Tuesdays are the worst for Patience Jumbo-Gula.
The Dundalk girl has to grind her way through double maths, double biology and double French before sitting into the car with her father Paul for the journey to Tallaght for training.
The session can take as long as three hours and then it's straight back in the car, home and bed. At least Wednesday is a day off training, but it's also the day she prioritises catching up on her leaving cert studies.
The 17-year-old is one of the stars of a golden generation of young Irish sprinters, predominantly female, who are taking the world by storm.
Jumbo-Gula ran a championship record on her way to last summer's European Under-18 Athletics Championships 100m final in Hungary and was a key cog in the relay team that took silver in the 4 x 400m at the world Under-20s shortly after.
Athletics is the priority for her future, but for the moment her focus has to remain on her studies - and it's not easy.
"On Monday I have gym in Dundalk, Tuesday it's Tallaght, Wednesdays I'm off, Thursdays I train up the north in Newry on my own, Friday is gym and Saturday is Tallaght again," she explained.
He said, just stay strong and don't loose faith. He always says that every disappointment is a blessing because you learn. That was really motivating. And it made me cry a bit!
"It's very tiring, especially on Tuesdays because I have double maths, double biology and double French. On Tuesdays, we get home at half ten or eleven.
"Sometimes I feel down because it's the leaving cert and I'm so tired and I don't want to be here, but then the training group in Tallaght motivates me and then I'm like 'oh yeah!'.
"It's tough to balance school and athletics. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to focus on athletics for now and then it's the other way around, so you have to balance yourself. You have to plan for each day and sometimes it doesn't go according to plan.
"I'm really tired at the end of the week, especially on a Friday I'm like a zombie - I just want my bed!"
Jumbo-Gula has star quality on and off the track. For someone who doesn't cross the threshold of adulthood until July, she speaks with confidence and knows what she wants to do in life and in sport.
After her successes last summer she thought about going the scholarship route in America, but the aggressive approach taken by Stateside recruiters made her think again.
UCD is now her preferred destination, for her undergraduate degree at least, and she hopes that the running track, controversially dug up in 2011 to make room for a car park, is reinstated in Belfield by 2020 as planned.
The St Gerard's Athletics Club runner said: "I think I can fulfil my potential in Ireland, particular in Dublin if UCD gets a track and we have Sport Ireland here. I feel I can improve as an athlete based in Ireland.
"A lot of people think about America and England, I did want to go to America, I'm not going to lie, but my mindset is now in Ireland."
Jumbo-Gula was speaking at the announcement of Irish Life Health as an Athletics Ireland partner
Speaking about US college recruiters, she said: "Sometimes I have to ignore them because they're aggressive! They go through my social media (to make contact). I was just overwhelmed and I didn't know what to say. I don't really want to go to America. I was just saying to them 'I'm not sure', but I want to stay in Dublin."
She comes from a close family of four children, Patricia (16), Alan (13) and Alex (3) with parents Paul and Ifeoma.
Faith and family are important to them and nowhere is this better illustrated than Patience's relationship with her father, who works as a taxi driver and spends much of his spare time taxi-ing his eldest to and from races and training.
"My Dad takes me everywhere," she said, admitting that she spends a lot of her time in the car beside him sleeping.
"Dad was very motivating because he always said to me that he didn't want me to miss the opportunities he had back home in Africa. That's why he takes me places - he doesn't want me to miss out.
"He didn't have the opportunities because there weren't the supports and no one really cared about sport in Nigeria where he grew up. When he came here he said, 'this is the land my children are going to prosper in'. He said to me I am going to represent my country."
Paul recounts the day Patience, a child who never stopped running and was always moving at top speed, won yet another schools sports day. He overheard two men taking about her so after a while listening to their conversation he introduced himself.
Patience Jumbo-Gula with a classy interview after her 5th place finish in the 100m final pic.twitter.com/UnZmHXCCNF
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) July 6, 2018
Turns out they were from St Gerard's and they were keen to sign her up, so Paul brought Patience and Patricia down shortly afterwards.
"It's tough, especially with work because if I don't work I don't get paid," he said. "I just flow with the day and what god says will be, will be.
"I have to be there for her. Money isn't everything; the most important thing is to be there for your family.
"Some people don't have the opportunity to have their parents around them or to be around their kids, so I have to take that opportunity to be there for them. That's what I can do for them. I might not have money to give to them, but I will be there for them."
He was there to pick up Patience when she suffered what was probably her biggest disappointment to date - finishing outside of the medals in the Euro Under-18 100m final, despite running comfortably the fastest qualifying time.
"I think maybe the pressure got to me," recalls Jumbo-Gula. "In the heats and semi-final I was really relaxed and I was having fun, but in the final I just froze.
"I was still chilling in the blocks and everyone was going! Afterwards I realised I'd messed up and I looked up at the board and I knew I had come fourth or fifth and my heart kind of broke…
"He said, just stay strong and don't lose faith. He always says that every disappointment is a blessing because you learn. That was really motivating. And it made me cry a bit!"
Paul adds: "If you don't make a mistake, you don't learn."
Patience in action on the track
She has run 7.48 over 60m this year already and if she can shave .08 off that she'll qualify for March's European senior indoor championships in Glasgow. 60m isn't her preferred distance as she's a slow starter, but knows that it would be a serious learning experience.
Beyond that there's the European Under-20s in July in Sweden and further down the track there's the Olympic Games - her ultimate goal.
"I don't want to keep thinking that I'm a world silver medallist and I was in the Under-18 final," she insists. "This is a new year and Christmas 2018 was the time to reflect - when you enter a new year you have new goals..
"The aim is the Olympics and not just the Olympics; the Europeans, world championships and become a senior athlete because it's hard to transition from junior to senior."
Behind the easy-going, charming exterior there's a steely competitor. "I hate coming second. If I come second I go away, train harder and come back," she said.
And backing her every step of the way will be her father Paul and the rest of her family.
Patience Jumbo-Gula was speaking at the announcement of Irish Life Health as an official partner to Athletics Ireland
