Christmas Movies - My Top 5

Since it is the week of Christmas, I will rank my top 5 Christmas movies with a few honorable mentions.

#5: Home Alone & Home Alone #2
These are classic movies with all kinds of quotes whether it is Kevin calling out in an empty house, "mom? dad? buzz? where are you guys?" or its the gangster movie quote "I'm going to give you to the count of 3...". Or when he is running from Rob Schneider in the Plaza Hotel, these are both classic Christmas time movies. It is every boy's dream to do whatever he wants whether he is getting room service in a hotel or just has the house to himself.

Honorable Mention: The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. I have loved this movie ever since it came out and I'm not sure why. Every time I watch it, someone gives me grief for watching a terrible movie. I don't care. I was a huge fan of "Home Improvement" when I was young so maybe I just secretly have a man crush on Tim Allen or maybe I'm just hoping to become Santa Clause one day. Then I guess I'll have to change the main topic of my blog from Pro Triathlete to Christmas posts and updates on toy making from the North Pole.

#4: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon and Jim Carrey version)
This is a classic Christmas movie so it is a must watch during the holiday season.

Honorable Mention: The Polar Express. I may have been a little old when this movie was released to really enjoy it, but it is a great Christmas film.

#3: Elf
Will Farrell is fantastic in this film (I'm not a huge fan of his). He's so naive about everything in NYC and he reaction to everything is great. And having Zooey Deschanel in it doesn't hurt. The movie helps reverse the myth about Parents actually putting out presents instead of Santa. He clearly states, "They (parents) can't do all of that in just one night. I suppose they eat Santa's cookies as well?"

Honorable mention: Die Hard. One of the greatest action films of all time with Bruce Willis. I may or may not have secretly watched this at a very young age and learned a few words I shouldn't have. Unfortunately for the terrorists that take over this large company in LA on Christmas Eve, John McClane just happened to be at the Christmas party with his wife/ex-wife.

#2: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Chevy Chase plays a father who wants to have the perfect Christmas which turns to hell as all of the family shows up early along with his crazy brother. This movie is a timeless classic and is full of laughs. It is always a movie I watch with my family during the holidays.

Honorable Mention: The Muppets' Christmas Carol. How can you not love the Muppets?

#1: The Christmas Story
One of my basketball teammates in the 7th grade informed me of the movie and all of its glory. He asked if I was going to watch the 24 hour marathon on TBS on Christmas Eve/day. I asked what he was refering to and he just told me to watch the movie and I would understand. Ever since that first viewing, I understand. This is the best Christmas movie and clearly worth at least 4 viewings during the 24 hour marathon. I try to watch it at least 6 times and the only time my TV leaves TBS during that marathon is when a sibling/family member changes it. Now I am out and about during this time, so I don't actually watch it 12 (sleep, meals, exercise, travel, etc.) but I try to watch it as much as possible. Whether I'm googling at the leg lamp, laughing at his little brother pretending to be a pig, watching him beat up the bully, or ironically seeing him shoot his eye out, it is definitely worth watching. But that stupid rabbit suit always gets a laugh out of me.

Honorable Mention: Scrooged. A fantastic take on the classic A Christmas Carol. I believe A Chrismtas Carol also needs to be listed as it is a great movie, but I guess watching 3 movies with the exact same plot is a little overkill, even if one has Bill Murray, the other has the Muppets, and the last has George C. Scott.

Need to See: Bad Santa. I have heard it's hilarious but have never actually seen it all the way through.

I guess that's my list. I recommend watch at least 5 if not all of the movies that I've listed this week to put you in a great mood and help give you the holiday spirit.

FF update: On to Round #2

Whew. I barely made it past the first round in my playoffs, but I did successfully in both of my FF leagues. This is the 3rd year in a row for making the Final Four in my "college buddies" league, and then this is the first year of my other league so obviously its my first as well.

