Oh Boy

Sunday afternoon. What to write about? What have I done recently? I read a book. I did some running. I went to work. While on my run I thought about the universe. I thought about ethics. I thought about human evolution, about human nutrition, and implications on both, and I thought about human development as people and a nation and a species and a race. I watched some Star Trek. I did some house cleaning, some food preparation. I thought about going out to "research" new trail shoes, or get a book, or do something. I've tried to work through a sore throat and resulting voicelessness.

The book was called Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy. Suppposedly, it is a satirical approach to self-help books. It was written back in the earlier 80s. My opinion is somewhat mixed, but overall I wasn't amazed by it. Perhaps if I read it when it was more contemporary, I would have a better context for the author's allusions and have context for his jokes. But I kind of felt he was a bit pretentious and projected some of the arrogance he seemed to distain. And his reflections on the "self" and self-consciousness didn't really go anywhere and end up just making you feel depressed, hopeless, and estranged.

So I did do a lot of thinking on my run. I guess it focused a lot on obtaining knowledge, the application of the knowledge, the implications of doing so etc. (I feel like that explanation is too broad, or vague. And my thinking was so scattered-brain, I know that description doesn't fit everything). But most of it was surrounding thoughts on evolution.

I will use nutrition as a starting point (I don't like the layman interpretation of the word diet, but I'll use it). I follow a vegan diet. An opposite, is the Paleo diet. Both take some founding in human biology/physiology and/or evolution. Broadly, it's believed that in the early stages of human adaptation, we followed a certain diet. That certain diet should be the ideal diet for humans now, and therefore we should revert back to that diet.

Veganism believes that a plant-based diet is the best way to go back to that earlier diet. I've heard the lactase gene was relatively "new" adaptation, suggesting that early humans did not consume milk. The Paleo diet states that early humans were hunter-gathers. Our bodies were not suited to digest cereal grains, and our diets primarily consisted of meats, vegetables, and fruit. I think both diets tend to fall back on a premise that our bodies are relatively unchanged on the evolutionary scale, and that we should stick with the "tried and true" methods (aka diets) of the past. Veganism is slightly different, since it removes meats because, essentially, our current meat supplies (cows, lambs,  pigs, poultry, fish, etc.) have been so altered that they not longer represent their "original" forms, and furthermore are treated in a cruel manner that should not be tolerated by consuming them.

My thoughts then turned to the idea of what evolution is and means. Are humans no longer evoluting? Are we capable of further evolution? Sure, we haven't been around that long, but if we have "evolved" a lactase gene, doesn't that mean we do adapt to our environment? Are we capable? If evolution follows Darwin's natural selection and survival of the fitness? Do we not have "Social Contracts" that allow for the propagation of less desirable traits? Of the weak?

Back to nutrition. If humans are a product of nature, if human intelligence is a product of nature, are not our technology (fire, metallurgy, chemistry, computer. etc) a product of nature? But yet, hasn't it stopped/arrested the so-called balance of the world? Or perhaps it's indicative that our understanding of that balance is flawed since we cannot account for our disruption of it. Nature begets intelligence, which becomes self-aware of nature, intends to apply intelligence to understand nature....

Ok, so really back to nutrition. If we are still a part of nature, and our technological, agricultural, industrial products are thus within nature, then can our usage of hormones, preservatives, processing really be perceived as a bastardization of nature? What of the imbalance of nature? We end diabetes by cutting sugar and adding preservatives, now we have cancer. We end world wide hunger and now are overpopulated, so we must produce energy efficient foods and thus use grains.

I don't know where I'm going with any of that. And I'm tired of typing about it. I think I'll watch more Star Trek: The Next Generation. I've almost half way through the 6th of 7 seasons. I worked some on my resume because I may be applying to an Aquatics Director position in Raleigh (for when my temporary job now ends). But I'm also interested in starting this book I found about life as an EMT. Yeah, that's still rearing it's crazy head.

Soundtrack:
"Dear Death Part 1" and "... Part 2" by Emery

Less Traveled Road

One of my regular routes takes me through some definitely rural areas. Of course, it's not unexpected to see new developments. I'm sure this one has been there on previous runs, but this morning was the first time I noticed the Frost Forest subdivision. And I loved the name of the [currently] only street: Less Traveled Road. I've seen other subdivisions with querky themes. There was one in Apex called Sugarland with names like "Licorice" or "Candy Lane"

Most of my runs have felt pretty good this week. However, I feel like my pace is a little stagmented. There are a variety of potential factors: I'm definitely in a more hilly town. And perhaps I've got some LONG-lasting fatigue from the Umstead 100. I'm not sure what kind of definitive research/knowledge there is about the "true" recovery from such events.

