I've been in a very small town in North Central Colorado called Walden, population 240, for the past month and a half. There isn't a gym for hours in any direction, so I decided to take up the 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Challenge which is exactly what it sounds like. Fucking hell. Doing 500 kettlebell swings a day, in an undulating set pattern (50 swings, 25 swings, 15, then 10, then repeat, with limited strength exercises in between each set), has proven to be one of the most miserable but oddly addicting and grit-testing challenges I've ever embarked on.

The first day, I did 500 kettlebell swings in 44 minutes and 30 seconds. I almost quit, twice. Very seriously, I thought this was a dumb idea. But I remembered a quote from the originator of this challenge, Dan John, which went,

The goal is to keep the goal the goal.

Which is some of the best advice I've ever heard. So often my 1am resolutions to read more, exercise, quit smoking, write, they go unheeded in the daylight hours. It's because I don't keep the goal the goal. The goal changes. Because I finished that first day, which I'm so thankful I did, I managed to complete each day's worth of 500 swings each time I started.

And yesterday, I amazed myself with a time of 19:58. Essentially non-stop kettlebell swings, with wall-assisted 14 handstand push-ups throughout each "cluster", for a total of 500 kettlebell swings with a 45 lbs bell and 70 handstand push-ups, in under 20 minutes.