One of my long term goals is getting back my cycling fitness, but also adding in core exercises to increase overall body strength. I have always had a passion for cycling. As I have stated in the past, I have done about 120,000 miles so far of bike riding. I did amateur racing for 10+ years, with my best year having 8,500 miles done. Some other notable cycling achievements:  55+mph hit on bike, longest ride to date 125 miles, best 3 day total 250 miles, 28.5 mph avg. in a race that was 31 miles long (awesome does not even describe that), and the list could go on.

Of late, my cycling fitness has been suspect. I am working on my goals for this year, I am probably looking for a couple of great century (100 mile rides) to do. The local group rides out of the bike shop will also be high on the list to do as well.

This week’s accomplishments:

 Indoor Trainer: 4 days at 45 minutes, 1 day 1 hour

3 days starting upper body work outs (push-ups)

Dancing when my 2 year old daughter requests it!

Goals for next week:

Saturday –Ride outdoors for 1-2 hours.

Sunday- Indoor ride (due to plans all day)-1 hour, also do push-ups and start AB workouts.

Monday-Friday- find 3 days to ride outdoors (indoors in bad weather) for 45 minutes- 1 hour. Also do push-up and AB work outs.

There are a bunch of goals on my awesome list that have to do with Cycling, this year I am working on my base fitness, so I can get to the point where I can achieve some of my big Monster cycling goals.

So how about you? What are your goals for the next week to help you achieve any of the awesome things you want to accomplish? Do you know of any great ab workouts that can be done at home?

Have a Great Weekend.

Peace.

Food, you hear about it all the time. There are cable TV channels dedicated to it and there are tons of books about it. But let’s get back to reality…Most people do not want to think about it. When at the biggest temples of food-The Supermarket, McDonalds, TGI Fridays or any of the other numerous places you can get food we tend to only want to pick up what looks good, or we have seen advertised that looks good, and bring it home to eat.

One of the goals that I have set on my awesome life’s list is to eat ORGANIC for one year (and hopefully keep that as a life change). While this may not be as cool as bungee jumping or skydiving, the goal of my list was not only to do awesome things that are daring, but to also try and push myself into doing things daily to improve my life. Eating super healthy food, to me, is a great way to insure that the fuel you are putting into your body is the best it can be. This will help insure that my mind and body can be performing at their best.

Back to the food that is in our world. Now, picture yourself walking into a grocery store, there is the produce section. The food looks good. It is shiny and has great color. You pick out what you want and bring it home to make a great and healthy salad. But, wait, do you really know anything about the produce? What chemicals have been used in its production? What types of genetic altering has been done to the produce? Has it been waxed to look shiny?

I challenge you to THINK about your food. Does the yellow dye #5 giving your Mountain Dew is lovely green color, really add any value to your health? What are the long term effects of all this? Or more importantly are all the health issues we see in our world in direct relation to our diets?

So think, research, and slow down a bit when it comes to your food.

So how about you? Do you care what you eat or how it is processed?

Peace.

I used to joke when I worked in Manufacturing, that I had a bunch of “Hats” that I wore each day depending on what task I had to do at the time. Sometimes it felt like I had 10-15 different hats that I had to wear each day. I am sure you have felt the same way in your life.

Fast forward to my daughters 2^nd birthday party, low and behold she got a nice MONSTER hat to wear. What did she immediately do-she put on the hat and went RAHHHHHHHHH! Very cute but it also got me thinking. When do we lose that ability to have fun on the primal level? We get so caught up in our lives and what “work hat” that we have on that we lose so much in our lives.

The expectations are set, very early in life, that we become more serious. Get a Job, Buy a House, and the list can go on. But what happened to our inner monster? Why don’t we put our own MONSTER hats on more often and go RAHHHHHHHHHHH? Is life so serious? Is fun only an afterthought?

Fun, Adventure, exploration, living the happiest life possible—these are all things that I would put under the definition of a monster hat. Life can be such an adventure, but it should not be contained in little chunks-weekends or 2 weeks of vacation. It should be how we live out our lives.

What am I doing today to remove some of the old “hats” I have worn? First is starting up this blog. Second is planning my garden for 2011, third is looking more into eating Organic. All things on my Monster Life list.

So, what about you. What are you going to do today, right now to start moving your life from ordinary to extraordinary—and possibly find your own Monster Hat? How would you define your ultimate “Monster Hat” to be?

Peace.