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I've been away on my first-ever camping trip this week, which was very well timed as I picked up a slight injury in training last Thursday. It is quite ironic considering that I had mentioned just last week how much I hated missing pre-season sessions as it usually means you'll end up playing catch-up on your own.

You never want to be separated from your team-mates at any point of the season, but pre-season is just horrible. Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be that bad and I even managed to complete the morning session of our double-header at the weekend.

I had already agreed with the manager that I would be having Monday and Thursday off this week. But, because of the injury, I will be in on Thursday hoping to be ready to play some part of our first friendly against Dalbeattie Star on Saturday afternoon.

The good thing about being away for a few days is that I haven't had to watch the boys doing their work while I sat on the sidelines. I've been away enjoying sunshine, barbeques and some sing songs round the camp fire.

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I will spare you the moaning I had anticipated would come from our first week of pre-season training.

I'll be honest and say that our manager, Harry Cairney, has been pretty kind to us so far.

I won't go as far as saying our first three sessions have been easy, but I've been pleasantly surprised; or maybe I've just come back to the club fitter than I thought.

The boys all came in last Thursday and the whispers started with everyone trying to second guess what Harry had in store for us. I tried to tell them that it wouldn't be as bad as they imagined.

I've done a few pre-seasons with Harry and he has never been one for hitting you hard in that opening session. I think he realises that when you come back the muscles are sore and if you do too much the chances of a few boys missing the next one are greater.

At our level we don't have the luxury of the recovery methods that bigger clubs have, so we have to do our own thing to prepare ourselves for each day.

We are obviously advised by the physios but whether the players take that on board is another thing. For example, I was really struggling on Saturday with my hamstrings and had to step out of the session (it was ball work at the time so I never missed the hard stuff) for Ross Goodwin to give me a rub.

I went back and finished training but was advised to have a warm bath that night. We went for a game of golf in the afternoon and I was exhausted by the time I got home and needless to say I never had that bath; luckily for me I was okay for Monday night.

It's an individual responsibility at this time of the season to prepare your body and allow yourself to recover properly between times. I've previously mentioned that I'm not all that fond of pre-season training but I tell you what I would hate it more if I were to miss out.

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I hope you enjoy the column this week because for the next four weeks or so you'll have to be prepared to hear about me moaning about all the running I'm doing and how sore and tired my legs are.

That's right; pre-season training starts tomorrow night and as usual I'm not looking forward to it one little bit.

It'll be great to see all the lads again and meet the new boys, but the rest, no thank you.

I seem to have been running up and down hills and round running tracks for so long and I've no idea why I continue to put myself through it. Well, actually, that's not true, it's due to a love of the game and Annan Athletic.

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I must confess I've been struggling for motivation since returning from holiday.

I've been a bit lazy in the past week and have struggled to get myself to the gym. So, I've taken off longer than I normally do.

Therefore, I've made it difficult for myself to get back to a level of fitness that's going to get me through the hard programme the manager will have set up for us.

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