In the work league, I was going against my roommate who had some very solid players such as Matt Ryan, who threw for 4 td's this past weekend, Lesean McCoy, Antonio Gates, Steve Smith, and Desean Jackson. He actually had Kevin Walter go for almost 20 points as well. Fortunately for me, I had Eli Manning, Ray Rice, Marion Barber, and Rob Gronkowski all have fantastic games. Barber really stepped up for me against the Broncos' defense. But I believe what won me the game was the fact that my roommate didn't start Antonio Gates which boggles my mind. I have no idea why he did this, but he told me his other TE was projected to score more (which I question since he has a TE from the Browns). But I also had Nate Washington and Miles Austin on my bench and started Damien Williams and Anquan Bolden instead (which did not help my score). Anyways, I went into the Sunday night game losing by 12 but confident that Eli could score 12+ points as he was the only player left to play out of both of our teams. Barber was the surprise player on my team and turned out to be a great pick up since Forte is now out for a few weeks. I have another player that I'm looking at picking up this week but will not mention him until after players are cleared to be picked up from my league's waiver wire.

In the other league, we were even just about all day on Sunday but fortunately for me, he always had a few more players playing (or finished playing) than I did and I had a few player playing Sunday evening with only 1 of his WR's to play in the Monday night game. I had a solid 38 point lead going into the Rams/Seahawk's game last night and his WR definitely surprised me by putting up 23 points and making it a close game but I was able to hold on for Victory. Doug Baldwin was his WR which has played well as of late so I would recommend to pick him up if he's available in your league and need a good WR for your team. Marshawn Lynch is just amazing as he's leading the NFL in rushing over the past 5 - 6 weeks. He wasn't on either of our teams, but is definitely worth a fantasy shout out this Tuesday morning.

I had Carson Palmer throw 4 Int's for me which was terrible, but had a new member to my team score 2 td's and rush/receive a lot of yards for a total of 24 fantasy points for me. This was Ryan Grant from the Packers who is stepping in for the injured James Starks. Laurant Robinson and Hakeem Nicks both had huge games as well which really carried my team. Steve Smith from the Panthers had a good game but was overshadowed by my other WR's since he ONLY scored 19 points, ha. There are weeks that I wish I had 1 WR put up 15, haha. David Akers from the 49er's kicked his way to 13 points which I am loving. Him and the 49er's D (which I also own) have had a great year. I was just lucky that Cam Newton didn't have one of his huge scoring games as that would have been the end of my fantasy season.

I have some hard matchups this coming weekend but we'll see how it all plays out.

Ryan Grant, Marion Barber, TJ Yates, Jabar Gaffney, Toby Gerhart were definitely worth picking up this past weekend as they had fantastic games (if they weren't already owned).

Joe Webb stepped in at QB for the Vikings and put up some solid points so he's definitely worth looking at for week 15 along with Jake Locker for the Titans if you need a QB. Or it is always helpful to find the backup player for the big name guy that you just lost to an injury such as the Matt Forte / Marion Barber situation. Or James Starks / Ryan Grant. Or Adrian Peterson / Toby Gerhart. Or Arian Foster / Ben Tate. Do you get my point?????? (This works best with RB's and not necessarily with WR's and TE's but is still worth looking at if you're in dire need)

Tony

It's Here

I may not be a Fantasy Football expert but now that I've played for several years, each year with a growing passion for it, I feel that I have a pretty good amount of knowledge about the topic. Today is the first day of the Playoff's. I have Mike Wallace from the Steelers playing tonight in my "work" league and I feel that my team is ready to go. The loss of Matt Forte killed me in my other league, but I was able to pick up Marion Barber in my "work" league so I may have found a decent replacement RB #2 if he is able to pick up a little slack. I know the Bears' offense is in trouble right now with what-ever-his-name-is at QB. The rest of the slots on my team, I feel really good about, other than the Flex position in which I can play 1 of 2 WR's from the Titans, which tend to be hit or miss. I have both Damien Williams and Nate Washington and I'm not sure who I should play. If I play one, the other has a good game, so hopefully I get lucky this week.

In my "college buddies" league, my QB spot is hurting me. I have Palmer, Matt Moore, and Matt Hasslebeck, but am not sure who I should start. They are all playing defenses' this week that aren't the best at stopping the pass. Hasslebeck hasn't had a good game in almost 4 weeks, Palmer has played decent, and Moore is hit and miss with several BIG games. I have Ryan Grant as one of my RB's and that is because of the loss of Matt Forte. Starks tweaked his ankle for the Packers last weekend so Grant may get the start which may be great news for me. I tried to pick up Toby Gerhart who's filling in for Adrian Peterson on the Vikings, but someone beat me to it.

