Compression Gear

Runner by day...

Ladies know the sexy and supportive feeling of tights, leggings, hoes, and spanx. Even the men out there (at least those willing to admit it) know the feeling of strength and power associated with some under armor or football pants. There's a reason superheroes wear tights!

In my own effort to gain superhuman strength and speed, I purchased a couple compression garments for this marathon training season - the CW-X Stabilyx Tights and Smartwool Graduated Compression Socks.

Look how cool this guy looks! Don't you want to look cool too?

Far less sexy form of compression garment.

Background
I wore under armor back in high school much more for the sweat management than anything else (perhaps besides looking good). Now compression gear is making a real move into the mainstream with promises for better performance and recovery. I've known about CW-X and their muscle and joint supporting claims since my first foray into distance running back in 2008, but I was too poor and too self-conscious to buy any. Fast forward 6 years and I started really considering them. Why?

As much of my current running and body maintenance does, it comes back to Kelly Starrett of MobilityWod.com. In his book Ready to Run he illustrates the uses of compression gear in promoting blood flow, lymph flow, and therefore recovery. With his encouragement and reading some of the peer-reviewed research, I became convinced that compression could benefit me, so I bought some socks and tights.

It should be noted that the science and benefit of compression gear is not yet entirely settled. It seems evidence is strong for compression socks promoting recovery and blood flow, hence their use in bed-bound hospital patients to prevent blood clots and in those suffering from edema (e.g. the elderly). However, the results are mixed whether compression socks improve performance. I've not looked at research regarding compression tights, but if the lower leg compression is graduated, it should have a similar effect. I cannot say how scientifically sound CWX's muscle and joint supporting exoskelton (if you will) is. I can speak to my personal results though.

CW-X Review
There are a few standout features of the tights.
(1) Support: Compared to basic running tights (e.g. one layer of consistent stretchiness, CWX offers much more support. The comparison is like a regular car seat vs a racing bucket seat or soft handshake vs a firm handshake or (for the guys) boxer-briefs vs straight briefs. My basic Asics tights fit like tight pants but don't particularly support me. They feel sleek for sure but not like a shrink wrapped support web of my legs. That's what CW-X feels like, particularly around the knee joint. That support feels good - powerful, strong, tight.
(2) Material: My basic tights are one consistent layer of shiny slick stretchy material (lycra?). The CW-X tights have multiple layers of a softer, tougher feeling material. The support network is over the top and seems to provide extra tightness, reinforcement, and support. The result is a tighter, more substantial feel to the pant. That extra thickness and matte finish leave me less self-conscious about going outside in my skivvies.
(3) Warmth: Simple - being somewhat thicker, I comfortably wore these tights alone down to about 20 degrees F. The wind can cut through them, making wish I had some windbriefs. Being winter, I have not run in them in temps warmer than ~45F.

Smartwool Compression Socks
I have zero complaints about these socks. I wear them a few hours nearly every day post run and sometimes all day before or after a hard workout. I have washed them maybe twice now. They have held up well, don't smell, fit tightly, and are comfortable. I prefer wool and found these on major internet sale, which is what persuaded me to go with them rather than a big name compression brand.

I decided to buy socks rather than sleeves because I thought I would use them more regularly. The jury is still out on whether compressions benefits during performance, so I did not think I would run in them. Since I was not going to run in them, I was not worried about getting them dirty quickly or them working with my regular running socks or wearing out from running wear. This allowed me to buy only one pair to wear as much as possible and afford the ability to wear the socks with normal clothes just fine (mostly as dress socks and not having to put a sleeve over or on top of other socks). I saw no advantage of a sleeve.

Results
They look good and feel good BUT DO THEY WORK? That's a very difficult question to answer. I have not organized a self-trial comparing them in the same workout to another pair of tights. Even trying to do that would have too many other factors to be apples-to-apples. However, I do credit them with decreasing my soreness this season.

It has been rare that I have been sore the day after a run this season despite doing track work and tempo intervals for the first time and ramping up mileage relatively quickly. How is that? I'm not in better shape. I think it's because I am using these pieces of equipment (along with committing to mobility work). I wear my CW-X tights for nearly all my hard workouts: track, tempo, and some long runs (total of 2-3x/wk). I wear the socks after almost every run. Very often I'll come home sore and worn down, but after wearing the gear for a few hours and getting a night's sleep, I rarely ever have morning time soreness after a workout.

I cannot say that the gear has definitely improved my recovery or made me better able to handle my increased training. I believed it would; that's why I bought it. And I do believe it has, which is why I recommend both.

Come March 14th at DC, I hope it's a bit chilly so I can wear my Stabilyx Tights, and I will definitely being wearing my Smartwool Compression Socks on the plane before and after!

Handling Travel and Time Off

It's the new year and things are settling down as the spring semester gets going. While winter break is a privilege, but training is a discipline easier to practice with a consistent routine and environment. For my wife and me, winter break included some really good training but more time off than was planned (isn't that always the case).

Between Dec 18th when my classes ended to Dec 30th, we were away from home traveling between KY, TN, Chicago, TN, GA, and FL and back for over 30hrs and 2000 miles of driving and flying.

Modifying the Plan
Initially the schedule didn't look to bad and my intentions were to train right through the travel. The original plan is shown below and had me running 92mi during the timespan. With some slight rearrangement of days and a couple rest days for travel, I could get most of the workouts in and 91% of the original mileage. However, treadmills, travel, busyness, and general low motivation when faced with food and family contributed to me only putting shoe to pavement for 46% of the original mileage and about half of the modified mileage.

