Easter break

Thursday being the defacto end of week T minus-19 and counting, it's time to take stock again, and I'm still not liking it.

The breathing exercises in the pool haven't done much for the lack of confidence in my swimming. It isn't just the breathing; there's an overall conditioning problem that comes from 20 years of a sedentary (in fact, almost sedimentary) lifestyle. I have improved not one whit in two weeks, and I'm running out of weeks.

This is almost assuaged by the arrival of what is becoming my weekly care package from Aquagoggles. This time, it's a pair of sport watches ($9.95 each). Stainless steel case, waterproof to 100 metres, no branding, your standard lap/chrono, timer and alarm functions. Completely unbranded, which is cool. And, unlike the Timex sport watches I've had in the past, the band is not integrated into the watch. I've had to throw out two working Timexes because the bands disintegrated.

Not unalloyed joy, however. One of the watches arrived with two buckle-ends for the strap, with no tongue to pass through. A quick phone call to the shop, though, and they've promised to send two tongues, esentially giving me an extra strap. (This was the orange one; I figured I should have one watch that would be easy for rescuers to spot.)

But I digress ... despite the swimming woes, I'm on track for the running (pun intended). It's promising to be a summery Easter weekend in Toronto, so the bike is definitely coming out for a shakeout ride. And I just discovered that my YMCA card is good not only at any Y in the city, but any Y in the world. So I should be able to sneak in an extra thrash in the pool over the weekend. I definitely need it.