Hitting the track

06 October, 2008 | 14:10

A new week and a newcomer down at Roehampton in the shape of fitness trainer Jez Green.

No sooner had he stepped off the red-eye flight from Miami, he was on court partnering Andy in the tennis/football warm-up...

 

Unlike the other guys, Jez stayed in the US after the US Open, opting to drive down to Miami from New York.

Fresh off the plane and straight back into it...

After a slow start, Miles and Matty Little were back into it from 6-1 down. Miles playing as aggressive as ever at the net...

Andy on the other hand has started getting the back-heels involved on the deeper returns...

They were due to hit for three hours in the morning, but that was put on ice after Andy broke the strings on all his racquets inside 20 minutes.

Instead, they chucked everything into the car and drove to the athletics track...

The local track isn't particularly glamorous: a few rusty sheds, and a high-jump mat with ducks on. But it's got a track, and that's all you need.

On a fresh October day, you want to get a good warm-up in...

And you It's also worth getting rid of the hurdles in lanes three and four. Taking your top off is not mandatory however...

The plan for today was to bash out five consecutive 400 metre laps, with each guy given a different recovery time.

As you'd expect, Andy had the least time of all and pushed hard from the start...

Right at the beginning they're going off at around the same time and hitting the bend together...

But after a while they're running their own little races; Andy on his own, Matty on his own, Miles and Jez together somewhere between the two...

A single 400 on its own isn't the kindest exercise in the world, but after two or three it's just ugly on the body...

And after a few seconds rest, they head back to do another.

The only thing you can hear is a lot of puffing, and the 'beep-beep-beep' of running watches spelling out their split times....

By the end of the session they're all a bit, well, in a bad way...

That would be enough for most people, but they just got their breath back, had some lunch, and hit the tennis courts for an hour and a half.

Not before Miles had made a phonecall standing worryingly close to the statue of Novak Djokovic..

More tomorrow...