by Sam Tackeff | Mar 10, 2014 | Fitness
On a whim, I decided to stop by the new Athleta store (a fitness line owned by the Gap) in Chestnut Hill for a fashion show of their spring line. Having no idea what goes down at these swanky shindigs, but hearing tell of mimosas, snacks from the Capitol Grille, and free coffee, I decided to check it out. I love Atheta’s cheerful bright colors, and their clothes usually fit quite well – the prices are on the higher end of the Gap lines, but the style and quality seem to match. The models were all fitness instructors in the Boston area. I didn’t end up taking anything home, but it was a good excuse to get out of the house after setting the clocks forward.
My own fitness pursuits:
Saturday: CrossFit
Workout 14.2 For as long as possible: From 0:00-3:00, 2 rounds of: 10 overhead squats, 95 / 65 lb. ,10 chest-to-bar pull-ups. If completed, from 3:00-6:00, 2 rounds of: 12 overhead squats, 95 / 65 lb., 12 chest-to-bar pull-ups. From 6:00-9:00, 2 rounds of: 14 overhead squats, 95 / 65 lb., 14 chest-to-bar pull-ups, and so on, if of course, you are able to get that far.
The second round of the CrossFit opens, the world-wide CrossFit competition had us performing overhead squats and chest-to-bar pull-ups – squatting with a large bar suspended overhead, and pull-ups that get you so close to the bar that your chest can touch it. Feeling very, very sore from a few weeks of easing back into lifting, walking, and running, I found it very difficult to squat to correct depth, which was frustrating, because the weight (65 pounds for women) is actually do-able for me. I’ve had to swallow some pride with my scores this year in the open – but I’m proud that I’m competing, proud to show up, and got myself a PR last week with my double-unders.
Sunday: BODYPUMP
Bodypump boasts a strength building workout where you complete 70-100 repetitions per body part totaling up to 800 repetitions in a single workout, with varying weights on the barbell. After last weeks ClassPass launch party, attendees were all gifted a free month of ClassPass (10 studio classes at gyms around the city), and I decided to take Bodypump as my first class at Commonwealth Sports Club, on Comm. Ave, right by the Super 88. My first (and last) attempt at the Les Mills barbell fitness class ended after fifteen minutes of me huffing and puffing, when horrifically the girl in front of me had to be taken to the hospital for a medical emergency, so I was pretty sure that any experience this time would be a better one!
The front desk folks at CSC were very nice, and you can get a parking pass to park in their back lot if you pull up to the front. The facilities are fairly large, around the amenity level of a mid level Y, and a few major plusses I noticed were the saltwater pool, sauna, towel service, and bathrooms with free razors. The class was full, and kind regulars helped be put together my equipment: a step, mat, barbell with various weights and clips that you change throughout the class. Kim the instructor was no-nonsense, a bit of a drill sergeant, and powered us through the class. I’m definitely familiar with weight lifting, but it might be overwhelming to a newbie. If I go again, I’ll up the weights, but I certainly enjoyed myself this time around.
Commonwealth Sports Club
1079 Commonwealth Avenue | Boston, MA 02215
(617) 254-1711
commonwealthsportsclub.com
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 9, 2014 | Books, Meal Planning
I follow Food52’s ‘Tournament of Cookbooks‘ – The Piglet – with the same fervor that I follow my Boston sports teams. Every year there are excellent selections, usually books that I have and cherish, and a handful of new ones that I have yet to explore. The judging is done by the culinary elite, professional chefs, food writers, and a few wild cards – this year I grinned excitedly when I saw Josh Malina’s name on the list. The reviews are always thoughtful, the judging is taken very seriously, and most of the time I find myself nodding along as the rounds progress. (One noted exception would be the upset when Burma lost last year, grumble.)
