Weekly Training Update - Tiux Review

Hey friends! How are you doing since Daylight Savings? I wasn't a big fan of losing an hour of sleep, but I'm loving the extended daylight!! I thought I would start doing some weekly check-ins with my half marathon training. Here's how this past week went down:

Monday: Slogged through a 3 mile workout in the snow and cold. 19 degrees!! Brrr... In the evening I did 30 minutes of Runner's World Power Yoga.
Tuesday: 30 minutes of high intensity cardio circuits + 3 mile walk with Oakley
Wednesday: 2 mile hill run on the treadmill + 30 minutes Runner's World Essential Yoga. I like pushing myself on the treadmill and it felt really good to wear shorts!! 
Thursday: 3 mile run outdoors. It was slow, but I had negative splits so that's a plus! I also did 30 minutes of body weight exercises and core.
Friday: Rest Day / Stretch
Saturday: 6.5 miles with my Dad and Oakley with some big hills! It was a beautiful day, I felt really strong and I'm starting to feel much more optimistic about this half!
Sunday: Rest Day / Runner's World Recovery Yoga + 2 mile walk

Overall: I'm happy with how the week went. I got to all of my planned workouts and went further and faster than planned on my long run. We've got sunshine in the forecast this week so I'm excited for more sunny runs!

I've changed up a little bit of my gear now that I'm back in training mode. I still wear my trusty Garmin Forerunner, my UA sunglasses and my Brooks Ravennas. You don't mess with the standbys my friends. BUT...I've been testing out some different belts so I can carry my phone. I say it's for safety, but let's be honest. I need more run-selfies. 

The other new piece of gear I've been loving is my new compression socks! I've never tried them before, but I've been really interested in checking them out for a while now. I'm totally a lover of knee highs, but I just wore regular ones, not compression. Since getting serious about running again, I felt like my legs and feet needed a little extra love so I started researching compression socks and got lots of good recommendations. I ended up connecting with a brand spankin' new company called Tiux that has really affordable but really effective compression socks. They sent me a pair to try and I've been loving them! I have bigger calves so I was worried that it would squeeze too much but with the wider top band they fit just right. 

Bonus Points - These come in neon green and black! Apparently all of my running gear is these 2 colors...who knew?

Here is how Tiux explains their technology:

The left and right thing really makes me smile...I'm sure there is a good reason they are different, but NO MATTER WHAT I always put them on the wrong feet. I've never had to check my socks before! Nevermind it takes me twice as long to get my socks and shoes on....

They really kept my legs fresh on my long hill run this week, and my legs even felt good afterwards! I don't know if I would wear them on every run, especially when it's warm but...I've also really like wearing them around the house/town after runs. I feel like it really helps with recovery. In the past few weeks, I had noticed my feet just feeling heavy and swollen. Since wearing these more often that has totally gone away! I really think it has helped my circulation improve. 

The Tiux Team has TOTALLY made me a believer in compression socks. I wish they had more fun designs, but they DO have a pretty awesome PINK version coming out this spring! If you're looking to give compression socks a try, or are tired of spending $50+ on a pair, cruise on over to Tiux.co and get your pair pre-ordered. 

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free pair of socks to review. All opinions, as always, are my own.

how about you?

Do you have a favorite piece of running gear? 
Are you training for a spring race?