by Sam Tackeff | Oct 4, 2012 | Challenge
This is a photo of Don, one of the awesome folks at my gym killing it on handstand pushups in competition. Spending a weekend watching competitors from my own gym participate was thrilling. It’s one thing watching athletes on TV, it’s another thing entirely to see people you interact with on a weekly basis completing superhuman challenges you could only dream of participating in yourself. (And by dream I mean… these challenges fill me with terror and bad nightmares… I digress.)
So I will admit utter terror when I read this week’s skill challenge:
Week 3 Fitness Challenge: Handstand Pushups
Team Effort : Total Handstand Pushups performed throughout the week.
Must be performed at CRCF, using approved scaling. Each athlete’s scaling must be approved by a coach and then upheld for the week. Any reps which are further scaled will not be counted. These must be FULL INVERSION. No Wall Kicks or Wall Climbs allowed.
Here’s the thing. I don’t really do “tumbling towards a wall” well. I don’t do cartwheels, and I can’t see the wall let alone six inches in front of my face if I take off my glasses. So I spent the first half of the week assuming that I’d just be that jerk letting down my team mates.
I woke up in the morning, and I was sick for a second day in a row with a killer headache and a low fever. But I decided to go into the gym anyway. I wasn’t aching, it was a strength day at the gym (low cardio), and my plan was to take it easy. In the past, I’ve found that breaking a sweat tends to actually break my fever, so I crossed my fingers and prayed.
When I got into the gym, I was a hot mess. I didn’t feel weak but my headache was miserable.
Strength
A. Push Press – 8 min. to establish a 1 rep max (I took it easy, and only worked up to 70#)
Rest 5 min.
B. Deadlift – 8 min. to establish a heavy set of 3 (Good set @ 135. Not so good at 155. Won’t count it!)
Rest 5 min.
WOD: “The Legend”
21-15-9 reps of:
Unbroken Thruster 95/65 (I scaled to 35#)
Unbroken KBS 1.5/1 (I scaled to Russian Swings – only to eye level instead of over the head.)
*Rest as needed between sets. The sets MUST be unbroken, if you break a set you have to drop and do 10 burpees AND start the movement from scratch. Don’t break, this is a mental game and we don’t want to see massive underscaling to complete quickly. This should be your “usual” scaling.
Result: 13:36. Sweating, miserable… and fever broken! Never have I been so happy to finish!
And suddenly? Just as it came, the headache was gone. Except in it’s place? Insanity. In the next hour, I hung around with a patient group of folks, attempting to make it into a handstand. An hour… of just falling towards the wall. Over, and over and over again. An hour of slamming my palms down on the ground because I didn’t quite get that you could do this smoothly and efficiently. An hour of my glasses flinging themselves off enough times that I finally gave up and prayed that I’d be able to attempt this feat semi-blind. Until suddenly. I GOT IT. And I got it again. And dear sweet lord I was doing handstand pushups. And knocked out 50, because, for once in my life I had surprised myself so much that sheer ecstasy was fueling each rep. So now I pretty much have no excuses left in life… because I. can. do. handstand. pushups. I’m not really sure what is happening here, but I’m guessing that it’s a good thing.
* * *
Okay, enough about that. This is a food blog. I assure you that I’ve been doing some good eating. When I got home from my morning adventures, I set about making this lunch. In the middle of the night, I had filled my Crockpot with beef shanks, garlic, peppers, onions and spices and then let it go through mid morning. By lunch, I fished things out, and mixed my falling apart shanks and vegetables with some leftover Rao’s tomato sauce.
In the afternoon, I realized that I hadn’t had my coffee, and that I’d really like a small cup. I drank about half – for me, the act of making the cup of coffee, the aroma, and clutching the cup with warm hands is often more important than the coffee itself. This is probably an expensive habit given all of the overpriced coffee I drink, but I’m unapologetic.
At night, I met up with a high school friend for tea at Porter Square Books – a bookstore/cafe hybrid that is one of my favorite places in this city. This may have been the first time I’ve been there without leaving with half a dozen new things to read – but we were too busy catching up to browse.
By the time I headed home it was dark and too late to cook – so I headed to Super Fusion II to pick up Japanese food! After a month of craving our favorite takeout, I finally caved, and indulged in a big plate of sashimi – tuna, yellowtail, salmon, and scallops, over an extra portion of daikon. Instead of soy sauce, I used my own coconut aminos.
I wish I could end this here, but I have a blasphemous admission. After a few bites of some really excellent sashimi, I realized that what I really wanted was warm food. So I did the inconceivable – I took my fish into the kitchen, seasoned each piece with salt and pepper, and seared them off. And that’s my dinner plate – some mighty good fish.
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 3, 2012 | Eggs, Pantry Staples, Quick and Easy, Soups
I woke up under the weather. It was grey and raining, and I had a headache and that thing where your body says “Hey there, you better rest and take care of yourself or I’m going to make you miserable. Oh yes, you think I’m teasing you, just you wait.” I’m really, really hoping that I can shrug this before it turns into something. I’ve been resting and taking hippy remedies (spoonful of cider vinegar here and there, and crossing my fingers). In lieu of a photo of myself unwell, here is my friend Oso. This is what the morning looked like.
Very little work, movement, or life happened in the morning.
In the afternoon, I went to my kitchen to fix myself lunch. But first I set about on a little project – Nom Nom Paleo’s Magic Mushroom Powder. It’s a wonderful salt mix with porcini mushrooms and special spices, that makes things taste… magical!
I ground up a bag of dried porcini mushrooms in my spice grinder (a.k.a. coffee grinder, I swear I wash it in between uses). Then I added the special spices, and salt.
