SpiceQuest 2006 is taking a little break after an unfortunate overdose on Monday: we had Cha burritos, and while their red salsa isn't terribly hot, it does, in large quantity, appear to do bad things to one's digestion. The "secondary burn" was also worse than I've had since I started this mad, mad voyage. Another reason for easing back on my capsaicin resistance programme is I took a small nip of the Jefe sauce at the wings joint and realized I'll never, never be able to eat a dozen Jefe wings. As soon as it got in my mouth, my stomach figured out what was going on and started to complain. The heat was bearable, but even if I kill off all the spice receptors in my mouth, I don't think the rest of my digestive tract will be able to handle it.

On the other hand, though, swimming is going really well. I'm already a little ahead of where I was before winter break after just a month back in the water: I'm now pulling around 3000 yards in an hour, including time for stretching. I can do 100 yard intervals on 1:35 forever, so I knocked that down to 1:30 tonight. After an overpaced 500, not so easy. The real surprise is that I've turned into a distance swimmer: I timed a 500 last week and came in right at 7 minutes, which is almost as fast as I ever swam it in high school. I did 1000 yards in 15 flat on Tuesday. (My 100, though, is over a minute, which is pretty lousy.) So that's the difference 30 pounds and 15 years makes: not good for sprinting, not much difference for distance.

About those 30 pounds: I'm always surprised that starting or stopping swimming doesn't seem to have any effect on my weight, but I just read that studies have found that swimming without a change in diet doesn't promote weight loss. I don't ever expect to weigh what I did in high school, but I could stand to trim a bit of the rind, maybe 5 to 10 pounds.

But I'm not giving up the hot wings, Cha burritos, or beer, damnit!