 All right, we're all just digging out from the cyclone yesterday. They literally call it the bomb cyclone. It's an interesting name. And yes, we got the shoes out the door. Thank you for your patience. The goal moving forward will be to get the shoes in the mail. I would say like the next day, like you know how it goes. Like life happens, you get busy. So anyway, they are on their way literally around the world. Australia, Malaysia, Georgia, Louisiana, all over the place. So congrats again to everybody that won. And all right, I have learned my lesson. Basically, remember these arrived, what was it, two days ago? And I have learned my lesson. So these are the Mizuno Wave Knit R2. Mizuno Wave Knit R2. Yes, I'm gonna take them out for my first impression run today. But I've learned my lesson because I still have not run in the Reebok Float Ride Run Fast Pro. And like January was a great weather month for us here in Denver. But now we just have been hit with snowstorm after snowstorm. And I'm a little, I don't know, I don't wanna say paranoid, but I'm a little nervous about taking really nice shoes out in the snow. So that's why I have not worn this guy yet. So thanks for your patience with the Reebok. So therefore I'm gonna take this guy out today because guess what? Make hay when the sun shines, right? So let's put this guy on for an easy day, recovery day. We're gonna talk about some recovery strategy. And we've talked about this in the past, but I really wanna dive into it today at the gym, especially just like what I like to do to help the legs recover. Because guess what? I am a little sore from running in the snow yesterday. And also, I don't know. Well, I'll just say this. I said this two days ago about the Adios Force. And then my second and final draw, you know, slight drawback thus far is you know, I could notice less cushion. And that's, you know, I kind of knew that going into when I purchased the shoe. That's right. Maybe a slightly less cushioned ride in the Adios 4 from Adidas. Maybe that's why I'm a little extra sore today. At the same time, I did drop the pace down to, you know, 515s. So I don't know. But I am feeling it a little more so today. Maybe it's the combination of the snow run. Who knows? But we're gonna recover today together. All right. Let's lace up in the Mizuno Wave Knit R2. Pause in the run real quick for, I gotta take some notes for the 3PM video. As I'm running along, I like to make notes. So hold on, hold on here. Just really, so I don't forget what's happening on my feet right now. All right. Wide toe box I'm feeling. Talk about the outsole and the edge of the shoe. First impressions of the Mizuno Wave Knit R2 publishing at 3PM today. I just put it out there. Why not? Let's put it out there. I'm walking away more excited right now after five miles than I was pulling them out of the shoe box about 35 minutes ago. Really? Okay. And I'll just, okay. The outsole. I'm just gonna put it out there. Come back 3PM to learn about my thoughts on this fascinating Mizuno outsole. All right. Here we go. Onto the gym recovery, getting rolled out, stretched out for a big run tomorrow. Come on. My favorite sayings is, oh my goodness. All right. You know I say that a lot. Well, I'm gonna say it again. Oh my goodness. The Mizuno Wave Knit R2 is now in the arsenal, now in the rotation. And again, the second video publishing today will dive all into my first impressions about that shoe. All right. Here we go. Recovery for runners. That is the focus of today's blog. And the reason being is because I had two big days kind of back to back, actually three technically, but the first one wasn't as, anyway, I've had a couple big days back to back. So today I'm tired, a little sore, especially at the beginning of the day, but I must say right now I'm feeling good. And why am I feeling good? Well, I'm about to explain how, from the beginning of the day till now, I feel like I have had a good recovery day. So that I can get ready to go hard tomorrow. For me, and if you've been watching this channel for a long time, you know that I like to go hard on hard days and easy on easy days. I believe in training. Oh man, we won't get into it now, but I like to go to the well harder, like go further into the well, meaning go harder on hard days so that I think I can go harder in races and further into the well in races, meaning making it hurt even more in races. But the only way that I can do that is if I'm making sure that my easy days are silly easy, laughable easy, ridiculously easy. So recovery for runners, there's easy days or recovery days, however you want, whatever terminology you wanna use, I usually just say easy days. And then I also have active rest days, active rest. So what's the difference between an easy day and an active rest day? An easy day for me looks like three miles at nine to 10 minute pace. It's silly. It's like you're just jogging along, just cruising, you know, just like bopping along, looking at the flowers, not, you know, without a care