Skysports.com's rugby union expert Tony Curtis tackles an intense England fitness session.
Skysports.com's Tony Curtis was handed the chance to train with the England team ahead of their Six Nations clash with France. Here our rugby union expert tackles an intense fitness session head on
It is a harsh lesson, but there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Having been offered the chance by
Powerade to train with England at their base at Pennyhill Park, I jumped at the opportunity.
However, I really should have listened to the finer details and watched the promo video before wholeheartedly agreeing.
It wasn't until 5am just before I set off for Surrey that I realised exactly what I had signed up for - as I sat and watched the video to mark the launch of Powerade ION4.
Suddenly a gentle run out with England was to become "an intense sweat session", with the theory to see how much you lose in fluids during an hour-long period.
My only saving grace was the fact that the majority of rugby union hacks have seen better days on the pitch, so surely things couldn't be that intense at the media day?
Unfortunately, little did I know that the session was going to be a little bit more intense and personal than I would have liked - with only myself and one other journalist taking part.
Having got changed and weighed (tipping the scales at a meaty 104kg) we were introduced to England trio Andrew Sheridan, Shontayne Hape and Tom Wood and coach Dan Howells.
Sheridan, Hape and Wood had the honour of acting as our motivators, water boys and obstacles - while Howells, who works in a number of roles around the England set-up for the men and women, was to become our tormentor-in-chief.
Rough
As Howells took us around the circuit, our faces must have been a picture as we were told exactly what we would be doing over the next 60 minutes.
As Hape kindly put it: "Jeez man, this is going to be rough on ya!" - congratulations to Hape for his understatement of the year award!
After a gentle jog and some warm-up drills, it was onto the starter for 11... shuttle runs.
The idea was to sprint 10m, hit the deck, sprint back 10m, hit the deck again before powering away for 50m. Howells kindly allowed us a 30-second breather before we were forced to go again and again and again.
In fact we went six times in total - and already the heart was thumping, I was sweating loads and we were only one exercise down.
Next up was a driving drill - and not in the more favourable behind the wheel sense. We had to shove a miniature scrum machine along for 20 seconds before having a 20-second breather while my colleague had a go. After two minutes, my calves had joined my lungs in rebelling against me.
Unfortunately, there was no time to rest as we headed into England's top-class gym facilities to tackle the ski machine. A mean machine, where you had to stand up and pull two chords down as if you are skiing. Sound easy? Well try doing it at maximum intensity for 20 seconds and only having a 10-second rest before going again... six times!
Now it was on for a five-minute gentle ride on the bikes to prevent the muscles cramping - but there was little chance to rest as we moved on to a series of 10-second sprints on maximum resistance, followed by 50-second recovery. After five repetitions, the body was really feeling the effects of a lifetime of preferring the 'good life'.
Back outside on the Pennyhill Park training pitch, we moved on to a version of a caber toss. Sprinting out to a large tackle bag, we had to flip it over three times before sprinting back to tag our partner so they can have a go. Three repetitions each and then we are moving on.
Next up it is a cheeky little exercise where we had run while carrying some weights on a little contraption. It was a case of running for 30 seconds before resting for 30 seconds - again it is three times each.
Obviously looking like I am feeling the heat, I get an unscheduled hosing down from Hape as we walk over to the wrestling grid.
Failure
Fortunately we are spared taking on Sheridan, although trying to move Wood off me while I lay on my back is no easy task... in fact after two attempts I fail to budge the flanker.
Having avoided Sheridan in the wrestling, we get to take on the prop in tug of war. Again there is a glorious failure, as I can't pull him out of the grid in either of my attempts despite my best efforts - with Sheridan barely troubled. In fact Sheridan is able to drag both myself and my colleague along as we try ganging up on him.
Having thought I had seen the last of the sprints, we are back to an alternative shuttle run. This time we started on our bellies before sprinting 10m, turning to sprint 20m, turning again to sprint 10m to hit the deck and then repeat a further two times. This drill was repeated three times and was a killer so late in the day.
Howells, obviously sensing that we were tiring fast, brought us back inside for a session on the bikes - although this time there are no sprints as he was clearly saving the worst to last...
With the ride completed, we head out for the final time for some runs up a boggy hill. First we have to tackle the biggest hill surrounding the pitching, before jogging down and heading to a smaller mound. This time we started on our bellies before powering up to the top. We do the circuit two more times before Howells' watch beeped to signal the end of the hour - and a relief to my battered body.
Before we could head in to enjoy the delights of the Pennyhill Park spa facilities, we took the final weigh in with the calculations showing I lost 2kgs in sweat doing the session!
It is a mini triumph as my colleague loses just 0.3kgs... although the fact I can hardly move after driving back to Yorkshire was surely not a good sign.
