Sacking it off

Nice to see somebody cycling a very long way just because. While meanwhile a friend of mine is cycling a shorter distance for charity - go on, give him some money.
But the first of these makes me wish that I was doing something where I could just vanish for a while - rather like reading The Wisdom of Whores and deciding that I should go off and be an epidemiologist. What is the next big wave that I should be waiting for?
... or should it be a carefully managed investment portfolio, a sensible house somewhere and a nice pair of shoes?