WHILE many headed outdoors to enjoyThursday's Melbournesunshine in relaxed fashion, the Bulldogs spent the day sweating it out in whatwas described as their toughest pre-season outing yet.

Head of physical performance CameronFalloon said the morning's running and skills session was just the start of theDogs' daunting schedule, with bikes and weights to come in the afternoon.

"It's quite a big day for these guystoday, especially for the guys who have been back for six weeks," Falloontold westernbulldogs.com.au.

"This is probably the biggest daythey've had in that five-week block, and then we'll give them a really lightday tomorrow. They've pretty much got the whole day of beach recovery and thentreatments and getting themselves right.

"For the guys who have been back forsix weeks, we're re-doing all their baseline testing next week to see how farthey've come, and then from there we really start to individualise the programsfrom where each individual is at and what we need them to do to get them wherewe need them to be."

The Bulldogs returned to the running track,which is situated beside the MaribyrnongRiver, to completeanother set of six one-kilometre time trials before holding a brief skills andwrestling session.

Falloon said while it was difficult tomeasure the players' improvement in the five weeks they've been back training,it was pleasing to see "everyone step up again".

"It's hard to gauge it. Daniel Crossis always exceptional, but he's only been back a few weeks. Jason Akermanis,Nathan Eagleton, Brad Johnson and Scott West are only back this week," hesaid.

"But the young guys have all madesignificant improvements. Malcolm Lynch, Josh Hill, Tom Williams and AdamCooney are probably the standouts at this stage, but having said that, they'veall made significant improvements, so we're happy."

Cross won five of the time trials, withLynch pipping him in the second one, while Shaun Higgins pulled out midwaythrough, having battled a virus for the past week.

After leading the boys in for the majorityof the morning, Cross said half the battle of pushing through the runningdrills was mental.

"I suppose you've got to tell yourself that you enjoy it or else it justgets to your head, but there's definitely something about running sessions thateveryone just before them looks pale and you know, they're worried about howthey're going to go, and they know it's going to be painful," he said.

"At the end of the day, you've justgot to remind yourself that it's all for a good reason and it's going to helpus come round one and come match time.

"In the back of my mind that's what Ithink about; hopefully being able to push past an opponent or something likethat … that can get you through these types of sessions because you know they'renot fun, but it's all worth it in the end."

Falloon said he was not concerned aboutHiggins missing a large part of the session, as the 19-year-old had beenperforming strongly since returning to the track.

"His running has been good but he'sbeen struggling a bit with a virus this week, so he wanted to run and see howhe went, and he got through a few and then he wasn't feeling too well," hesaid.

"We justsaid that he's been going so well, we can afford to back him off."