Avocado Bana-na-za!

Happy Friday!! Yesterday I left you with a list of things I wanted to talk about today. But now I don't feel like talking about a lot of them. Don't you hate when that happens? I'm going to leave one or two off today because I don't want to overwhelm you with a random blog post.

Let's talk about some running first. I did my first speedwork session on Wednesday. I waited until it was dark outside and Paul and I ran together so I was safe and all that jazz. And it was AWESOME. It was nice and cool and 4 repeats felt like cake. I guess it was just one of those days!

I've been stretching like a very good girl. But not so wonderful is that my knee is NOT taking to this training thing very well. Therefore, I've had to change my plan. Which is fine, because it's the first week. And it's better to know now than figure it out halfway through training and have a busted knee. So I'm cutting a weekly run! And I'm okay with it! Go figure.

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My apartment still smells amazing. You wanna know why? Banana bread. But why is there a picture of avocados, you ask? This week I put out a call for banana bread recipes and got three that I was seriously considering. But it was a comment I received mentioning avocados that won out. So thank you Teamarcia for inspiring me! :)

I took to the web and found a recipe for banana bread made with avocado. And it did not disappoint. It's so moist and delicious and wonderful. DO IT. You will not regret it!

Avocanana Bread

 Thanks to the California Avocado Commission

• ⅓ cup old-fashioned oats (I used Cinnamon KIND granola because I didn't have enough oats)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 ripe, Fresh California Avocado, seeded
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 cup (packed) brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 very ripe bananas (I had three!)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (I left these out)
• ¼ cup buttermilk (I used coconut milk...because that's all I had. Haha.)

1. Line a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with nonstick foil and lightly grease the bottom only.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Combine dry ingredients: oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Scoop the avocado into a large bowl and mash lightly.
5. Add oil and brown sugar to the avocado. Cream together using an electric mixer, until light and creamy.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Stir in bananas, then walnuts and dry ingredients.
8. Stir in buttermilk and beat just until buttermilk is incorporated.
9. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Avocanana bread is quite moist and may not pass the "toothpick" test at this point. If you prefer a drier bread, bake a little longer.

Yields: 1 loaf

Make it. Love it. Make it again because it's gone.

And lastly, I leave you with my challenging thing. A few days ago, Heather from Better With Veggies put out a video challenge. And I'm taking it! I've never done a vlog before. So be nice. Or something. For some reason, it freaks me out that people I know could be watching this. I'M TRYING NOT TO CARE. SO THERE. HERE IT GOES.

Challenge. Accepted.

And please excuse my beautiful nature. I've been biking all day. Which means sweating. :)

This was the most attractive still option. That's when you know it's bad.

Have you ever vlogged before? Do you like it?

Let Me See a Smile

Today I've got to find some way to fit three miles in my schedule. I can barely fit this blog post in! Tomorrow I've got wonderful things to tell you like:

• How my first speedwork session EVER went. (spoiler alert:it was fun!)
• How to get your house/apartment/etc. smelling the best it's ever smelled.
• Am I really sticking to my stretching?
• How I'm challenged. Well. You'll get to hear it. If that tells you anything.
• How to have even more fun racing. :)

So it's going to be wonderful! I'm looking forward to it already! But alas, for now, all you get is this.

This is my life.

And of course I'll give you some other things to look at.

Something to Drink: I think I drool every time I look at these smoothies from A Colourful Palate. Be sure to join her July smoothie challenge if you like drinking your fruit and veggies!! :)
Something to Think: I want to shoot a huge "Amen, sister!" to Tara Burner for living life how she sees fit and reminding us to do the same. Consequently, I feel the same! So. AMEN, SISTER!
Something to Work out the Kinks: Well. I hope that wasn't a stretch. HA. So punny! But I challenge you to stop doing whatever you're doing on the computer and fix those wrists over at doyogawithme.com. It's only five minutes. GO.

Anything exciting to tell me today? :)

Just Another Hump Day

Happy Wednesday! I don't have anything super substantial to speak about today, so I'm going to do a quick post about my life! Which means, my friends, it may be all over the place. And I'm not apologizing, ya hear?

I've been a big, big Maroon 5 fan for a while now, so I bought this yesterday in a crazily excited state. I've listened to it a couple times now and I like it! I'm not sure it's my favorite CD of theirs, but we'll see. We'll see. "One More Night" passed the run test yesterday! So that's always a good thing! I think it just got released recently. So this is probably old news already. But give it a try!

On a completely unrelated note: I need a great banana bread recipe. I took a picture with instagram but I'm pretty dysfunctional when it comes to that app. Is there a way to get those pictures on your computer so you can (for example) put them on your blog? I can only get them when I tweet them. And I don't want to tweet everything!

...Then I tweet about it anyway.

BUT YES. THIS IS A CALL FOR BANANA BREAD!

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Lately I've been wearing skirts on my bike when I commute. I wear a pair of booty shorts underneath every time unless I forget. I think for the most part it's fine, until the wind blows and people stare. SOMETIMES I WANT TO DRESS UP, OKAY!? I should be able to do both.

My plan for today.

Speedwork confuses me. I've never done it before. I'm new at this. I feel so dumb but I really don't know how to do it. I don't have a track available to me that I know of. But I'm on the hunt, trust me. Good old Hal Higdon says this:

If you want to run at a fast pace, you need to train at a fast pace several days a week. This training schedule for intermediate runners alternates interval running with Tempo Runs..An interval workout usually consists of fast repeats separated by walking or jogging...Walk or jog between each repeat. The best place to run 400-meter repeats is on a track, although you can also use an accurately-measured road course. Run the 400s at about your pace for 5-K, or 10-K. (from here)

This just intimidates the pants off of me. Which is bad because people are already staring because I don't wear them on my bike.

So much to discuss. Sorry for making you work. :)