When it came time to request a holiday gift from her husband last year, Michael Ann Colbert knew exactly what to ask for — a set of free weights. Turned out to be a life-enhancing present, I found out recently when visiting the Louisville Runners Roost store that Colbert manages. I did a slight double take when I saw her; Colbert was fit-looking and strong, with some muscles showing beneath her long-sleeved running top.

“What have you been doing?” I asked, knowing something was up.

“Weights,” said Colbert. “My husband gave me a set last year for Christmas, and I have been working out with them regularly.”

What a great holiday gift, something Colbert uses throughout the year. Several mornings a week after walking her dogs, she heads downstairs to her home gym to work out. She moved from five- and eight-pound dumbbells to 12-, 15- and 20-pounders after giving her husband her wish list. “I feel stronger, and that has allowed me to increase my speed. It not only helps my running, but makes all activities less difficult.”

Then, on a visit to the Boulder Runners Roost, I visited with Anne Snow, who, like Colbert, is no longer college-age, and who is also lean and strong. After brushing me out of the way as she carried a couple boxes of shoes to a customer, Snow explained how she does deadlifts, showing me the technique. “Weights were part of my training for the Berlin marathon,” she said, “and I’ll keep doing them for (the April 21) London (marathon).”

Dang, I thought as I left the store, these are some strong women. Like some of you, I was of the mindset for many years that running was enough, and that after putting in some high-mileage weeks, I did not have the time, or need for, weight work. However, after seeing these runners, along with my own sarcopenia, my motivation, and schedule, have changed. I started lifting three times a week, using the “assisted ” pull-up machines. Getting in three sets of 10 pull-ups; 10 bar dips and 10 chin-ups is a great feeling and a different kind of “high.”

“Watch out,” Colbert wrote when I said I was lifting now. “It’s addictive!”

Local ultramarathoner Mike Randall would agree. Randall, 48, is an accomplished ultrarunner, having finished several 100 milers, as well as a 100-miler around Wonderland Lake, 89 loops in what he called a “fun run.” That was in 2021, and when I saw Randall, a 3-hour, 16-minute marathoner, again after the pandemic, in the weight room of the North Boulder Rec Center, I was amazed. Like Colbert and Snow, he was fitter, stronger and looked better.

If weights are not on your gift-giving or receiving list this year, local running stores have plenty of suggestions. Camille Plaatjes, running shoe specialist at In Motion Running, said shoes are a popular seller, as well as a variety of items ranging from hydration and recovery products to women’s tights, to the gift-card promotion in Motion is offering this season.

Over in Longmont at Shoes & Brews, Connor McMahon also suggested gift cards, and, for a store with the motto “Run Wild, Drink Beer” — Shoes & Brews being the only running store/brew pub I know of — a gift card works well, because, McMahon said, it can be used on both sides of the store, for shoes or for brews. A nice stocking stuffer, he said, would be a running-related Christmas tree ornament, such as the one consisting of two gingerbread runners with the words “Best Running Buddies.”

A couple of good sellers over at Fleet Feet, said marketing coordinator Roxane Bolon, have been women’s running vests, windshield layers and running gloves — “always a hit.” Finally, for a gift sure to make an impression with the runner in your life, head to Runners Roost in Boulder, where RL Smith of Smith Brothers Custom Insoles will install motorcycle ice screws into a pair of running shoes.

These Minnesota-tested ice screws are placed around the perimeter of each shoe, allowing for a better grip. Ideally, Smith said, a runner can designate an old pair of shoes to wear just on days with snowy and icy conditions. “They’ll keep you from breaking” your rear end, he said. As Smith’s wife, store manager Tricia Vieth put it once, “There is more of a secure feeling when running with these; you could literally run across a frozen lake. I wouldn’t suggest doing that, but you probably could.”

Follow Sandrock on Instagram: @MikeSandrock.