Typical Day of Summer - Final Paper

After several classmates said they understood my long days because of their athletic background, a couple suggested I write a post going in depth about just how long a day can be for an athlete in the summer. I thought this would be a good final paper, because it would allow me to really look into my day and analyze just what I spend my time doing and how I balance all of the commitments that I have. 

4:50 – Wake up, snooze alarms just in case I don’t make it out of bed.

5:00 – Actually get out of bed, and get ready to leave. Make my coffee, pack my lunch, and work uniform for later. 

5:15 – At 5:15 I pull out of my drive way and start to make the 45 minute drive to Loyola to workout with my trainer. On my way there,  I see the moon still up, lighting up the road in front of me, with barely any other cars on the road, I set my cruise control to 70 and coast the whole way up to 695. Listening to my favorite radio station, Hot 99.5, I listen to the Kane Show share the recent news and funny things and bits they do in their show, this helps me keep awake and alert as I make the straight drive to Loyola. As I get closer to Loyola, the sun starts to make its way from behind the trees and into my eyes. 

6:00am – Once I arrived to Loyola I was greeted by a line of construction workers waiting to get through the locked gate of Ridley, hoping that I wasn’t about to embarrass my self I drove up to the gate and scanned my student id, hoping that I still had access to Ridley in the summer. To my luck, I was able to open the gate and allow the workers to start their work on Ridley’s new field. 

6:05am – I meet Mark, my trainer, on the practice field at Ridley for our morning run. As he tells me to warm up, I greet him with a yawn. While warming up, we catch up on the runs and lifts I did over the weekend making sure that I am still on track for preseason in just 3 weeks! 

6:20am – When I put my foot on the starting line, I give myself 3 seconds to breathe and relax before I max out my effort for a 30 second sprint I start my run, with over 12 suicide sprints in my future I try to distract myself by reviewing my curriculum plan for my kids later that day. “Today I will teach change of direction moves, theres 8 of them so I will need 4 lines, of 2 teams, I will give them 45 minutes to master all the moves before we play some games” I tell myself, waiting for mark to tell me to start. After doing 110 yard sprint, I go on a recovery jog with Mark, we talk more about soccer and anything else that comes to mind, after out 220 yard jog, I walk to the starting line to do it again, this time, thinking about the first game that I will play with my kids, and which coaching points I will go over. I will do this 12 more times before he lets me leave. 

6:50am – I plan my next workout with Mark and say good bye. I do my 13^thsprint to my car to change into my work clothes, and to drive back home to Frederick. I cut through the back streets of Baltimore until I meet 70 again, this time going west bound. As I rush to work and somehow made enough time to grab a much needed breakfast. 

8:00am- I arrive at camp, the first day is always busy and hectic, we plan the week and the groups. After everything is planned we start to set up the field, 10 small goals, 2 large goals, some tents, tables and water jugs for the kids. 

8:30am – I sit under the tent, stretching my legs that are still warm from my workout to avoid injury since I didn't have time to cool down with Mark. Kids start to arrive, I try to remember names, I say to myself "okay Jenna is in red, Layla is in blue, Lillie is in green" 20 times in my head until I get their names. 

9:00am - Camp begins, its Monday morning so my kids are full of energy and I need to set the tone for what the rest of the week will be like. My legs heavy from my long run just an hour ago, I attempt to run around the field to demonstrate all the new moves I am teaching the kids. I don't think they noticed my mistakes but I sure did.

12:00pm - After 4 hours of drills and games, I finally take the kids inside for lunch. Hoping that they behave, I find a spot to myself to try and relax as much as possible without falling asleep.

3pm- Camp ends, I talk to the parents and clean up the field. After everything is up we talk about what camp will be like on Tuesday and are allowed to leave. Finally, off work.

3:15pm - I drive home to pick up my sister to take her to soccer practice, I talk to her about my kids at camp and about her practice.

4:00pm - I drop my sister off at practice and head to my internship.

5:00pm - My internship is for the Mt Airy American Legion Post 191 Baseball Program, I run their social media and do all of the advertising and marketing for the 3 teams the program has. Tonight I will be at the Senior Team's game, they host the #1 team in the league who is undefeated. After watching what was a great game of back and forth baseball, and an eventual win for Mt Airy, I finally can go home.

7:15pm- I finally come home, I get to eat a cold dinner by myself while I try to keep my eyes open.

8:00pm - I get all my things together for the next day, workouts, camp and internship, and I head to Loyola. This time when Im on 70 West for the 2nd time today, the sun is in my rearview mirror and not still hidden by the skyline.

While I wouldn't trade soccer, my job, my internship for anything because I enjoy all of them so much, somehow I have managed to make all 3 of these work together, even if I do go through a tank of gas every 4 days.