While walking into the florescent lit room I wonder if this is all worth it. I ask myself why I want to wake up four times a week two hours before school starts. By this point I'm used to the smell of tires and disintegrating metal. But without fail each day I'm greeted by my coach with "good morning Atokena." This of course makes me give him the "leave me alone" look. My first step always is to glance at the wall to see what my workout is. I'm usually praying its not leg/cardio day. After figuring out it's Monday which means its squat day, I approach the coated in rust bench and contemplate the weight I should add. Like going through a maze, I make my way to the rack and pull off a forty five pound weight. I struggle to lift the weight onto the bar and go for another. After that battle I'm ready for my ten reps. As I get into my stance I glance at the dirt occupied wall that's supposed to be white. All I can think is "ignore the burn" while I'm finishing my last rep.
Next comes the most tedious lift, I search for the kettle bell weight that resembles a cannon ball with a handle. Ten reps of kettle bell swings and I should be quickly moving on to burpees but instead I procrastinate. My secret weapon happens to be the conversation of track since my coach is a fanatic. Until of course I realize there's no point in forcing myself out of my snug bed if I don't finish my workout. So with a huge sigh I knock-out ten burbees and move on.
Following the burbees I have lunge jumps. This to me is the most rewarding because it's a mixture of lunges and an "Exploding" jump afterwards (according to my coach). For more room I then walk out to the vacant gym floor. I count in my head "one, two, three, four, five, six..." until I reach twenty. Right after an agonizing burn shoots through my hip down my upper thigh. Of course I have to walk it off because I'm not even close to being done.
Then I plan out my two ab workouts. First I ask someone to hold my legs down on the bench while I do vertical leg crunches. After two sets of thirty I grab a bright blue foam mat, for my knees and the ab roller. Ten reps of these will have me sore for 3 days prior. Panic rushes over me because I only have 30 minutes left and that whole process was one of the four sets I need to finish. So the next the 30 minutes are a blur as I rush through the rest with no time for small talk in between.
I commented on:
Kaylin Signor's and
Emma Anderson's blog