Last night was a horrible night for me! As I mentioned in previous blogs, I HATE to take painkillers (e.g. aspirin, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, etc.). However, in order to rehab the arm and shoulder and to reduce the inflammation, it is necessary to take one of these medications. I generally tolerate any of them well for a few days and then the stomach rebels! LOL! Last night was the night of rebellion. I took a dose of aspirin yesterday morning and nothing else afterward. In spite of drinking LOTS of water, the stomach began to feel bad during the day yesterday. After dinner, last night, things got worse and I slept little last night. I have not taken anything today and my stomach is feeling better. I will, however, take some ibuprofen before bed tonight.

In spite of the stomach problem, I must honestly say that there has been a breakthrough as far as my arm and shoulder pain is concerned. It was a very much lessened in duration and intensity today. I actually moved my arm and shoulder much of the day with little if any pain. I am excited! I am also really wanting to get in a full workout, but want to be as close as possible to 100% as I can be before April 15. I will, however, get in more light workouts this week, but will do "regular cycle" workout. I'm losing quite a bit of sharpness now and want to regain some of it back. This week's diet is a key component in this process.

Today's workout consisted of my stretching routine and the lateral arm raises with the bricks. These felt VERY GOOD today. I was able to raise my arms above shoulder level with little if any pain! I went outside, took a brisk mile walk and what I thought would be an "easy" 1-mile run. However, I guess the tabata cardio is impacting my stamina. I hit a relatively fast pace and kept it the entire run, finishing it in 5:46! I suspect, had I really wanted to pursue it, I could have hit a personal record (PR). My PR for 1-mile is 5:29.

This last week of March, I will begin revisiting Cycle 27 (posted in the newly REAPPEARING workout section of my page! LOL ) in order to create Cycle 28. I am waiting for my resistance bands to arrive from amazon.com so that I can look into creating a few new workouts using them. I'm especially looking at back and chest workouts. Although, I can use this with my pull-up bar to do some more exercises for my arms and I imagine, my abs. We will see.

As far as planche training, my most radical decision is to RESTART the training from the beginning...frog stand, to modified tuck planche, to advanced tuck planche. I have much more strength than I had when I began the training, but I need to have a sense of continuity in the training after so many interruptions. I suspect that it will go better with the additional stretches for my arms and shoulders.

That's about it for today! Tomorrow, I will do a light workout and 2-mile run! Tuesday and Thursday, I will do some ab work and tabata bodyweight workout, but the runs will be 3-mile runs to conclude the workouts.

Everyone, let's have a GREAT week in and out of the gym! Here is what I did today:

• 3 x 15 Lateral raises with bricks
  
  
• Stretching routine (including new arm and chest stretches)
  
  
• 1-mile walk
  
  
• 1-mile run (5:46)