THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
Life in the Academy I

Thursday, 25 August 2011.

A year has passed, it is almost unclear when Zachary underwent professional football training at the NF Academy.

He managed to get a full scholarship from the academy after a match against Viking FK U-19s. Zachary later became an officially registered sports scholarship student in Norway.

The day usually starts with daily physical fitness exercises, which involve gym workouts and running exercises, from 6am to 9am. He will then spend five hours at Trndelag International School, going through the upper secondary education classes to maintain his sports scholarship. Fortunately, school days are only on weekdays, from 10am to 3pm, and do not make him tired.

As soon as the class is over, he will practice agility and stamina at the NF training ground near Moholt before attending football technical and tactical classes held by coaching staff on the field or in one of the academy's auditoriums.

Zachary is usually tired like a dog when he ends his day at 8pm and returns to his apartment to rest at night.

His daily schedule was crowded except for small breaks at lunch and dinner or when he was sleeping. Zachary has been made aware of how daunting the task of maintaining a strict daily routine can be over a long period of time. He nearly failed a system mission during the harsh winter months of December and January.

Due to the extremely cold weather, Zachary loses the motivation and passion to get out of bed and go to the gym or jog in those months. He only survived because of the C-level Physical Conditioning Elixir.

The potion was incredible. With just one dose, Zachary will have enough energy to undergo a system-regulated physical exercise routine each week.

His weekly tasks often involve weight training—mostly with dumbbells, back-and-forth sprints, lateral-band trails, drug ball push-ups, among other routines. Sometimes, when he trains with a pair of dumbbells or through fitness exercises, he will feel his muscles strengthen and become more flexible. But most of the time, Zachary felt like he was just exhausting himself.

However, he did not stop his training. The importance of progressive overload training designed by the system is cumulative—but not always clear. He has maintained a strict schedule to complete all the system tasks to improve himself as a professional sportsman. His goal was to become one of the best in his age group— by the time he debuted for Rosenborg.

On that day, Zachary was going through a physical conditioning routine to complete a system mission when Coach Boyd Johansen suddenly barged in, surprising all the U-17s who were busy exercising.

"I can't believe that some of you haven't even mastered basic dumbbell bench step exercises yet" grumbled Coach Boyd Johansen. He pulled his overgrown red beard in frustration as he walked around the gym, watched some players under 17, worked out with 25kg dumbbells.

“Physical fitness trainers have explained this exercise over and over again over the past year,”. "You should now do it by reflex. But I saw some useless people who couldn't even complete a set of stool steps!" The coach exclaimed, shaking his head.

"Here comes the cranky old man" Paul Otterson, running on a treadmill near Zachary, muttered. "I wonder what he's doing here right now."

"Ssttt..." Kasongo, who was doing a squat-and-press dumbbell workout, pushed him. "Be careful. He might hear you. What awaits you is expulsion from the academy."

"Pauls. You will face dire consequences once you continue to babble like that." Kendrick Otterson, jump rope nearby, stressed. Her long brown hair was smashed like the second skin on top of her blushing cheeks—and she looked like she had just been caught by a sudden storm. He wears the sweat of exercising in the same way that heroes wear rain.

Paul snorted at his brother. "Stop treating me like a kid. I know what I'm doing. He's busy with the other lazy bums and can't hear us."

"Custom yourself." Kendrick pouted at Paul furiously. "The good thing is that I've warned you so many times. If the coach cut you off from the program, don't run home crying." He snorted, continuing the jump rope.

Zachary did not stop his training routine from listening to the quarrels of his flatmates or the grunts of his trainers. He had already gotten used to it over the past year spent with them.

"Zak!" Paul called as he got off his exercise machine and approached Zachary's treadmill. "How much is the running speed and rest interval for the exercise you are doing?"

"I first set the treadmill at 2 mph for 5 minutes to warm up" Zachary replied without stopping his jog in the engine. "I then adjusted it to a top speed at 9 to 10 mph for 70 seconds and then reduced it to 3 to 4 mph for 30 seconds. I had to repeat the same routine 20 times to complete my training today." He stuttered as he gasped.

"Zach! Didn't you overload your body?" Paul asked, his eyebrows furrowed. "You should not run at such top speed for more than 30 seconds. Can you practice at night?"

"Paul!" Kasongo. "Good God, leave him alone. One day, he ran from Moholt to Lerkendal in eight minutes. That means he runs roughly 400m per minute. Do you think a simple run on the treadmill would bother him?"

"F!" exclaim Paul. "This guy is a monster with such stamina. I just want to know why the coaches didn't pick him for the U-17 game. FIFA won't care if he plays for the academy. He was not part of Rosenborg and was just a student studying in Norway." whispered Paul, closing in on Kasongo. "Do you know why?"

"He didn't say why!" Kasongo replied while putting down his dumbbells. "I think it has something to do with Rosenborg's official arrangements. I guess they didn't want to expose him to their competitors before he joined the team. I would do the same if I were a coach. I'd hate to lose him to another team before he plays for me."

"The curse of being too talented" sighed Paul. "Make me hate the rules of FIFA even more. The man should've been on the first-team bench." He shook his head. "Casongo! Are you done with your physical training today?"

"Yes." Yeah." The short man nodded, taking a bottle of water from his backpack. "We've been here since six o'clock. Three hours is enough for me." He smiled before he drank the water.

"Are you not tired of waking up this early? We're only supposed to be here at 8!"

"Geez, I'm just trying to copy the training plan from my role model." Kasongo laughed, patting Paul on the shoulder. "Although I can't match his insane work rate, I still benefit from following in his footsteps."

"Oh. Wake me up too when you're going to practice next time" Paul said.

"Me too" Kendrick also interjected as she joined the group.

"You wanna get up at six?" Paul laughed at his brother's request.

"I need to improve my fitness" Kendrick complained. "Grant is far ahead. He put me in all the games."

"Then, you're gonna wake up at six?"

"Yes." Yeah." Kendrick nodded firmly. "Don't look at me like that. I'm serious this time. I'm even going to change into a smaller mattress this week to prevent myself from sleeping too much."

"I'll pray for you." Paul patted his brother on the back. "I Hope You've achieved your dream."

"Dream of waking up at six," Kasongo chimed in before bursting into laughter. Paul joined him. The two tried to wake Kendrick up at seven in the morning several times. However, the child will always sleep like logs.

"But Zach is a monster." Kendrick sighed, ignoring the irony of the two chat boxes. "Where did he get all that stamina?" He exclaimed as he glanced towards Zachary's treadmill.