An intense session of hill running and hiking finished the first week of the club’s high altitude camp in Boulder, Colorado.

Captain Jobe Watson, Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley and Michael Hibberd took part in the session on their fifth day into the camp.

Watson said the hill sprints at altitude provided important conditioning for the player’s bodies.

“It is trying to mimic the program to what is going on back home,” Watson said.

“It is not as steep as back home but probably a bit longer and it is trying to condition your body to run with lactic before being able to remove it and go again.”

“It is all about the repeated effort and is certainly a challenge.”

Following the powerful running session the players took part in their second hike, this time up Mount Sanitas.

Watson said the steep climb was a testing both physically and mentally.

“Certainly early on the lactic was burning in the legs and it was very difficult so we had to take a couple of drinks breaks,”

“We eventually found our legs, it has been a really good week here and it was a good way to finish off a good week.”

The Bombers captain said he was pleased with the way the group had performed during the first week of the camp.

“The goal and reason we are here is to maximise our time to get the most out of it and I feel as though we have been able to adapt,” Watson said.

“Certainly from a fitness component what we wanted to achieve is something that we have been able to get so far.

“The dynamic of having a smaller group has worked well and we will be looking to build even more on that next week."