Pine Nuts and Eggrolls

Who doesn't like eggrolls?!!! Not the cabbage and carrot filled crap at buffets, but juicy ,meaty, golden brown logs of love! Everyone has a comfort food ( or a few). It's those foods that follow you through life and have the power to make a bad day good or take you back to good times. For me, eggrolls are up there. I don't eat them often, but when I do...there is no self restraint. Gimme some vinegar and soysauce for dipping and leave the room. There are only a few things I can stuff myself with and not feel gross later. Right now...I'm riding the eggroll satisfaction train. Whoo whooo!

This past Friday was my weekly mountain trail run. I kept seeing all these people crouched under trees near the trail head. What were they doing!!! So on a stop at my truck to refill my new amphipod hydraform , I asked a woman walking by about their business. Apparently it's pine nut harvesting season. As I continued on my run, I saw a pine cone with nuts still inside. I stopped and popped one in my mouth. Ooops! I guess I'm supposed to remove the seed covering first. It's all in my teeth now and my fingers have pine sap on them. But hey, pretty tasty as pine nuts go.

Later I talked to a Japanese woman who explained to me how to cook them and how her and her husband come here a lot. She was proud of her new hiking boots. She had a 1 pound freezer bag full of nuts which took her about 3 hours to acquire. I told her I saw a bunch of them about a mile up on the trail, and she got this look in her eye. She wanted to know exactly where they were! Tuns out, Pinyon pine nuts are prime for production between 7 and 8 thousand feet which is wham right what Sawmill trail is at. The weekend was too busy for a family outing for nuts, but I may have to go back and harvest some for myself. Pine nuts are expensive, and the idea of fresh home made pine nut bread sounds goood!

At the end of my run, I was sitting in the back of my truck with the hatch open. I was just eating some food when I spied this mutant insect marching towards me on the pavement. It's legs were moving as if they were mechanical. It was like a robotic tank the size of a lighter! As it went by, I decided it was just a really big mole cricket. I said "Hi! Mr. Mole Cricket!" and the bug stopped for a couple of seconds and then kept on moving. Sensitive to sound no doubt, but if he rotated towards me and began marching at me, I might've got skeered!

As for the run, it was good. I did manage to get briefly lost which kinda spooked me for a bit since that's when it started to lightly drizzle on me, and the wind really picked up. However, my getting lost was a good thing as I found a new trail and a cool hill. It's really steep going up, but it's mostly packed dirt with no rocks and staggered really well. This means you can run down it fast and keep control. I don't get to run downhill much, and I think my quads are finally coming into the idea that they can take some stress. Scared a couple of horses, met some black labs, and felt really good through most all of it.

The brain plays tricks on you though. When I wore my heart rate monitor on the treadmill, my heart rate would almost always go up when nearing certain goals I had. No matter how I tried to concentrate or diffuse it, the beat would always go up. I think I felt something similar this outing. I knew I only had a couple more laps to go but my brain was already in the 'ok we're done' mode. I really had to focus my thinking, tighten my form, and concentrate on simple issues. I was going to get another gel in the truck before my last lap , but decided nope, just finish it. As I hit the uphill portion of the loop, I was very tired. I felt like I could just stop at any moment. So I just gathered what strength I could and just sprinted as far as I could, which wasn't far. hahaha But it kept me going strong. So I was very happy to have run my first half marathon. Felt really good the whole weekend too. This is when I start contemplating the idea of running 50 miles someday. Could I run for 10 or 11 hours? 'Do I want to' is probably the more important question.