Athletic-Minded Traveler

Athletic-minded skin takes a beating. Sweaty workouts, chlorinated pools, chafing winds, and the sun?s UV rays, all contribute to the de-moisturizing and wrinkling of our epidermis?the skin?s top layer.

Now, I?m no skin care nut/expert?until a year or so ago, I didn?t even know there was a difference between body and facial soap. But, after learning about the damage that we athletes can do to our skin and the resulting problems (e.g., deadly melanoma for one), I now wish I would have started a skin maintenance program earlier in my life.

Okay, did I just write that?

If you are not familiar with Hookah (pronounced ?hoo-kuh?), you'd better take note. This trendy, Middle East inspired method of smoking flavored tobacco through a tube is on its way to becoming the next big North American puffing sensation since cigars.

Hookah bars are sprouting up in cities across the U.S. (18 yrs.

How often have you had to unplug a desk lamp or some other hotel furnishing to make way for your computer, phone charger, ipod or other techy tools?

When I was last in Vegas, the room occupant before me clearly had to do this and didn't bother to reconnect anything. When I arrived I was forced to spend the first hour of my trip getting everything working again?which was much faster than waiting for the hotel's "tech support."

Anyway, our local paper had a blurb on a solution from KagaRooM Storage.

I am looking at my travel schedule for the next 5 weeks - SFO, ORD and Japan.

Now that my spider bite has finally healed, I am making the come back to running. Since I?m no longer a full-time sponsored professional athlete with an unlimited shoe supply, I headed down to the sports store to check out some new running shoes. Until this point, I have been 'limited' to choosing from just one brand.

Wow, the number and array of available brands and features are mind boggling. The funny thing is that as a seasoned runner of over 20 years, I found myself making so many mistakes.