202 days until the Chisholm Trail Half Marathon
I have lost myself.  I no longer recognize or know the runner that I once was.  I quit running in January 2016 due to chronic piriformis syndrome on my right side..  I had spent 2015 chasing the 1000 mile club dream.  I fell short and ran 973 miles that year.  For me running 4 half marathons that year was too much on my now aging body.  Going through menopause naturally (no hormones) has come at a price.  I am tired and weigh more than I ever have in my life (5'3" 149 pounds).  I don't feel good and I am not healthy.  Some might say "NJ just get some hormones!"  I can't as they are what contributed to my Mothers fatal breast cancer.

I have not ran a race since the Hospital Hill 5K.  I am throwing away a wonderful opportunity being a KBET runner as they will pay for your races.

I have often felt that running is a great anti-depressant.  In the past it has helped me through the day to day sadness that I encounter as the mother of a mentally ill young adult.  Thankfully my sons addiction issues seem to be a thing of the past but he will always be mentally ill. His illness has affected me and I use food to numb myself.

Recently our school got a new employee.  Running wise she is what I once was (though I was never as fast as her).  I like seeing her every day as she has inspired me to try again.

I need to put myself first and get healthy.  I will do this by

• Training for the Chisholm Trail Half Marathon
• Weighing myself only once a week
• Learning not to be so hard on myself
• Rejoining the ICT running community
• Helping only ONE day a week with our HAC boy/girl running group
• Eating Healthy
• Blog once a week
• Represent KBET by running races again
• WEIGHT = 150
• STOMACH = 42

The World According to NJ

Hi, welcome to my blog.  I have not written in a long time.  My focus this time around will be random and not necessary focus in on running/fitness.  I will be writing about many things including: fitness, working part time, minimizing and getting rid of clutter.  I will also have some short stories that are floating in my head.  Anyway be looking for more soon.

Will run again, but not for now.

Injured foot "X" marks the spot

It was a year ago today that I had such a pain in my right foot that I knew something was very wrong.  I hobbled into 4:00 Mass still thinking that it would go away and that I would run the Kingman Hills with all my running friends the following Sunday morning.   I was wrong!  The pain sort of went away but this stubborn runner continued to run which was a bad decision.  I continued on and ran the Prairie Fire Half Marathon with the group I had coached.  Most of my runners beat me and I ran nowhere near my predicted 2:10. Instead I crossed the finish line with a 2:17 and a very hurtful foot.  That apparently was not enough for me because the following month I ran the Route 66 Half Marathon, again in pain.  I did eventually quit running but did not do so until January 2016. Turns out my foot injury is really just a sciatic nerve issue that really will never go away.  I was spending a ton of money going to a Chiropractor just for maintenance. Now I use an inversion

Running the Kingman Hills 

table and do yoga once a week.   The timing from my departure from running was not good as life became stressful.  Fast forward to now and I am out of shape and 10 pounds heavier.  I went to the Doctor the other day for my yearly physical and my weight gain did concern him.  He asked me to come back for blood work and a follow up appointment.  He thinks I might be diabetic and wants me to follow a low carb diet.  I have once again started logging my calories on myfitness pal which is something I do not like doing.  For now my food diary is private but if you want to friend me my name on that site is NJ1962.  I will run again but realistically know that I cannot do so until I am under 140 pounds.  I know it is doable because for the first time in a long time I am professionally happy.  I made the right decision to leave my former school district and accept a technology classroom position in the Haysville public schools. I feel like it has been life changing.

Weekly Progress

It makes me want to make changes with my health and fitness. Many runners fall victim of the mentality of "I am a runner so I can eat whatever I want."  Honestly you can think that way until you hit a "certain" age.  I can own the fact that I eat terribly.  I am going to really watch what I eat.  I am going to accept the fact that my return to running will not be easy and that the goal of running the Turkey Trot (10 miles) in November might be lofty.  Although my friends have said that I do not need C25K I think it makes sense to approach it as a total beginner.  So once my weight is under 140 I will begin C25K with a possible goal of a spring 10K or half marathon.  Looks like I have lost 2 pounds.  I have also learned that it is important to measure the same area when taking your measurements.

