August 25th
Save some energy.
Ainsley
I wake up to the sound of Damon getting out of bed. “What time is it?”
“Five thirty.”
“That’s early.”
“It’s what time I’ve gotten up every day since fall practice started. I make a shake here before I leave, go do some cardio, eat breakfast, then lift. I have a pretty strict routine.”
“I’m not very routined,” I tell him.
“I have to be if I want to get everything done. Especially during the season.”
“So, when will I see you today?”
“Hopefully, I can get back here by eight. Although, most days, I’m at the facility until closer to nine.”
“What do you do there all day?”
He glances at his watch, and I can already tell I’m messing with the routine.
“That’s okay,” I say. “I’ll find something to do. Wander around Lincoln. Check it out.”
“Dani told me she was hoping you two could hang out today. She gets up around seven.”
“Perfect,” I say, snuggling back in my pillow.
Damon leaves the room, and I hear the sound of a blender. Then he comes back into the room, dressed in workout clothes, holding a cup and drinking from it.
He sits on the bed, smiles at me, and runs his hand across my cheek. “You fell asleep so fast last night.”
“It was a long day. Although probably not as long as yours.” I squeeze his biceps. “But then again, you’re in better shape than me.”
He leans down and gives me a strawberry-flavored kiss.
“You taste good,” I tell him.
“Do you want some? I made extra for you.”
“Yeah,” I start to say, but he’s up and back in a flash with a cup for me.
“Enjoy,” he says, kissing the top of my head. “I’ll see you tonight. Save some energy for me.”
I drink the smoothie and go back to sleep.
I wake up an hour later, throw one of Damon’s sweatshirts over a pair of my shorts, patter into the kitchen, and open the fridge, thinking I can have some leftover lasagna. There’s bottled water, Gatorade, milk, and fruits. No pasta to be found.
The pantry is also sparse, but it does hold a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, an assortment of nuts and seeds, and a bunch of protein powder. Basically, it’s a smoothie shop.
Does he eat out for his meals?
But then I remember the big kitchen in the gathering space and wonder if they keep their food there instead of in their individual condos.
The second I open the door, I smell bacon cooking, along with something sweet.
I find Dani manning a waffle iron, three pans of bacon on top of the stove behind her.
“Morning,” she says cheerfully. “Get any sleep?”
She raises her eyebrow, and I think she’s insinuating that we must have been up all night, having sex. And honestly, we should have been.
“I had a long day,” I tell her. “Fell asleep pretty much the minute I got into bed. And now I feel bad about it.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Except we haven’t been together in a month.”
“You hungry?” she asks, changing the subject.
“Kinda. Damon gave me some of his shake before he left. I drank it and went back to sleep.”
She takes a waffle off the cooker and adds it to the pile she already has.
“That’s a lot of waffles! You expecting guests?”
“No, just food prepping. Chase’s mom always does stuff like this. And it’s smart. Instead of making them every day, she’ll make a big batch and freeze them. Then, when you’re rushing around in the mornings, you can just pop one in the toaster.”
“That is really smart.”
“I’m going to fry up a bunch of hamburger next and do the same. Then we can pull it out and quickly whip up tacos or a meat sauce for pasta.”
She starts cooking another waffle.
“Can I help?” I ask.
“Yeah. The bacon should be cool now. Break it in half and put it in those containers,” she says, pointing.
“I’m almost out of batter. The last two are for us.
” She grins. “Then I thought I could show you around Lincoln. We could have lunch. It’s kind of boring around here right now.
My friends are busy with Rush Week, and the boys are at the facility all day. ”
“What do they do there all day? I mean, work out, practice. What else is there? Or is it that they just like to hang out there?”
“I was hoping to get a facility tour set up to show you. They have gorgeous brand-new facilities, but things are closed this week for game prep. Not even the media gets to see what’s going on.
Lucky for you, as part of my job with the conference network, I got to do a behind-the-scenes tour, where we highlighted everything.
We can watch it while we eat if you want? ”
“That sounds great!”
I help her package up the waffles and am thinking about how Sammy and I should do this sort of thing.
Once that’s done, she makes our waffles, covers them with butter and warm syrup, and throws on a few pieces of bacon.
