While Eastern Canada was having its coldest days of the winter, the Canadian National Women's team was enjoying its second day of operations under sunny, warm skies. Temperatures are in the '20s  and so, conditions are slightly different than the Montreal winter training weather I have been preparing in. However, the second day of camp never starts off well, regardless of conditions: The dreaded yo-yo test holds sway.

I am counting today as the second day of camp even though the squad only assembled yesterday afternoon. The evening session we had on 3rd January was a tough one and so I believe it qualifies as a camp day.

I am pleased to announce that the yoyo field test of aerobic fitness  is now done and out of the way. This is always one of the best of feelings. The relief is palpable and you only need to look at the  players lying around on the pitch and the stream of twitter feeds to know how we all feel. l love it.

After the morning work, we had a long team meeting, before we rushed to get ready for our afternoon practice. This session was, as you would expect, much longer than the morning affair. It was also much less intense. We are accomplishing a great deal of work on movements and how we will deal with different situations that may arise. This is all slower intensity work, but also extremely important.

Finally, we headed back to the hotel for ice baths, warm showers, and a good dinner before filing back into a second meeting. We are making maximum use of time, but my butt is decidedly sore tonight.

We start again early tomorrow morning, when we are headed into the weight room.