Departure from Montreal meant that I had to make an exceptionally early start to Tuesday, 6th December; I had to leave the house at 3:30 am. Fortunately, Marie-Eve had to leave at 2:30am so I was unable to complain or whine for the entire day. We met up with the Toronto crew on the way and landed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon around lunch time. Since then, we have endured three really hard and intense training sessions.

We are staying in the city of Fullerton, about an hour outside of L.A., where we are being hosted by the California State University Fullerton, so a big thank you to them. It has been good to see everyone again and to a player, we enjoyed leaving behind the grey rains of Canada for the sunshine of California. However, we are going to have to work hard to pay for our week or two of sun.

Our first practice session was the night of our arrival, and it was not as easy as we thought it was going to be. We had expected a light workout to strecth our limbs, but this was not forthcoming. The session was a good one, but it was also a good warning and wake up call for what this camp is going to be about: Hard work; intensity; focus; and, all the details.

On Wednesday we had an early morning start. No one minded much as the early start meant that we were going to get the dreaded beep test out of the way. This coaching staff LOVES the beep test and we, the players, hate it. The test as I have explained before, ominously hangs over the squad until we have run it. The test is just as tough on you mentally as it is physically. This is not fun.

By lunch we had the dreaded test out of the way. It's a great feeling. The rest of the day was then spent getting treatment, watching old team soccer footage and preparing for the afternoon session. Not surprisingly, the session was a hard one, again. We ended the practice with more fitness work, and this was even harder. I am now in my room getting ready for bed, it is 9:00 pm, and so the camp begins. Ouch.