Workouts for the week of 9/5/16  JOIN ME :)

Monday 9/5/16 Zumba 12:15 pm, Bootcamp 1:15 pm SYMCA

Tuesday 9/6/16 Muscle Pump 5:30 pm DTYMCA

Wednesday 9/7/16 Extreme Ride 5:30 pm DTYMCA

Thursday: 9/8/16 Body Blitz 4:45 pm, Cardio Craze 5:45 pm SYMCA

Friday: 9/9/16 REST

GOOD-BYE LIBRARY GIRL, HELLO COMPUTER GIRL

LIBRARY GIRL ON THE RUN  COMPUTER GIRL ON THE RUN

I am going to the Doctor today for my yearly woman well check and I am nervous.  Why am I nervous?  Because it has been a year and a half since I have seen my Doctor and in that time I have put on 15 pounds.  I already know that he is going to tell me that my BMI indicates that I am over weight and that I need to lose 15-20 pounds. How did that happen?  My foot was injured (or so I thought) and I quit running, and stress from not knowing about the future of my job as a School Library Media Specialist caused me to turn to food. A Facebook memory of mine popped up today.  It was a year ago today that I lead a crew of runners (training for the Prairie Fire Half Marathon) on a 9 mile run.  I WAS FIT!  Today I begin my fitness journey again.  I have also changed the name of my blog from LIBRARY GIRL ON THE RUN to COMPUTER GIRL ON THE RUN.  My blog will focus on my fitness journey, living on less and my return to the classroom. When I earned my M.Ed. in 2004 I thought I would become a Technology Teacher.  Problem is that those jobs simply did not exist in the school district I worked in. I had accepted the fact that I would probably be a school librarian until I retired from teaching in 2022.   Fast forward 12 years with the potential of Librarians jobs being “cut” on the horizon I decided to lock into my retirement benefits (on paper only). In May I accepted a  new part time job as a Technology Teacher with the Haysville Public Schools. 

Professionally I am in Heaven and teaching a subject that I am passionate  about.  I like the fact that my new school is small.  It will really allow me to get to know my students and connect with them. Now that I am professionally happy it is time for me to focus on my health and fitness once again.  I have a long term goal of running another marathon in the fall of 2017.  I will build to 26.2 by also running a 10-mile race and a half marathon.  The most important thing for me to do is to run once again with the wonderful Wichita running community.  Running IS what I am currently missing in my life. I am going to be honest and upfront about my weight loss journey as it is brutal when you are a 53-year-old woman. 

Workouts for the week of 8/29/16

8/29/16: Bootcamp, 4:30 pm DTYMCA

8/30/16: 3 mile run, 6:00 am from my house

8/31/16: 30 minute incline treadmill walk, 6:00 am in the Brad Johnson gym

9/1/16: 4 mile run, 6:00 am from my house

9/2/16: Fierce, 5:30 pm DTYMCA

9/3/16: 4 mile run, with Moms Run This Town.  Zumba Fitness: 11:00 am SYMCA

9/4/16: Intermediate Yoga, 2:00 pm NWYMCA

START TO FINISH UNIVERSITY WEEK THREE REPORT

Country running with the Cows

#BADCOACH  I did not get my blog entry written for last week but most of my crew got through their works for the week of July 6-12.  Best part of week two was running at Sedgwick County Park.  We had a great 6 mile run.  Now on to week three.  I am really proud of the H3 STFU runners.  Monday Coach Colette, Mona and Sandra and I met at my house for a 5 mile run.  If you ever come to run with me in 'H" town I will take you on my favorite run and if the cows are out at the Curless farm we will stop and take a picture. For me running with a group is so much more enjoyable than running alone.  If any of you have the option over the next three weeks of running with me or others during the week day I highly encourage you to do so.  Tuesday night was track night and I do not think anyone from STFU attended.  Keith ran pretty steady with me and thanked me for pushing him.  Truth is kids, YOU PUSH ME.   Honestly sometimes it is easier for me to do speed work on a

 treadmill. It was very hot so Head Coach Winston took it easy on us.  The best part of track night for

