Snow, family, and return to "racing"

The last two months have been a bit of a roller coaster, mainly due to my annoying IT band. At the worst I was down to 15 miles a week and was afraid to run more than a mile away from my house in case the IT band tightened up and sent me walking home. Boo.

But enough of the bad, here's some good things that happened:
My family came to visit! They brought my new snazzy Subaru Outback to Colorado and we spent a few days in Winter park. I did some snow shoeing instead of skiing because of the IT band.

Andy had a great race at the Colorado 5 mile championships. He was so fast that they weren't ready for him at the finish and he had to do a pretend finish for pictures. Here's Andy being goofy and a yummy waffle from Walnut cafe. Mmmmm.


I had a little climbing mishap when my belayer slipped, pulling me off the wall and slamming my foot into the rock...But it's not broken!...but 5 weeks later I can still feel it...silly bone bruise. Thank god for the Adidas energy BOOST shoes! Seriously, it's the only thing that has been cushioned/responsive enough to run in since my foot injury.

I got to go home! First time since Christmas. Bye bye snow, hello eternal Houston summer. The Texas sun felt SO good after all this snow in Boulder. I did make a tiny mistake by trying to do some barefoot strides, but after a little ibprofen and a rest day everything is looking up again.

My mom put on a race to benefit camps for teens in foster care. Run for Hope was a huge success and a really fun race. Check out Love Fosters Hope if you want to donate or help out with providing hope to teens in foster care. It's an incredible camp and a very worthy cause to be involved in. I'm so glad I was able to go home and be a part of it. Side note, it was my first time to do a workout in 2 months and first time running in the new bright yellow Adidas uni. Time to race my way back to shape, one 5k at a time. Oh, and winning is always fun too. While I was yogging the 5k, Andy was actually kicking butt at Mt. SAC....running crazy fast in the 5k: 13:41 fast to be exact.

It also happened to be the weekend of the J Fred Duckett Rice Meet. I miss this blue track, my coach and old teammates so much! Doing a "workout" ...10 x 100m strides... at the Rice track with the girls was just what I needed. It definitely made me realize I need to find a group to train with here. Running is a social thing for me and I find I am pushed much more when I'm training with others.

I wasn't kidding about racing my way back into shape. I did another 5k a week later. The Boulder Distance Classic! As usual, my teammates rocked it. Way to go BRC Adidas! The race shirts had a tribute to the Boston victims and Henry gave a nice speech encouraging everyone to live without fear. So, I toed the start line in support of Boston and my teammates and later laced up my climbing shoes for an afternoon in Eldorado Canyon. Of course, it would have been nice to be racing at Stanford that weekend, but it was still a fun day and I'm getting healthy bit by bit.

Finally, the warm weather has arrived! To Cooper's dismay, it hit 80 degrees one day last week. We ran out 3 miles to a park which did not have a working water fountain. Let's just say it was a long 3 miles home for this pup and it made me actually consider getting a hobby jogger water belt. On second thought, I'll just run him by the Boulder creek. In typical Boulder fashion, two days later the snow came again! I am so over the cold. Bring on sport bra weather!

And for the final picture... I chopped off my hair! No more pink/blonde ends...for now.


So now I'm heading into May with a new car, recovered bum foot, pain-free IT band, stronger glutes and a lot less hair. Ok May, bring on my 25th bday (yikes, I feel old), the Bolder Boulder 10k and (please please please) more sunshine!
Nicole M.