Pre-season means training, training and more training, but I just love it

ANY TIME somebody mentions pre-season training to me the same image pops into my head and brings a smile to my face. Stevie Fulton, I hope you're not reading this. It was from my days at Falkirk, many moons ago now.

Jim Jefferies was the manager and he was in a mood to work us hard on our first day back at the office. Jim had us doing laps of the field. How many, I can't remember, but I do recall there not being much left in the tank by the time I came across the finishing line. Most of us got
through it in one piece. Stevie was a bit of an exception.

I hope he doesn't mind me telling the story. He was tailed off at the back of the field and struggling when one of his legs went. Cramp had him operating on one good peg. He dragged himself onwards, down the far side of the field, round the corner and then his other leg went. Cramp again. Now he was like a mummy, moving slowly and with all the stiffness of a man with two wooden trunks where his pins used to be.

On Tuesday I set off from my family home in England and returned to Glasgow for pre-season training with Rangers. The scene at the house was funny. I had my two boys practically pushing me out the door. They're massive football fans and have developed a real love of all things Ibrox since I joined the club. Their first love is Manchester United but Rangers are challenging for top spot in their affections at this stage. They were saying 'off you go, dad, see you whenever'. Charming.

My little girl was a little more sympathetic. I think she'd like me home a bit more but she understands the life. She knows I love the life. After all these years, I still want to play football as much as I did when I was a teenager.

Somebody asked me recently whether a fear of stopping playing was driving me on. Maybe there's a small element of truth in that. I'm not worried about my career coming to an end.

I pretty much know now that I'm going to try and stay in football somehow, so I don't imagine there is going to be a huge sense of loss when I have to hang up my boots. I want to keep involved in years to come. For now, I want to be considered a player and nothing but a player but I have to admit that coaching is in my thoughts and I can't think of a better place to pick up tips about coaching and running a football club than Rangers, where there is so much to learn from Walter Smith, Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowall.

So on Wednesday morning I found myself on the treadmill again – and revelled in it. The fitness tests, the fat tests, the sprints, the jumps. Call me strange, but I enjoy all that stuff.

I took two weeks off where I did no training and then gradually started building it up from there, getting up early before the kids were out bed and going for short, sharp runs to get myself going. But there is nothing like the company and the banter of your teammates. That's what you miss when you're training on your own. After five minutes on Wednesday when the slagging started and the wind-ups kicked off it was like I was never away.

A few of the boys got talking about last season. This is the first chance we've had to discuss everything that went on. I look back now and I think what an insane period it was. The Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday that covered the UEFA Cup final, the SPL decider and the Scottish Cup final went by in a total blur at the time. We had no time to soak it up, no time to sit down among ourselves and just talk about it.

It was a special season, we know that. But it bypassed a lot of us. When you're moving from game to game so rapidly you really have no opportunity to switch off and enjoy it all, especially when, physically, you're on your last legs. Looking back to the Scottish Cup, the boys were spent, completely done in from the schedule, from all the highs and lows we had in the days before. Football is so in the minute that you can't take stock while things are happening around you, but I think that victory at Hampden was a hell of a win for the boys, a huge tribute to the mental strength of the team.

The mood on Wednesday was hugely positive. We reflected a bit on last season and talked about the challenges ahead. It was calm. Fun. Like every other player in the squad I've been keeping an eye on the papers, just to see who we're being linked with in the transfer market, just to check out if there's another centre-half coming to the club. There isn't yet but I'm sure they will be. Even if there isn't you still push yourself harder in training at the prospect of somebody coming in.

I think of Daley Thompson sometimes at this time of the season. I remember reading something he said once about training on Christmas Day. He trained in the morning because he knew his direct rival for Olympic gold was almost certainly doing the same. And then he trained again in the afternoon just to get an edge. I'm not that bad, but I'm ready for the coming season. I couldn't even tell you what our first game is going to be – but I'll be ready for it.