At the very last moments of today’s of workout, I was lying on the turf with my hands on my head, holding my feet at six inches off the ground. I listened to Coach Clark count down from 10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
I exhaled and put my feet on the turf. At some point during our final workout of the day (which was core), I heard Coach Neil say something about ignoring the suck.
I didn’t think it sucked at all. In fact, I was thankful for the pain. I even craved more.
We started by doing jumping jacks every five yards (adding one each line) to the 50. Then we switched to burpees. From there, we ran up and down the stadium stairs and did a lap around the school’s road. We came back into the stadium and ran up and down the visitor’s stands. Then we ran up and down the hill in endzone. From there, we sprinted 100 yards and then sprinted another 100 yards while zig-zagging in and out of the numbers. When we got to the other end zone, we bear crawled for 30 yards, frog leaped for 40 and then crab crawled for another 30.
I looked like a dog rubbing his butt on the carpet.
Then we zig-zagged in and out of the numbers and ended it with a final 100-yard sprint. I figure we probably ran between 2.5 and 3 miles. I ran it faster than I normally do — and I yes, it was painful at times.
Then the core workout began. I know I did over 50 sit-ups — even maybe closer to 100. We did side crunches and in-outs while raising our feet.
But whatever pain I felt was washed away by the confidence from succeeding. I did everything. I did everything (except the crab crawls) well. I focused each step of the drill and I did it.
I did it.
Life is hard. But there is no sense of complaining about it, whining or blaming other people. Instead, you have to take action. You have to feel positive pain. That makes the bad pain go away.
When I was done running, I went back went out and crab-crawled with another struggling team mate. I counted down each yard and encouraged him along the way and cheered when he finished, too.
No, today’s workout didn’t suck. Yes it did hurt at times. But in a strange way, it was painfully glorious.