The Paradox That Drives Us On

Quick, what are the top 5 movie soundtracks of all-time?  Sure, you have your typical answers… Pulp Fiction, O Brother Where Art Thou, Forrest Gump, Purple Rain, Garden State, A Hard Day’s Night, Saturday Night Fever, Superfly maybe The Graduate or Trainspotting sneaks in there… but you’re forgetting the best motion picture soundtrack of all time…

ROCKY IV

Yes, that’s right… a movie that is almost too good to be categorized (drama?  sports?  action?  documentary on how the Soviet Union *really* collapsed?) also has, without question, the greatest soundtrack ever conceived.  It’s a fact.  I will not argue about this.

For evidence of its supremacy, I submit exhibit A… Survivor’s best song (yes, better than “Eye of the Tiger”) which not only pours the musical and emotional foundation for the epic fight between Rocky and Drago, but also serves as intellectually insightful political discourse on the prudent foreign policy (that still rings true, by the way, in light of the America’s current influence in the 21st century, especially considering the Bush Doctrine).  Anyway, here it is.  Survivor’s “Burning Heart”…

***SPOILER ALERT*** the ENTIRE plot of Rocky IV is shown in this video.  Literally, there is nothing of significance* that happens in the movie that is not in this 4:30 minute music video.

 

Why do I bring this up here? Well, for one, I think its supremacy should be recognized. I seriously love this movie, and love the soundtrack. But perhaps more to the point, pretty much the whole soundtrack is on my work-out mix, so I was listening to it today while I ran.  Speaking of working out, Rocky IV also has the best training montage of any of the Rocky movies (or any other movie, for that matter).  Stallone and Lundgren at their absolute physical peaks.  USA vs Russia.  Good vs Evil.  Nature vs. Science.  THAT is how we won the Cold War… blue collar Amuricka just straight up working harder than those Godless commies.  You can find it in its entirety HERE.  I can’t think of a better possible way for you to spend your next 7 and a half minutes.

Anyway, back to the running.  Felt good today, ran a 5k at a faster pace than I did on Wendesday, which felt good as an accomplishment on its own, but then I decided to add some more distance and finished pretty strong.  Distance: 7k total (that’s 4.4 miles for my Amurickan audience).  That brings my total for Week 1 up to 15 miles… or 24k, for my canadian, european, and other non-Amurickan audience.  Not bad.  The best part was after my initial 5k… I wasn’t dying.  The pace was sustainable.  I’m sure part of that is physical, and just getting my body used to running, but a huge part has to be mental… and I think I’m starting to get over a small hill here mentally.  The idea of running being pretty much impossible (and idea that seemed very real two weeks ago) is replaced with a “Oh, I can do this, the question is how well?”  Thanks to Survivor’s “Burning Heart”, we already have brilliant insight into the existential nature of pushing one’s self… and I quote:

Deep in our soul; A quiet ember
Knows it’s you against you
It’s the paradox that drives us on

(silently nodding)

Anyway, I want to be careful about adding too much distance, but it’d be nice to try a longer run sometime soon.  I was at a point of “yeah, I can do this.  I can keep this up without it being seriously physically stressful”.  I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced that before when running just to run.  It was good.  Definitely a significant improvement from as recently as a week ago… and I owe it all to Rocky IV… the same entity to which I owe my freedom.

Food was good today.  Oatmeal in the morning, some Recoverite after the run.  Snacked on some snap peas and carrots while I watched MSU get dominated by Purdue.  Haven’t had dinner yet, but will probably go for some of the leftover Quinoa from last night with tufo and veggies.  Food: B+ (pending dinner)

Magic number… 237.6 lbs.

*except for Rocky’s post-fight speech, which subsequently ended the Cold War, but that’s really more of an epilogue.  As is this footnote… so without further ado, I might as well deliver to you The Speech That Brought Down the Iron Curtain: