REVEALED: The gruelling extent of Portsmouth's pre-season as players clock up a whopping 60km of running

And the Pompey boss has broken down the programme for his players, which he believes will have them firing on all cylinders for the League One curtain-raiser at Sheffield Wednesday on July 30.

Cowley’s squad are feeling the intensity of the work they are being put through, as they gear up for the new campaign on a Spanish training camp in Murcia.

The stay follows on from two weeks of double sessions, going into a quickfire two-game weekend against Hawks and Gosport.

The club’s GPS stats showed players hit 60km in distances ran last week – and that was without factoring in their gym sesssions.

Pompey trained on Saturday morning before the Hawks game, and are now continuing with the two-session timetable this week.

The focus will shift from hard miles to shorter, more intense work as pre-season continues with Cowley looking for the right blend of stamina and explosive power from his players.

He said: ‘There’s no shortcuts to where we want to go - we have to do the work.

‘The first two weeks are high volume and we’re trying to build our aerobic capacity.

‘We know what we have to do.

‘You see the biggest distances and higher numbers now, you have to build a base.

‘We’re not tapering for games at this stage, either, and they had about 60km in their legs at the weekend.

‘As training goes on you will start to see the anaerobic focus and more short bursts of intense exercise at higher speeds.

‘It will be lesser volume but more actions per minute.

‘Once we get back from Spain we will be into smaller numbers - three v threes and two v twos to get that agility and that explosive power. It’s a gradual progress.’

Pompey followed up a 3-0 opening win over Hawks on Saturday with a 1-0 defeat to Gosport at Privett Park.

An experienced line-up put in a laboured first-half showing, before a more youthful side pepped things up after the break but couldn’t convert one of the host of chances which came their way.

Cowley could see why there would have been some fatigue from his players against Shaun Gale’s side.

He said: ‘The more experienced group put in a tired performance on Sunday.

‘But I think it’s important for players to go through that.

‘It’s a good test and it keeps them humble. It doesn’t do us any harm.’