The Life of a Gymnast

Chapter 30: New Workout

“Ladies!  What is this?  Run, don’t walk!  This isn’t Olympic speed walking, this is Olympic gymnastics!  Let’s get moving!”, Lizzy screams.  I look at Emma, and we both roll our eyes.  I immediately flinch, hoping Lizzy or GG didn’t see us.  

“Sprints!  10 sprints, don’t stop!  Nancy!  You can’t slow down!  Everybody, add 3 more sprints thanks to her.  Get going Natalia!”

We’re outside in 80 degree weather, doing sprints in the grass behind the gym.  Lizzy has come up with a new strength and conditioning series that involves sprinting in the field and the new pool put in next door.  

We finish the sprints and begin to walk it off, hands on our heads.  Lizzy leads us in a quick stretch; she had done workouts when she was pregnant, so she was in pretty good shape.  After we finished some small stretches, maybe 3 minutes, she leads us back inside.  

“Alright girls, change into your swimsuits.  Meet me in the lobby with your towel and goggles”.

As we walk into the team room, I look at Alex and roll my eyes.  She drops her head back and sighs, dramatically.  

I slip my bikini top on and slide my sports bra out from under it.  As I do the same with my bottoms, one of the younger girls completely strips down and slides a one piece on.  I look back to Alex and we burst out laughing.  

I grab my polka dot towel from PINK and my clear Speedo goggles and walk out of the team room.  I lean against the white wall and wait for Alex, Naomi, and Catt.  When they come out, we walk to the lobby talking away.

We’re among the first up there, and Lizzy is on her phone.  GG smiles at us, then goes into the staff room for something.  We’re quickly joined by the rest of the girls, giggling and chatting.  

Lizzy looks up.  “Let’s go ladies!  Time to head over!”.  We nervously glance at eachother, then follow her out of the lobby.  

“Oh, my gosh”, Catt whispers, elbowing me to get my attention.  I nod my head vigorously and nudge Alex.  She nods too. The place is amazing. 

We all jump into the pool splashing around in the shallow end.  The entire place is painted white, and it was a ceiling was spotted by multiple sky lights.  It’s a really nice place.  There are 3 pools: one olympic sized pool that’s about 6 feet deep, one kids pool with a bunch of play things, showers, etc., and a diving pool that has a 1 meter and 3 meter board.  The diving pool is 20 feet deep at it’s deepest.  

Lizzy stops abruptly and turns around.  I’m looking around still and stumble into Catt, who falls into Naomi, who erupts into high pitched giggles, earning the death stare from Lizzy.  

“Anyways, before I was interrupted -“, this earns a snort from Alex.  “Ladies!”, she continues.  “As I was saying, we are going to be doing some pool strength now, since it’s summer.  We’re practicing in the summer, there’s no school, you girls should be working harder than ever before.  Now, separate yourselves into your 3 workout groups.  I want the younger girls over here, by me.  The junior team over there, and the senior team over here”.  

We scurry into our assigned positions.  I’m with the senior team.  We look around the new pool room, whispering excitedly.  

“Seniors, in the deep end.  Treading water for 2 minutes.  Time starts when you’re in the water”.  Lizzy shouts it, and her grating voice echoes around the pool room.  We look at each other and sprint to the deep end, almost slipping on the water around the pool.  I dove in and started laughing next to Alex.  Lizzy gave us the death stare, and I couldn’t help but let out a giggle anyways.  Before long, the entire group was in a fit of laughter, and the junior group followed quickly.  Kristy and Halli even joined in after a while, and Lizzy looked like she was going to explode.  

“Girls!  Stop this right now!  You need to focus and get this done!”.  Her face was red with anger.  

I hear Alex snort behind me and I have to sink underwater to keep myself from bursting out in uncontrollable laughter yet again.  

Lizzy pulls out a timer.  “Time starts when you stop laughing”.  That shuts us up.  

She tosses it to Kristy, who holds it above her head as not to get it wet.  

Lizzy goes over to the junior group and sets them pulling themselves up the side of the pool and jumping back in.  The little girls jog in place.  

The 2 minutes go by quickly, and so does the rest of the workout.  Lizzy announces we will be doing this once a week, on Saturdays.  We all cheer; something fun for a change.  

“Dude, that workout is not that bad”, Catt says.  I nod in agreement.  “Putting this leotard on, however, sucks ass”.  I immediately cover my mouth and look around at the little girls.  They don’t seem to have heard anything, and Alex giggles.  

“Mia said a swear word, Mia said a swear word”, she chants softly.  I elbow her in the ribs, and we both crack up again.  

“GIRLS, YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO BE ON THIS FLOOR”.  Lizzy really can’t shake that mood.  

We all start laughing in the team room until Halli shushes us up.  We sprint out to the black floor, barely containing our laughter.  This is going to be one hell of a practice. 

A/N: sorry this sucks :( I have been super busy.  BTW I won't be updating for 2 more weeks bc I am at IGC (a gymnastics sleepaway summer camp) for 2 weeks, and you can't bring electronics.  Sorry guys!