in the world. Usually I do those runs in the New Balance Beacons or the Ultra Torrens or sometimes the Pegasus 35s, just bopping along. So that's easy day. And then the rest of the day, I'm sitting on my rump just chilling, drinking coffee, drinking wine and reading a book. And you know, chasing the children around the house, but I'm not doing anything. So that is an easy day. But what about an active rest day or an active recovery day? That's what I did today. So instead of doing three miles, I did five miles and took these guys out for the five mile run. But then I wanted to stay active. I wanted to work the soreness out of my legs from the past two runs where I did the 20 miler pretty fast in the audio spores. And then yesterday, the 10 miler in the snow, which I think the snow added some extra challenge to the day. So I was a little extra sore this morning. But after my five mile run today, I said, okay, time to go have active rest. And that's what you saw me doing there in the gym. And so in the gym, I was not doing lifting. I was not doing really core work just a little bit, but not much. And then no plyometrics. So explosive jumps and movements. I was simply doing active recovery. A lot of stretching, a lot of foam rolling and a lot of pool work and just working the muscles out. And so again, for me, there's a difference between an easy day and an active rest day. And today was an active rest day. Okay, I'm gonna walk you from beginning the moment I walk into the gym to the moment I leave exactly everything I like to do. And for all the exercises you see me doing here in the pool, usually I do two sets of 10 on each leg. After the pool, I jump into the sauna for five to 10 minutes. And again, like be careful, you know, saunas are hot, hot tubs are hot, either a hot tub or a sauna. I just jump in there just to loosen up the muscles, warm the muscles up. I'm telling you, like maybe it's just because I'm getting a little older, but getting in the sauna and then leaving the sauna, I can notice the difference in my muscles just warming up a little bit. So I go in there for five to 10 minutes. And then after that, I toss on the Ultra Torrens. I love the zero drop for an active recovery day. I don't know what it is about it, but those Ultras just feel so good to walk around in, in the gym because it's stretching out. In my opinion, the calf and the sole is just a little extra amount on an active recovery day. And then I hit the mat for some foam rolling and foam rolling is, oh man, if we all did foam rolling every single day, I think we all would, we would reduce our risk of injury. Like, I don't know if it'd be by 50%, but I think that percentage would go way, way up. Good foam rolling, meaning you are going slow. That is the key with foam rolling. If you have a gym, you can use a foam roller app, maybe you own one. Going slow makes it a little more painful, but I'm telling you, it just digs in to those muscles so much better. So that's the key for foam rolling. Go slow, working on the side, your IT band. If you have IT band issues, that's a good place to work. The IT band is on the foam roller and then I love working the calves. I love working the quads, the hand strings, the back. Even like, I actually, if you have shin splints, that is, you can also work your shin splint area with the foam roller. Just putting your leg on the foam roller right between your knee and your ankle and just going back and forth, back and forth. And probably the weakest point in this entire circuit is my stretching. It always helps to have a partner to stretch with, but you just got to do the best with what you have. So I have that band there to attempt to stretch my hamstring as best as possible. Okay, after the stretching, I hop on the treadmill. Again, you know the drill if you've been watching. I like to do side to side motions as if I was playing basketball. You know how they go side to side a lot or a soccer player and then backwards running. Again, just trying to fire different muscle groups and tendons in my legs. And you can do this on a basketball court. You could do it on a track. You don't have to do it on a treadmill. In fact, be careful if you are doing it on a treadmill. So anyway, just trying to fire different muscle groups. And then I do my mini foot exercises and the ones you see me right there. Looks like I'm walking like a duck or something. Those are designed to, again, help reduce the risk of shin splints. You're basically stretching out between, right next to your fibia and tibia bone, just on the outside of the leg there. Oh, it feels so good. It's a little strange to get used to, but those are some mini foot exercises that I do. Again, just to keep the suppleness up in the tendons, all over the place, but especially around my ankles. All right, and here is a hip mobility movement or exercise. I do two sets of 10 on each leg, just putting your leg up on a bench and then moving to your right or to your left. Keep it like I am pretty tight, especially on