Don’t you just love the military and all the acronyms we use? PT means Physical Training, also known as exercise time. AT means Annual Training, the two weeks of duty National Guard and reserves perform every year. I am currently on my AT, and as such, we’re exercising daily. Today was the first day.

I was in charge of the run portion which means I had a group that I would take out for a run that wasn’t too hard, fast, or long: about 4/5 of a mile at a 9:30/mile pace, or so. I had to do this three times, so while everyone else ran 4/5 of a mile, I ran about 2 miles overall.

After running my easy runs, we had to do sprints which really was more difficult for me than I expected because I don’t run sprints. Ever. I don’t get chased by many people (which is the only reason I have for doing sprints), so this was a wake-up for me. I will be implementing sprints into my routine from now on. I couldn’t believe how much my upper thighs burned after these sprints.

All in all, it went well, and I did as well or better than I expected. We will be doing this every morning, so I will likely be in much better shape by the end of AT.