by Sam Tackeff | Oct 12, 2012 | Local stores, Shopping
Quiet mornings. I love them.
After downing my cup of coffee, I headed over to CRCF for a morning workout. I hadn’t been in for almost a week because of my race on Monday, and was excited to do some lifting. Less excited for the jump roping. I still feel like an uncoordinated five year old when you hand me that particular torture device.
Wednesday WOD 10/10/12
Strength
A. Power Clean – 10 minutes to a heavy set of 2 (I worked up to 75#)
Rest 5 min.
B. Press – 10 minutes to a heavy set of 3 (I worked up to 65#)
Rest 5 min.
WOD (Workout of the Day): “Forrest Gump”
10 min. running clock
Complete 100 Double Unders then with remaining time:
Ladder up of:
Deadlift 225/155 (I used 125#)
Deficit Push-up (25lb Plates) (I did strict pushups)
*Start with 1 of each, then 2, then, 3, etc.
Result: After spending 4 minutes to get to a whopping 32 double-under attempts, Coach Steve kindly let me continue the rest as single-unders to 150 jumps. I then managed four rounds of the ladder + 2 lifts.
After the workout, I spent a few minutes practicing our challenge skill of the week: pull-ups. After months of subbing jump-ups in workouts, I’m ready to master a new skill. I have the next week to get the longest unbroken set of pull-ups I can, using my scale-sanctioned light green band. So far? 3. Gotta work on that technique!
Finally, I headed over to Starbucks for my post-gym reward of iced tea and dried mango. I love these Peeled Snacks unsweetened organic dried mango packs!
After drinking my body weight in tea, I headed over to Volante Farms to pick up some of my produce for the week. Volante Farms is a great family farm in Needham, and their farm stand is full of beautiful produce, much of which they grow on location or source from local farms. They also have a deli, ice cream, and dried goods, as well as greenhouses with plants galore. I’m never there with my camera because I’m usually picking stuff up right out of the gym, but now that I have this new fancy-pants iPhone, I thought I’d put it to good use.
Here are some scenes from the farm:
I ended up coming home with spaghetti squash, ambercup squash, a cauliflower, a romanesco, parsnips, three different varietals of apples, and some Komatsuna, a leafy green similar to bok choy.
For lunch, I decided to make a stir fry of the Komatsuna with leftover ground turkey, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, coconut aminos and sesame oil.
In the afternoon, I roasted a delicata squash. It was going to be for dinner, but I ate the entire thing while getting some work done on my computer.
For dinner, I braised lamb shanks from M.F. Dulock with tomato, eggplant and anchovies. Devon got his off the bone over some spaghetti with parmesan, and I got both shanks, extra eggplant, and a garnish of parsley. This meal was a keeper! I’ll be posting the recipe soon. {Edit: recipe here!}
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 10, 2012 | Baking, Breakfast, Lunch, Pantry Staples, Quick and Easy
The rains have come. This is, I assure you, better than the snow we could be having in October. But not by much. I took advantage of the day by staying cooped up, working from home, and getting many, many errands done.
My morning coffee was Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice again, in one of my new Miya boulder mugs. I picked these up at Abodeon in Cambridge last week. I love the matte earthy tones and cozy shape of each of these mugs – they make for new happier mornings! (Miya also makes them in jewel tones here.)
Mid-morning I made breakfast. Two eggs with the leftover vegetables from my slow cooker beef stew. I was busy playing with my phone, and thus didn’t notice the eggs overcooking on the stove. Shame on me!
In the afternoon, I took out my trusty stick blender to make some of Mel’s Sunshine Sauce from her cookbook Well Fed, which I love! Think of Sunshine Sauce as peanut sauce without the peanuts. The ingredients are lime juice, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, coconut aminos, powdered ginger, rice vinegar, sunflower seed butter, cayenne and coconut milk. You blend and then you are done.
For lunch, I cooked some ground turkey and spinach, served it over the leftover spaghetti squash, and poured on a good amount of sunshine sauce. Yes, it looks odd, but again, delicious! Actually, shockingly delicious.
In the evening, I listened to podcasts and set to work building our new IKEA Expedit bookshelf in birch. This was of our IKEA pieces I was most sad to give up when we moved from San Francisco (the other being our soft and comfy Tylosand couch), and my books have been sitting in boxes for way too long. It took me about an hour and a half of slow and steady work, and I practiced my Olympic lifts by getting it upright and in the next room by myself.
For dinner, I had to figure out what to do with the tiny lean eye of round I had purchased from M.F. Dulock. When I asked what he’d do with it, the butcher replied “probably sell it to someone else“. I probably should have listened.
I seasoned it with mushroom powder, and seared it off in a hot pan. My plan of attack to was to crank up the oven to 500, cook it for about 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and let it cook in the residual heat for about 2 hours. (This wasn’t quite as foolproof as I’d have liked. At the end, terrified that I had poisoned us by not cooking it enough, I seared it off again to make sure it was cooked through.)
