Music saved my workout this morning, or perhaps, kept me from taking a midday nap, before the workout! LOL! I have been gradually working myself back into getting up at my normal 5:00 am time. I am convinced that part of the difficulty has to be attributed to the renewed intensity of the workouts. I slept through most of the night last night, but had one period where I woke up and could not get back to sleep. THIS is what leads to the problem. Once I go back to sleep, it is very hard to get up when that alarm goes off. This morning, I rolled out at 6:00 am. I still, however, got everything done in the morning routine in a pretty decent time before hitting the abs. 

Right before the workout, however, I got so sleepy that the temptation was to take a nap before the workout. Normally, I can start my workout music. I have various playlists of videos on my computer that I use during the indoor portion of my workout or I stream my favorite oldies station. I got back on the oldies, a few weeks ago, when I looked at a preview for the Grammys and realized that there was NO compelling reason for me to put up yet again with three hours of mostly horrible music. Today's music, in large part, is missing beautiful lyrics and arrangements and, dare I say, great voices. Because of this, I started yearning for those old great songs. I did a search for stations playing oldies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s and found wmtr http://www.wmtram.com  a station out of New Jersey. After 30 minutes I was hooked. I heard music that I had not heard in years and some I have never heard, but my mother had heard and provided plenty of stories associated with them. Yesterday, they played some music by Frankie Lymon (A vocal prodigy if there ever was one) and Jackie Wilson that I had never heard. This, of course prompted me to search YouTube to see if I could find the recordings. After that, I searched for other songs and downloaded about 10 videos to a playlist on my computer. My goal was to listen to them later today. However feeling like I did this morning, I needed some novelty to get me going and I played those videos and they got me moving! I pushed through the stretching, extra push-ups, and ab exercises. When I went outside, I had my mp3 player and got through the 1-mile walk and 3-mile run with Randy Crawford, Robin Thicke and the Sounds of Blackness. This could have easily, on another day, been Bread, Noel Pointer, and Basia. I was looking at my friends "OldSchool" and "CDMagee" status messages, talking about their workout music and realize just how important music is to our getting workouts done. I was thinking how "different" my choice of workout music is compared to theirs. I vary my tempo and genres. This gives my brain a sense of "movement." I could not bear one pace or type of music during my workouts. I tried to select "ear candy" from various genres and artists I love. I have 270 songs on my mp3 player and know, after 2 years with only a few additions and deletions, the entire playlist. So, when I am in a tough place on a run or cardio session, just the anticipation of a song that I really love about to play will cause me to push harder. Perhaps this is a bit strange. I, however, encourage everyone to use whatever music powers them through their workouts.

The thing with the 3-mile run is that I actually ran lap 7 TWICE! I thought I had counted the lap twice, but was not sure until I looked at my time after I finished. There was no way, I ran a 21:09 3-mile. Instead that was the time for 3.2 miles (16 laps). I calculated my 3-mile run time which would have been 19:48 (6:36 mile pace). This is about right and is consistent with the pattern of my runs. Each week I am getting a bit faster. My Thursday's runs are a bit slower because of the leg workout on Wednesday, but each run on Thursday has been faster than the previous Thursday.

I am continuing to work hard on the diet and am liking what I am beginning to see. I see my arms starting to fill back out and some of the ab and lower back fat starting to go away. With a little over 9 weeks left, I feel very confident about how I will look after cutting. Although you will be able to see some change in next week's profile pictures that I will take on Sunday, I believe the change will be that much evident on the progress pictures to be taken a week from Sunday! I thank you all for your support and kind words. It means a lot!

Not much more to talk about today. Tomorrow is Friday, which means this week, Tabata and Plyometrics. However, since last week was rainy, I did my Tabata cardio instead of the 1-mile run. This Friday, I will do a 1-mile run instead of Tabata cardio. Then I should be back on schedule for the next 300 workout on next Friday!

Have a great Thursday!

Here is what I did today:

• Stretching Regimen
  
• 3 x (2 x 30) Cross Body Mountain Climbers
  
• 3 x (2 x 30) Spiderman Push-ups
  
• 3 x (2 x 30) Oblique Crunches
  
• 3 x 40 Leg Raises (six inches with 3 counts--up, out, in, & down)
  
• CARDIO:
  
• 1-Mile Walk
  
• 3.2-Mile Run (21:09-1 too many laps)-18:48 3-mile
  

TRANSFORMATION CHALLENGE DAY 19:

Goals:

1. To build more muscle in my chest.
   
   
2. To build more muscle in my legs (quads).
   
   
3. To build more muscle in my back.
   
   
4. To continue strengthen my core in preparation for resumption of planche push-up training in 2013.
   
   
5. To obtain a 5-6% body fat percentage while adding approximately 2-5 pounds of muscle during the next 12 weeks.
   
   
6. To work on consistently running at or below a 6:15 mile pace on all of my runs.
   
   
7. To continue to strengthen my arm and shoulders and prevent a recurrence of
   impingement syndrome.
   
   
8. To continue integrate my full body stretching regimen into my daily workouts.
   
   

• A=100-95% Clean
  
  
• B=94-90% Clean
  
  
• C=89-85% Clean
  
  
• D=84-80% Clean
  
  
• F=79% and below Clean
  

• Got in 2 sets of 50 regular push-ups, inclined push-ups, and 2 sets of 25 triangle push-ups for a total of 250 extra push-ups!