Citius, Altius, Fortius

This weekend, in addition to knocking many items off the todo lists, I was a running movie nut.

First, I watched and sincerely enjoyed Without Limits (one of the movies about Pre).

I also finally watched Chariots of Fire, which was such a wonderful story and much more than I expected -- full of history, musical theatre, and amusing portrayals of life in Cambridge and Scotland in the early 1920s. The famous theme song is only played during the introduction and the conclusion, but does not feature in the actual movie at all. Interesting that the song (and that it was a movie about running) was all I knew about the film before watching it.

Yesterday morning, I did speed intervals on a track for the first time in a very long time.

I had hoped to do 15X400 with 200 jogging recovery. Instead, I only managed 8X400 with 200 recovery (the last 4, I opted to walk the recovery).

Holy crap, that was a serious workout.

The total mileage (including a walk beforehand while chatting with R) was barely over 4.5 miles, but I was sore all day as if I'd raced all out for a 10K or more.

Interestingly, my abs and arms were also sore, which doesn't usually happen to me after a run.

Apparently, there's really something to the idea that running fast recruits more muscles and is a better workout than running slower.

I'll definitely be hitting the track a few more times before the Peachtree Road Race.

(oh, and R's fiancé works for Powerbar, so he's sending me a box of products to try so that I'm never unprepared to fuel for a race or long run again. Woot!).