While resting, I cooked some shredded brussels sprouts with some pancetta, salt, pepper, and a good swig of apple cider vinegar.
When I cut the meat, I have to say I was pretty surprised at how moist it was in the center, despite a slightly dry exterior. I’ll definitely choose a fattier cut of meat next time. Devon got his with a big scoop of mashed potatoes from Whole Foods, and I got mine with some of their zucchini and tomatoes. (I have no regrets spending $5 extra on sides at Whole Foods when I’ve made a mostly home cooked meal – especially when it means that we can each have a little extra of something we want without having to cook several extra dishes!)
After dinner, I had planned all day to try one of these single serve microwave cakes all the cool kids are eating. I found a simple recipe – almond meal, cocoa powder, an egg, honey, salt and cinnamon.
You mix it all together,
Then microwave for a minute and a half.
And then pour on a splash of coconut milk (or cream if you can eat it).
And devour.
It was almost perfect.
A little too sweet (I’ll put less honey next time). A little dry (I’ll add a bit of coconut oil and maybe some coconut milk to the batter, and microwave less.)
When I perfect it, I promise I’ll share.
But after a month of nearly no dessert, it certainly hit the spot.
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 10, 2012 | Challenge, Races, Running
I’m not sure I can explain how I got here. A month ago, I was up at midnight and signed up for a 5k race on a deranged whim. My first 5k race. Having not actually run more than 200-800 meters at a time over the previous several months, my training consisted of five 3.1 mile “runs”.
And then, two weeks ago I ran that very first race, the Charles River Center 5k. It was terrifying, exciting and a whole lot of fun. It would end there, I had assumed. I’d run the race, and that was it. Maybe I’d run another 5k at the end of my gym challenge to see if I could improve. But then I did better than I thought I would. And then I got that nagging feeling that racing could be a thing that I do. What if I could do more? Before even racing my first 5k, my aunt had suggested the Tufts 10k, and I thought that she was nuts. But in my head I could hear invisible people cheering “10k, 10k, 10k”, and it started getting annoying. And then a week after the race, I began to think seriously, what about a 10k? Could I do a 10k? So I tested out my theory. And I missed my goal time by five minutes. And then I signed up for the race anyway.
My training for this race consisted of the test run, a 4 miler, a 5k, and a “run-heavy” day at CrossFit. By run-heavy, I mean, about a mile total, sandwiched in between intervals of 500m of rowing. And then this weekend was here.
On Sunday afternoon I headed to City Sports to pick up my race packet. The line was quick, and all around me women were talking excitedly about how many decades they had been running this race. Things were starting to get real. I picked up my long sleeved tech-t, my swag bag, and my bib number (4848). Devon got himself some gym gear with my discount and we headed home so I could start getting anxious. Things were going my way though, and I slept well.
In the morning, I had to figure out breakfast. Having only attempted at 10k distance once, I was unsure of what to do. On that run, I had eaten my banana and nut butter, and suffered a stitch the first mile or so. But having not tried to run on heavier protein which is my usual breakfast (eggs), I decided to stick with what I know. Banana and almond butter, and a cup of coffee, three hours before the race start.
We left the house a little after 9:30, and got downtown hours before the race started to a very empty Boston Common. It was also really cold, and I was feeling a little bit under the weather. So I walked around in my hat and jacket, praying that it would heat up before the race started. We popped into Starbucks to pick up Devon a drink and so that I could go to the bathroom. Yes, Starbucks. I didn’t want to brave the port-o-potties multiple times in a row, and considering how often I patronize their establishment, I did not feel bad utilizing their bathroom without a personal purchase.
We then went around checking out the vendor booths. There weren’t too many sponsors that I was interested in – Luna Bars, Dole, and Powerade aren’t really my thing, but they were all giving out samples. I probably should have headed over to the Bliss Spa (at the W) table to put my name in to win something, but it looked like they were mobbed. I entered my name into a raffle at Reebok, looked wistfully at the coffee from Equal Exchange, and tried to determine whether or not Ford was raffling away free cars. D’Angelo was providing an entertaining sandwich intervention (free sandwich coupons) and giving away t-shirts – my favorite being the “Microwaves Kill Sandwiches“, although “High on Flavor” was a close second.
We then ran into Morgan and Solomon from my gym, and it was stretch time! We grabbed yoga mats and did some warming up with Tara Stiles. (I definitely need to do yoga more often. Ouch!)
By 11:30 they started calling out for people to line up. I rushed over to the line of port-o-potties for a last quick trip. The lines were long, and the port-o-potties disgusting. But I got through it. My next concern:
Where do I seed myself? I figured I could run the first several miles between a 9-10 minute pace, so I set myself at the back of the 9-minute milers. Given how long it took the crowd to get through, I could have likely moved up quite a bit.
