The beginning of a U.S. WNT camp inevitably features the Beep Test, the USA's endurance/fitness test that involves running back and forth between cones -- and beeps -- with the time between beeps getting shorter as the players advance through the test. Suffice it to say, it hurts, but the U.

The first pure fitness session on the field since camp began five days ago was a doozy. Designed by fitness coach Masa Sakihana, the intense 36-minute program was built to increase their maximum fitness capacity and improve the players' ability to change direction at speed.

There were two different stations, each running a duration of one minute.

By Chris Wright

A gaggle of photos of Fabio Capello and the England blighters going through their paces at London Colney ahead of Friday's Euro 2012 showdown with Montenegro.

Eyes peeled for John Terry's puzzling sock choice what on Earth could it mean?

FC Basel's warm-up mats are ridiculously organized but they won't know it from down there! Anyway, before you write off the Swiss side's chances completely against powerhouses Man United later today, listen to what coach Thorsten Fink has to say. Sure, he sounds like the ice-cream man who knows he is running out of cones, but in football, there are always waffle, chocolate cones, cups, etc.

I met a cannoneer with sunken eyes

Who said: Two vast and glassless rims of stone
Stand in north London. In their shadow lies
A battered puffer-jacket, cursed and thrown
Aside, as yet another season flies
Athwart the sun, then melts, then falls, then sags
In baffled error.

The U.S. U-20 MNT trained twice today, under clear skies and perfect soccer temperatures. It only gets to about 75 degrees here duing the day, and by 6:30 or so - when the evening training ended - it was cool enough for jackets and pants.
By the way, this picture does not do justice to the elaborate cone set ups of strength and conditioning coach Robbie Elliott.

Harry How - Getty Images

First stop in Arizona: To have a chat with Gary Smith and see where he's taking his Colorado Rapids this year. (I'll also check to see if he's hauling around that trophy in his back seat.

Kip Kesgard reported on the Portland Timbers preseason training.

I had heard Coach John Spencer runs a rather animated training camp, and I would say even that description didn't describe the atmosphere of training. Coach Spencer was planning on using the first week of camp to focus entirely on fitness and stamina, and his first exercise was to break the field players into two groups for shuttle runs around cones placed on the pitch.