Men’s Jr. Team USA Test Series – 2 

November 13, 2010

The day started off bright and early with breakfast at 7am and then practice at 8. After reflecting on our first breakfast, several of us agreed that the 5 hours of sleep was probably the only reason the omelets tasted all right, they could have been much better that’s for sure. Everyone was pretty tired from travelling the day before and it didn’t help that we got to the hotel at 1am. Practice was interesting to say the least, because as you can imagine, we were all very tired and it made for a very tough practice. Our team captain Taylor Curran encouraged us by always saying, "lets go buckos!!!!" and "open the cage and unleash your inner giraffe". Clearly the lack of sleep had affected Taylor’s mental state.

We then had a short break before our second practice of the day at 12pm. We all relaxed in our rooms and watched TV. Our second practice of the day went much better and we seemed to settle in as a team on and off the field.  After practice we had lunch at Subway, where we all learned that unlike in Canada all the meat in our sandwiches were made from turkey.  Not quite what some of us were expecting when we ordered and Italian BMT. 

Meanwhile our team manager, Alvin Bissett, was busy preparing our dinner for the evening. We weren’t really sure if we would be going to restaurant or cooking our own food. However we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Alvin had bought a couple BBQs and was making hamburgers and potato salad. The food was good and Tyler Klenk, especially, was a big fan of the potato salad. As he said "I can eat this stuff all day, errday!".

After dinner we all had our ice baths and got to bed early. Everyone was very supportive of having ice baths and as a team, we had no problem doing it, especially yours truly.

By: Arif Virjee  –  # 10

Men’s Junior National Touring Athlete