Two college athletes

chapter 2: pre-season

Every meal after practice was a feeding frenzy, and we all encouraged each other to go for seconds and get plenty of protein. My typical day was wake at 6am and go for a five to 10 mile run before meeting the team for breakfast. Breakfasts was always a fun affair: I’d typically do a six egg omelet accompanied by a few pieces of bacon, some toast, a bowl of cereal and a big glass of whole milk. Sometimes I’d also have a waffle from one of those amazing waffle machines, but there usually was too long a line. Mid-morning was free, so I’d usually take a 40 minute nap before our pre-lunch scrimmage. Lunch varied more than breakfast but usually meant a couple of burgers, some pizza, French fries and more milk; I also treated myself to a milkshake whenever it was offered. I’d spend the early afternoon reading or playing video games before our lifting practice in the evenings. We alternated between legs and chest and core. Sometimes we’d also do yoga for flexibility. My favorite meal was dinner which usually meant a generous amount of chicken or salmon, a big bowl of pasta, some salad, and then a giant ice cream sundae. Afterwards I’d go to one of the tv rooms with the other freshman and we’d watch something trashy on streaming. Rarely did we go to bed without ordering a couple pizzas to share. And don’t tell coach, but we might have had a couple beers most evenings too. Weekends were our recovery time, and typically we'd have a party on Fridays, wake for a heavy "recovery breakfasts" on Saturday and then sleep through much of Sunday.

Before we knew it the four weeks of pre-season had passed, and it was time for another weigh-in. I had scarcely thought about how much tie had past...but had been trying to get those 4,500 calories per day. With my teammates encouraging each other and all the great food hope that the weigh-in would go better than last time. All the freshman athletes had bulked up a little. The heaviest freshman, honestly Coach did not want her to put on much weight, was a six foot forward who had gone from 200 to 205 pounds. Everyone was up somewhere between two and ten pounds, and I was last. Wearing just my panties I stepped on the scale. The dials spun, as I waited with anticipation. At 170 pounds I had been the big winner of pre-season. I was still much lighter than coach wanted, but everyone thought it was a good start.

Before long