A Day in the Life at the Olympic Training Center

by Team USA Decathlete Harrison Williams

As a decathlete currently training at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, I am part of the residence program. USATF pays me to live in the dorms, eat at the dining hall, and prepare for the Olympics using the facilities. The OTC is a mini college campus for athletics. Everything you need to prepare for competition, including a track, weight room, dining hall, and training room, are within a 3-minute walk. What attracted me to live here was the ability to pretty much entirely focus on training. As you can see from my typical Monday schedule, this is probably one of the best places in the country to do so.

8:00 am Wake Up. I’ve had trouble sleeping for most of my life, but I’ve found that if I keep a consistent wake-up time, it’s a lot easier to fall asleep in the evening. Living at the OTC means I have a stable schedule each day, which makes it easier to keep a regular wake-up time. But it gets pretty tough to force myself to get up at 8:00 am on the weekends even though I have nothing to do those mornings. 8:30 am Breakfast at the Dining Hall. One of the biggest benefits of being on site at the OTC is having a dining hall only a short walk away. I usually stick to eggs, turkey bacon, and some oatmeal; nothing too heavy since I usually have training soon after.

8:45-10:00 am Hang Out. I like to have 1-2 hours after I eat to just hang out and let everything digest before practice. If I’m feeling particularly sore, I’ll do some light stretching to get ready for training. I don’t like to watch Netflix or play video games before practice because it distracts me, and I end up going into training with my mind somewhere else.

10:00-10:30 am Warm-Ups. The 30 minutes before practice is when I’ll do my event-specific pre-warmup routines. If it’s a hurdle day, I’ll grab my stretchy band and do some band distractions for my hip. If it’s a pole vault day, I’ll make sure to stretch out my hip flexor so I’m ready to hit some good positions at take off, and loosen up my shoulders a bit.