Mixed it all up, and voila! This stuff is going right next to my salt collection, and I’ll be putting it on almost everything. Chicken, pork, fish, in stews – it’s the perfect spice mix to add that umami flavor to your dishes.
I won’t post the recipe because it’s not my own to post, but you can find it on her awesome iPad app! Highly recommend it.
For lunch, I made a bowl of pork, pumpkin, and greens soup. It seemed very Southern. You may have noticed that I like soups, and I try to make them as often as possible because soup is one of the best ways to get in your nutrients, and hydrate yourself. Rather than making a big pot of soup, I can put together quick soups nearly any day of the week at lunch using a basic method that usually works.
Super basic soup for 1 or 2:
1. Season 3-6 ounces of meat with salt and pepper. Cook in a little bit of fat on the stove, until the meat is cooked through. (Or heat up some leftover meat.) Chicken, pork, cubed meat or ground all work fine. (Today I used some fresh ham with marrow bone.)
2. Add 1-2 cups of vegetables of your choice. I’ll usually use some greens (even mixed frozen greens), leftover roasted vegetables, and whatever is seasonal. (Today was a combination of greens and cooked mashed pumpkin.)
3. Top with just enough liquid to cover. You can use chicken or beef stock, or even just water! (I used water.) Season with a pinch of salt and taste. I usually like it just slightly less salty than I’d like the finished soup to be. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer for 20-40 minutes, until your vegetables are tender, and a little longer if the flavors need to meld more.
4. Take off the heat, and gild the lily. Swirl with a little olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice if it needs a little acid, a spoonful of pesto or a grating of cheese.
In the late afternoon, I had a snack: some cooked butternut squash topped with walnuts, cinnamon and coconut butter.
Before dinner, I decided to take a very short walk to air myself out. Just for half an hour, and it felt good being outside. By dinner time, I was exhausted, so I made my best last minute comfort food “Faux-Shakshuka”. Shakshuka is a wonderful Middle Eastern dish of eggs poached in tomato sauce, usually with peppers and onions. For this dinner I opened a can of Rao’s Marinara, dumped in three eggs, and that was it. No apologies, it’s pretty much the best quick meal on the planet.
After dinner I had about a cup of pineapple, and was asleep by 10pm. Because I’m an old lady. Crossing my fingers that this’ll go away soon!
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 2, 2012 | Challenge, Local stores, Running
October 1st. Before we go on, please click this excellent piece from McSweeney’s about decorative gourds, and read it when you are done with my rambling. Or you can just go ahead and read it now. Yes, go ahead, I’ll wait.
Today I took several quite excellent morning still life shots of my coffee, my banana and my morning reading. Without the memory card in my camera. The last time this happened was when I sat with my mother to divvy up the first installment of our Year of Beans from Rancho Gordo. Hundreds of beautiful shots that exist only in my own memory.
To console myself, I headed out on a morning run. My almost always trusty Garmin was having trouble with the overcast sky reading satellites, so I started the timer without the gps, and turned on my Runkeeper app on my phone. Almost as soon as I headed out, I got a call from my mom who was on the way to buy new sneakers at one of my favorite running shops. Having never actually run while talking on the phone, I was surprised to find out that this was a good way to pass the time, and that my Runkeeper app worked beautifully coaching me as I chatted away. Until, of course, my phone just shut off completely. Upgrading to a new phone is looking more and more exciting.
Fortunately, I had arrived at Heartbreak Hill Running Company, which was almost exactly 2 miles away. I stood outside drinking from their igloo cooler for runners, and then wandered in to pick out something to reward myself with when I complete my very first 10k on Monday! New shoes? A foam roller? Cold-weather gear? I haven’t decided.
Speaking of heartbreak, I noticed this on my way back. This is spray painted on someone’s driveway. Actually, I don’t even want to talk about it. I’ll say this – I may have never been so excited for the start of basketball season in my life.
My run ended up being 4 miles in just over 45 minutes, and an extra half mile of walking in order to get the 30 consecutive minutes on my Runkeeper to make my gym-pact.
Lunch ended up being extra good. I seasoned some fresh ham steak (from M.F. Dulock) with salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence, heated up some roasted butternut squash, and served it with a salad of mixed baby greens and lemon juice. It took 10 minutes to put together, and felt mighty fancy.
In the evening, Devon and I had a date night at Target. This is a close second to our other favorite date – IKEA. Except IKEA has Swedish meatballs, dollar cones, and sofas we can sit on and pretend we are relaxing in our own home on. There we were, milling about minding our own business… Romance! And then I saw this:
I mean, I thought I’d seen it all before. “Lose 20 by New Years!” , “Lose 10 pounds this month!” but 47 pounds by Thanksgiving? I feel like we all have to say a collective prayer for humanity.
For the record, after having a near tantrum of disgust in the store, I went home to look up this magazine, and I found this on their Facebook page. “FIRST for Women is a national consumer magazine that delivers positive info on everything from health and nutrition to beauty and fitness to home and family. Look for it at the grocery store checkout and in superstores like Walmart.” I call bull-shit.
Moving on to happier things. Like this dinner.
Ground beef with cumin, chile, a tomato, and some zucchini/garlic/tomato/onion from the Whole Foods salad bar again topped with some tomatillo salsa I picked up at Trader Joe’s. I ate mine with half an avocado, and Devon got his with some re-fried beans.
After dinner we lounged around watching Breaking Amish on TLC, and reading before bed. I won’t lie, after assuming that this series would be exploitative and cringe-worthy, I’ve found myself impressed by what seem to be a bunch of (mostly) thoughtful and likeable young men and women tackling big life questions. On that note, remember when the Real World used to be a good show on MTV? It’s been a while.
