Now that it was track season, I was ready for Tyler to be out my life. Now that we weren't teammates, I felt there was no reason to be roommates with this man. Not that there was a reason when we were teammates. He never helped me stay accountable. But now that I had nothing in common with him, he just seemed like was taking up space in my room.

It was going to be my first official day of track practice. I was excited to get up and get the day rolling. I had fallen asleep before Tyler got back into the room last night. When I got out of bed, I saw Tyler was sleeping on the floor. It looked as if he had rolled out of his bed and dragged the sheets with him. What an odd individual. 

I had left my boot near the middle of the room. Tyler and I adopted the invisible middle line policy in our room. We agreed when we first moved in that we'd evenly divide the room and make sure that our belongings don't cross that boundary. Tyler frequently went over the boundary. When he was out of the room I would throw his things back at his side. It didn't matter, he didn't know where he left stuff anyway. I could put his phone is his fridge and he'd think that's here he left it himself. When I located my boot, I saw that Tyler's items had contaminated it. His shirt was draped over the top. I went to move his shirt and as I did, a cockroach came flying out of my boot. I about passed out. This room was so dirty because of Tyler. There was ants on his side of the room, always moving to his crumbs of chips on the ground. He took forever to do laundry so the smell of his musty clothes was the scent of our room. Just when I thought things were changing for the better, I had to come back to a dorm room inhabited by Tyler. 

The day seemed like it was going by so slowly. It was probably because I was so excited for it to be 4:45. When you just have one thing you're excited for, it seems like it always takes so long to get to it. My 50 minute classes felt like they were 2 hours long. But everything went well. Besides the cockroach this morning, it was a great day. I was getting more comfortable moving with the walking boot too. 

When it turned 4:30, I was at the indoor track. At the end of practice yesterday, Coach Porter said that we would start meeting indoors to avoid the colder temperatures. I was all giddy for my first practice. I talked to some more teammates that I didn't get to meet yesterday. I found myself doing a good job at remembering everyones name. A sign that I was going to care about these people. I saw Claire Hawkins arrive to practice and sit with some friends. 

I chose to sit down next to the teammates. I was comfortable doing this because one, I was more comfortable getting up with the boot, and two, I felt like I was actually part of the team now. After Porter gave his team speech, everyone got together for a team break. Logan who ran cross country in the fall, came over to help assist me with getting up. I could have gotten up by myself, but I really appreciated the help. 

After we broke, the team split into its different groups: distance and sprinters. I started to walk toward the sprint group, I wondered what coach was going to have me do for practice. 

"Hey Trevor!" Porter called my name from behind me. 

"Hey coach!"

"So I'm going to have you on the fan bike over here." Porter pointed over to the fan bike that was among other stationary bikes. "What I'm going to have you do is going to seem a little silly. You're going to leave your boot on and plant your feet into the ground or the bottom of the back wall. You're then going to just move the handles of the bike for different time intervals. It's going to be boring and annoying, but it'll also be super tough and will be a great arm workout. I'm going to go dismiss the rest of the team and then I'll come over to you and show you what I mean."

I nodded my head. I made my way over to the fan bike and was all alone. I watched Porter send the sprinters to the other end of the track. The distance team was running mileage outside. I was on this end all by myself. Porter came over and did a little demonstration. It did look silly, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard. I really felt in my arms. I prefer running long distances for reps than doing this. 

Coach gave me a lot of sets with different time intervals. I would have 30 seconds of full effort while other sets would be a minute at a more controlled effort. At least my arms would be getting defined during my injury. 

I watched my teammates run around the track. I wasn't seeing Claire run as much as the others, I wondered why. The team finished up their running and then headed to the weight room. It was a quick workout day for them. I still had a few sets left on the track. After Porter came to check on me, he too headed to the weight room. After that, I was all alone on the track. It was peaceful, but I really did feel alone. 

I came up to the weight room, and everyone was already finishing up their lifts for the post part. There was no one to work in with since they had all started. I found my own rack and worked out by myself. There wasn't much I could do with the boot. I was pretty limited to pull ups, having to make sure I landed back on my feet gently. 

That was the routine for what felt like forever. Coach also had me do laps in the pool. The pool was the best, it didn't feel like I was injured in there. Coach told me to try to do 8 laps of backstrokes. But this too I did alone, usually before practice. 

Now I'm not one to wish anyone any harm. But I was a little selfish and liked having someone at the stationary bikes with me. A freshman distance runner had tweaked her quad, so she was limited to one of the spin bikes. Like everyone, I had recognized her from social media but this was the first time we talked in person. 

When she first came over, I didn't say anything. I don't know, I didn't want to seem weird. 

"Do you mind if I ask about your injury or are you getting annoyed with that question?" She asked. 

In reality I wanted to respond with a "Yes! Please talk to me! I am getting lonely over here!" But I responded instead with a laugh and told her about what happened. Having somebody to talk to really helped the time go by. During her recovery process, she was also told to go to the pool, so I know had a buddy there as well. I was glad to have made a new friend. 

But one day, I had had enough. I was back to being at the bike all by myself. The day before, the coaches had told us they had a staff meeting so we would be at practice by ourselves. So when I arrived at practice today, I decided to take a risk. I felt like I had babied my ankle long enough. I felt great at the bike, I felt good with what I did in the weight room, and I felt amazing in the pool. I wanted to see where I was at in my recovery. So after doing what was required from me at the bike, I decided to take my boot off and put on my running shoe. It was the first time I had put my new running shoe on my right foot. Everyone seemed occupied with their workouts and some were already going to the weight room. I tied my shoes and checked again just to make sure Porter wasn't there. I was clear, I took off onto the track and started running. I felt like a baby trying to walk for the first time. What hurt the most were the curves. I wouldn't say that it was pain I felt on the curves but just very weird. I ran two laps and then stopped back at the fan bike. I definitely wasn't 100 percent. My right foot was feeling achey after. It was probably a dumb decision. 

"What are you doing?" A voice behind me asked. 

I turned to see one of the upperclassmen. 

"I just wanted to see how it felt with the boot off." I responded nervously. 

"Did coach say you could?"

"No."

"Then should you have?"

"I guess not."

"Don't do it again. Not trying to be a jerk. But I looked up your high school times, we need you in your best shape. Take it easy."

"Okay. Will do."

He was right, I just needed to wait. This wall a test of patience. I would be rewarded soon.