The Après-Training Training Plan

I love riding my bike, but there are some days that just kind of suck. Cold dark rainy endlessness. Even though I don’t rely on my bike for the daily commute anymore, I have committed to bike racing in the spring. So the pedals must keep spinning.

I’ve been riding the rollers, the trainer, indoors and out. I ride my fixed gear or my road bike. I try to keep my options flexible and see what appeals to me any given day. But what happens on those days when you’d rather sit around in your bunny slippers and drink tea? The simple answer is to Buck Up, Camper. Bucking up, of course is not that easy. Fortunately, for every successful application of willpower, there is an arsenal of tricks and techniques. (Click here to geek out on the science of willpower.)

Here’s mine. I know from experience that I really do feel better after I go out into the ridiculous wet, get really cold, or ignore the gloomy darkness. When I come home, dry off and wiggle my toes back to life the warmth feels warmer and food tastes better. The trick to getting out there is to be loaded up on the stuff that can only be enjoyed fully after you’ve suffered a little bit.

I call this my Apres-Training Training Plan. The key elements are as follows:

1. The bubble bath – Decadent under any circumstances, but truly divine when you’ve just stripped off your soggy spandex. My current favorite is EO Rose Geranium & Citrus. It is sunshiney and wicked bubbly. Oprah would tell you that you should take a moment for yourself, and I am not about to say she’s wrong. Take a moment. Take a bubble bath.

2. The TV series – If you watch before your ride, you are a couch potato. But after you ride, it is called active recovery. Put your feet up. Check out an entire season from the library and get sucked into the ritual of watching a little bit every night.

3. New music – I’ve always believed that you need at least one new album per season. It is like keeping a diary, but with sound. You know how certain songs make you think of that one summer when you were in high school? Well, make this season one that you’ll remember by some new tunes that you’ve learned all the words to. I’ve been singing “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and “Down Home Girl” by Old Crow Medicine Show.

4. New Pajamas – Just like you’ve put on the rainjacket to go riding, you need to get dressed for relaxation. But do it with intention. Upgrade those pjs. I recently made myself a pair of pajamas that are like walking springtime. They are yellow, green gold, turquoise and floral as all hell. Lounge. Strut. Repeat.

5. Hot toddies – Ride your bike to happy hour. A hot toddy warms you up and puts the ease on. Little else needs to be said by way of justification, but I will leave you with The Perfect Toddy (rum) recipe from a dear friend of mine from middle school.

1 oz. Barbancourt 5 Star (8-year) Haitian Rhum
1.5 oz. dark honey
.5 oz. pineapple-coconut juice
8-10 oz. hot water

Put the honey and the juice in the bottom of a tall glass — Collins or standard pub pint — and pour in the water. Stir well with a long-handled, perforated mixing spoon; while stirring, add the rum. Splash a bit more water in to bring the temperature up, mix through, and serve immediately.

6. The crockpot – The smell of the crockpot when you come back from you ride is something that you could never appreciate if you had been sitting in the other room. When I walk back into the house, I greet the dog, and say things like “Oh, what a good dog, what did you make me for dinner? Oh you made me stew? Good dog!” But you can play out that scene in whatever way feels appropriate to you in your own situation.

Try one or two of these techniques this week. You’ve earned it.