PRO Compression Review + Giveaway

Throughout this training cycle, my legs have felt abnormally fatigued. Jen and I were talking about this, and she’s going through the same thing, too. She said she’s had some great races despite fatigued legs, so I’m hoping for the same.

When my legs already feel like I’ve run a marathon before the actual marathon, there’s a few tools I turn to for help.

• my trusty foam roller
• Epsom salt baths
• making sure I’m eating healthier and taking a calcium/magnesium/zinc supplement
• compression

For the past few years, I’ve always turned to compression socks after my long runs. If you’re not familiar with compression socks, they supposedly compress your lower legs to increase blood flow to the region so that byproducts like lactic acid can be flushed out faster. (As you can see from this post, some of the information around compression socks is conflicting.)

Either way, I’ve definitely felt the benefit of compression socks, especially when I feel the beginning of shin splints coming on. I wear them as much as I can during the day after my long run (the dress and compression sock look is a hot one, let me tell you) and sleep in them the night after.

Some of the fast girls like Monica and SkinnyRunner swear by PRO Compression socks, so I’ve been eyeing the socks for a while. They’d make me faster, too, right??

I present to you the craziest running outfit I wore last week. All of the crazies stopped to talk to me.

PRO Compression offered to send me a pair to try out in exchange for me sharing my thoughts on the socks with you.

I have to start with the aesthetics. They’re adorable. I asked for the Marathon Retro socks to try because they were very Ron Burgundy.

They fit well throughout the foot and calf, but they’re too long for me. They go up over my knee, and they’re supposed to fall just under your knee. I’ve also tried out CEP compression socks, and these are definitely not as tight as those. (The CEP ones are almost uncomfortably tight.)

CEO Eric Smith started PRO Compression because he worked in the golf industry and saw a need for golfers to wear compression socks, so he created PRO Compression, with lines for both runners/triathletes and golfers. (Hey Dad, you can wear cool compression socks like me, too!)

So, the million dollar blog review question: would I buy these with my own money? Yes–if I could find ones that were a little shorter.

Want your own pair of PRO Compression socks?

Leave a comment telling me how you recover from your runs and what you do when you have fatigued legs to enter. You can also get extra entries by following PRO on Facebook or Twitter and by tweeting about this giveaway. They run a ton of specials, so following them on social media is a great way to find out when they’re running one. Should you not win, you can also use the code PCBLG for 40% off and free shipping.

I was compensated in socks and cash money for this review, but all opinions and short legs are my own.