I've a few trying weeks with the veganism. I don't know if what it is, but just sometimes there are these cravings, particularly for dairy: cottage cheese for breakfast, ice cream, cheese on my pizza. It's bad when I think about how there IS evidence that these things, in their "untampered" varieties. It's easier when I realize how hard it would be to actually find these that aren't from factory-farms, or from livestock pumped full of hormones and the like. And then the final product is full of chemicals of who-knows-what that does who-knows-what to the body.

And luckily, bread with some pasta sauce is pretty damn good on it's own.

Soundtrack:
"Beautiful Darkside" by The Classic Crime
"Goodbye in Her Eyes" by Zac Brown Band

Odd Run

It's been hot as crazy these past few mornings. High 70s with "feel" of low 80s. Humidity is crazy.

This should be a short post.

I also had an interesting companion on my run this morning. A black dog (not sure of the breed, had some retriever, maybe so type of terrier) followed me from the East gate shopping center all the way to the gas station on Weaver Dairy Rd, or about 2.5 miles.

I'm really conflicted about it. It had a collar. I didn't stop to check it. I figured it would get distracted and head off pretty quickly. It would stop (to catch it's breath I think) but then run right back up after me. Even when confronted by another dog, he followed me (and up the brutal Weaver Dairy hill too). He eventually waned off when I passed some walkers (though they weren't the first ones).

I should've stopped and checked the collar...

Soundtrack:
"Fallen Man" by Relient K

Back to Umstead

I had a good long run at Umstead this weekend.

When I moved to Chapel Hill, I was delighted to be close to Carolina North Forest. There's a network of singletrack trails that is incredibly varied. I was sure to be occupied for years.

Unfortunately, I run there often. Tuesday morning run, Saturday long run, Sunday long recovery-ish run. And while there is an immense varied of trails, they aren't very long so it's pretty easy to repeat trails a lot. For my long runs I've made it up to 3 hours without going crazy. But this weekend I was going for 25 miles, approximately 4 hours and I knew it'd be rough. So I got up and made it over to Cary and Umstead park. This was my first run of significant magnitude since the race. I think I did one 10/13 miler on the singletrack before I moved. It was also the first time I was on a lot of the Umstead course. It was weird or nostalgic or anything, but I did find myself frequently thinking about the race. I remember training on those sections and thinking "how will I feel here at lap 1/2/....." And then on Saturday I was running those sections and thinking "how DID I feel here at lap 1/2/....."

I also had the unexpected surprise of seeing my parents on the Loblolly trail as I was just getting finished. My mom has a plan to walk a section of El Camino de Santiago next year and has started training! I don't claim any influence on her inclination. But I am so glad to see her doing something adventurous.

Sadly, life is still always being re-evaluated. While I enjoy working in aquatics, the "level" where I am at is not enjoyable; I don't really get to interact with patrons, or teach kids. I've been looking into personal training, and have started a self-study course. But my brother has started an EMT course, and it's making me envious/introspective. I watched a movie the other week called End of Watch about police officers. I definitely don't want to be a cop, and I know it was Hollywood glamorization, but nonetheless it makes me think about public service.

I'm on to a recovery week.

Soundtrack: Rocking some 90s. I haven't done this in a while, but I was blowing out my speakers this morning.
"Machinehead" by Bush
"Higher" by Creed

Falling Behind

On blogging. My bad.

Great weekend in Asheville.

Lots of rain, but not as much of a nuisance as you'd think.

Lots of good running, though a little lost at times. From Lake Powhatan campgrounds, we ran on the Shut-In Trail/Mountain-to-Sea Trail on Saturday. On Sunday we started in Montreat, at the base of Mt. Mitchell. Didn't exactly run the Old Toll Road (Mt Mitchell Challenge course) as I had hoped, but lots of steep climbing, and quad-killing descending.

Good food too. Props to The Laughing Seed in downtown Asheville for the raw, Spinach Pesto Pasta (zucchini noodles, with cashew cheese, spinach pesto, sun-dried tomato "marinara") and The Dripolator vegan chocolate chip pumpkin muffin.

Constantly rethinking life.

Soundtrack:
"The Precipice" by the Classic Crime (again)
"Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band