courage dear heart | Yuki Ishikawa

03

The phone alarm rang, startling me. I quickly turned it off and looked at the time:

5:30 AM

"Ugh, what a pain," I groaned.

I rolled over onto my stomach, face buried in the pillow, wondering what I did wrong in life to deserve waking up at this hour every day. It's been almost two months since I started training with the team, and I still haven't gotten used to it. Actually, I don't even want to get used to it.

I heard someone gently knocking on my bedroom door. I already knew it was Reira, who came by every morning to tell me to get my butt up. I sat on the bed and stared blankly for a few minutes. I stretched and, after a long sigh, finally decided to get out of bed. I opened the bedroom window to let some fresh air in; naturally, the sun was still sleeping outside, just like I wish I could be right now.

I went to the bathroom and looked at my far-from-rested face as I quickly braided my hair into two braids and clipped them up just to wash my body quickly. After splashing some cold water on my face, I already felt better. I did my usual morning skincare routine (toner, hydrating serum, face cream, eye cream, and of course, sunscreen). I changed into a pair of sports leggings, a sports bra, a gym shirt, and an oversized hoodie. I went back to my room to make the bed and close the window. I grabbed my gym bag with my workout shoes and left the room.

"Good morning..." I greeted some of the senpais with a hoarse voice as they were also heading down for breakfast.

Not everyone has the chance to live alone in their own house near the gym where we train every day before heading up the mountain, so we've been given the opportunity to live in this small dorm provided for us, the National Team. I find it more convenient to stay here, also to spend more time with Reira and the others. Each of us has our own room on either the second or third floor. The rooms aren't very big; we each have a queen-size bed, a two-door wardrobe, a small desk, and a chest of drawers. Thankfully, everyone has their own personal bathroom—small but absolutely essential.

Downstairs, there's a common area with two large sofas and a huge TV that we often use to watch movies together, an open kitchen with an island for breakfast, and a large table that seats about 14 people. On the same floor, we have a room where we keep our snowboards and boots, since there wouldn't be space for all that gear in our rooms. It's not a luxury place, but I feel at home here.

Ayumu, already up and full of energy"Seems like you didn't sleep much. You look like you've been hit by a truck."

I gave him a glare. "Thanks... Anyway, since we got back later than usual last night, I slept less, and now I feel exhausted," I said, walking with my head down, defeated.

"Well, at least we had fun yesterday. We definitely ate well. I can't imagine what the bill was after we devoured everything they had in the kitchen..."

"Well, after all, they had to feed two hungry teams... actually, they had to feed two teams and you, Ayumu-senpai. Only you know how you didn't get a stomachache after all that sushi," I said, shaking my head with a chuckle.

"You were busy eating something else with your eyes, huh?" Ayumu teased, nudging me lightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied, pretending not to understand, as I headed to the kitchen to eat a banana before the workout. Since we'll be doing weight training in the gym, I always avoid eating too much so I don't feel sick.

The first few days, it was really tough to train early in the morning on an empty stomach. Now I've gotten used to it, and I hardly feel hungry anymore.

"Is everyone ready?" Ayumu asked as he watched us change our shoes and put on our jackets. "Let's go."

We worked out in the gym for about an hour and a half. It's Monday, so it was a heavy leg day for everyone. We were divided into groups of three so that we could work out without waiting too long for equipment.

After training, we returned home around 8 AM and had breakfast together with the food we had prepared a few days earlier to save time: protein pancakes, peanut butter, yogurt with fruit, and orange juice—my favorite breakfast lately. We quickly changed into the clothes we would wear up on the mountain, grabbed our boots and snowboards, and got into the van.

It usually takes us about an hour to reach the mountain , and we arrive just as the ski lifts open. We meet up with the coaches up there and always have a brief meeting to go over the points we'll be working on, what to improve, and new things to try.
"Good morning, coach!" we all greeted in unison.
"Hey, everyone, I hope you managed to get some rest after last night. The snow is quite deep and soft after the snowfall last night, so I'd say let's do some freeride this morning to have some fun and get comfortable with the board in different snow conditions. Chō, how are you with freerides?" the coach asked, looking at me seriously as he studied me.

"I've done some freeride before, but it's not my forte since I haven't practiced it in a while." I wasn't too worried, though, as I usually pick things up quickly.

"Then today, Kunitake, stick with Chō in case she needs any help."

Hiroaki came close to me. "Are you ready? You can count on me," he said as we fist-bumped.
"Ready as ever, Hiro-san," I smiled at him.

We adjusted our snowboard bindings and set off. For the first part, we started on the freshly groomed slope; when it's this soft, it almost feels like flying. We then moved closer to the trees where the snow was really deep and soft. I shifted my weight onto my back leg and got into a tail press position, and the board started moving.
"Wooooh! This is awesome!!" I shouted with joy, easily picking up speed in that stance.

"Try to make slow, controlled turns like you usually do," Hiro called out, following me on his board.
I focused on making gentle turns and started feeling more in control of the board. We weaved through some trees, and the adrenaline began to kick in.
"Uuhhhh uhhh," I yelled again, laughing to let out some of the excitement.

Further ahead, I saw the others trying out some jumps on a small ramp that had formed. I pointed it out to Hiro and turned to see if he had noticed. He gave me the okay, and I picked up speed. As I approached, I slowed down a bit, keeping my body low, bent my knees, and pulled off a backflip, landing successfully.
"Yeeesss—" I didn't even have time to celebrate before I face-planted in the snow.

Ouch...

Luckily, the snow was soft, and I wasn't hurt. I raised my arm to signal that I was okay. Hiro caught up to me, taking a simple jump off the ramp.
"The hard part now is getting back up when you're in fresh powder," I looked at him while kneeling and tried to get up, but couldn't; the board felt glued to the ground.

"I'll help you," he said, positioning himself in front of me and giving me a hand to get up. When I finally managed to stand back on the snowboard, I was out of breath.
"Even squats aren't this exhausting."

Hiro laughed and started moving again, signaling for me to follow.
"Indeed!"

This time, I followed him, watching closely as he rode, trying to learn something by observing him. When we reached the others at the bottom, we found them sitting and drinking energy drinks.
"Yooow, what took you so long? How many times did you fall?" Ayumi laughed, handing me a water bottle.

"Only once, thank goodness! But I lost half an hour just trying to get up," I said, detaching my snowboard and sitting down, drinking the entire bottle.

What a tough day—first leg day, then this freeride run...

The coach approached us while we were resting. "How did it go, Chō? I noticed it took you a while to get here."
"It went well, but I didn't expect it to be so exhausting to get back up. I need to train more on " I replied, taking off my goggles and neck warmer.
"Good, you know what to work on," he said, then turned to look at everyone. "This afternoon, we're skipping jump training because we need to head back to Tokyo. There will be some changes starting this week, so you can head home, change, and eat."

We gave each other confused glances."Why Tokyo? Where exactly are we going?" Ayumu asked as the coach started walking back.

"We're going to visit the volleyball team."

Eeeeh???