This season I had some favorites: Nigel Slater’s Notes from the Larder (i.e.: Kitchen Diaries II), which has a perpetual home on my coffee table and makes a weekly appearance on meal planning day for inspiration, Megan Gordon’s Whole Grain Mornings, because I hope to have a first cookbook as lovely as this one, and Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy – just a great overall work. The winner, as it turns out, was also one of my favorites: Louisa Shafia’s ‘The New Persian Kitchen’.
I’ve had a copy of Louisa’s book for nearly a year now, and I’ve cooked out of it many times. The seared chicken with peaches (and saffron, turmeric, and cinnamon) became a summer favorite. Her flavors are reminiscent of my own familiar Turkish and Jewish culinary roots, and Sara Remington’s photographs are stunning – especially the ones of Louisa herself. In honor of the win, several of my meals this week are inspired by her recipes, specific recipes with page numbers listed below.
Week of Saturday, March 8th
Saturday: Teriyaki Chicken Legs, broccoli, and mashed potatoes. This is my comfort food. The mashed potatoes in small quantity acquired from the Whole Foods salad bar.
Sunday: Vietnamese takeout. I’ve been meaning to try the Vietnamese restaurant inside the Super 88 – and I have a Bodypump class at Commonwealth Sports Club right next door late Sunday afternoon. Perfect!
Monday: New potatoes with dill and lemon (p. 29), brussels sprouts and pancetta, with some olive oil poached fish (p.93). In my childhood home, there was a line down the middle of our table between the dill lovers (my mom and I), and the dill loathers (the men). I think my brother has now moved into “ambivalent” range, thank goodness.
Tuesday: Creamy beans and chicken/turkey sweet basil sausage, salad. The sweet basil sausages are from Trader Joe’s, and they are excellent! (I like all of their chicken sausages really.)
Wednesday: Lamb meatballs with mint and garlic (p. 88) and cucumber salad. Her version of kufteh is very similar to the Turkish Köfte I make quite often.
Thursday: Turmeric chicken with sumac and lime (p. 103).
Friday: Out.
What’s on your table this week?
–– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 8, 2014 | Challenge, Fitness
{Obligatory changing room selfie pre-workout. Am I going to make it? Am I going to die?}
I had an unusual conundrum on Tuesday: attend a startup event for women entrepreneurs which boasted an impressive list of founders who I admire and free dumplings, or attend an indoor cycling event at Flywheel, for the Boston launch of the startup ClassPass (which happens to be founded by women) with free post-workout salads from sweetgreen! Both events seemed well worth attending – and dumplings! – but as you have caught on already, cycling won out! Why? To overcome fear, try something I’d previously written off as “too difficult”, and crush it. The crushing part is subjective. In this case I just didn’t want to fall off the bike. I have ambitions for a sprint-tri in my future, and you have to start somewhere!
Indoor Cycling, take one: The first time I attempted indoor cycling was when I was living in San Francisco, and after barely, just barely, making it through a class without quitting, I went home and cried. The spin instructor, Rachel, was so terribly nice, and there were four of us in the class, a bickering boyfriend and girlfriend, both athletes giving 110% the entire class, an older man who was a cyclist with experience with real San Francisco hills, and me, out of shape, a little terrified, and woefully unprepared for what I was getting into. (There is some irony in the fact that I lived in San Francisco for several years and didn’t run once on the Embarcadero, and now I work at a fitness company in Boston and yearn wistfully for the West Coast whenever I’m out running here in the winter time.) But this spin class, this first class, I was uncoordinated, in pain, exhausted, and I felt sorrowfully like I had let the very nice instructor down. So I went home, and I cried, and I never went back again.
Looking back on this, years later, I get terribly sad thinking about how I missed out because I felt out of place – this feeling is one of the reasons that I go to work every day hoping to make fitness accessible to everybody.
Indoor cycling, take two: So Tuesday was my re-do, and I had no idea what to expect, but we’ll just say I was experiencing nervous excitement with just a smidge of terror. The class was at Flywheel, a new Boston cycling studio in the Prudential. Flywheel is pretty swanky – free shoes, towels, lockers, showers with complimentary shampoo, conditioner, and hair elastics! (I used three.) Our instructor, Ann, was great – super fit, dare I say it sultry in the best possible way – and I managed to make it through an entire class and get on the leaderboard. What a difference a few years can make. Definitely will be going back!