In other news, I had a run last night that was my best run since I got this stupid injury. I went out the door at around 6:45pm (which almost never happens) and decided to jog easy for at least 30 minutes. Turns out, I felt great and my HR stayed pretty low while I was running sub 7 minute miles for 5 miles. Just 2 weeks ago, I was running 7:30 - 7:45 pace with average HR of high 140's. Last night my average HR was 140. I still have some work to do in the pool as I struggled on a set yesterday that had a few 1:10 base 100's which normally I don't have too much trouble making the send off as long as there aren't more than 5 or 6 in a row.

Off to the pool. On a side note, I got super excited last night when National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was on TV. Easily, one of my favorite Christmas movies.

And my fiance and I are currently looking at where we should have our wedding here in Lexington. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to comment or shoot me an email. twhite_4@yahoo.com

Tony

MIA again

Yes, I know, it has been a month since I last posted (again) but to repeat what I said previously, not much has been going on. I am actually training again which is nice, but frustrating considering my HR is much higher doing much easier bike rides and runs. I put in a solid week last week in which I was very consistent about cycling, swimming, and running for the first time since September.

There have been some big updates in my life though. I missed my family's Thanksgiving get together for the first time in my life because I traveled with my girlfriend to visit her family. I met all of her extended family and had a great time. The family football game definitely got my competitive juices flowing and made me realize that I haven't lost much from middle school football, haha. During this weekend, I was able to have a serious talk with Casey's dad, and as of this past Friday, Casey is now my fiance. So I am now engaged and have another event to plan in 2012. That is the big news for me in the previous month. Other than that, I have just been working, and working out occasionally.

Also, I'm ready to get focused for both of my fantasy football playoffs. In my "College buddies" FF league, I have a pretty solid team, but just took a HUGE loss with the knee injury of Matt Forte. I don't have a solid backup RB, but hopefully Chris Johnson, and my 3 WR's will carry my team. I have been struggling with the TE and QB position all year. I made a STUPID move early in the year by dropping Ben Roethlisberger. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I had just lost in a close match and he was only averaging 14 points a game at the time, so I got rid of him and picked up Josh Freeman. STUPID!!!! Freeman is now hurt and I have started either Carson Palmer or Matt Hasselbeck. MH hasn't played well at all, but Palmer is putting up decent numbers so he may have to carry my team through the Playoffs. And my TE was Dallas Clark, but thanks to Peyton Manning's injury, Clark has had a terrible year and I was forced to pick up a TE off of waivers.

In my "work" league, I lost my #2 RB (Jahvid Best) a long time ago, so I have been battling to find a 2nd RB. Donald Brown was able to have a decent game this past weekend and he scored 12 points for me which is the most points that position has scored for me in a few weeks. Ray Rice and Rob Gronkowski really carried my team with the help of Eli Manning and Mike Wallace. I was able to defeat the #1 team in the league, but all of the teams are so even, it doesn't really matter. There are a few games that still have to be decided tonight to finalize how the playoffs will lay out. I'm really hoping to avoid playing my brother in the 1st round as he lost a few games early in the season due to injuries, but he is definitely the best team in the league right now as he has put up 184 points this weekend with MJD still to play tonight. He is on a winning streak of around 3 - 4 games and seems to win by alot when he does win. When he loses, it's because his team does average, and the other team manages to outscore him by 5 points or less.

So this week, Casey and I are going to do a little research into our wedding plans and I'm going to do a little research of how to fix my RB problem for FF. And also to have another consistent week of training.

I'll try to post more this month. Maybe a post about my favorite Christmas movies, or favorite Christmas foods, who knows.

Tony

Where have you been?

It has been exactly 1 month since I posted last and there is one simple reason for this...

nothing has happened lately, ha.

In the middle of September, I suffered an injury to my foot that made me stop running. I managed to run 3 - 4 times a week after I suffered the injury with the hoped that I could still compete in the Rev3 South Carolina race but I wasn't able to hold it together that long. Tri for Sight was on Labor Day weekend and I felt I had a decent race without much foot pain. I did run in some very minimalist shoes to race in which probably didn't help, but at the time, it didn't hurt. The following two weeks consisted of some pretty solid training. Then on a Wednesday, I did a track workout in some racing flats, and that night I was barely able to walk. I talked it over with Casey, who's in her last year of PT school, and she told me it sounded like Plantar Fasciatis. Many people have told me horror stories about this injury, but I've never had any problem with it at all. I have been lucky with the health of my feet but it finally hit me late this summer. My training this summer has mostly been in racing flats and I increased my mileage late this summer, so I believe these both had the effect that it did on my foot. The RJ Corman Duathlon was my last race, and I barely made it through that race. My second 5k was extremely painful. That 5k is the reason that I pulled the plug on the remainder of my season and decided to get healthy.

