Thursday, and the 2014 pre season training camp is nearing its completion.
It's been an excellent week and one which I'm sure the players will look back on as being one of enormous benefit with the impending challenge ahead. To have worked as hard as they have in such stifling conditions bodes well for the future, and will give them plenty in their energy bank.
Following breakfast it was off to the IMG where the normal itinerary of events took place prior to the players facing a heavy Level Five session.
Not surprisingly though given the mandatory thunder rolling around in the vicinity, the klaxon sounded and the session was interrupted for approximately 15 minutes. During the break in play I was introduced to someone who some of the older readers may remember by name: Peter Mellor.
A goalkeeper, Peter made over 200 appearances for Championship newcomers (!) Fulham in the seventies and now is a distinguished coach with his own football (soccer) school in the US, based in Clearwater.
He just happened to be visiting the campus and noticed we were training there.
I also spoke to a young lad who was part of a training group on the next pitch who happened to be wearing a Brentford away shirt from last season.
He said he had been to see Brentford at the last game of the season in May and was now a converted Bees fan.
There was another guest during the morning session, albeit an unwelcome one.
Behind the goal area there are bushes behind which runs netting to try and prevent stray or overhit balls from finding their way into the stream that flows through this part of the campus.
As Simon Royce went to retrieve one of the balls he came face to face with what is known as a Southern Black Racer - a four foot long black snake.
He was soon reassured by IMG staff that they are not poisonous but that is of little comfort when you know that it is in the vicinity lurking and other stray balls will need to be retrieved from this area.
As you can imagine at the end of training it caused a lot of interest as did the Racer's mate who was also spotted!
On completion of what was an exhausting and long session for the players it was time to be transferred to our lunchtime venue at the golf club after which it was on to the gym where the conditioning team put the players through a series of exercises concentrating on the lower limb.
Whilst the players were working out, a few of us, namely Roycie, Bob the Kitman and myself, were given the priveleged opportunity of being shown around part of the huge complex and told of the plans for expansion over the next twelve months.
IMG was founded 36 years ago by Nick Bollettieri, and was originally a tennis academy with some of the top names in tennis over the past thirty years, such as Andre Agassi, Bjorn Borg, the Williams sisters to name just a few, having graduated through the Academy.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog Maria Sharapova lives locally and trains here.
The campus, in Bradenton, covers 450 acres with immediate plans to increase by a further 110 acres.
It plays host to a number of sports namely tennis, American Football, baseball, basketball, golf and the USA's fastest growing sport lacrosse, plus of course our brand of football.
The facilities are available to professional teams, both international and club, plus they run soccer camps for youngsters throughout the year, at a cost of $1,700 per person per week.
These camps are continuously full.
The facilities are as good as you can get yet the immediate plans they have for expansion are mind blowing.
During our tour we were shown the dressing room for their own Academy American Football team.
WOW!
You have never seen a dressing room like it.
It was huge, given of course the number of players in their squads, but with every conceivable facility "state of the art".
Added to everything else, the quality of the staff with whom we have been dealing on a day to day basis, is exemplary.
Nothing is too much trouble and whatever we have required at any given time our request has been honoured, whether at the training camp, the golf club or the gym.
After our tour and having joined up again with the squad, we returned to the hotel just in time for our 4 o'clock snacks after which Head of Analysis Neil McIlhargey, led a discussion on a few relevant statistics which could well have a bearing on what is to come for the season ahead.
Then it was the opportunity for us all to enjoy a couple of "down time" hours before dinner at 7.30 and an earlyish night before our final full day here in Sarasota on Friday.