What is ClassPass: The startup I wish I had founded. With ClassPass, you subscribe a monthly $99, which gets you access to 10 classes at studios (Indoor Cycling, Yoga, Barre, and more) across the Boston area.
Flywheel Indoor Cycling
800 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02199
617-300-0388
boston.flywheelsports.com
ClassPass (formerly classtivity)
(Currently in Boston and New York)
classpass.com
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 2, 2014 | Books, Books in 2014
Image {via}
#8. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
Translated by William Weaver
Paperback, 260 pages
First published 1979
Read on Kindle
“Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be.”
— Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler
I’m not sure that I can really describe Calvino’s novel – a puzzle, a challenge for the reader, an essay on reading itself. Calvino made me think, and laugh, and smile through this entire book. This was a joy to read.
” How can you keep up with her, this woman who is always reading another book besides the one before her eyes, a book that does not yet exist, but which, since she wants it, cannot fail to exist?
— Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler
A large part of the novel deals with language, translation, and the evolution of text which I read with deep fascination. One part of my day job is leading globalization and making an experience that was devised and created for one language, feel fluid and just as relevant in ten different languages. It requires careful choices, flexibility, and ingenuity to get the feeling just so. On that note, I haven’t read a work of translated fiction in a while, and I found William Weaver’s translation to be impeccable. After finishing the novel, I read this interview with Weaver and Calvino published in the Paris Review. It’s a great piece.
“Your house, being the place in which you read, can tell us the position books occupy in your life, if they are a defense you set up to keep the outside world at a distance, if they area dream into which you sink as if into a drug, or bridges you cast toward the outside, toward the world that interests you so much that you want to multiply and extend its dimensions through books.”
― Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler
I’m sure I’ll find myself re-reading this novel in the future, and I’ll definitely be reading more of Calvino’s writing. The man is prolific. Next on my list is Why Read the Classics, a series of essays, summarized recently by Maria Popova of Brainpickings here: 14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic.
Do pick up this book!
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 1, 2014 | Fitness
My motivation to eat never wanes, exercise on the other hand, takes a little bit of coaxing. Here’s how I’m taking on March!
+ I have two goals with RunKeeper this year – run 500 miles, and walk 1000. I’m a little behind on both right now because of the weather, but looking forward to knocking out the miles in the next few months. I’ll just pretend that I didn’t look at the weather report for the week right now. I’m feeling extra motivated because of our current push at RunKeeper (my day job) – running 118 million collective miles from March 1st through April 21st to celebrate the 118th Boston Marathon, the people of Boston, and the incredible fitness community that we’re so lucky to be a part of. I’ll be hash-tagging (yep, I said it) #118forBoston with my trips on RunKeeper, and cheering as the miles go up at 118forBoston.com
+ I’m also participating in FitFluential’s #FFMarchMiles – 100 Miles in March challenge – walking, running, or hiking 100 miles by the end of the month. There’s a very useful little calendar to help plan out the 100 miles – it averages out to about 3.2 miles a day – which I’ve printed and put up on the wall.
+ I don’t have ready access to a pool, but if you do, you might consider this fitness challenge – Healthy Tipping Point’s “Ironman March” – swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles – instead of a day, you have a month to do it. On that note, pool access, I’d like to have it! I’d love to do a sprint tri this year, but am working my way up to a bike and a swim, neither of which I’ve done in ages.
+ And! For the next five weeks I’m participating in the CrossFit Opens! Five weeks of challenging workouts, pushing myself to the very edge of my ability, and beyond. We’ve already made it through week one, and I’ve conquered one of my longest elusive exercises – the “double under”, ie: two passes with the jump rope per jump instead of one.
Onwards!!
