Been there, run that, got the t-shirt

I've spent a lot of time in the gym since I got here, for reasons of mental and physical health. Fortunately, my work hours are flexible enough that I'm able to get there just about every day.

I'm quite happy with the results so far. Aside from losing a few pounds, I've also shaved 5 minutes off my 10K run time, just since New Years. In fact, when I did the 10K run on New Years Eve, I have to admit I felt a little apprehensive about the distance. Now most days I whip through a 10K run no problem.

And I finally finished the "Tour of Afghanistan" gym challenge - thus the t-shirt in this photo. This challenge involved running, biking or rowing 1730 km, which is apparently the total distance of a loop connecting several key Afghan cities..

In order to provide some balance between the three types of locomotion, running and rowing distances are multiplied by three, while biking one kilometer just counts as one kilometer. So really I just ran and rowed (mostly ran) 567K.

And I know it's just a t-shirt, but I have to say that as much as I enjoy running, knowing that I was working towards this goal definitely helped keep me going to the gym... and got me running farther than I might have otherwise. And now that it's done, I'm going to celebrate by taking a few days off. My next challenge is to decrease my 1.5 mile time and increase my push ups & sit ups, since I'll have to take a PT test when I get back to the states.