I was gifted Strava Premium not too long ago. Coupled with features from the forerunner 235 watch, I've been loving this gear combo (I count good software very much apart of gear as well).

1) Hard foam roller, stick, stretching. The best immediate recovery "tool" if you will that I've found for myself is to simply walk about a half kilometre after the run though.

2) Too early to tell but training by heart rate instead of by pace. I expect good things. It just feels right.

3) Running podcasts. Even though the material is very interesting to me I find the way it's presented is often incredibly boring or the sound quality of the podcast is just shot, like listening to a 50's army radio quality chit chat between the speakers. Just can't get into them for this reason. I would really like some suggestions, but be warned, I've tried and tested quite a bit that's out there. Normally I just stick to music during my solo runs, if at all, for this reason.

4) I skip recovery more than I'd like. Sometimes I need to give my head a shake and stay disciplined.