Red, White & Trending: Oct. 2-8

What are Team USA athletes — Olympians, Paralympians, hopefuls and more — up to when they're not competing? They're training. They're practicing. They're traveling to competitions and meets and games and tournaments. They're relaxing. They're getting engaged and married. They're taking hard-earned vacations. They're coping with the raw emotions that come from losing and winning. And they're sharing. Through the reach of social media, we're able to follow along on their often extraordinary journeys. We'll catch you up each week on what's "Red, White & Trending."

Stack Attack

The diet of an elite athlete in training can have its drawbacks when it comes to restrictions, but the cheat days have a certain appeal.

Olympic swimming gold medalist Conor Dwyer, who this past April at a event in Mesa, Arizona, shared two podiums with swimming stars Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, certainly made the most of his cheat day.

All Work And A Little Play

It's sliding season in Norway for a number of Team USA's lugers, who have traveled to the land of fjords and the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer. The northernmost city to host the Winter Games, Lillehammer also makes for a nice training facility in the fall.

Soon, Olympic luger Julia Clukey, will return to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York, but she'll be comin' 'round the mountain in Norway until the weekend.

Three-time Olympic luger Erin Hamlin, also the first American woman to win a luge medal, offered a slice of (wild) life captured from the Nermo Hotell.

Chris Mazdzer, fellow Olympians Tucker West, Clukey, Hamlin, plus Anthony Espinoza and Emily Sweeney, tried their hand at a form of cross-training.

Rousey Readies For Another Close-Up

Former Olympic judoka Ronda Rousey, who competed at the 2004 Athens Games and earned a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, is now a UFC star, and the California native made the rounds on the East Coast this past week. Her stops included television appearances, including with Jimmy Fallon, a photo op with Shaq and the hint of a magazine shoot she shared on Instagram.

Rio, Too

While some of Team USA's top lugers were in Norway while reacquainting themselves with winter, some of Team USA's top BMX racers were acquainting themselves with Rio de Janeiro.

Alise Post, a 2012 Olympian, made it clear the accommodations were set to impress.

Fellow 2012 Olympian Brooke Crain captured a bit more of the trip, even if fog did put a damper on what could have been an epic selfie.

The Waiting Is Over

For sled hockey standout Josh Pauls, as his timelines make clear, hockey is never far from the Paralympic gold medalist's thought process. Consider the timing of Team USA holding training camp this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, as it lines up with the first weekend of the NHL season, and you might just see what Pauls means when he describes himself as a hockey addict. Two screens, two games.

"Ice Cream And Popcorn, Bro"

If you're looking for the defending Olympic champion and world-record holder in the decathlon, Ashton Eaton, and his wife, Canadian track star Brianne Theisen-Eaton, they're on holiday. And not just any holiday. When the pair takes time off, they mean taking it off off. The above quote is a beauty from their website, and it's what they mean by cross-training in the offseason — when they take months off from training. That's right, months.

Most recently, they visited Japan. "Of all the places we’ve traveled, hands down Japan wins the award for country with the nicest people," they write on their site. Take a look at the full blog post to see Ashton's handiwork with a samurai sword.

Wedding Season

Still only 32 years old, Evelyn Stevens' story is a full one. The California-born, Massachusetts-raised, Dartmouth-educated youngest of five was once working on the analyst floor at a New York investment firm. But a bike clinic at Central Park in 2008 spun her life in a completely different direction. That led to a professional race, which in turn led to her leaving the New York banking world to become one of the top cyclists in the world.

Now, the 2012 Olympic cyclist has another entry for the personal achievements file: This past weekend, she and Brett Baker were married. Generally accustomed to racing a bike for a living, this seated tradition may have seemed tame in comparison:

Three's Company

Nordic combined skier and two-time Olympian Taylor Fletcher took one of the more picturesque hikes earlier this week when he visited tromeja, the "tripoint" border of Slovenia, Austria and Italy.

Around The World With Missy

Olympic swimming star Missy Franklin has been a busy lady lately. Not long after seeing Taylor Swift, Franklin set off on a two-week whirlwind that included stops in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore and Sri Lanka. The latter, in particular, resonated with the five-time Olympic medalist.

Happy Anniversary, Body Miller

A few weeks removed from posting a priceless photo of her husband and son, Morgan Miller celebrated their anniversary with another nice shot of her and Olympic alpine skiing star Bode Miller.

Parting Shot

In case you're wondering, yes, Olympic gymnast Jake Dalton's workouts with one arm behind his back are still tougher than ours.