Dr. Pepa has an interesting cure for just about every ailment encountered by GRP athletes thus far. And if any of us are drug tested this season, we can safely say her treatments fall quite far from the banned substance list. These are a few remedies already prescribed during our West Yellowstone camp.
Hot red wine with black pepper: This is Pepa’s cure for a nighttime cough. Hannah was awake coughing late the night we were here and was then given this mixture the next couple nights. She said the concoction the first night was alright because Pepa didn’t add too much pepper but the next night Pepa stepped it up and Han struggled to finish the cup. Her response was, “it got rid of the tickle because it basically fried my throat.”
Honey with a little lemon juice for the post race hack. Pepa mixed this one up after our sprint race today since we sounded like a bunch of chain smokers. I took a big gulp imagining it would taste like lemon tea with a spoonful of honey. Instead it was pretty much straight honey with a hint of lemon so the consistency was bit thicker than I was expecting but it felt really nice on my throat.
Flat Coke and coffee: This lukewarm mixture was Pepa’s pre-race drink of choice as an athlete so some of us tried it before intervals a couple days ago. The two ingredients don’t combine well so it leaves it an awful aftertaste but the caffeine buzz is very memorable.
Very burnt toast cures a stomach ache. I think we’ve all been turned off by the mass of carcinogens also consumed with this remedy so none of us have tried it yet but Pepa swears by it.
Chicken soup with all the bones. She puts a whole chicken in the pot of water with some mixed veggies, garlic, salt and pepper and then very slightly breaks apart the carcass after it has cooked but leaves all the bones in the soup for added surprises. We were all hesitant at first as we attempted the scavenger hunt of soup eating but Pepa’s last batch of soup disappeared very quickly.
JANGSANG!!!! Confused? So were we at first but ginseng is great for recovery. And it works even better if you yell it loudly in a Bulgarian accent.
And if all else fails a latte and some dark chocolate will always help.
