Mid-Week Review

Back in March, I did a post about the Alter Ego line of clothing from Under Armour.  You can have a refresher here, or the Cliff Notes version is the line is workout clothing inspired by superheroes.  The nerd in me was very excited about these shirts, but being of the larger persuasion and these shirts being base layer compression shirts, it did not look like I was going to get one.  Well, a random trip to the local Dick’s Sporting Goods changed that for me.  I was shopping with Susan and Dick’s was next door so I hopped in for a second.  And as I walked in, I noticed the Alter Ego display.  I stopped to look for a second and noticed two things.  One was that the compression shirts are tiny.  I seriously though I was in the children’s section!  Also, I saw a Batman shirt that said that said “loose fit” on it!  This could not be right, and I had to double check the tag.  Yep, “loose fit” just like my other Under Amour shirts!  I decided to try the shirt on, just in case, and it was a perfect fit!  So I now own a Batman Under Armour shirt!  I am such a nerd.  Maybe they will release the other superheroes in the “loose fit” as well.

Batman Under Armour

Last week I bought my first pair of shoes from Kindrunner and the experience was very simple.  Today I am returning a pair of old shoes that will become $10 in Kindness Cash.  It is kind of a bittersweet moment since the shoes that I am returning are the ones I ran my first half marathon in.  But I cannot wear the shoes anymore and someone needs to get some use out of them, so sending them to Soles 4 Souls in a positive outcome for these shoes.  It is ironic that these shoes that I randomly bought with no knowledge of my gait, running mechanics, or shoe life held up for over a year and 700 plus miles without incident.  And now that I know this stuff, I have had some injury issues with shoes closely fitted for my feet with very strict mile management.  It is funny how that happens.

Kindrunner donation

And speaking of my new shoes from Kindrunner, I made a rookie mistake over the weekend.  I was so eager to wear my new shoes that I did not properly break them in before taking them out for a long run.  I ran ten plus miles on the Greenline last Sunday and this run resulted in blisters on both of my big toes!  Thankfully these blisters were not a lingering issue this week.

I am also going to be trying something new with my runs and workouts over the next few weeks.  I almost exclusively listen to music on my runs, so I am exploring some podcasts to listen to, as well as an audiobook to utilize during my runs.  I will also try to watch some Braves games on the treadmill at the gym when the opportunity presents itself.  Last night was my first run listening to a podcast and it went well.  I had no problems staying motivated on the run, and it provided the distraction that I sometimes need on my runs.  I am still browsing audiobooks and honestly did not realize how expensive that they are.  I read several non-fiction books, and I am a little wary of running to an audiobook of a non-fiction book.  We shall see.

Today is the longest sports day of the year since it is the only day of the year that there are no activities from any of the major four American sports leagues.  What sets today apart from the past two days is that Monday has the Home Run Derby and Tuesday has the MLB All Star Game.  Even worse for Atlanta Braves fans is the fact that the team is also off tomorrow, so there is a four day sports void for us.  ESPN puts their annual sports awards show, The ESPY Awards, on Wednesday to help fill the void, but no one really cares about that.  The USA and Costa Rica game that was played last night would have been perfect in prime time tonight.

Update: I just read an article on Deadspin talking about the ESPYs, the hatred for the event, and the colossal waste of money the awards show really is.  You can read the article for yourself here.

Motivation Monday Returns!

It has been a few weeks since I was able to post a Motivation Monday entry, but it is triumphantly returning this week!

First, I want to share a little something that I stumbled upon in an online running group that I am a member of.  Someone had seen a picture of an iPhone alarm that they thought was funny and shared it with the rest of the group.  The alarm read “If Forrest Gump can run for over 3 years, you can get your ass on a 30 minute run this morning.”  I thought that was great and I should incorporate something similar into my morning alarms.  I am in the middle of training and will be until at least the middle of January, so it is very important to maintain my schedule.  And since I live in Memphis, with its heat and humidity, running in the early mornings is vital to my health and sanity.  Therefore, the following are what my four alarms tell me each morning:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

If Forrest Gump can run for 3 years, you can run 4 miles this morning.

Time to make the donuts. (Idea, not actual process stolen from an old school Dunkin Donuts commercial featuring Fred the Baker saying this every morning)

You’d be done if you got up an hour ago.

Time to make the donuts

I will probably rotate some of these sayings throughout the year, and I will be turning off the snooze function on my alarms so I can’t rest for “10 more minutes” because those ten minutes become thirty routinely.  The various times that I wake up during the week is dependent on the distance that I am running, time I need to report to work, and so on.

