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!!
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 1, 2014 | Meal Planning
Oh, for shame! All I can say is that not-quite-in-season, imported produce is a temptress, and I am weak. WEAK! When I lived in San Francisco, it was a whole lot easier to turn down the stuff, but here, in this freezing grey northeast, I must admit that I succumbed to the $2.99 bunch of non-organic-flew-thousands-of-miles-to-get-to-my-plate-asparagus that was on sale today. They were thin, crunchy, and flavorful, and in my fantasy, I pretended that spring has sprung.
Week of Saturday, March 1st
Saturday: Leftover cumin braised chicken thighs, steamed asparagus, and Annie’s mac & cheese. I left the store tonight with part of my cart looking like an eight year old had picked out the contents. There’s also a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ‘Cinnamon Buns’ in the freezer now. (Do not head to the store hungry.)
Sunday: Pork tenderloin with sweet potato wedges, avocado, and roasted brussels sprouts. This doesn’t feel very Oscar worthy, but I’ll probably be reading an excellent book tomorrow during dinner (I’m captivated by the early review copy of Delancey that I’m reading right now!), and so it seems like a suitable enough meal.
Monday: Shakshuka (eggs simmered in a tomato sauce), and salad. This is perpetually my favorite quick meal to put together. Sometimes I’ll add roasted red peppers, other times, a little feta. It’s light, it’s vegetarian, and it’s terribly satisfying.
Tuesday: Thai chicken curry legs. I have a little container of Mae Ploy Thai yellow curry paste that I picked up at H-Mart a few weeks ago, and a few spoonfuls go into the pot with some chicken and a little bit of stock. I’ll likely add a few cups of roasted carrots, and a can of full fat coconut milk.
Wednesday: Turkish spinach and ground beef. This dish is really more spinach than anything else, served with a little bit of garlicky yogurt sauce.
Thursday: Wing it. By wing it, I’d love to make some Greek shrimp (or fish) with tomato and feta, but it’ll depend on what I can find fresh on Thursday evening. I’ll swing by the store to pick it up after work, instead of making my purchase on the weekend.
Friday: Out.
What’s on your table this week?
–– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 25, 2014 | Baking, Books
There was a period of time in the mid 2000’s when Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts was out of print, and there were rumors of it going for outlandish black market prices. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) it was republished in 2010, before I had to seriously contemplate selling my much loved copy for a large windfall. One of my favorite sections of the cookbook is the chapter on ‘Compotes and Baked Fruit’, because while most of the time I can’t be bothered to make elaborate desserts, cooked fruit is always easy, and feels virtuous.
Crinkly Baked Pears
adapted from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts
with inspiration from Edible Boston
This recipe, more of a method, quite adaptable too, is for pears, slowly baked in their skins, in a bath of fortified wine, sugar, and spices. Preheat the oven to 300 F. In a shallow ceramic baking dish, mix a cup of Lillet – a citrusy fortified wine*– with half a cup of brown sugar, a cinnamon stick, a small knob of ginger, three or four allspice berries, and a few cloves if you have them. You could also add a strip of lemon zest and some vanilla, but I often make these without. Nestle 6-8 firm Bosc pears in the wine bath, stems up if you can, and bake for about two hours, basting every 15-30 minutes (or however often you’d like a taste of the luscious syrupy goodness) until the pears are tender, and the skins have begun to wrinkle. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and serve on their own, or with some ice cream, and plenty of the wine-sugar-syrup. Store the leftovers in the fridge, if you have them and reheat in the morning for a perfect breakfast.
*Sax’s original recipe calls for Marsala or dry red wine, but I opted for the fortified Lillet this go around. I’ve had success with Marsala, and Port as well. I also cut the amount of sugar in the recipe, and substitute brown sugar for white, because I find that brown gives it a little bit more depth of flavor that stands up well to the spices.
