Source: FOOTYMAD
Warm weather training working
No complaints from the players as Jefferies and Brown up the training tempo. Full-back Craig Thomson feels the club is in good shape under Jim Jefferies after lacking fitness during the previous regime. Jefferies and assistant Billy Brown guided Hearts into the top six of the SPL after taking over from Csaba Laszlo in January. The veteran management pair have set about ensuring Hearts start better this year by arranging regular fitness sessions during the close season and now putting their players through their paces with double training sessions in the 30C heat and altitude of Tuscany. Thomson said: "It is enjoyable, but hard work at the same time, but that is what it is all about. I don't think we were fit enough at the start of last season. I am sure it will be different, it is already." The players are taking on the new drive for fitness and Thomson was one who trained three times a week at Meadowbank Stadium throughout their summer break. He went on: "It has kept us physically fit enough to cope with the things that Jim and Billy are doing. Without a doubt it has helped us. It is a different kind of running. The heat, you just don't understand, it is so hot and the boys are having to take their tops off and they are throwing bottles of water over their head. It is good and I am sure it's better than training in Scotland." Thomson's response to the new pre-season regime came as a relief to Brown. Jefferies right hand man said: "We were a bit concerned as our methods were a bit different to what they had to face in the last two or three seasons. But the fitness level is good and the attitude is outstanding." Jefferies and Brown took Hearts to the same Il Ciocco training camp during their first spell in charge at Tynecastle and Brown revealed his players were matching the previous generation. Brown said: "I have still got all the pre-season work from 1999 as I write all this stuff down and these boys are doing the same times. That gives me the enthusiasm that the players are still warm to the methods we adopt."
