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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

ICE BATHS AT UTEP 4th April 2008

We had an earlier start this morning, as we were heading to El Paso for training. It was an early wake up, but I made a mistake and woke up my roommate even earlier ... whoops. After breakfast, we had about 30 minutes to get into our training kit, find our passports, which was challenging ( mine had somehow moved itself under the bed) and pack clothing for a day away from the hotel.

We arrived at the training ground in El Paso at 10:00am Mexican time/11:00 am El Paso time. Some good news is that this time discrepancy will change on Sunday when clocks are changed.

The practice session was an intense one, but it was also a very good one with everyone looking sharp and focused. We ended the practice with some sprints. I was not among the leaders...but, I think some of my teammates were cheating.

After training we headed to the UTEP football stadium where we each had an ice-bath for 10 minutes before showering. The football players in the training room definitely looked confused when 20 women marched through their training room, said "hello" and jumped into the ice-baths. They were still looking confused 10 minutes later when we traipsed back through with our wet feet.

After our frigid baths, we each had a warm shower before getting back on the bus and heading for the local mall. We were each given some money to buy whatever we wanted for lunch. It was a pleasant surprise, and I ended up having Japanese with D, Erin, Kiss and Amy. When most people think of Japanese food, they think minimalist. This is not what happened for our lunch. In fact, the staff gave us each enough for a family of four We did it justice.

In all, we had two hours to ourselves in the mall. This was too much time for some, and not enough for others. I had too much time on my hands. I tried to kill the ramining minutes with talking on the cell phone, which only works when we are in Texas for training.

Two hours later the team regrouped at the bus, many laden with shopping bags, and there were plenty f smiling faces. As usual, the border crossing into Mexico was much faster than getting into the States, a fact we all appreciated, as we were all pretty tired by this point. Then, in the hotel, we had about an hour to sit around in our rooms before supper. The meal itself didn’t take very long as we were all tired and ready for bed anyway.

The clocks change on Sunday, game day, so we are going to start transitioning tomorrow. What this means is that morning wakeup will be at 07:45, WAYYYYYYYYYY too early, but I understand the necessity. Tomorrows training, I believe, is back at the private school dirt field in Juarez. I’m glad it will be close by.