Saturday 7th February: we woke up at 5.45am for roadwork. Soggy wants us to break a barrier so he took us on a 5km run with lots of hills then we did 15 uphill sprints and a 2km jog back to the hotel (we used a shortcut). We had pitch sessions (contact drills, passing drills, games ...)from 10am - 1pm and from 4pm – 7pm. Good sessions but exhausting! How would I survive the next day?
Sunday 8th February: I woke up at 5.45am and could not believe my ears when I heard it raining. Whoppee! My excitement melted away when I remembered that at the last camp the rain had a habit of ceasing whenever we are meant to go for roadwork. However by 6.15am it was still raining heavily so I called Jero (our team manager) and she told me to stay put until further communication. I was settling back to sleep again when I realised that I could not hear the rain anymore so I peeped out of the window. It was too dark to see anything so I got out of bed and went and stood outside: it was still raining although not as heavily as before. I did a little jig of pleasure in the rain and bounced back into my room and into my bed. Despite the rain, at that moment the day looked brighter.
Sunday 8th February: I woke up at 5.45am and could not believe my ears when I heard it raining. Whoppee! My excitement melted away when I remembered that at the last camp the rain had a habit of ceasing whenever we are meant to go for roadwork. However by 6.15am it was still raining heavily so I called Jero (our team manager) and she told me to stay put until further communication. I was settling back to sleep again when I realised that I could not hear the rain anymore so I peeped out of the window. It was too dark to see anything so I got out of bed and went and stood outside: it was still raining although not as heavily as before. I did a little jig of pleasure in the rain and bounced back into my room and into my bed. Despite the rain, at that moment the day looked brighter.
Ha! So I thought. Breakfast at eight and training at 10am. We had to make up for missing the roadwork session so we had a 5km run only it was a different route with different hills but the usual uphill sprints. Afterwards, we jogged back to the training ground, tongues rolling and wondering if the army had such a brutal training regimen. We had a 15 minute break then played touch rugby and went through our moves before winding up. We had lunch at 1pm and checked out. Monday and Tuesday are rest days and then we resume on Wednesday.
The training we are going through is so intense. None of us has ever prepared for something this big before so we really did not know what to expect. The great thing is that as times get tougher we get tighter as a team and are constantly encouraging each other to get the best out of ourselves. We come out of the sessions tired but stronger than before. The coaches are pleased with us especially as they are getting lots of positive feedback about us from rugby players (both ex-international and current international) and fans. The rugby fraternity is really rallying around us and we do not want to let them or ourselves down. Currently, our lives revolve around work and the rugby pitch. No time for anything else or anyone else. No alcohol either … the sacrifices we have to make. Meanwhile, Soggy and Mutaks have promised that the intensity will be toned down as we approach the World Cup. Hard work now and we’ll play easy. Hate them now and we’ll love them afterwards. Sounds fair ... ish.
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