Chamkaur Singh - 3km and 5km National Record holder of Singapore.
Mun Yong Liang, Si Heng, Jeevanesh, Jian Hong, Jun Hian, Galen, Vikram, Shameer, Hao Wen and myself met Chamkaur Singh, aged 37 years old on Monday, 31st of May. It was about 10am. He introduced me to his girlfriend Lisa. His girlfriend is an Australian lady. I also come to find out that the girlfriend is also a runner. Chamkaur told me that his girlfriend gave him very good support in running.
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While we were sitting down, we started discussing on many topics which may be of, I guess, interest to many readers reading this article. To narrow down to a few of the topics, We talked about altitude training. Then the topic went on to how many years is needed to realise one's potential. Subsequently, Chamkaur spoke to me about injuries that he and his wife were having. I told about my injury that I am going through. I discussed on the new advances to improve the timing of a person in long distance. Finally, we ended up taking photos of each other. Chamkaur told me that the next day he had to leave Singapore to tour Italy. After the tour, Chamkaur told me that he is going to stay and train in Australia.
Attempting the National Record - 5km and Marathon
I told him that his recent timing shows that he may crack the record anytime for 5km. In the past, N. Ganesan, the current National Record holder for 5km with a time of 14min 57sec was doing around 15min 06sec to 15min 35sec, before he zoomed in to break the record finally. I told Chamkaur to go for the Singapore marathon record. For this, he told me that in the past he took part in a marathon in Singapore and did 2hrs 57min, coming in men international 10th and local 4th position. He said that he told himself that that was the first and last marathon for him.
Altitude Training
It was found that both of us did not do altitude training. In 1988 Seoul Olympics, it was found that 80% of the middle and long distance runners did altitude training. He asked me about altitude training and I told that from the assignment that I did in Loughborough University, reading 62 articles on altitude training, including Ma Junren's method, Norman Poole's method and George Gandy's method, a person should go at least 5 times for altitude training. The weeks to train at altitude should be about 2 to 4 weeks. It also is a good idea to come down to sea level and perform 4 days on one's arrival. Chamkaur told me that he has not gone for altitude training and he is interested to go for it once before a major competion per year. The girlfriend was very supportive to this idea.
Length of Training One has to Endure to Become a Champion
He told me that short cuts is not a good idea. What youngsters will need is patience. He told me that Zendher, his former coach, told him to wait for at least 6 years. I told him that until 10 years, I decided not to put any expectation. I knew that the performance will come later on in life. What is needed is consistency in life. In the process of training, an athlete should be independent enough to take care of oneself and not get any form of injury. Injury is part and parcel of life, hence, an athlete must minimise getting injury.
Injury
When we discussed in-depth on injury, I realised that for nearly a year before performing again, recently, Chamkaur did a meniscectomy near the back area near the hip. At present he said that he is not having any form of injury. I told him that I am having knee injury at the moment and it is getting better now. I told him that before 40 years, something told me that before one become old and decrepit, one should achieve whatever one wants physically before 40. After 40 one will be going through slower metabolism of the body and hence tend to put on some weight easily. At an older age one recovery will definitely be slowed down. It is an age where one should move on to challenge mentally, without forgetting fitness as a lifelong pursuit.
The girlfriend of Chamkaur told me about the injury that she is having. It was shin splint injury. I gave some exercises which will help strengthen the feet and the calve muscles. Lisa was very thankful to this.
Suggestion to go Australia
I recollected the day, when as an aspiring athlete, not having realised his potential, Chamkaur did come to me regarding the need to go to Australia. He asked whether it is a good idea. For this, I quickly told him to go. After a while, Lisa asked me politely whether I did mention to him to go to Australia. I said that I did say that. For this, suddenly, she became very appreciative of me and told me that she is very foutunate in finding Chamkaur and she told me that without Chamkaur coming to Australia, she would have missed him as a partner.
Singapore's Weather/Training/Organisation of Races
Chamkaur told me that it is good to avoid this weather for training and focus on doing the morning and late evening training. Chamkaur told me that it is not worth it to put the races on a hot period of the day. Students and athletes will not be able to perform to their best. By training in the hot weather, one would not go far in running as compared to training in the cool or cold countries. I agreed totally to this. I told him that most of the training I did, in the past, were all at evenings or night. Very recently, M. Ramachandran messaged me that the 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m and 10000m are going to be run at night for the National Games which is coming on mid-June and third week of June. I hope to see the race. The organisers must have been so thoughtful by going extra mile to care for the runners well-being and for the prevention of heat exhaustion.
Cooling Vest
In fact for bettering the performance, Chamkaur told me that there is this cooling vest which will improve one's performance if used before and during a warm-up. The performance will improve at the latter half of the race as compared to the same person who do not use it before and during a warm-up.
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