My current 4 morning alarms

Another motivational item that I came across is something else that I try to consider when I am wavering about getting out of bed and running my miles.  It also serves as nice reminder that we all are not Steve Prefontaine, but we are still runners.  We all get caught up in pace and so, but the most important aspect is getting out there.  On these hot June and July mornings, I need all the inspiration that I can get!

Nice way to look at it

Now that I have said all of this, I decided to sleep in this morning instead of completing my four miles in the cooler morning air, so I will be either sweating away in the 90 degree heat this afternoon or being bored to death on the treadmill.  If you have any motivational quotes, scriptures, and mantras that you like, feel free to share it here.

Friday Roundup

I have not posted much this week because I have been swamped at work (in fact, I’m neglecting some files right now to type this post) and Susan and I have four extra house guests with this week.  Add in the fact that I got a flat this week that required the purchase of two new tires, I have not heard back from the investigator that is handling my theft case, my mortgage company doesn’t want to update my checking account info, and my mother-in-law having to go to the hospital,  I feel like this week has lasted for about fifteen days!  But, it is Friday, and it is very close to closing time, so I’ll keep my chin up for a few more minutes.

Not the way I wanted to start the morning

On a positive note, I am still going strong on my Runner’s World running streak, which will hit 26 days this afternoon when I hit the treadmill at the gym.  This week is also the Boston Remembrance virtual run, so the running streak is helping with that.  I need to run 26.2 miles for the run, and I am at 18 thus far with a run today and this week’s long training run of 7 miles, so I should be good.

I am waiting for just a couple more items to be delivered in the next week or so for the Platinum Sombrero 5K, and then I can mail out race packets, so that is exciting!  I can’t wait to share the final total that will be donated to St. Jude!  I’m also working on a monster post (I hope) about the event.  Stay tuned.

 

New Gym

I made a major training decision this weekend by joining a new gym.  Susan decided last week that she wanted to focus on getting into better shape and going to the gym.  My old gym, Inside Out Gym, is roughly a twenty minute drive from the house, and that was not conducive to Susan staying dedicated to going to the gym.  She wanted a gym that was closer to the house so she could go before work and return home to shower and get ready for work.  Susan knows that going to the gym prior to work is her best option to staying dedicated to going to the gym and eliminates that “I’m too tired” excuse several of us use to avoid going to the gym after work.  Susan and I decided on the Ric Nuber YMCA in East Memphis after touring the facility on Thursday and working out there on Saturday.  The following is my list of pros and cons for our new gym:

Pros:

• Susan wants to get fit
• Close to home
• There is a pool
• Several treadmills and other cardio machines
• About $10 cheaper a month than Inside Out
• Classes fit my work schedule better
• It is open longer hours on the weekend
• Personal TV’s on each treadmill/bike
• We can go to any Y in the greater Memphis area

Cons:

• My old gym is very close knit
• TRX classes are an additional charge
• There is not a dedicated stretching room (just a small area of the floor)
• 30 minute time limit on cardio machines during peak times
• Several more members at the new gym

I am excited with the move, especially once I am completely healed because once I start running again, I plan to run to the gym, do my lifting, and then run home, thus streamlining my workout on those days.  I also love that going to the gym isn’t such a time chore anymore, especially on high traffic days.  That will be at least thirty minutes a day extra for me each gym day.  I am also really looking forward to using the pool three or four times a week, especially while injured.

That being said, I am sad since I have being going to Inside Out for three years now, and they have been there since the very early days of my weight loss and health journey.  I was inspired to run in my first half marathon because of Inside Out and was introduced to TRX there as well.  The gym does a great job of encouraging you to get out of your comfort zone with your workouts and offers positive reinforcement whenever you need it.  I am thankful for my time at Inside Out and I can only hope that the YMCA will be as beneficial to Susan and I as Inside Out has been.

Back To Normal…Almost

I finally returned to work today.  I wasn’t at 100%, but I couldn’t justify staying home another day so I sucked it up and went to work.  I’m sure my coworkers were questioning my dedication after I had a coughing fit at the morning status meeting.  I didn’t have quite as much work piled up on my desk when I came in today as I was expecting, but I had enough to keep me busy all day long with plenty left to tackle on Monday.

