For compression alone, these are great, but the ice pockets make them a must have. I wore them a lot for IM 70.3 Miami. First, I wore them during my race taper to get my legs recovered and ready to go. Next, I wore them to the expo used the pockets to hold my keys and money. I even wore them during my final preparation ride the day before the race. I had to fly back to Atlanta the evening after the race, and my legs were sore. As soon as I put the tights on, my legs started to feel a little better. When I added ice to them on the plane, they felt even better.
I am now using these after all my long trail runs. The ice pockets are in all the places you need, glutes, IT, hamstrings, quads, knees and calves. I have seen some people race in them, and I am sure they would work well as performance compression tights, but I prefer to save them for recovery. I heartily recommend them for all endurance athletes as a recovery aid between hard training and before and after racing.