FITNESS TESTS AND INTER MILAN          25th May 2010

We have had a busy day at national training camp during these few last days here in Washington D.C. With the hard work and summer-like conditions, I have to admit to feeling tired.

We had two training sessions today. The one in the morning started off with fitness testing. Even though the beep test is not too bad for me, as it doesn't last too long, the mere mention of the words "beep" or "cardio test" to a soccer player sends chills down their spines.

We didn't know any thing about the test until we arrived at the training field and heard in the middle distance a practice "beep." The immediate, almost Pavlovian reaction, was for many in the team to head off to the bathroom. Such is the apprehension that cardio testing elicits.

As always, the yo-yo test was short and only lasted about 10 minutes. But, it is a very painful test,  with players working CV and recovery systems hard. You run until you can't run at the designated speed any longer. My legs were burning by the end, and I can still feel the burn. Parker was the fittest player on the team - score approaching 18 - all props to her.

We only had about an hour between arriving back at the hotel after the morning training session and heading out for a second practice. This session was much lighter in terms of volume of work, and was mostly technical. We then showered at the field and headed straight to the train to head for downtown Washington.

We were off to watch the AC Milan team train at DC United stadium. Unfortunately, we were very late as the work had to come first.  We had to run much of the way, and this was not easy on legs that had run fitness tests earlier in the day.

We just caught the end of the AC Milan practice, and had a great opportunity to meet and talk to many of the players and their staff. Our coach, Carolina is one cool lady. She had us down at field level, taking photographs with all the AC Milan stars: Awesome.

I was able to meet many famous soccer players at the Olympics, but at that time I had felt really guilty about asking for pictures with these players, as I felt that they were just trying to work and go about their business.

This time I was seeing star players while they were "working" and this time I had no problem in asking for a picture or two.

I regret missing Ronaldinho, but I am pleased that I received a good a good picture with Seedorf and Pato.

We eventually arrived back at the hotel sometime after 9:20 pm, and we were all ravenous. Once we had eaten some dinner, we were all exhausted and too excited to sleep at first. On Thursday we depart for Norway. It will be good to see Diana again.