After work, I decided to try to get in a quick workout.  I was still coughing a bit and was tired from actually working all day, but I knew that I needed to log some miles.  The temperature has been dropping for a couple of days here in Memphis, so I decided to head to the gym.  Today was the first day of March, in Memphis, and our high was thirty-eight degrees.  Plus, if I wasn’t feeling well, I could stop my workout much easier than running up and down the road.  Fridays at the gym are usually great since it is most people’s skip day from the gym, and you have free reign over the entire place.  Today that was taken to another level since the desk worker didn’t have any towels ready when I got there.  I guess it was his skip day as well.  I did an easy 2% grade on the treadmill, hoping to run four and a half miles followed up with some TRX or a Warrior Dash circuit.  But, during my run, I started to get dizzy and thought it was prudent to cut the workout short.  I ended up running 3.51 miles at a 9:30 pace, so I wasn’t terrible today.  Hopefully, I’ll feel a little better tomorrow so I can get in a quick non-running workout and be in good shape to tackle a ten miler on Sunday.  I haven’t had a long run in two weeks, and with the Germantown Half Marathon coming up in just over two weeks, I really would love to return to my schedule to help stay prepared for race day.

Currently, the Grizzlies are in a very entertaining game with the Miami Heat, with the Grizz trailing by only one after the third quarter.  And as a Memphian, I must say, I am sick and tired of Mario Chalmers hitting threes against our teams.  I’m cutting this post short to be able to catch the entire fourth quarter unabated.

Hiatus Over

It has been far too long since I have posted on here and sadly, I have not worked out much during this hiatus either.  I was a best men in my best friend’s wedding this weekend and the combination of rehearsals, dinners, and hangovers, I was unable to get in my miles for nearly a four day span.  And of course, once my duties were over, I got a sinus infection.  Everyone endures a stretch of obstacles that keeps them from running, but in the future I just need to do a better job of juggling my runs and life events.  So here is a recap of the last five days.

Thursday: I had to go home straight after work to take care of Beau since the wife had to work late.  It was a stormy day, so I was unable to got for a run, but I did complete a TRX workout.  It was the first one on a little over a week and I focused on one of their total body workouts.  I made sure to incorporate chest, arms, back, abs, and legs.  On a side note, I did finally get a frame for one of my Valentine’s Day gifts from the wife.  It is quite difficult to find a frame for a 12 x 15 print, especially when the print is actually 12.5 x 15.5.

One of the greatest moments in Braves postseason history

 

Friday: I didn’t get a chance to run due to the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  The groomsmen were needed to help put out tables, chairs, and such before being told what we needed to do on the big day.  Filets, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, wedge salad, and cheesecake from Flemings, so I could have found a much worst way to spend a Friday evening.

Saturday:  It was the big day and that meant fifteen hours devoted to the event due to lunch, pictures, the wedding, the reception, and the after party at Brookhaven.  The last item is what got me in trouble with the wife as well as inhibited my ability to run ten miles the following morning/day.  But the day was a lot of fun and it was great to be a part of my friend’s big day.

Talking to the parents of one of my friends, Susan and I decided that I should go ahead and try to run in the Oak Barrel 13.1 in Lynchburg, TN.  There are only 100 slots left for a last ditch registration scramble in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I can get registered for this race when this registration free-for-all opens up.

Sunday:  I was hungover for most of the day and by the time I was starting to feel better, it was time for trivia semifinals.  So no run on Sunday.  Our team, Rum Ham, was able to move on to the finals in eighteenth place despite having a bad night.  And I must say, the carrot of $20,000 in cash and prizes is not worth two semifinals (one in an overbooked bar and one in West Memphis) as well as finals in Tunica, MS.  Our team got second place over all two years ago, and actually had a realistic shot of winning that year, so I guess we feel that we are going to win prior t o every round of trivia.

Monday:  Going a little over four days without run is unacceptable, so even though it wasn’t the greatest idea, I went to the gym for a quick run despite my sinus and throat infections.   I ran 3.33 miles at an even 9:00 pace.  Not too bad for someone that couldn’t breathe.  I decided to not to push it too far with a followup circuit .

Today: I had to go to the doctor today for my sinus/throat infection and since it is cold and rainy here in Memphis today, there is a good chance that I will not be able to go for a run today, but I am hoping to do one of my Warrior Dash circuits.  If I can breathe a little easier this evening, I might try to do both.

