going bananas - the results + ultra-half marathon

Sunday mornings = long run days. Today, I ran 14 miles through some crazy dense fog - it was lovely.  I've decided that any run over 13.1 miles and under 26.2 miles will now be called an ultra half marathon...just because that sounds pretty bad ass, right? "Hey Kier - what did you do today?" "Meh, not too much, just ran me an ultra half-marathon this morning." :)  I like it.

The point of long runs during marathon training is not to run as fast as you can, rather to get used to running for long stretches of time. So this morning, I was making a conscious effort to slow down.  They say you should run your long runs about 1 minute to 90 seconds slower than your race pace, which would be at 9:27-10 minute miles for me.  I tried really hard to slow down...but ultimately failed.

Splits:

mile 1 - 9:26       mile 2 - 9:00

mile 3 - 8:51       mile 4 - 8:48

mile 5 - 8:49       mile 6 - 8:41

mile 7 - 8:43       mile 8 - 8:29

mile 9 - 8:18       mile 10 - 8:06

mile 11 - 7:58     mile 12 - 8:25

mile 13 - 8:17     mile 14 - 8:21

Total distance: 14.01 miles

Total time: 2:00:15

Average pace: 8:35

Came home to my current favorite post-run snack - watermelon.

Ahh yes, a whole watermelon!  I've been working on that since Thursday and have to finish it before I leave tomorrow!  Watermelon plus laptop, coffee, and Nic making me breakfast = beautiful Sunday morning!

Going Bananas - The Results!
All three banana items I made yesterday were a success!  I would make all of them again - in a few months when we are done eating all of this round!

Banana Oatmeal Scones Turned Muffins -



Basic muffin, but great with nut butter smeared on top. Great snack to grab as you are running out the door.

Low-Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread with Coconut and Cranberries -



A dense banana bread that does not taste low-fat at all! Love the addition of coconut and cranberries!



Very Blueberry Muffins Turned Bread -



Dense, pound cake-like texture, dotted with the freshest blueberries. Heaven on a plate.  Would be delicious turned into french toast, if we have any left.





I for sure indulged in too many slices of each of these yesterday - but I had to taste them all so I could share the results, right?!  A few slices with some almond butter also made for a great pre-run breakfast!

Lots to do today - including packing for my trip to Minnesota!  I fly out tomorrow afternoon - and my week + of birthday festivities will continue in the Great North! :)

going bananas

A weekend with no plans...????????  I don't know what to do with myself!

Okay, okay, so I have plenty to do and have been busily running around since 8 this morning. Seven mile run - check.  Quick walk with the crazy pup - check.  Figuring out a way to use up 2 bundles of bananas - check.

I eat at least two bananas every day. Most times, it is in the form of mock banana soft serve layered with overnight oats, cooked in with my morning oats, or as an afternoon snack topped with almond butter and granola.  Take into account that Nic eats at least one banana every day - we go through quite a few every week.

Thank goodness bananas become overly ripe at the grocery store and people don't like to buy brown-on-the-outside bananas, so Hy-Vee bundles them up and sells them at a discount.  This is my one tip for saving money at the grocery store - check for these bags of bananas!  Generally they are good enough to eat for a few more days, however I like to buy a few of these bags and freeze the bananas.

Yesterday we bought two bags of the ripe bananas for $3.98 and one bundle of 5 still green banans for $1.37.  I'd say there were at least three bundles of bananas in each bag for an estimated savings of around 4 bucks. Awesome.

The point of this post - in the two bags we purchased, there were 2 bunches that were too ripe to freeze. So this moring I was going bananas (harhar) trying to figure out what to do with them.  We rarely have butter in the house and have no eggs at the moment, so I had to scrounge the interenet for some recipes.

Here's what I made:

Oatmeal Banana Scones
Decided to turn these into muffins.
Changes: Used 3 bananas, all white whole-whear flour, 1 cup yogurt in place of milk, 1 t baking powder and 1 t baking soda.  Added cinnamon to 4 muffins.

Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread - Joy the Baker
Changes: Used white whole-wheat flour, omitted the cinnamon, subbed coconut oil for canola oil, replaced the egg and egg whites with two "flax eggs", stirred in cranberries and coconut flakes.

Very Blueberry Muffins - Stonyfield Yogurt
Decided to turn this into bread.
Changes: Used all white whole-wheat flour, 1 6-ounce container French vanilla yogurt, 1 6-ounce container blueberry yogurt, about 2 mashed bananas in place of veg. oil, cut down the sugar by about 1/4 cup, added 3/4 cup oats. 


The scones turned to muffins are done, but haven't tasted them yet.  The breads are baking and looking beautiful at the moment!

I had to warn Nic of the mess I was making in the kitchen so he wouldn't have a heart attack when he got home from work!  Who am I kidding, whenever I walk into the kitchen, just to get an apple, let's say, I manage to dirty at least 249,587 dishes!  Not really quite sure how that happens, it just does. :)  I haven't baked in a good long while, and was impressed with how few dishes I actually dirtied this time - only about 4,756 - not bad, Kier, not bad.