Lining up with 8000 women was exciting!
It was here that I became a little nervous. No turning back. So I decided to take a picture of my Mizunos.
And then a picture of the folks in front of me. I was behind these tutu ladies at several different points of the race. Put a permanent smile on my face!
And then we were off!
Moving to the starting line took about 3 minutes, and then I set my Garmin and my Runkeeper. (I also had my beloved Fitbit on, you know, just to make sure that I was tracking enough data.)
Here’s my race via Runkeeper!
My goal was to take semi-regular walk breaks, and my secret goal to finish in 65 – 70 minutes.
Mile 1 – (10:34): We started out slowly because there were 8000 women running this race. I had to dodge lots of people to even get close to a quick clip. Near the end of Beacon, I started getting a bad stitch in my side, and did my best to try to stretch and breath it out. This happened on my previous week’s attempt of the same run, so I just prayed my body would figure itself out and I could keep going.
Mile 2 – (11:30): The second mile over the bridge was also rough. I managed to take the water break, and set about finding well-paced people to run behind. (I settled behind a woman wearing a shirt that said “Try to Keep Up” on the back.)
Mile 3 – (11:16): Finally, I started to hit my stride. It was at this point that I looked down at my Garmin and realized that I wasn’t running much slower than my 5k race. I got to the 5k in just over 34 minutes, about 4 minutes faster than when I ran the course on my practice run. This was good news! I was hoping to run a little faster in the second half of the race (negative splits), which meant that I might be able to actually meet my secret goal! I then ran into the tutu women again, and followed them for some time. (I was also passed by a woman with her two very fit 9 year-olds running all together like machines. Teach them young!)
Mile 4 – (11:17): Approaching the Mass Ave. bridge, I snapped this photo from across the Charles. It was at this point that I was getting really excited – 4 miles meant… I’m almost done!
On my trip back over the bridge, I got snapped by the paparazzi. (Photo via Jim Rhoades.)
At this point I nearly ran over a dead crow, which was an unexpected emotional tipping point. (I hate, hate, hate, dead birds.) There were very few people around me, so I managed to quickly call Devon and let him know where I was, and see if he could meet me. I had assumed that the race would make it impossible to pick people out of crowds, but I realized that it would be fairly easy to actually run by him and say hi. (He had just finished having a burger and ice cream sample from Ben & Jerry’s. Lucky!) Fortunately, he was walking up and down Newbury, and so had no trouble heading over to the race course.
Mile 5 – (11:30): Devon met me at Exeter and Comm. Ave. I was so thrilled to see him, flagged him down, gave him a high five, and kept running. Except apparently I was a little too emotional, because at that point I almost burst into tears and had to take 20 seconds of meditative breathing to avoid an asthma attack.
Mile 6 – (10:39) : Around mile 6, I noticed a very tall gentleman handing out water. (And then I realized I had met him through a mutual friend half a decade ago, and screamed something intelligible in his direction as I grabbed the water and ran by.) It felt like a happy coincidence, so I pushed a little harder.
Afraid I’d overtax my legs, I took a final walk break as I reached the public gardens in order to finish the race fresh. With point two-five left to go, I decided that I was going to sprint it. Smiling!!
Both my Garmin and Runkeeper had me at 6.3 miles for the total race course (and a 10k of 1:08:46, but alas, I’ll go by official time for my PR.)
Official Time: 1:09:55/ 11:16 pace. MADE MY GOAL! *At the time the race results first came out, I was #4000. Apparently in the past day I’ve been demoted to 4003. I’ll survive. AND DO IT AGAIN!
This is me after the race:
Sweaty, a little confused, pretty excited.
After crossing the finish line, I actually missed the banana table, but grabbed a water. On my way to the Ford tent to find Devon, I came across some kids powering through burpees and air-squats at the Reebok mini-WOD, and decided to spin the wheel. Who am I?! I was assigned an AMRAP-1 of pushups. The record was something like 57, but I won a pair of socks for my chest-touching-the-ground good form of 30.
In the car, I finally was able to eat something – my LÄRABAR Coconut Cream Pie. This might be my favorite flavor.
We got home and I took a long hot shower.
For the next couple of hours the idea of more food was just not doing it for me, but we ended up eating an early dinner of Chipotle to make up for it, which apparently is my traditional post-race celebratory meal. Carnitas, barbacoa, lettuce, a double scoop of pico de gallo, a scoop of red tomatillo salsa, and a generous portion of guacamole. Delicious!
After dinner, we relaxed watching one of my favorite movies of all time, Ratatouille! If you haven’t watched this in a while, please, please just watch it again.
(via)
So that’s it, the story of my very first 10k. I’m looking so forward to racing again!