Back In The Saddle

After my impromptu rest day yesterday, I made sure to get in a run today.  The temperature never rose above thirty-seven here in Memphis today, so I decided to utilize the gym and the readily available treadmills for my run.  I ran four miles at a 9:34 pace.  I felt great after the run, and definitely could have pushed it a little harder, but I was pleased with the outcome regardless.  I followed the run with a couple of sets of diamond pushups and crunches.  This was all after logging 1,464 stairs while at work today.  I was going to do some TRX or  Warrior Dash circuit, but I was pressed for time and I wanted to make sure that I got my miles in first.  I may try to use the stairs for the rest of the week and see how that goes.

The Four Bridges Half Marathon I’m running in October posts lots of useful information and motivational items on their Facebook page.   They shared the following quote yesterday and I meant to include it in my previous post, but I forgot:

There are plenty of obstacles in your path.  Don’t allow yourself to become one of them. – Ralph Marston

That sums up marathon training fairly well, I do believe.  And I think it applies to my last two days very appropriately as well.  My gym has quotes posted all over the facility and I may have to suggest that they include this one.

After getting back on my workout track earlier, I’m now catching up on my DVR.  First up was the second best show currently on TV, Justified, and I’m now watching The Americans.  Tonight’s episode is tackling the attempted assignation of Ronald Reagan, which made for a very intriguing episode.  Each week, the show gets a little stronger, which gives me high hopes for The Americans comparing favorably to the other highly lauded FX shows.

And one last note, tonight was a goodnight for Memphis basketball.  The Grizzlies beat Rudy Gay and his new team, the Toronto Raptors 88-82, in large part because Gay played his usual selfish and turnover prone fourth quarter.  Toronto is not a good team, but when you part ways with a player, it is always good for morale of a fanbase to perceive that the right move was made.  The Memphis Tigers won for the seventeenth straight time this evening after dispatching the Houston Cougars 81-74.  Chris Crawford finished just one assist short of joining Penny Hardaway and Antonio Anderson as the only Tigers with a triple-double.  Of course Penny had two and is regarded by many as the greatest Tiger of all time and Anderson was in the senior class with the most wins in NCAA history and a Final Four appearance (both vacated because of Derick Rose’s bogus SAT), so including Crawford with that duo may have been a little dubious.

Two Posts In One!

I meant to write the first half of this entry yesterday, but I got busy and never got to my computer to do so.  I made Sunday a rest day since I enjoyed my friend Will’s last weekend of bachelorhood a little too much the previous night.  Since it was going to be an easy day, Susan and I decided to take Beau to Overton Bark, the newest dog park in Memphis.  This was the first time that we had taken Beau to a park, so we had some apprehension.  He does great with parents’ golden doodles, but numerous stranger dogs was a little worrisome.  But, I am happy to report that our worries about Beau at the park were unfounded.  Beau loved running with the other dogs and had a grand ole time.  I brought a tennis ball for him to fetch, but he was more concerned with keeping up with the other dogs in the park.  However, no matter how much running he did, if he lost sight of Susan and I, he would sprint back to the last place he saw us to make sure we were still around.  We stayed at the park for about forty-five minutes and when we got back in the car, Beau was quite tired.  After the dog park, we took Beau to Hollywood Feed, a local pet store near the house.  We got him a couple of new chew toys and a Kong toy that gives him treats as he plays with it.  It may be his favorite toy of all time!

First trip to the dog park

After the dog park and pet store, we headed home where Susan and I finally decided to arrange our collage wall.  She finds numerous ideas on Pinterest and decides we need to do them at our house.  I will admit, she has found some good ideas, but they are not always the easiest things to complete.  The collage wall was not physically demanding, but lining up all of the frames and maintaining proper boarders was quite tedious.  It took me a little longer than I had hoped, but we were very pleased with the end results.  We are repainting over her spring break, so I wanted to get the wall done so any mishaps would be concealed in the near future.

An afternoon of hard work

Today, I got back to my workout routine.  It was a cold and rainy evening in Memphis, so I headed to the gym after work.  I was drained from a long day at the office, but I knew I had to get back to my routine.  I ran 3.26 miles on the treadmill at a 9:51 pace.  A little slower than my recent runs, but I felt good.  After the run, I did another Warrior Dash circuit.  I did my usual :30/:30 split for two circuits with a minute rest time between the two circuits.  Today’s circuit consisted of the following exercises:

• Body Weight Squat
• DB Incline Bench
• DB Upright Row
• Glute Bridges
• Wipers
• Reverse Lunges
• Pushups
• Supermans
• Bicep Curl
• Reverse Crunch/Knee to Chest

Today’s workout went well and I am confident that I will be properly prepared for my upcoming races.

