when I was a consultant, I'd treat periodically treat myself to massages while traveling for work as a way of making myself feel better about the otherwise not enjoyable life of the road (believe me, it was very stressful doing so much travel - even things as simple as trying to find food I would like to eat for dinner).

Anyway, that stopped when I decided I was not enjoying the life of the road enough to keep doing it.

Fast forward to a month ago and I have 2 gift certs for massages awaiting my use. I used one for a massage after my big ride in August as I figured I'd be pretty sore. Then it occured to me that getting them more regularly with all the x-r cize I plan to do (I wanna be really fit and do tri's and centuries and all that) maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do them periodically.

Being in a relaxed and healthful state is very important to me, and something I feel I've been putting off/neglecting for too long. Something I came to realize this summer as I had to wash away an accumulating amount of unhappiness about certain aspects of my life (mostly work related).

Bottom line is it's part of the 'new me' changes I am trying to make. I figure, in the long run the cost of the gym + once a month massage is a small price to pay preventatively for my sanity and hopefully health too... sure beats lots of stress related things I would get like migraines or PVCs.

And those are things that will keep me motivated to push myself even in between more outdoors fun things (time, daylight, and weather constrained).