Welcome home Kendra!

me was seeing Kendra.  She just returned from doing National Gaurd Training.  If you don't know her you soon will she is a fun person.  I had the honor of running her, Angi Webster and Melissa Scheffler in at the Prairie Fire Marathon last fall.  She might be joining us for some of our runs.  Thursday night brought our tempo run and IT WAS BRUTAL.  I did well for 1.5 miles but stopped to wait for other runners.  Encouraged Keith to run on without me.  I waited for Angi and her crew and we walked some.  Started up running again and took advantage of EVERY sprinkler system I could run through.  Actually felt sick after the run.  It took me 31:00 minutes to do those 3 miles and I had to walk plenty.  I passed on going to Old Chicago because I felt SICK. Got home and took a long cold shower and did recover. For me if it is over 90 degrees on a Thursday I will need to do my tempo runs in the morning. I advise any of you do to the same if Thursdays heat go the best of you.  Saturday was our long run that we started from GoRun East.  We did a great job holding

BRUTAL TEMPO RUN

pace.  We did a 3 mile out and back for our 6 mile run.  I have been talking to the crew about trying to achieve negative splits.  I told them that if they had it in them that they could try and run the last 1-2 miles a bit faster.  At the four mile point Jennifer, James and Jeremy did just that and got ahead of us.  I am very proud of them.  James told me that their last mile was a 9:40.  OUTSTANDING!  My group was behind them we did the same thing just not as speedy.  My last mile was 10:25 and I know that Justin was right behind me.  Runner of the week for STFU has got to be Renee.  He was injured and has come back strong.  I can already predict the runners that I am coaching that will cross the finish line before coach NJ.  Renee will be one of those runners.

Saturdays 6 mile crew

STFU you are doing great and I am so proud of you!

Workouts for the week of July 20-26

Monday: 5 EZ with my girls in Derby 6:00am

Tuesday: FU track night 400, 800, 1200, 800, 400

Wednesday: 4EZ (moving my Sunday run to Wednesdays)

Thursday: 3 mile tempo on a treadmill at my hotel in Kansas City

Friday: REST

Saturday: 6-8 miles EZ 

Sunday: Muscle Pump 2:00pm, Zumba 3:00pm SYMCA

Start To Finish University aka STFU  week two

Jeremy, Justin, Cindy, Donna, Edie and myself
had a great LSD run on Saturday!

Yes, lets just get this out of the way H3 the 2:06-2:20 group has been named STFU and I am VERY aware of the double meaning.  One of the "lessons" I hope to teach those that I am coaching is that during races if you do not expend energy on talking you MIGHT actually run faster.  The other lesson that I hope I have taught this past week is that "slow is good" and that talking is good during a Long Slow Distance run.  It seems that many people are a bit confused about paces for certain runs.  I think that this table is great to look at for race paces, Marathon Pace Chart and I used it to explain the difference between what race pace is for our group and what LSD pace is for our group.  Most of the S2F coaches will agree that we ALL had our groups running too fast last Saturday.  The runners in my group should be capable of finishing their half marathon in

James, Edie and myself after FU
track night

2:06:00-2:20:00. Coach Colette will be on the lower end of that range and I will be somewhere in the middle.  Knowing what our goals are allows us to figure out how S-L-O-W our Saturday LSD runs should be.  I used my goal of a 2:10:00 finish to teach my crew that my race day mile should be about a 9:55.  We added a minute- to a minute and a half to our race pace to come up with an 11:00-11:30 mile for the pace of our LSD run this last Saturday.  I told them to trust me on this and that when were were done we should feel like we could easily run another 2 miles or so.  SUCCESS!  We ran our LSD run in 1:07:00 with an average pace of 11:07.  This was right where we needed to be.When our mileage increases I have a feeling we will be closer to the 11:30 mark. I really do not want to see someone get hurt and I am hopeful that the lesson  of "slow is good" was learned by all this past week.  It seems that often when someone begins a running

