an abyss of pain, which opens up in the second minute of the race. Large needles are being driven into your thigh muscles, while your forearms seem to be splitting. Then the pain becomes confused and disorganized, not like the windedness of the runner or the leg burn of the biker but an all-over, savage unpleasantness. As you pass the five-hundred-meter mark, with three-quarters of the race still to row, you realize with dread that you are not going to make it to the finish, but at the same time the idea of letting your teammates down by not rowing your hardest is unthinkable...Therefore, you are going to die. Welcome to this life." -- Ashleigh Teitel

interesting

physics and physical geog mission accomplished (:

3 weeks before njcc

this must be it, i'm feeling very pleased with myself. haha

though today wasn't an exceptional row for javine and me, muddy's still feeling happy, maybe cos team performance has been good (: njcc's coming up in 3 weeks, go raffles!

hm.. many happy things happened today. ran with darinne through the 'northern route' (it's the one next to the boardwalk) powerful j1s who went to play before training! 14 pullups for muddy here. training (watching joo and ximi glide in their boats, shawna and van imba monster glide (: soolin, deborah elisa (: pullups (: 5 sets of 12! 100 pushups. more pullups, 15! woohoo! so pullup count for today is ~90

went back to sch to mug, stopped by J8 to buy lunch, haha, had a nice chat with the auntie at the stall (then the uncle gave some super generous discount!) mug physical geog (:

yea... lots of inspiration to train harder. j1 guys at the pullup bars (last i heard, they're doing 8 sets of 12 pullups, 30pushups!)

and like what mr lee said that day, we do so well (relative here) in our ccas cos we chu1 everything we've got. and watching someone giving their heart and soul for a good cause (like canoeing) is inspiring (:

a little incoherent here, must be the sun. yay, muddy's orange now

ahhh and this crosser guy, wen loong, respect. his pullups not very imba (his 2.4 and running can own everyone upside down) , so he goes back to school to do pullups after his cross trainings. every training, without fail (:

prepared all the stuff i want to mug over the next week. now it's sitting happily on the floor (:

yay, total 450 pullups for the past week plus 7.30 and 7.45 1.6km runs (: happiness

ahhhh an exciting week is just about to start (: and the good thing? it's only 9.31pm, at least an hour before the realisation kicks in that whoa, it's another week!

somehow after saturday training muddy feels renewed. happy training to all (: jiaolian has started grouping some J1s with us for training training, meaning the water program. good stuff J1s (: (anw on a personal agenda, that's one promise kept, no J1 shall race, with seniors, using flites)

training tomorrow (: wheeeeeeeee

last day of school (:

crap, why my post disappear? ahhhh

happy (:

hello world! today is another happy day ! GP CTs are over and it was doable in my opinion, lol, for essay i saw the word 'fitness' in qn 5 then zoom straight into it. haha, later when lemin told me she did on qn 12 media i'm like huh? there was such a question? wheeeeeee

anw, peijie was freezing in the lt during gp, then xinying and joel gave their jackets to her, thought it was very nice of them (:

after paper was playing time, thanks to the couple of j1 guys who let muddy train alongside you all. did 10 x 10, though the 7th set onwards was ggxx. yep, then didn't want to risk the softballs so went to gym for rowing machine. half an hour 5.4km. short term goal to maintain enough sanity to row more half-an-hour sessions, mid term goal to row 5km in 25 minutes. long term... haha (:

shawna very powerful, 1 hour on the treadmill! and soolin (: wah, gym before training, training, then gym after training! respect respect teammates (:

yep, quote of the day, "even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat!"

nah, too evil for a happy day quote, this's better:

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces,I would still plant my apple tree. Martin Luther

playground keeps muddy happy

was at A62 for econs tutorial at 12.40pm, suddenly heard this repeated banging coming from the door? then the tables starting shaking. ggxx, sumatra tio earthquake. yea.. mrs ng didn't believe us when we said we should er.. evacuate cos got tremors, first time experience yo.

pe today was fun (: ran 4 rounds, 7min 45sec. avg 1.56 a lap. wheeeeeee, first round 1.57, second round 3.50 (huh?). quite shiok (: happy cos it's not all out. wheeeeeee. after that standing broad jump got owned, haha, went back after pe to try again, managed 173cm for a C. IPUs favourite station, but nothing beats playground.

that's it, the day passed very quickly. didn't even have time to sleep during physics lect cos was finishing up maths assignment, doing physics tutorial 16, collecting some super backdated forms and oh yarh, copying stuff down for the lecture itself. yay, and we've started on tutorial 13 for maths! can redeem myself (:

posting results out today. must have 6-4 points to stay in rj. heard even 7points (minus 4 bonus) not guaranteed a place.

anw we're keeping to our pullups-during-break promise. 5 sets of 8 today, last one ggxx.

so the plan (depending on water days) is monday max out, tuesday do a bit, wednesday max, thursday after water max. then rest (: saturday do a bit? wheeeeeeee

happy monday (the man who thinks he can)

physics today was super fun (: mr kadir ftw! muddy's favouritest lesson is physics tutorial! yay (: SPA after school was fun, should do decent. ahhh, and it's only the 10+ (or maybe even less) time muddy stepped into LT1.

