Centralised training continues... Well, actually, running training wise I've only had like a few long runs, 1 short intervals and 1 aqua jog. And oh, one intro session to the AFC gym, haha. Rest of the time I've either been sleeping or doing my IA report 4, which I managed to finally get signed and uploaded today.



Ran (cycled actually) some errands and met up with some old army friends for lunch too inbetween this very flexible in camp. It's good this way, especially for some folks who actually have exams during this period. But crap, I've gotten like ONE page out of like 50 pages of FYP readings done. And out of the ONE page I understood less than 30% of the terms? My FYP PHD student sup must be wondering when I'll actually get back to him....



Interesting, for this year's AHM, we have Mental Skills Training again. It's pretty interesting, the stuff said. But basically it's equiping oneself with methods to psyche yourself up. The 2 take away techniques from the 2 sessions are Visualisation and Emotion Anchoring.



The first, Visualisation, is about cheating your mind, your sub-conscious, into believing in and getting used to the sensations of a successful effort. The assumption here is that the mind doesn't really differentiate actual performances and visualised / imagined ones. As such, visualising an event can have the same psychological advantages as having actually performed the training.



The second, Emotion Anchoring, is about thinking up various important emotions that will aid performance, and looking for a means to anchor the emotion. The clenching of one's fist for example, can be constantly performed whenever one visualises or encounters a postive emotion. This will, to some extent, allow for the same emotions to be called upon next time via the same action of clenching one's fist... Well, it's just a way to psyche yourself up lah. Like a reminder to get your act together, similar to all the screaming and shouting we here during races.



On other matters, I finally acquired a good pair of brake calipers in Shimano Ultegra SL. $100 2nd hand is an OK deal lah. Now I don't have to share brakes for my bridgestone and TCR workhorse, and can also swap out the grabby Zero Gravity front brake of my TCR composite in times of need...

On other news, I have 40% off Mizuno, 30% off Adidas, 45% off Saucony from the team. Perhaps I shall get a pair of lightweight trainers to use for racing. Although that would add to my many many many pair of shoes....