What's there to say? Is it possible to run through the holidays and maintain a schedule? An emphatic YES! Did I manage to do it? A more emphatic NO! Why? Mostly because I did not commit to doing it. The adage is true that the hardest part of the run is getting out the door, and it still holds true for me nearly every day.

Good News
I really enjoyed the holidays! I also got some quality runs in at my favorite place Percy Warner Park in Nashville and felt rested coming back. Since the break, I've been much more consistent, getting back into routine. If I am to miss any portion of the training, missing relatively early is much preferred to missing later when the training is more marathon specific.

Project Week: Shoe Care

How should I take care of my leather shoes? I have black dress shoes, classic brown desert boots, some wingtip brown boots, casual brown shoes. They are all different quality and colors of leather, and I've never really known how to properly care for them. Until now. After perusing the web o' knowledge and visiting a cobbler, I've put together a strategy.

Why do I have so many shoes?

Leather Conditioning
Leather dries out and cracks if it is not kept supple and conditioned. I remember an old leather jacket of my father that sat in our front closet for years. It looked great but the leather was like beef jerky it had dried so much. To keep leather shoes (and other leather goods) well conditioned and soft, using leather conditioner once a month or a few times per year is appropriate. Personally, I have used Clark's Weather Guard (more of an oily semisolid) and Lexol Leather Conditioner (creamy liquid). Both noticeably soften the leather. The Clark's leaves some sticky residue to collect dust. In general - rub it in liberally, let it sit awhile, wipe off the excess.

Waterproofing
Water is the enemy of leather and will lead to rotting and stains over time. Treating leather to resist water, therefore, is an important step. Fortunately, many of the leather conditioning products are effective for this as well. Applying Leather Honey, Lexol Conditioner, or Weather Guard periodically should protect your casual shoes from water damage (along with being careful how you use them).

Dress Shoes
If you polish the shoes, you are waterproofing them with wax, so you get a BOGO deal - shine and protection! A rare conditioning may be needed, but occasional polishing should work fine.

PROJECTS:

Dyeing Leather
Last winter I really wanted some nice leather boots I could dress up or down. Being drawn to high quality items, I coveted the Allen Edmonds Dalton boots seen first below (oh how nice!). At $425, though, that was not going to happen, so I looked around.

Allen Edmonds Dalton boot - $425 msrp
www.allenedmonds.com

I looked around and found these Hawkings McGill boots from Urban Outfitters. They had a similar wingtip look but were on sale for 40 BUCKS! I never did like the oompa loompa orange color, but at $40 I could deal with it. For the last year, I've worn them quite a bit with my navy suit or slacks for a nice contrast.

Hawkings McGill boot - $88 MSRP - $40 on sale at Urban Outfitters
http://dappered.com/2011/08/the-88-ships-free-wingtip-boot/

I can tell the HM boots are pretty cheaply made. For instance, the insole is constantly slipping, the leather is plastic-y, they are about as comfortable as walking with woodens clogs. But they were so inexpensive and I did not plan to wear them a ton. This was a fashion over comfort/quality decision. I never did like the color, though, so I sought to improve them.

Voila! With some acetone to strip the original polish/coating and some brown leather dye, I turned them into these. While darker than I intended, I'm much happier with the color and more likely to wear them!

Stripping and Repolishing

Back when I was in high school, I did ROTC, where I was a pretend navy sailor for 4 years. I dressed the part, underwent competitions, drill, and uniform inspections. Part of the uniform was standard black dress shoes, and one of our first responsibilities was to polish them to a high gloss shine. 

Master Chief showed us how: liberally apply traditional shaving cream all over the shoe, let is sit, scrub off the polish and coating down to the bare leather. I just now realized the implications of that for my face while shaving. Hmm. Anyway, once the leather is stripped, we applied Kiwi black polish with an applicator brush, lightly buffed it with a brush, and then spit shined with more Kiwi polish. I always took pride in doing this and having glossy shoes. That is why I've kept those first shoes for almost 13 years. However, there were always a few blotches where I either did not completely strip them or caked too much polish, so I decided to start over. 

I stripped them by rubbing acetone nail polish remover all over the shoes, leaving a nasty black rag. Whether I gully stripped them, I doubt, but I definitely removed all shine. Then I simply started over, but applying a light coating of polish with a brush, buffing, and then spit shining. After one coat, they look as good as ever and more consistent.

Polish is (maybe) Important

I had only ever used Kiwi polish before. I've used black, neutral (clear), and Kiwi Parade Gloss. They worked fine, I guess, but I started reading recently how they have lots of additives including gas and turpentine like compounds. Is that important? I don't know, but I figured I'd try something different at least. So I got some polish from the cobbler mentioned above - some Kelly's black and Lincoln brown. The big difference here is that the polish I got has stain in it (apparently Kiwi does not), so it works to both restore color and shine. Whether it is any better, I'm not sure, but the end product worked well, so I'll stick with it for the time being!

13 years and going strong!

Conclusion

That is what I've learned so far. I will definitely be paying more attention to using conditioner to protect my shoes form water damage. This is a big problem for my wife who wears boots all winter. We may need a bigger bottle of conditioner...

Here is one final plug for a new company called Nisolo. They make handmade leather shoes in Peru, fair trade. I got mine in Nashville courtesy of my very generous mother-in-law. They are super comfortable with all leather soles too and thick leather requiring break-in. I've been enjoying mine for a few weeks now.

Very sleek and stylish Emilio LE boot
http://nisolo.com/