ahhh and A level results (btw today was extra happy day cos we sang college anthem!) 55% of rj students got 4As, cumulative 72% (if i rmb correctly) got at least 3 As. imba monsters (: haha, and i think mr go piaked all our J3s' A lvl scores on the canoe board.

today went into overkill mode again (: YAY

break time 5 x 10 and an extra 5 pullups, improvement from 10 x 5 pullups last monday! did it in shorter time and no sweat! ahahahhahaha

training, haha, overestimated myself. but that's good, just train harder lah. let's see, for muddy part 1 was 10 sets of 10 pullups, 25 pushups. part 2, 200pushups, 500 crunches. part 3: 30,50,50 IPUs then did around 20 more pullups after training. pullups did until ggxx, all the lactic coursing through, haven't felt like that in quite a while. what doesn't kill muddy will make muddy stronger!

total pullup count for monday: 175 pullups! wheeeeeee

exciting!

something nice muddy found while er... reading muddy's older entries (:

The Man Who Thinks He Can --> -->
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win but you think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost,
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will -
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battle doesn't always go
To stronger or faster men;
But sooner or later the man who wins,
Is the one who thinks he can.
-- Walter D. Wintle

muddy's second race

today's race was ok, guess we'll just need more practice. the last thing i heard was 'all boats hold' then the air horn. apparently there was 'ready, paddles up, starting in 10 seconds' or something like that. think we were whacking more than paddling, nerves got the better of us. that's the thing with competitions, must keep calm and just do what you've been doing. 2 more races before the big one. anw there's this scf canoeist, her name's andrea i think, super zai, thrashed her competition for k1 and k2 500m. ownage (:

on another happier note, 18 pull ups today! looks like 4 days chiong 2 day rest is a good strategy. celebration with intensive homework piaing session!

so saturday morning went down to watch some races, then rowed a bit, reached home dinner time. sunday morning race, stayed for can's and shawna's 3rd place medal presentation, then home. so er... homework done= negligible. but it's amazing how much work can get done in 6 hours so here goes

wheeeeeeeeeee

tomorrow's gonna be exciting (just like today!)

wheeeeeeeeee

tried out the sji boat we'll be using tmr, good but just different from 13. haha, so we're changing seats! wheeeee, replacing the sji boat seats with seats from 13! pretty much like 'lucky underwear' in javine's terms (:

very thankful for the chance to row tomorrow, whatever it is we'll row our best. go all out for 500m (:

and like every other race i want to win, whether it's a medal or personal challenge, i believe i can win. Even if the odds are stacked against us, even if our competition seems to outclass us, i still hold this crazy belief that we can win, cos it's not up to us to say how much we're capable of achieving. sometimes we do surprise ourselves (: exciting!

"I am in power. I will not surrender. I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be victorious." Unknown

playground

first part emo post, need to let it out...

(skip to next paragraph)
Muddy lost it yesterday. took muddy long enough. was suddenly overcome by this wave of hopelessness. felt like i'm not doing enough for the team. yes, muddy tried to find ways to troubleshoot our way through, but still it wasn't enough. at this rate, what the heck, what gives us, or muddy for that matter, to talk about our big dreams for nationals? of course muddy knows when there's a will, there's a way. but after like 4 weeks? muddy's starting to doubt and yesterday was just the final straw. very troubled by the whole lack of training thing, lol, random thoughts like changing sports were racing in muddy's mind lah. plus i know we're all trying our best and it's very frustrating when there's no results. i promised i'll do my best in my capacity to help, but what if it's not enough? no doubt muddy is scared, nationals in 18 half weeks.

so i guess yesterday muddy learnt that muddy's still has a slight trace of humanity.

anw muddy's emo-ing here cos got banned from the playground. partly self-imposed, other part from boon and javine. no pullups for 3 days. cos the stiffness is acting up again, same as last decemeber. thanks noisan and javine for the hot/cold pack (: well, but that's good news rite? the last time it happened, muddy came back stronger than before!

ok, happier stuff, yesterday managed to do 10, 10, 10, 10, 7, 3 pullups with 25-40 pushups in between each set. very close to 5 x 10 already woohoo!

Target:

• 10 x 10 pullups in 25 minutes. 10 sets of 10 pullups (30 seconds), rest 30 seconds, 30 push ups (30 seconds), rest 1 minute.
• finish a 14 pyramid. then 16. then 18 and so on (:

Monday to Thursday, 4 days (150+30+70+100=350 pullups) overkill. Sets after water training usually ~50 pullups (12 pyramids) so this is like... ggxx. haha, plus around 800 pushups, 200 IPUs for the week! ok, i shall learn to control myself a little. the playground is highly addictive (:

went to practise strokes today, yay i like the track and field cca board, can see my strokes properly. corrected! let's check out the results tomorrow!

keep seeing some of the j1 guys at the pullup bars, marcus and shenghao in particular. haha, and the j1 girls all powerful (: pullups bars and gym, very good, i like (:

and jasmine super powerful! straight As! role model (:

more happy thoughts
the playground... (only the playground at RJ counts)
it's muddy's sanctuary (: happy place to be. plaground is muddy's good friend... and muddy either goes playground alone or with good friends (: it's super comforting just to be there, haha, go try. good thing abt playground no one can disturb you, just have fun and play!

wheeeeeeee, exciting!