I play Australian rules football for a local club, and this weekend just passed, we had our Pre-Season camp in halls gap. About 3 and a half hour drive from home.
Now, a footy camp with 30 other blokes sounds like a wild, drunk couple of days. Sadly this was not the case. As soon as we arrived around 9am we were told to get into our training gear and start warming up. It was cold, pissing down rain and we were running around looking like morons. It felt like the training scene from Full Metal Jacket.
After half an hour warm up of working up a light sweat, we were told to grab 2 bricks, put them in our back packs and run 500 meters up a hill and back. We were split into 2 teams for the whole camp so their was that competitive side of beating the other team. As soon as we arrived back we were made to do 100 push ups, with a short rest after each 20, and then do the run again thankfully, this time without the 2 bricks.
After stopping for half an hour for lunch, we split into our two groups again. My group was off on a 4 km run up one of the Mountains and back, so 8km all up. (0.62 miles = 1 Km) It took about an hour and a half to complete, this may seem like a long time but considering for roughly half the time you were literally climbing up rocks, we were pretty fast. The other team took about 2 and a half hours.
This was the mountain
The view from once we were up there.This made it a little worth while.
After yet another short 20 minute brake we were off on a 20 km bike ride. This was a little more fun going mountain bike riding, but after all the running it was still very painful. It was sandy and wet, a couple of people stacked lol one dude was going to fast down a hill, slid out on the sand and went flying down into the bushes, the guy behind him was busy laughing at him, ran straight into a big rock and went head first into a puddle on the other side.. by this time I was laughing so hard I nearly got closed lined by a tree lol.
This was day 1. The bar was open where we were staying but knowing that we were going to get punished again tomorrow, no one drank.
Being woken up at 6.30am and being told to eat breakfast and meet them at the pool, was not what I was after. I was sore in places I didn't even know I had muscle's. After a few laps of trying to loosen up, we were once again running around warming up for the next activity, 400 meter sprints. Yay :notrust:..
I was that over this camp by this stage all I wanted to do is go home to bed.
Bearing in mind that we were kept in the dark for the whole camp on what we were actually doing.. we treated these sprints as it was our last, going all out, thinking surely we wouldn't be made to do anymore, most of us could hardly walk normal.
Of course this wasn't the case, once again the backpacks came out with the two bricks and off we went on a 12km run this time. We wanted to kill our coach, I actually thought about throwing one of the bricks at his head several times lol. It was the most physical/psychological demanding thing I have ever had to do. Running for over two hours, carrying two bricks felt like an eternity. A few could not even finish.
Was it all worth it? Well, we will see come our first practice match in a couple of weeks.
My question to you is, what is the most physical demanding thing you have ever had to do?
Whether by choice or command. It can be running a marathon or something as small as getting a tattoo. How far have you pushed yourself to achieve something that at first, seems to be to hard or to much pain..?
Some old fag (don't know who) said " If you think you can't, you won't. If you think you can, you will. either way, you're rite."
Now, a footy camp with 30 other blokes sounds like a wild, drunk couple of days. Sadly this was not the case. As soon as we arrived around 9am we were told to get into our training gear and start warming up. It was cold, pissing down rain and we were running around looking like morons. It felt like the training scene from Full Metal Jacket.
After half an hour warm up of working up a light sweat, we were told to grab 2 bricks, put them in our back packs and run 500 meters up a hill and back. We were split into 2 teams for the whole camp so their was that competitive side of beating the other team. As soon as we arrived back we were made to do 100 push ups, with a short rest after each 20, and then do the run again thankfully, this time without the 2 bricks.
After stopping for half an hour for lunch, we split into our two groups again. My group was off on a 4 km run up one of the Mountains and back, so 8km all up. (0.62 miles = 1 Km) It took about an hour and a half to complete, this may seem like a long time but considering for roughly half the time you were literally climbing up rocks, we were pretty fast. The other team took about 2 and a half hours.
This was the mountain
The view from once we were up there.This made it a little worth while.
After yet another short 20 minute brake we were off on a 20 km bike ride. This was a little more fun going mountain bike riding, but after all the running it was still very painful. It was sandy and wet, a couple of people stacked lol one dude was going to fast down a hill, slid out on the sand and went flying down into the bushes, the guy behind him was busy laughing at him, ran straight into a big rock and went head first into a puddle on the other side.. by this time I was laughing so hard I nearly got closed lined by a tree lol.
This was day 1. The bar was open where we were staying but knowing that we were going to get punished again tomorrow, no one drank.
Being woken up at 6.30am and being told to eat breakfast and meet them at the pool, was not what I was after. I was sore in places I didn't even know I had muscle's. After a few laps of trying to loosen up, we were once again running around warming up for the next activity, 400 meter sprints. Yay :notrust:..
I was that over this camp by this stage all I wanted to do is go home to bed.
Bearing in mind that we were kept in the dark for the whole camp on what we were actually doing.. we treated these sprints as it was our last, going all out, thinking surely we wouldn't be made to do anymore, most of us could hardly walk normal.
Of course this wasn't the case, once again the backpacks came out with the two bricks and off we went on a 12km run this time. We wanted to kill our coach, I actually thought about throwing one of the bricks at his head several times lol. It was the most physical/psychological demanding thing I have ever had to do. Running for over two hours, carrying two bricks felt like an eternity. A few could not even finish.
Was it all worth it? Well, we will see come our first practice match in a couple of weeks.
My question to you is, what is the most physical demanding thing you have ever had to do?
Whether by choice or command. It can be running a marathon or something as small as getting a tattoo. How far have you pushed yourself to achieve something that at first, seems to be to hard or to much pain..?
Some old fag (don't know who) said " If you think you can't, you won't. If you think you can, you will. either way, you're rite."
