Obviously the focus here is meant to be the boots, but as a bonus you get a look at the bookcase pre-painted, and a wider look at the TV area that has to be painted.

I think today’s entry is the recovery item I’m most proud of.

Kathy and I were making our way through BJ’s and as I’ll sometimes do I wandered away from the food (which is why we have the membership) and over to the toys and exercise equipment (which is usually never a good idea).

For some reason, a lot of the exercise stuff was marked down.

I honestly was just looking, but then I saw these compression boots.

They were marked down to $50 - normally these things go for almost a couple of hundred dollars.

So I scooped them up.

It’s been a great purchase.

As you can see in the picture above, I’ll often spend my evenings watching a ballgame with my feet up in the recliner, and the boots compressing my legs and feet for about a half hour.

The boots slowly fill with air to varying levels of power/tightness, depending on your preference, and then they stay filled up to compress, and then they slowly release the air.

You can pulse it, you can focus on different points of your lower body, you can do it for differing amounts of time.

If I had to credit one single thing with helping my foot recover as well as it has, I think the compression is it.

It probably helps that I’ve been consistent with it too.

There’s a lot of science behind the idea of compression that I still don’t fully understand - but I’m sure you’re familiar with the RICE approach when you have an injury: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

I’ve rested, I’ve iced, I’ve elevated - this is really the first time I’ve done the compression part.

So that’s something to look forward to: As great as these boots have been for me recovering from an injury in a non-training period, I can’t wait to throw them on later in the day after a long run during my marathon training this summer.

And if that goes well, maybe I’ll bring a bigger bag to Chicago so I can use them after I run the marathon too.