## 4 Discussion  
The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to describe the workload during a 6-week pre-season in Belgian professional football players, and (2) to analyse and compare the workloads of players in each microcycle according to several variables of external workload \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variable** & **Week 1** & **Week 2** & **Week 3** \\ \hline LACCs (n) & 135.65 \(\pm\) 30.64  & 281.47 \(\pm\) 51.89  & 253.35 \(\pm\) 84.88  \\ HACCs (n) & 23.59 \(\pm\) 10.82  & 69.24 \(\pm\) 24.59  & 46.00 \(\pm\) 27.05  \\ LDECs (n) & 459.87 \(\pm\) 115.56  & 1306.92 \(\pm\) 267.87  & 1035.29 \(\pm\) 290.42  \\ HDECs (n) & 42.35 \(\pm\) 16.40  & 122.35 \(\pm\) 40.32  & 75.82 \(\pm\) 30.12  \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Values and significant differences for acceleration and deceleration variables throughout the pre-season (first cycle). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variable** & **Week 4** & **Week 5** & **Week 6** \\ \hline Total distance (m) & 29,691.97 \(\pm\) 5067.76 & 27,910.57 \(\pm\) 4329.89 & 31,091.32 \(\pm\) 6732.71 \\ logging (m) & 13,208.89 \(\pm\) 2473.26 & 11,130.60 \(\pm\) 1980.26 & 13,023.87 \(\pm\) 2772.70 \\ Cruising (m) & 6370.72 \(\pm\) 1480.89 [FOOTNOTE:]Footnote 5: significant differences with week 5; 5 significant differences with week 6.[ENDFOOTNOTE] & 4932.30 \(\pm\) 1264.87 & 5637.50 \(\pm\) 2256.06 \\ High-intensity running (m) & 1337.80 \(\pm\) 319.39 & 1487.97 \(\pm\) 721.74 & 1327.49 \(\pm\) 550.92 \\ High-speed running (m) & 666.98 \(\pm\) 210.74 & 843.56 \(\pm\) 358.14 & 714.68 \(\pm\) 246.95 \\ Sprinting (m) & 321.37 \(\pm\) 166.99 & 285.61 \(\pm\) 107.58 & 373.84 \(\pm\) 227.05 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Values and significant differences for performance variables throughout the pre-season (second cycle). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variable** & **Week 4** & **Week 5** & **Week 6** \\ \hline LACCs (n) & 147.88 \(\pm\) 38.93 & 133.88 \(\pm\) 28.65 & 164.06 \(\pm\) 26.71 \\ HACCs (n) & 35.29 \(\pm\) 14.08 & 26.88 \(\pm\) 12.18 & 33.65 \(\pm\) 10.94 \\ LDECs (n) & 808.12 \(\pm\) 198.77 & 705.01 \(\pm\) 170.40 & 818.69 \(\pm\) 276.45 \\ HDECs (n) & 141.25 \(\pm\) 44.01 [FOOTNOTE:]Footnote 5: significant differences with week 5; 5 significant differences with week 6.[ENDFOOTNOTE] & 49.24 \(\pm\) 15.92 & 62.24 \(\pm\) 23.79 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Values and significant differences for acceleration and deceleration variables throughout the pre-season (second cycle). (e.g., distance covered at several velocities). The results obtained showed a progressive increase in the distance covered at different intensities from week 1 (i.e., lower values) to week 3 (i.e., higher values), with reductions in these values in week 6, prior to the start of the official competition. Similarly, the peaks of accelerations and decelerations were observed in weeks 2 and 3, with decrements at the end of the pre-season period. Although merely descriptive, it seems appropriate to present the average values covered by the players during the pre-season, which could serve as a reference for practitioners working with football players at the professional level. In this regard, the players completed a total of 65 training sessions during the 6-week pre-season. Of these, 33 were in-field sessions (5493.65 \(\pm\) 296.65 min), and 32 were gym sessions (1319.41 \(\pm\) 67.03). Additionally, during the experimental period, the team played seven friendly matches. In terms of external workload, a mean of 226,921.86 \(\pm\) 24,924.18 m of TD was covered, with values of 87,428.34 \(\pm\) 10,895.98 m at jogging, 39,370.52 \(\pm\) 6811.27 m at cruising, 8797.07 \(\pm\) 1555.44 m at high-intensity running, 4373.65 \(\pm\) 1065.05 m at high-speed running, and 1774.19 \(\pm\) 651.71 m at sprinting.