I am now running again, but noting like I used to yet. I ran a total of 11 miles last week, and am sitting on 9 miles this week. Swimming has been my focus as of late while I continue to take time off of the bike. My bike training will probably resume in the following weeks.

The month of October has been pretty laid back and relaxing. If I wanted to workout, I would. If I didn't, then I wouldn't. It feels great to do this sometimes. I went to Keeneland, stayed up late some nights, caught up on some of my favorite tv shows, and have been reading some interesting books.

On the weekend of October 15th, I was able to reverse my usual roll and play support for my brother and Casey who competed in the Columbus marathon. I made sure to go out of my way and do whatever I could for them as this was their big race. They both finished their first marathon and finished right around their goal times. Ben ran a 2:56 and Casey was 3:49.

Back to the book subject, I more recently finished "Wheat Belly" which was very interesting. The author proposes the idea that today's version of "wheat," that is in almost every triathlete's/runner's favorite dishes, isn't able to be processed by our body. He claims that wheat in 2011 is some genetically modified strain of wheat that has hundreds of chromosomes that our body can't break down, thus causing all kinds of negative effects to our body such as weight gain, memory loss, acne, increase blood pressure, increased cholesterol, the onset of Pre-Diabetes and Diabetes, and much more. He proposes the idea of eating a "hunter/gather diet" meaning to eat only what a cave man would have eaten. A cave man would eat only what he could kill or gather, such as meat, nuts, fruit, and veggies. Now you can also eat things such as rice and potatoes but he warns to do these in limited quantities because they can spike your blood sugar just like a wheat product would thus causing the negative effects in your body, #1 being the storage of visceral fat. They say that 2 slices of whole grain bread can spike your blood sugar higher than a spoonful of white sugar because the Glycemic index is higher.

It is very thought provoking, but is heavily intended for someone with Celiac Disease. Most of his arguments against wheat products are all supported by studies that have been done with people who suffer from Celiac Disease. I'm sure that there are some negative effects on someone who doesn't have this disease, but not nearly as lethal. I know that I'm definitely cutting back my intake of Gluten and wheat products, but I don't know if I'm able to completely cut it out just yet. Mostly just getting rid of the "extra" calories at meals such as bread and desserts (I'll still eat some ice cream).

I'm now reading "The Shining" which is a good read so far. I've never read it before and it's a classic so I figured it would be a good read.

I have nothing planned for the rest of the year, except for getting healthy and getting back into a routine, but until then I will continue to enjoy my time off.

Tony

2nd Annual RJ Corman Duathlon

This past weekend was the 2nd annual RJ Corman Duathlon & 5k. I was competing in the Duathlon as I knew I had a much better chance of winning that race than the open 5k which usually has some ex-collegiate runners show up and go pretty fast. I woke up to 45ish degree weather and some wind and clouds. Nothing crazy, but a little warmer than it was last year. Well, by the time I made it to the race sight at around 7 am, the temperature had dropped a few degrees and the wind was picking up. By the time we started at 8:30, it was about 41 degrees and pretty windy. Before the race, I made sure to get in a good warmup to get my body ready to go. I ran the 5k loop that Mr. Corman has on his property to warmup (which was also the 5k loop we were racing on). I set up my transition and waited until the start.

At 8:30, the gun went off (or I guess it was actually a train horn). I knew Jeff Buhr was racing which came in 3rd place last year, and I also knew Mike Hermanson would be racing which he focuses more on Ironman distance racing. I wasn't sure what kind of shape he was in and whether running or cycling was his strength, but I made sure to keep an eye on him (and he is racing at Kona on Saturday so I figured he was in pretty good shape). Mike immediately took off and I just made sure to keep him close. I ran behind him for the first mile or so and then opened up a small gap on him once we hit the first hill. It stayed about the same until we hit T1. I had a fast transition and was out on the bike. I managed to put more time on him in T1 than I did in the first 5k and I really pushed the pace for the first 5 miles or so of the bike to make sure I had opened up a good gap. I fought the cold, windy weather on the bike and then came into T2 with a nice lead on 2nd place. I've had a little foot pain recently and sometimes it hurts much worse than others. My first step off of the bike, was not a pain free step, ha. I limped into T2, struggled to get my shoes on since my hands were numb, and then took off for the 2nd 5k. It didn't help my foot that the first 100 - 150 meters were downhill, so my foot was taking quite a beating. I set a good pace for that 2nd 5k and just held it there. At about the 2nd kilometer, I saw I had 1.5 - 2 minutes on 2nd place which was nice considering the pain in my foot. I held it together and crossed the finish line in 1st for the 2nd year in a row. Mike had a fantastic 2nd 5k and made up about 1:15 on me.

