So…here I am on my 2-weeks tour. No, not in the picture above, I’ll discuss that soon. For all intents and purposes, I’m a member of the 28th Operational Weather Squadron during this tour. I follow their schedule, meaning I go to their staff meetings, weather shift change discussions, briefing about sexual assault (which was this morning) and I attend their physical fitness sessions…otherwise known as “PT”, which is the USAF abbreviation for “physical training”.

So here’s a generic picture above of what I had in mind when I imagined squadron “PT”. By the way, this is a picture of a Warrior Run at Minot AFB from last summer…I have to admit that looks a lot like Shaw AFB now. This picture has no connection to my unit or my base, but it’s a good representation of what USAF PT looks like these days.

Monday’s was a good time–the squadron commander led the calisthenics session and I’m still sore in my legs from the flutter kicks! Then we did a 2 mile run…not quite as in-formation as pictured above, but the group of us did start out together. We ran at our own pace…so over time we spread out.

Today, however, we had a different leader for calisthenics who led us in a billion push ups and many core ab exercises! I know I’ll feel it in my tummy and chest tomorrow!

Then I was surprised when we divided into two teams and a Frisbee was produced. Time for Ultimate Frisbee!

Oh no.

I’m lousy at team sports. Remember, I like to run. I also enjoy swimming. I last played Ultimate in 1993 or 1994 and I was lousy then, too. It was a requirement for AFROTC Field Training, so as a Cadet I played it routinely. It’s hard to digest at first, but over the years I’ve accepted that I’m not good at this and if I’m called upon to play, my best contribution is to merely not throw the disc.

I guess I’m just not that aggressive. But I’m also really really bad at throwing the frisbee. So after the first few plays where I proved that assertion, my teammates took my advice (I was pointing to my teammates who were open and could also catch the disc).

But I’m a good defender…I enjoyed getting in the faces of those on the opposing team who are looking for someone to throw the disc to. I can get quite annoying and I think I was able to affect some pretty good distractions.

I caught two passes in the end zone, which resulted in scores…so long as I don’t have to throw it afterwards, I don’t think I’m bad at catching.

I definitely got a really good workout!