PRACTICE, REST AND PEE      31st August 2010

Happy and belated wedding anniversary good wishes to my brother David and sister in law Kristina.

The squad had some more fitness testing yesterday morning. The coaching staff had told us that we were done after the yo yo test - grrrr. Luckily, the that was not that hard nor demanding, and it took very little time to get through it.

The most nerve wracking part of the test was probably the room where the test was held. As you walked into the room, there were 6 or 7 people sitting there just waiting to poke prod and... well basically judge you.

The first thing they did was to take your heart rate, blood pressure and then they measured your lung capacity. You were asked to lie on a bed and your resting heart rate was taken. You were then asked to cycle on a stationary bicycle ergometer for a couple of minutes and then it was back to lying on the bed for your heart rate retaken. It was not hard at all, especially as there wasn't much you could do. Your heart rate could not be changed on the day. You had either done the work or not, and there was nowhere to hide.

The afternoon practice session was a hard one. We have had a day and a half off, so we were all itching to go for training. It was a good thing as the plan was to work us hard. Our trainer, Mario, had given us individualized training programs while we were at home, so we already had a good understanding of what on field strength was about. Doing the training is hard, but it is only after you have finished that the effects really kick in. You have really heavy, heavy legs.

The session was two hours long, so we were all crawling off the field by the end of it. It felt good to work hard, and playing for Carolina, we always know that she will give us good rest time to recover.

We have this morning off again. Her philosophy is to work us hard in practice sessions, but gives us adequate rest time in between to recuperate. Even though we have this morning off, we did still have a pretty early wake-up call. We had to have our pee samples in by 0730 am this morning. While providing this sample I could not help but wonder how many other jobs in the world there are where this type of training and urine collection is required.

The alarm goes off and we stagger into the bathroom and "try" to provide a clean, pee sample before we have even washed our face or brushed our teeth or had a glass of water.