The last time the Canadian women’s rugby sevens had an extended break was Christmas. Since then, the team had a five-month stretch of training five to six days a week in between competing in four World Rugby Women’s Seven Series events along with an invitational tournament in Vancouver. With the series wrapping up last weekend, however, the team took a week off.

With seven days to unwind, kick back and do anything of her choosing, team veteran Kelly Russell did what most of us might do if offered the same opportunity: “Nothing really,” she said of what she’s done with her free time. “Just relaxing.”

“Nothing” and “relaxing” did include spending time with family, including visiting her sister who lives not far from Victoria, where the national team trains year-round, but mostly, as Russell put it, the break was a good time to “rejuvenate the body and the mind.”

And the rest is well-deserved after Russell, along with the rest of the Canadian squad claimed the final Sevens Series title of the year — in Clermont-Ferrand — and finished the season tied with England for third place overall.

In the France final, Canada beat the Series champion Australia —they won the overall title based on points accumulated after their quarterfinal win over Spain — 29-19. It’s the second year in a row that Canada has won the last series event, after taking home the title in the series finale last year in Amsterdam — which begs the question: does Canada save its best for last?

Russell chuckled at this inquiry, before explaining why Canada might peak toward the conclusion of the season.

“I think the way we work, of course, we’ve struggled a bit this season with some injuries, but we also…tend to add things in and change things up and it takes almost a whole season to kind of get things right,” she said. “It only works best for us because now we’re ready and prepared with a whole arsenal of tools going into Rio.”

The Rio being referred to is of course, the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, where rugby sevens will make its Olympic debut. Winning gold in Brazil has been the ultimate goal for the team since they began training full-time back in 2011.

Canada is one of the top countries in the world, alongside Australia and New Zealand, and a gold-medal favourite. While injuries did account for some missed podiums in the sevens series this season— core players like Magali Harvey, Natasha Watcham-Roy and Ashley Stacey missed significant time —with the Games a mere 63 days away, and the recent title under their belt, Canada’s women’s sevens team is peaking at the right time, which is exactly how they drew it up, said head coach John Tait.

“The main goal is to get to Rio in good form and performing well. We were planning for this cycle of the Olympics for the last five years and part of the plan was for us to peak in these coming months and this last series event,” he said. “There’s still some time left for us and it’s still part of our plan to improve ahead of Rio in these last few months.”

For years, the team’s coaches, along with the strength and conditioning and medical staff, have programmed training to ensure the team is at its best come August.

During training and major competitions, the athletes wear heart rate monitors and GPS devices to track their exertion — and measure whether training needs to be ramped up or scaled back, based on each individual.

Players also check in daily with staff to record how they’re feeling — on a scale from 1 to 10 — and tests performed at certain points throughout the year also gauge where an individual is at physically. Rest and recovery days — like the ones occurring this week — are also built into the schedule to ensure there’s no burnout. “They’re very good at checking in with us,” Russell said of the team’s staff.

Though not everything is controllable, such as injuries, which are an unfortunate inevitability in an intensely physical sport like rugby.

“I’m just really grateful and pleased that we managed to get through it without any serious injuries,” Tait said of winning the event in France. “We’ve had our share through the season so we got through this tournament without picking up any more.”

The team didn’t avoid injury altogether. During day one of event, captain Jen Kish rolled over on her neck after a hard tackle. She missed the remainder of the tournament, however, Tait says the injury isn’t serious and she'll be back practising with the team in the coming weeks.

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