At the beginning of the season I was lucky enough to draw a credit for CW-X I had heard about the benefits of their gear supporting the muscles and ligaments, but a bit of sticker shock had kept me from taking the plunge.

It only took one run to know that quality costs a bit of money.  I went out and bought a three-quarter length leg soon after as well.  This was my first season of running more than mountain biking.  It’s still a mental challenge to be able to train the mind to get used to running off the stiffness of running day in and out.  The CW-X pants felt like a cozy glove that just held all those muscle fibers together until they were ready to step it up again after a warm up.

The other place I really noticed it was in distance.  I have a lot of IT challenges and would often find my knees crapping out on me on my long runs.  The CW-X definitely extended the time before my knees would fatigue, allowing me to push my muscles and lungs much further.

The only challenge I had with the pants was I found them to support my lower abs as much as my legs.  Now, for me running gets a lot of things moving in my stomach and the extra pressure was a bit unwelcome in that area!  To work around that I tried to move my runs to a little later in the morning so I could side step that challenge!

Overall I was rally impressed by the product and so happy that the team lottery gave me a chance to discover a new brand of gear. It’s one that I’m sure to invest in more in the future.