Late Week Update

This week has been quite hectic at work, and when you factor in Valentine’s Day, the end result is no new posts for a couple of days.  I did, however, get in workouts on each of the last three days and I am gearing up for a race tomorrow.  With that being said, today’s post will be on the lengthier side.

Wednesday: I decided to try out one of the new treadmills at the gym.  They are quite a bit more sophisticated than the treadmills that they were replacing and I would guess that some will find them intimidating.  They are WiFi equipped so you can log in with an iFit account to track your workout or just surf the web while running.  There are touchscreen controls and a built in iPod/iPhone dock built (unless you have an iPhone 5).   There were two preset courses on the machine, one in Cape Town, South Africa and the other was on the coast of Monterey, CA.  I chose Montery and the display screen toggled between Goggle street images, satellite views, and a topographical map of the area.  The course varied between a -3% and 4% grade.  I ended up running 4.98 miles at a 9:18 pace.  I was quite pleased with the end result.  I want to check out the other bells and whistles on the machine in the upcoming weeks.

The fancy new treadmill at the gym.

In addition to my run, I did a Warrior Dash circuit.  I upped my exercise time to thirty seconds per move with the normal thirty second rest time.  I completed two sets each of the following exercises:

• Leg Press
• DB Bench Press
• Pulldown
• Leg Curl
• Plate Crunch
• DB Step Ups
• Bicep Curl
• DB Front Raise
• Squat Jumps
• V-Sit Off Bench

You wouldn’t think adding just ten seconds would be that noticeable of a change, but it definitely was!  I felt the effects of the extra work before the end of the first set.  But, in the end, it is worth the end result.

Thursday:  I took a half day off of work so I could finish preparing my Valentine’s Day dinner for the wife.  I printed her a menu and transformed our dining room into a private restaurant just for the two of us.  I grilled filet mignon with a wedge salad, Fleming’s style scalloped potatoes, corn souffle, yeast rolls, and chocolate croissants for dessert.  She was very impressed with dinner, and so were all of her friends that she bragged to about it.  I also got her some flowers and Peter Pan on Blu-Ray (she is a Disney fanatic).  She got me the race medal display that I posted about previously as well as an infographic poster of Sid Bream’s slide, (yep, that’s two links) which is one of the greatest moments in Atlanta Braves history.  I have a bobblehead of this on my desk at work as well as at the house.  Yes, I am a gigantic sports nerd, especially when it comes to the Braves.  I will post a picture of the poster when we get it framed.  It is an odd size, so we have to get a frame made for it.

The Braves promo pic of the bobblehead

While prepping dinner, I was able to escape for a few minutes to get in a run.  It was nearly seventy degrees here in Memphis, so it was much warmer than your usual February run!  I ran 3.26 miles at a 9:44 pace, that might of been better if I didn’t have to battle someone’s pit bull around mile two.  Seriously, who lets their dog, a pit bull at that, run freely through a busy city neighborhood?  He nipped at my heels a few times, but never got a hold of me.  Usually when I encounter a dog like this, his/her owner is nearby and keeps the dog contained, but not on this occasion.  I guess I need to start running with a stick or something.

The flowers I sent to Susan at work.

Dinner at BK’s Prime Chop House

I also used this idle time to go pick up my race packet for the Move It Memphis 10K that I will be running on Saturday.  There really wasn’t too many goodies in there, but the shirts are cool.  It is a baby blue, long sleeved Zorrel cotton blend Dri-Balance shirt.  And with a projected temperature of thirty-nine degrees at race start time, the long sleeves will come in handy with the participants.  I’ll post a pic of the shirt with my race racap tomorrow afternoon.

Friday:  I decided to take it easy on my mileage today, so I just ran an half a mile warm up before doing my Warrior Dash circuit for the day.  My circuit consisted of the following:

• DB Lunges
• DB Military Press
• DB Row (:30 on each side)
• Leg Curl
• Russian Twist
• Lateral Lunge
• Bench Dips
• DB Lateral Raise
• Calf Raise
• Strait Leg Raises

It was a good workout and hopefully I won’t be too sore for my run tomorrow.  I love Friday afternoons at the gym because I am virtually the only person there, so I can use whatever equipment I need without any delays.  It is quite peaceful.

I guess I’m going to call it a night so I don’t oversleep in the morning.

Long Run? On a Treadmill?