After the race, I cooled down, stretched my foot, and put on some warm clothes as I was freezing. Mr. Corman had some fantastic food for lunch and then he always has a good time passing out the cash prizes to the overall winners.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the race, and thanks to Mr. Corman for opening up his private property to a bunch of crazy runners/duathletes who wanted to compete on a cold, windy Saturday morning.

Rev 3 S. Carolina this coming weekend and then I'm done for the season.

T-Bird

3 in a Row

I know this is a little past due, but on Labor Day weekend I competed in the Susan Bradley-Cox Tri for Sight here in Lexington, KY. This was the first triathlon that I was ever involved with as I volunteered for this race back in 2004 before I got into the sport. The following year was my first year competing as a triathlete. Anyways, I have done this race every year (except 2007) since I got started in the sport and it's always a fun race. I have had some close races with ex-pro David Kuendig (also lives in Lexington, and is a good friend) and there have also been years when I wasn't pushed as much to bring home the big W. Last year my brother came up and we took home the top 2 spots.

This year I was competing against my roommate who had recently finished 8th overall at AG Nationals and also against a fellow Pro and good friend Nick Waninger. Nick drove down from Indiana Saturday night and stayed with me but unfortunately didn't get into town until around 12:30AM and the race started at 7am that morning. So I didn't get much sleep the night before and the pizza that I had for dinner Saturday night wasn't settling well in my stomach. I felt terrible Sunday morning, but didn't want to let anyone know. I made my way over to the transition area, got everything set up, went for a little warmup jog and realized how terrible my stomach felt. I made my way over to the swim start and just sat down hoping my stomach would settle. It did a little but at 7:15, we were off. Kevin was 1st in the water (as it was a time trial start for the 800 meter pool swim) and I was 10 seconds back. I felt ok, but had no speed. The guy who started behind me caught me around 250 meters and this couldn't have worked better for me. I sat on his feet for the rest of the swim and came out in a pretty decent time and had kept my HR pretty low the whole time. I had a good T1 and was off on the bike, chasing after Kevin. I caught him around mile 7 or so but couldn't get away from him so we basically came into T2 together. I took off on the run with a purpose. Because Nick W. had signed up late, the best starting position he could get was #16. So I knew I had roughly a 2 - 2.5 minute lead on him at the start so I would need to finish about that same amount of time in front of him if I wanted to beat him. The only time I had seen him on the course was after the bike turnaround.

My stomach had felt ok up until about mile 1 or so on the run. Then it really started to bug me. I dug deep and tried to maintain my pace. I got to the turnaround on the run (2 miles out, 2 miles back) and couldn't see anyone. I knew I had opened up a good gap on Kevin and an even bigger gap on Nick as I didn't see him for roughly 2 or 2.5 minutes (and he still had at least 2 minutes of running to get to the turn around so I knew I was about 4 minutes up). I didn't back off much, but was able to hold a decent pace all the way to the finish with out throwing up. I crossed the finish line in 1st for the 3rd year in a row and the 4th time in my career here at this race.

I was happy with the effort level considering how terrible I felt and I actually went about 2 minutes faster than last year and the bike and run courses were slightly longer this year (by a few tenths of a mile). Thanks to Beth Atnip who always puts on a fantastic race, and to all of the volunteers who help out with the race. The Delta Gammas were out all over the bike/run course screaming at us and that is always helpful so thank you girls.

I am putting in a little block of training before my last 2 multisport events and a marathon. I have the RJ Corman Duathlon on the 1st of October, Rev 3 South Carolina Half Ironman on the 9th of October, and the Columbus Marathon on the 16th of October.

Tony