Great Run and Product Testing

I can honestly say that today was the first time that I woke up hoping that it would be cold outside. You see, I really wanted to try out my CW-X Stabilyx Tights (conveniently purchased from Running Warehouse). I knew that it should be cold in the mornings in Connecticut so I brought them along. I woke up at 6 AM, pulled up weather.com and saw that it was 48 degree's. Cold enough, I guess; it would have to do because I really wanted to try those bad boys out!

It was probably 50 degrees once I finally got out there to run. My hotel is by the local mall so I use that as my "trail". It is 1.1 miles around, well lit, and very little traffic in the mornings. Perfect for running if you ask me. The tights performed superbly. My legs were not cold at all nor did they ever get hot and feel sweaty, like they did last year when I wore running pants. I highly recommend them to anyone in the market. The only problem I had was with the draw string. I didn't use it at first and they felt like they were going to slip off. I never use the string in my shorts so I didn't even thing about it. However, after a mile, I tied them up and they stayed perfectly in place.

I tried out another product today. I bought a box of Gu Roctane Energy Gel (from Running Warehouse, of course) to try out. I heard they really give you an impressive energy boost and I wanted to see what they could do. They are pretty damn expensive so they are not for every day use, but I figure on a long run, they might work well. I took a regular Gu before my run to get me started. I started dying out around mile 3. I figured I would wait until mile 4, shoot Roctaine, and see how I felt. A short time after inhaling that stuff I felt great. That dying out feeling disappeared and the run was effortless. Was it the Roctaine? Who knows. But I felt amazing. My plan for this run was 7 miles. I ended up doing 9. When I stopped, I wasn't even out of breath. If it wasn't for my time constraint, I could have kept going. This was the longest and most effortless run I have had since returning from my knee problems. I guess you don't have to ask if I am a fan of Roctaine. Or CW-X tights.