Welcome to the world of England sevens training.
The worst part of it was we were roughly five minutes into a two-hour session.
The group of journalists – who had gathered at Twickenham ahead of the season-ending Marriott London Sevens tournament this weekend – cannot say they had not been warned, however.
Just before we started the bike watt test – 3km on a spin bike as fast as you can – we were told by England forward Chris Cracknell: “This is going to hurt.” It did not disappoint in that regard.
Fancying myself as a bit of an amateur Mark Cavendish, I targeted the players’ record set by Cracknell of 3mins, 28secs.
Egged on by my personal cheerleader, aka 22-year-old fly-half Dan Bibby, I was close – 3mins, 54secs – but no cigar.
My legs felt liquified but there was no respite as we headed into the gym for circuit training with England’s strength and conditioning coach Dan Howells. Joy.
There were eight stations where you had to go as hard as you can for 30 seconds, with 15 seconds of rest between each exercise.
The individual stations are a bit of a blur now – maybe I have tried to blank out the pain involved – but I do remember using ropes, pulleys and pushing around something heavy whose name sounds like a comic book baddie – ‘The Prowler’ – while forward Mark Odejobi, nicknamed ‘Oddjob’, urged me on.
Article source: http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12507/9129996/rbs-six-nations-2014-wales-preview
Training with England"s Rugby Sevens team ahead of the Marriott London Sevens
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