Before I ran my 4th marathon in San Diego back in June 2010 I bought my very first pair of compression socks, 2XU (two times you for some of you) to be specific.  I loved them.  I wore them for so many long runs.  They were fantastic.  I really felt like they helped me run long distances as well as helped me with recovery.  I am sure many of you feel the same way about compression socks/sleeves.  When I was struggling with my IT band issues back in May my physical therapist told me not to run in compression sleeves when doing my Ironman.  Part of my problem at that point was pointing to a muscle on my lower leg called the peroneus.My physical therapist thought that wearing compression socks wasn’t good for that muscle so instead we taped it with some KT tape and that was how I ran.  Amazingly during Ironman St. George I didn’t have the crippling IT band pain I had been suffering from while training.

Time has passed and I no longer have the same problems in my right leg but now I have some pain in the same location of that muscle on my left leg.  I still think it is all related to the IT band and the peroneus.  On Sunday I went for my second long run for my Boston Marathon training and I decided to wear some compression socks since I was running long.

Mind you I haven’t used compression socks to run since before Ironman St. George.  After 6 miles my knee/IT Band/peroneus started to hurt, much worse that it did the prior week  during my long run.  After chatting about it with my running partner I decided to roll down the socks so they weren’t pulled all the way up to my shins.  SO MUCH BETTER, and almost instantly!

I thought is was interesting that something that had worked so well for me for so long, was now a problem.  I know that compressions socks are pretty cool looking (I say that sarcastically and seriously both at the same time), but they might not be for everyone.