Five Things on a Friday: Amazing Spider-Man 2 Edition

1. The trailer for Amazing Spider-Man 2 is finally out.  

If you haven’t seen it yet, well, it looks pretty good.  

Electro is one of those villains that gets treated like a relic by a lot of today’s comic writers, but as Brian Michael Bendis showed with his first arc of the New Avengers, he can be plenty terrifying.  I like the treatment that they’ve got in this movie quite a bit, as well as the fact that they have Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) looking like he’s barely holding on by the skin of his teeth.
  

Marvel's Electro, from the Ultimate Universe.
A lot of the recent Marvel movies have used Ultimate designs.

Spider-Man is a character who works when he’s vulnerable.  They seem to get that.

2.  Offseason training is going well.

Thanks for asking.  

I’ve been trying to run three times per week, and so far, so good.  My ankle is still sore, but taking Advil before or after a run seems to control the thing well enough, so I suppose it’s not a bone thing.  That’s good.  Truth is, the thing feels fine most of the time when I run.  In fact, running doesn’t seem to aggravate it much at all.  It’s when I’m walking around in regular shoes that it drives me crazy.  I’ve no idea what that’s about, but as long as I can keep training and manage the thing, I guess it doesn’t matter.  

Needless to say, I’ve been stretching like crazy.  There’s nothing like an injury to make a guy reconnect with his yoga practice.

Anyway, I’ve been organizing my weekly running regime as follows:

• 1 x Long Slow Distance (LSD) run, usually about an hour (6 to 7 miles)
• 1 x Easy Maintenance Run, usually about a half hour (3.5 to 4.5 miles)
• 1 x Faster Interval Run, about half an hour (3.5 to 4+ miles)

I also managed to get into the water for the first time in a month and a half over the weekend.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get back in this coming weekend, and that’ll be the start of something good.

3.  Running Interval Design

While we’re talking about working out, I’ve been doing running intervals that I think of as being similar to 100-yard swimming intervals.  Depending on time and how I’m feeling, I’ll do either:

• 5 x (1:00 @ 5K pace / 1:00 easy)
• 10 x (1:00 @ 5K pace / 1:00 easy)

In the past, I’ve tended to do more up-tempo work with less rest—for example, 5 x 4:00 @ 10K pace / 2:00 east—but I’m beginning to think that was a mistake.  Doing these shorter, faster intervals seems like it’s having an effect that’s similar to the effect I get from swimming the same kind of shorter intervals, and that’s good.  It’s a good way to build basic aerobic fitness.  

Once that base is built, maybe I’ll be able to add on the longer intervals, but honestly, I’d like to keep running without injury more than I’d like to hurry up and get fast, so at this point, I’m not in any rush.

4.  What does it say about me that I really like the new Lady Gaga song?

Seriously.  I’m a forty-year-old man, and Gaga’s new album hasn’t even got good reviews, but I find “Applause” to be incredibly catchy.

See what I mean?

5.  I haven’t even start Christmas shopping yet.

Sally’s done most of the shopping for the girls, but I still have to get her something for Christmas—and for our anniversary, which is also coming up soon—and, at least in terms of sheer consumerism, I’m still not sure what I’m going to do.  I think I know what I’m going to make for her for the holiday, and that’s good, but it’s only part of the answer.  

And, of course, I have to come up with the time to get it done, but then, so do we all.

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That’s all I got this week.  Have a good weekend.