Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Tale of Two Tights

Last week I was fortunate enough to be gifted a pair of recovery tights.  I already have a pair but thought these would come in handy as my training increases having two pair would be nice.

Tuesday I had a good 10 mile run and thought this would be a great time to test out the new tights.


My original pair of tights are Zoot similar to these but without the super cute pink stitching, mine are a few years old.  I have long felt these tights were well worth the money I spent and worth their weight in gold.  The ones I own are technically active recovery meaning you could exercise in them and these are Zoot's big Daddy tights.  My husband owns those but doesn't care for them.  They slide down his tuhkus and the stirrup style cuts into the arch of his foot.  He likes what they do for his legs but he is uncomfortable in them.

In the last couple of years my only complaint about my Zoot tights is they are tricky to get on but that is part of the whole recovery deal.  I keep telling Ken somebody needs to create spray on recovery tights! 

The new tights are CEP.  For a while now they have had a clone recovery tight that is custom to each athlete given their own measurements.  This is their first non custom recovery tight.  They look just like the clone tights.  What I like about them is they cover the heel and arch of the foot but stop short of the toes allowing you to wear flip flops and your toes don't get squished.  That is the end of the good news.  They look and feel like something your Grandma would wear.  The control top is thicker and itchy almost like wool, the rise is too high (I am 5'9"), they come up so high they kind of roll down and cut into me like panty hose (and we all hate panty hose).  The other complaint is the actual crotch of the tights.  I won't go into details, lets just say they rubbed me the wrong way.

My Zoot tights look like athletic tights, you can see the different weaves of the fabric, they are soft behind my knees and even more important the crotch is very comfortable.  I was originally reluctant to buy tights because of the panty hose feeling at the waist.  Not an issue in my Zoot's because the compression is graduated they are not tight on my tummy at all, hit me below my belly button, stay in place and they are so comfortable I often sleep in them.  I could never sleep in the CEP tights.

 I work in a triathlon store and sell plenty of recovery calf sleeves, socks and tights.  They are not a MUST have but I'd put them at the top of the 'nice to have' list for those racing longer distances. 

In closing I will say I love my CEP socks and have no idea why they didn't transfer the same technology to their tights, they missed the mark in my opinion.

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