Ice Cream Run 

programs they (to quote a great Queen song) "want it all, I want it now!" Running is a sport that requires some time and patience.  You have got to put in the time and get some "base" miles before you will have speed.  When you try to do too much too soon that is when injuries will occur.  Track night this past week consisted of running three 800 meter runs.  It is hard for me to explain speed wise what my crew should do.  Track night really does show my age and that speed is not going to come easy for me at age 52.  For me I simply work hard to keep speed distances under a 10:00 minute mile and on a good track night my

Great job with your tempo run Angi!

speeds are closer to a 9:00 minute mile.  I have high hopes for my crew doing great speeds on track night and told them that it is my goal for them to "dust me" on track night.  On Thursday we had a tempo run and people are starting to learn that "tempo" means "comfortably hard" race pace or slightly above.  Angi ran this one with me and we did our two miles in 19:47.  I plugged in, talked very little and simply ran.  Angi could really push me to get my PR and hopefully I can push her too.  This next week I will not be at the Thursday night tempo run so hopefully Colette will be there to help you out. My crew seems to be experienced runners and I noticed that they were dressed appropriately for running and wearing dri-weave materials.  I did see a lot of cotton shirts on Saturday and suggested to some of the runners that they might be more comfortable running in materials that breath.  Finally if you have not added cross training into the mix IT WILL HELP YOU BECOME A BETTER RUNNER.  I do cycle, muscle pump, zumba and during the summertime I like the water walk class.

Workouts for the week of 7/6/15

7/6/15: EZ 4 miles (on the low end of EZ 10:30-11:00 minute miles) 6:30 am "H" town

7/7/15: FU track night 4 x 1km (400 recovery) warm up and cool down.  Total miles not to exceed 3.

7/8/15: Extreme Ride 5:30 pm DTYMCA

7/9/15: 2 mile tempo, 6:30 am "H" town.  Waterwalk 9:30 am SYMCA

7/10/15: REST

7/11/15: 5-6 mile run SCP 6:45 am.  Get ready for some FUN pictures in our last two miles.  Most likely we will do the outer 4 mile loop and then the inner 2 mile loop. 

7/12/15: EZ 4 miles and ZUMBA 3:00 pm SYMCA

H3 2:06-2:20

More of you and less of me.......

I started this blog a year and a half ago as a way to chronicle my journey of running my first marathon which I ran in April of 2014. Running has been therapeutic for me these last four years as I have faced many challenges that had nothing to do with running. Many of you know my stories because we really do get to know one another on those long runs, don't we?  For those of you that are interested all you need to do is click back to the beginning of my blog.  As for me it is time to move forward.  My blog entries are now going to focus on the runners I am working with in the Start 2 Finish training program that is offered by GoRun/Fleet Feet.

Colette Cook and myself will be coaching runners that have a goal of finishing the Prairie Fire Half Marathon with a time between 2:06-2:20.  The training is ALL about the runner which means if running with my group is too slow or two fast for an individual person they can move up or down to another group.  It is going to be fun getting to know the runners in our group.  It is my goal to push them but secretly hope that they push me.  Get ready H3 I want to hear YOUR stories. I will also post my weekly workouts and if you would like to run with me and/or join me at a class at the YMCA that would be great.  Our first long run yesterday was great!  Running from GoRun/Fleet Feet East is my favorite location.  I like the hills and have been told that Route 66 Half Marathon (my race after Prairie Fire) is a hilly beast.  James Wentz (in our H3 group) and his wife Nicole are planning on running it too.  Thanks Donna for snapping this photo

from our first group run.  I know that some in our group were not at Saturdays run.  Can one you help me with the name of the girl in the cap?  I hope to get a group photo with all of us in the next few weeks.

Workouts for the week of 6/29/15

6/29 3EZ 6:30 am.  Extreme Ride DTYMCA 5:30 pm

6/30 FU track night 3/4 mile warm up, 3x800's with 400 cool downs, 3/4 mile overall cool down. 

7/1 3 EZ 6:30 am.  Water Walk AYMCA 7:00 pm

7/2 Water Walk SYMCA 9:30 am, 2 mile tempo run GoRun West

7/3 REST

7/4 4-6 EZ 6:45 am GoRun West

7/5 Muscle Pump 2:00 pm SYMCA, Zumba 3:00 pm SYMCA