yeah, the "digging a deep hole" issue is basically why i asked the question. Was just wondering if there was some physiological advantage to digging a huge hole and then recovering from it that, in itself, gives some benefit down the road. It sure sounds like fun to just go someplace new and ride around for a week (and maybe that's reason enough), but since it would require a lot of rearranging of life to make it happen, probably better to just try to squeeze in some extra hours over a series of weeks.