my left leg. So I need to keep doing these a lot. Anyway, that's the hip mobility exercise. Next is the around the world. And I just love this one. It's working on your balance. And the key is to keep your eyes up. Don't look down, keep your eyes up. And that's gonna help you work on your balance. Again, two sets of 10 for each leg, swinging it all the way to your back. Kind of like an ice skater would do that movement. And then all the way back to the front and making sure you keep your shoulders up. And then you wanna be nice and straight. I'm not perfect there in the image, but just making sure you're nice and straight. And this is called around the world. I do two sets of 10. Again, just activating that hip area, trying to keep it nimble and flexible and young, if you know what I mean. And then just a good old knee bend, squatting down one-legged squat and four to six inches off the ground will do the trick. They have this nice little box I can use in the gym, but you can do it really on a step or anything. This is to help prevent runner's knee, which I know there's a lot of viewers actually out there that have told me in the comments that they suffer from runner's knee. So I do this, again, I do this one three sets of eight. I don't know why, but I think 10 is a little too much. And I think two sets of eight is not quite enough. So anyway, I do three sets of eight for this. Again, each leg, both sides. And again, making sure you're straight up and down and keeping your eyes forward, not looking down. And again, you'll be working on your balance as well. Next is glute activation. I think as runners, we often forget about our glutes and using the glutes in our running to help us. Obviously, we talk so much about our quads, our hammies, our calves, but we kind of forget about our glutes. So anyway, this is a glute activation exercise, three sets of 10 each side. And this one's actually pretty easy to do. But again, just trying to activate that area around your hip and your upper hamstring. So, and especially if you are a trail runner and an uphill runner, this is a really important thing because you can use your glute to help drive that knee forward when you're trying to hop up rocks, going up a mountain. Anyway, glute activation, three sets of 10. Last but not least is the plank with the arm raise. I do two sets of 10 for this guy. And again, you're kind of in a pushup position, not quite, because you're a little higher up off the air and you're basically lifting your arm up behind you. And this is actually working your core a little bit, but I think for me, I can feel it really in my shoulders, my neck, and then also in my, basically in my waist, like stretching out my lower back. And because sometimes my lower back can get a little tight after downhill running, like steep downhill running. So, I love this one. Again, it's the plank and the one arm raise, two sets of 10 on each side. Oh, it's a good one, it's a good one. And after that, I like to do a quick brisk five to 10 minute cool down walk. Again, this is an active rest day, so you wanna keep that movement up. And yes, the keyword for today is move, right? So, I could have sat around more today. I could have just gone and done my five miles in the Mizzunos and then just called it a day. But I knew, based on how sore I was from the previous two days, it was gonna really, really help to stay active, keep moving, roll it out, stretch it out. And sure enough, like right now, I'm feeling pretty darn good. Like it's not perfect, but my legs are feeling better and I'm pretty confident by the morning. So, in 12 hours from now, I'll be ready to rock and roll for the run tomorrow. All right, so that is my, those are some thoughts on recovery for runners and the question of the day. What are your thoughts on easy days versus recovery days? And is there a difference in your training block, in your training philosophy? How do you approach active recovery? Have you ever thought about it in your training? And I know this is like a very niche question, a very specific question, but I know there's a lot of serious runners out there watching these blogs that do want to get better, do want to push themselves, do want to stay healthy. You know how, like, what is, so in football, the saying goes like, you can't make the club in the tub, meaning if you're injured, you can't make the team. And in running, like endurance sports, especially running, if you're injured and you're not advancing your aerobic development, which happens every single day, no matter how fast or slow you run, even if you're running nine minute pace, 10 minute pace, 11 minute pace, you're still ever so slightly advancing your aerobic development and your aerobic metabolism. So anyway, that's my thought for the day for recovery. And yeah, I'll be curious to hear your thoughts down in the comments on all of that. And yes, I did not ask Mizuno to send me this colorway. I don't know, I don't know. See, beauty, work hard. Love each other. See you tomorrow.