You love being an athlete and you absolutely love your sport. You obviously do, you dedicated your entire life to it. And when it's all said and done and you're no longer an athlete, you're sure you'll miss it in some sick, twisted, sadistic and maybe even slightly nostalgic kind of way but right now off-season is the true definition of torture and wow, will it test your willpower. So here are 17 reasons why you just love off-season. And yes, that was said with the highest form of sarcasm.
1. You love that first realization.
“Wait—is this more running than last year?! This is way more running than last year!”
2. Your calculations and bargaining.
“Okay, this starts in 3 weeks and 4 days, that gives me 25 days, which is almost a full month, to get in shape so that I can start these workouts and get in shape…”
2 weeks later - “It’s okay I’ve still got 11 days, I’ll just run double!”
1st day of packet - “SH*T.”
3. You plan your meals (yay you!)… and fail to follow said plan.
“Well if I eat lunch at 1, I’ll get off at 4 and run at 4:30. That gives me 4.5 hours for my stomach to settle! Perfect!”
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - “I’m fine. I’m fine. I am not hungry,”
3:00 - “Screw it, you know, I’ll probably be fine.” *devours entire bowl of Chipotle
4:31 - Side stitch and puking ensues.
Repeat next day.
4. You’re all about eating healthy! #feedtofuel #loveyourself
“Okay so the nutrition packet says to only intake 15 percent of calories from fat, but like, that fro-yo from earlier is dairy so it doesn’t really count because it’s good for me and the Chipotle from lunch has a bunch of vegetables in it so that’s basically healthy. Which means I’ve got like 0 percent calories from fat so I can totally get the cheeseburger and the fries!”
5. You just ‘heart’ all the early mornings.
Night before: “6 a.m. alarm means I’ll get up and do my running before work and hey, maybe I’ll even make some eggs before I shower and get to work at 8! Yes! I totally have this all figured out, I really have my life together this summer!!”
Morning of - 7:38 am, “HOW DID I SLEEP PAST MY ALARM. DANG IT. I’m so late. I’m going to have to run at 4, WHEN IT’S A BAJILLION DEGREES.”
6. Your good days.
“WOW, I only have 10 suicides instead of 15 today! It’s going to be a great day!”
7. You LOVE to sweat.
You know, just not continuously for five hours after you’ve finished your workout and showered, while you’re at work.
8. You are the snack #QUEEN.
*Packs an apple, some pretzels, an avocado, Nutella To-Go, rice cakes (ew), and an entire bag of Doritos-family size.
“It’s okay because I worked out this earlier this morning, totally okay.”
*Has to buy more Doritos out of the vending machine two hours into work.
9. You love your aching muscles.
“What is not sore? Honestly, like is that even a thing? I CAN’T REMEMBER.”
10. You're disheartening doubt… and then stubborn realization.
“I don’t even think this is doing anything! I’m just as tired and sore as I was last week!”
*Knocks 30 seconds off mile time
“OHHHH….”
11. You argue… with yourself.
Lies in bed at 7 a.m.
“What if I just didn’t get up, what if I just didn’t run, like what would even happen, like they can’t control me, I am an independent young woman/man and I live in America! I have rights! I can do whatever I want! The world is my oyster and I don’t want to run today and that’s OKAY!”
7:10 a.m. - *Laces up running shoes.
12. You bargain… again, with yourself.
“Okay, if I sprint the first two laps of the mile, I can jog the last two and still pass. Or I can sprint the first one and jog the middle two, because they are the worst, and then sprint the last one and still pass."
13. Your “2016 Summer Playlist” looks like this:
"I’m a Survivor"
"I Get Knocked Down"
"Remember The Name"
Etc…
14. You LOVE your teammates #bffsforlife.
Except for when the group chat is ‘lit’ with everyone saying how awful the lift was and how epically sore they are when you have yet to do yours. THANKS GUYS I TOTALLY WANT TO DO IT NOW. LOVE YOU TOO.
15. Your love/hate relationship with the fitness tests.
“Well I puked, but I passed! SO THAT’S A WIN!... dang I really deserve some ice cream.”
16. Your scheduled workout days with the loves of your life, aka your teammates.
"AWEEE we get to be tortured and die together today, HOW SWEET."
17. You JUST LOVE all of this, all summer.
Because you're only three weeks in and you've got another two months to go. YOU GO GIRL.
But…at the end of the day, the puking, running, early mornings, never ending sweating, running, aching muscles and oh yeah, more running is all worth it because there’s nothing you want more than to run screaming off the field with your 25 best friends because you just won the game, the tournament, the championship and finally, finally all that hard work has paid off.
So a special thank you to the people us athletes love so much (except for when we’re running, of course), our coaches. And a special LEC thank you to the lady who inspired this article and who orchestrated our packet o'pain, Rene Lawrence. We love you, you know, most the time.