I woke up early this morning with the intention of running my twelve miles.  Too bad mother nature had a different idea.  When I last checked the weather forecast, we weren’t supposed to get rain until this evening, but apparently that was incorrect.  There was a steady rain coming down as I got ready and upon looking at the forecast on my phone, there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms until 7:00 pm this evening.  This left me in quite a conundrum, do I ran in the rain or do I attempt my long run on a treadmill at the gym?  Being that a decent amount of lightening was in the forecast and it seems like everyone in Memphis has been sick over the past few weeks, I opted to try my hand at the treadmill, even though this will be by far the longest distance that I have ever attempted on a treadmill.  In fact, it is longer than the most of my weekly treadmill distances.  Now Sundays are hard to gauge for attendance at my gym.  When the gym opens, there are lots of people there, signing up for the weekly classes, but usually if you bypass this line, you typically can get one of the two “good” treadmills.  And thankfully today, this exact scenario played out for me.  I was already apprehensive about doing the twelve miles on the treadmill, but I can’t even imagine running those miles on the older treadmills.  As I set up my distance, speed, and such on the treadmill, I noticed that the max time I could set it for was ninety-nine minutes, so either I was going to run my faster twelve miles ever, or I was going to have to reset the treadmill timer at some point.  No big deal since I would have to use my GU and probably get some more water.

My first impression was that it was going to be a really boring run, and that remained true.  There is only so much you can do while running in one place for that long.  I watched Louisville and Notre Dame go through twenty overtimes (or so it seemed) on SportsCenter, multiple pundits argue on CNN, and listened to some of my motivation music on my iPhone.  No matter what I did, it didn’t matter, I was still stationary and that can be a bit of a drag.  My second impression was that this run was going to be warm, very warm.  The gym temperature was set at seventy-five, which is warmer than I ever set my house, and they did not have to ceiling fans going to help alleviate the heat and humidity of the gym.  Needless to say, by the time I completed my twelve miles, my clothes were drenched, probably more so than if I would have ran in the rain!  MY third impression was that at least running on the treadmill was going to help me maintain a steady pace for the entire run.  When I’m running on the roads, I tend to have some substantial deviations in speeds, plus you have to wait on cars, red lights, and avoid other pedestrians and dogs, so the treadmill is a positive alternative to all of these hindrances.  I ended up running 12.16 miles at a 10:13 pace, which if this were race day, would have me a few minutes ahead of my personal record!  And my fastest mile was mile ten, so there was something left in the tank to finish that last mile, so all in all, that is back to back encouraging weeks of long runs!

Now that I am all showered up back at the house, I’m relaxing on the couch watching one of my all time favorite movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  I remember when I was a child, my brothers and I recorded this movie off of the NBC Sunday Night Movie of the Week and we would watch it at least once a week!  We watched that VHS until it completely wore out, and it is still odd to me to watch the movie when it is not edited for TV.  When I quote the movie, I still tend to use the edited lines out of habit.  I love that the team that the Cubs are playing when Ferris and Cameron are playing hooky is my beloved, but terrible at the time, Atlanta Braves.  Baseball Prospectus does a nice write up on the game that was used for the film.  Growing up watching the Detroit Red Wings, I always appreciated the Gordie Howe jersey that Cameron sported for the entire film.  This is the film that introduced a generation to former Richard Nixon speech writer, the incomparable and monotone Ben Stein.  It also one of the earliest movies on Charlie Sheen’s IMDB page.  It still pains me to see that car destroyed, and how oblivious his dad is throughout the movie is simply perfection.   And the following is just one of the many great exchanges in the movie:

Ed Rooney: I don’t trust this kid any further than I can throw him.
Grace: Well, with your bad knee Ed, you shouldn’t throw anybody… It’s true.
Ed Rooney: What is so dangerous about a character like Ferris Bueller is he gives good kids bad ideas.
Grace: Mmm-hmm.
Ed Rooney: Last thing I need at this point in my career is fifteen hundred Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls. He jeopardizes my ability to effectivley govern this student body.
Grace: Well, makes you look like an ass is what he does, Ed.
Ed Rooney: Thank you, Grace. I think you’re wrong.
Grace: Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads – they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.
Ed Rooney: That is why I have got to catch him this time- To show these kids the example he sets is a first class ticket to nowhere!
[he hands Grace some papers]
Grace: Oh, Ed, you sounded like Dirty Harry just then.
Ed Rooney: Really?
Grace: Uh-huh
Ed Rooney: [scoffs lightly] Thanks, Grace.

All in all, today is shaping up to be a good day.  And The Walking Dead finally returns tonight!  And on a side note, the only time it rained today is when I was running.  In fact, the sun is out right now!