Then we sit down at the bar, and she presses play on her computer.
Her pretty face comes on the screen, and she speaks about the new facility—how it is state of the art, one of the best in the country, and why players will want to come there.
I notice that the video is just over thirty minutes. So, it must be a pretty extensive tour.
It starts with her introducing the strength and conditioning coach in the weight room.
First of all, the space is beautiful. Open, airy, while at the same time, you can tell it’s serious business.
He talks about how they have enough for half the team to do workouts at the same time.
There’s a cardio studio and lifting stations.
And all sorts of other things to become an elite athlete.
“This part is really cool,” Dani says as on-the-screen Dani says something similar. Which makes me laugh.
“A refueling station,” I say. “Although it makes me think of a gas station, not a café, where they get healthy snacks.”
Dani pauses the video and says, “Each snack they eat isn’t just like you or me grabbing an apple or something because we’re hungry.
Each athlete has a plan created in coordination with sports nutritionists and strength and conditioning coaches.
You hear guys say they want to bulk up, which usually means they’re adding more fat to their bodies.
Chase and Damon are both working to add lean muscle mass. ”
“They both seem like they’re already in great shape.”
“They are when you just look at them, but we want their bodies to be more durable.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask. “While I’ve always enjoyed the game, I just sort of assumed when they weren’t playing, they just … I don’t know … lifted some weights, ate a lot, and practiced.”
“It’s a lot more scientific than that. Football is physically demanding, and bulk allows them to absorb a hit.
It helps to reduce injuries. For Chase, any strength he adds to his core and legs allows him to put more force in his throws—meaning a tighter spiral and the ability to throw the ball farther.
It will also give him a stronger presence in the pocket.
Although you might think of Damon’s job as just catching passes, on running plays, he becomes a blocker against bigger defenders.
And when the play is a pass, it allows him to be more explosive—faster and more agile.
When he goes up to make a catch, the majority of the time, he’s fighting for position against a defender. ”
“When Damon was visiting me at the Lodge, we hung out with my roommate, Sammy, and a couple of guys I worked with. Damon was telling them what he eats in a day, and I remember Sammy saying that Damon eats like it’s his job. I kind of laughed, but it pretty much is, isn’t it?”
“It definitely is. And so is sleeping.”
“Sleeping?”
“Yeah, it’s crucial for repairing and growing muscles.”
I nod in understanding. “And so, when they left early this morning, they went to work out?”
“Yeah, each collegiate team is limited to twenty hours of practice a week with one day off and a max of four hours a day.”
Which brings me back to my original question. “Then why are they there so much?”
“Well, there are rules relating to what they call CARA, or Countable Athletically Related Activities—which means any athletic-related meeting or activity supervised by the coaching staff that has an athletic purpose.”
“That’s a mouthful,” I tease.
“I had to say it in an interview recently. It was the one thing I thought I would screw up, and I practiced it incessantly,” she says with a laugh.
“So, you had your internship, which is over, but you’re still working?” I wonder.
“Yeah, I’ll be on the sidelines for a few conference games.
Interviewing celebrities, big donors, and former players.
I’ll be talking to them—which, at first, I didn’t really want to do because I thought it might be tabloid-ish.
But Chase told me to keep the talk about what we were there for—the game.
So, I’ll ask them to make scoring predictions, talk about their favorite players, favorite football memories.
That sort of thing. And now, I’m excited about it. ”
“That’s going to be a great experience,” I tell her.
She nods, then says, “Okay, back to their day. So, after working out and refueling, they need to recover.”
She clicks on the video, which now shows a calm, soothing, almost-spa-like area with even better amenities.
Sure, they have the usual hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, but also things like hydro, compression, sensory deprivation, and red-light therapies.
There are sleep pods, massaging recliners, and zero gravity chairs.
There, they can also do yoga, work with a chiropractor, or get a massage.
Recovery is touted in the video as a hugely important part of their process, as is getting enough sleep. They even have areas for napping.
The video goes on to highlight the trainer space. This is where they do research on faster recovery and injury healing. Where they try to protect against future injuries and rehabilitate when they happen.
“I will admit,” I tell her, “I’m shocked by all of this.”