Cameron Stewart is confident that a full pre-season of work will give him a solid base from which to build in the new season.
A serious knee injury saw Stewart miss the entire 2011 pre-season programme with a return to action only coming in mid-November.
But having reported for the start of pre-season training with the rest of the first team squad this week, Stewart is looking forward to six weeks of hard work to get him firing on all cylinders for the new campaign.
"For me, it's going to be good to have a full pre-season this year," said Stewart.
"I've never had one of those here, so it will be nice to get all of the work under my belt and get myself as fit as I possibly can be for the new season."
Wednesday saw the speedy winger take his VO2-Max test at the University of Hull. It's a test which measures the aerobic endurance of each player and Stewart was amongst the early pace-setters.
"It was a step up from the work we did on Tuesday and I think all of the lads have got a good sweat on," he added.
"It's a tough test and because the pace increases as you go along, it starts to hit you after the ten-minute mark.
"You end up at a good pace and it's good work to do. There's motivation there because everybody is asking how long everybody else ran for and you try to beat that. We've all done quite well, though, so that is good.
"I think everybody is now looking forward to the trip to Portugal to get some more hard work done."