Training 2.2

Training in a bigger group is always easier and training with new playmates always makes life more interesting.

So it was double bonus time tonight, with H and Chris joining Fat Lad, Zico and me at the old running around like lunatics for an hour or so thing. We started with the usual lap around the whole field and part way round both of the newbies said the same thing, "I thought we were only doing a lap of the field" meaning the football field we started from. Both looked a little wheezy as we came in a time of around 3m40s.

The shuttles were interesting as Chris mentioned that these were the same ones we did in our Supply League. I had a little chuckle as they seem to be the standard kind of warm up shuttles that every referee does (I even saw Mark Halsey doing similar before the Leeds Millwall League One play off game). Once everyone had gotten themselves ready off we set.

It was a simple 2m run followed by a 2m walk and then repeated another 4 times before a 5 minute rest. We then went through the same 5 reps again. Now it was interesting to see just how Fat Lad and I fared against the new guys. I managed to hold my own and Fat Lad was away on his own with Zico.

I worked hard tonight trying to make sure I got some real benefit out of the session. In fact all of the sessions this week and next are supposed to be a gentle breaking in, before I have a rest of 2 weeks in Crete (I'll still be training but on my own in much higher temperatures!) and then get into the real work in July.

So after we warmed down I was very pleased to find that I had burned 1223 calories in a 70 minute session. That's more than I was burning in some of my end of season games over 90 minutes and half time! Max heart rate peaked at 100% (175 bpm) and averaged 82% (145 bpm) meaning I did good! Hopefully Chris and H will be back ... my next session is set for Friday.