Workin' On My Fitness...

Along with getting some writing done, I've been working out a lot during my time here in Kabul. I think the last time I was in this good shape was right before I went off to ROTC field training, in 1992.

In the past four months, I've lost about 15 pounds, cut 5 minutes off my 10K run time, earned the "Tour of Afghanistan" cardio challenge t-shirt and progressed from being able to do a set of 3 pull-ups to a set of 7 pull-ups. I also cut about a minute off my 1.5 mile run time, which translates to scoring a 97 on the AF fitness test - last time I scored 91.

Even better than all that is the psychological improvements. When I went to run the New Years Even 10K run, I have to admit the thought of such a distance was a slightly scary prospect. Now I do 6 miles regularly, no big deal. On Saturday, I ran 7 miles in about 55 minutes - and enjoyed it. Planning to go for 8 soon.

Same thing happened with pull-ups -I hadn't done that type of exercise in a long time, and found them slightly intimidating and painful. Now I look forward to doing them.

I know that once I get back to the states, I won't be able to spend as much time working out as I do now, and that's alright. I do plan to keep up the running as much as I can, but I'll have much better things to spend my time on.