World Cup 10: Practice then prison

So, today was not nearly as bad as we anticipated. Our first task for the day was to do the last saliva sample for Trie. I feel like most of us probably had elevated cortisol levels because of being stressed about what we had in store for training. We did have practice this morning but it wasn't the two hours that we had been threatened with. Instead it was 45 minutes of hard running and contact work. It was really helpful for our flow and game play and left us feeling really gelled together. After practice we came back to the hotel and I saw my dad off. He's going to try and come back for the last weekend if the tickets are reasonable. Then we ate lunch.

After lunch we went out to a local youth correction facility. We did a bunch of drills and then got some of the kids to get involved. They were particularly amused when we put them into scrums and lineouts. We were trying to emphasize the positive impact that participating in sports has had for us. The whole idea of wanting to belong to something and having that sense of family in the team. We only got to stay for about an hour, but it was fun nonetheless.

When we got back to the hotel we had a video session, where we watched yesterday's game. It was frustrating to watch, but also really pointed out some of the critical mental errors that have plagued us in international play. So hopefully we'll be able to adapt to our mistakes and learn from them.

After the video it was free time. A group of us (Patty, Hedwig, Heather, Annie, Jen, Ashley, CArrie, and myself) went out to dinner to get Thai food, while others went to Olive Garden. It took a long time for our food to arrive but while we waited we got to hear lots of entertaining stories. And when it did arrive it was worth it. Wonderful curry, though it did clear the sinuses really well. By the time dinner was done it was 8:30pm and there was just enough time for me to go see Doc to get some treatment before heading back to my room to write this.

Now I'm trying to keep from getting sucked into 'Cruel Intentions' but unfortunately I think the addiction is kicking in. Hopefull it's almost over because I don't know if I'll be able to separate myself.