Tag: London Marathon

London Marathon: Training Week 1 (111 days to go)

Total Running: 74.6k
This week: 34.1k

An update on my training during week 1. Had an amazing meeting last week with Virgin Money Lounge and the LGBT foundation and hopefully will have some good news for you. Running has been going well too, nice to be back running the routes in Manchester this weekend, and doing park-runs. Wow this one turned out long!

Injury Update

I am now in training for the London Marathon, to raise money for the LGBT foundation. It has been a tough few weeks before the new year as I had a foot injury which stopped me from running. I am glad to say this seems to have improved a lot now. I did parkrun yesterday and haven’t had any aches where the injury was, so things are looking good for training to begin in earnest. In the meantime last year I joined the gym and did a lot of crosstrainer exercise, spending an hour at a time and using that instead of running. This seems to have paid off, I don’t think I have lost a lot speed wise despite putting over 2kg on over christmas 🙂

Training Plan

So I have to admit, I don’t yet have a training plan…. Mainly because of the injury it is hard to tell how long I had until that was sorted out. So next week I hope to let you all know what the plan is! For my first marathon I chose a plan that did 2 quality long runs per week, this time I am going to tone that down a little and only have one quality long run per week. I was really pushing myself on the last plan and the most important thing this time is to get across the finish line in one piece. If I don’t get an injury and only work up distance I am guaranteed to beat my last time (4:11:11) depending on my transition. Leading me on to…

Transition Update

I have my first appointment with the Gender Identity Clinic coming up in the next few weeks, this is very exciting. I am unsure what will happen as everyone seems to have different experiences. Depending the hormones I go on, it could effect my running speed quite quickly but I think there’s not much point worrying now exactly what will happen at the GIC. I will just go and see. I think it’s insane that it takes almost 2 years before you even get to talk to a professional about this. The support from the LGBT foundation during this time has been invaluable. If you haven’t checked out my donation page yet please consider it and thank you very much to everyone who has donated 🙂

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SofieLewis

Also I now have my passport back and am officially Sofie Enyo Lewis, I also have an F as my gender which is good too and on top of that, I can travel abroad I guess. Although in a few countries I might be illegal, I will have to check that one out but that just makes me somewhat of a badass.

This week I also had my beard lasered again! I am paying to have my hair follicles burned out so I want it to be painful in a way and the pain is easier to handle. Saying all that, its really not so painfull. If you are looking I really suggest looking on groupon, you pay a fraction of the full price.

Weight after Christmas Update

I was at 70.2kg on Friday 04/01, that is about 3-4 kg more than I was last year, I didn’t put all of that on over Christmas though. But I will be losing weight over the next few months, changing my eating habits to something more healthy and getting a calorie deficit going. Nothing as crazy as 2 years ago. But I will keep you updated. I have already lost 1kg of that down to 69.3 on the 06/01, this was probably because I had a salty meal (eating out) and the salt leaves your body over the next 2 days along with a lot of water, I typically experience a 1-2kg up down shift due to this so don’t worry if you notice that yourself.

Parkrun Updates

This week I managed to do 3 parkruns, 2 of which were quite hilly on new years day Tuesday when I did the unthinkable, getting out of bed early and getting the train from Skipton to Bingley to do Myrtle parkrun at 9:00 and then from Bingley to Keighley to do Cliffe Castle at 10:30. It was my first time at either and they are quite new parkruns, last year I would’ve had to travel a lot further from Skipton to do a new years double.

From Bingley train station it isn’t far at all to Myrtle park so of course I almost got lost. Seeing someone in running gear and following them worked like a charm. Waited till close to the start and took my coat off and went. Myrtle park was nice, everyone was lovely. I think it is the shortest route I have done as it was a 4 lapper, I did say thanks to all the marshals every time! There was a policeman there with the marshals which was good to see. Even though it was a four lapper the undulations broke it up well. Afterwords I grabbed my coat and headed for the train station.

I got to Cliffe Castle with about 40 minutes to spare. The last time I ran in this place I was in secondary school someone was throwing rocks at me, one of the few times I ran in my early life. I have to say the park is very nice now I wondered around and looked at the birds and animals, they all looked at me and that carried on for a while… They did all appear to be very well looked after. Everything was well manicured in the park and there was a huge fountain that I don’t recall from before. A lot of the marshals were wearing fancy dress and when they asked if this was anyone’s second parkrun that day a lot of hands went up.

Cliffe Castle parkrun is a 2 and a bit lapper, with the steepest hill I have done in a parkrun. I am ashamed to say I was too tired to say thank you to all the marshals on this one. Finishing Myrtle in 22:12 and Cliffe Castle in 22:22 I was happy.

I also managed Lancaster Parkrun on 29/12/18 but it was a bit of a disaster. This was a also a very hilly one, along with getting there late and starting 600m into the run (which I tried to make up for at the end), I forgot my barcode so didn’t even get it as an official run 😦 Still counts to my training however 🙂 I will have to try it again sometime, I think it is a great course, similar amount of climb to Cliffe Castle but spread of more smaller hills.

That turned out longer than expected, I doubt anyone will make it this far but thankyou for reading and hope you have a lovely week 2! Or happy new year or something! :p Lots of love to you all!!!!!

Happy 2019!! + Advice on getting into running!

Happy new year everyone, 2019 will be my first year as me so looking forwards to it. I know now is a time people make resolutions and I want to put some pointers to what I did with losing weight and running with couch to 5k. I used C25k to start running again and it worked like a charm. I am now training for the London marathon on the 28th April this year to raise money for the LGBT Foundation.

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SofieLewis

I will try and put up a training log every week to let people know what is going on, so hopefully will have one tomorrow. Please read on and ask me any questions if you want to get going with running this year. I know how crazy a task it can seem but I’ve had a few crazy ideas in my life and going from never run to runner was the most accomplish-able ones, even if it seemed impossible. The most important thing at this stage is to get going, it requires action, so go and do it now, slow down till you think you are going too slow and then slow down again and you will be so glad you did it 😀

COUCH to 5K

Couch to 5k (C25K) is a 9 week program from the NHS that gets you from being unable to run to being able to run non-stop for 30 minutes. It takes only 3 runs per week and you will find it is incredible how fast the human body (yours!) can adapt and develop. If you are like I was, and believe you just can’t run then it is for you. Bear in mind that it is called couch to 5k, but it is really couch to running for 30 minutes, whatever distance you get don’t worry about speed.

I avoided sport at all costs at school, I told myself I just could not run. People look at me now and just assume I have always been healthy, even my family who have know me otherwise tend to say “I wish I could do that”, well heres the thing , you can. If I can, anyone can. If you are waiting for the right time, “I just want to lose some weight first”, “I want to wait until I am ready” then start now, you will never “feel ready” especially if you are like me. What is required is action, download the app and put your trainers on. You will kick yourself for not starting sooner.

This isn’t about punishing yourself or proving anything (unless you want it to be) if you try this you are extremely like to find running becomes very enjoyable and find it will become a hobby of yours that you can’t live without. If you like going on walks in nature, you will love running.

At first it will feel hard, you are learning something new, people think running means running at full speed, or running as fast as someone else. This is not true, when you think about going for a run think about it like going for a walk, you hardly ever walk at full speed whenever you go for a walk. If it feels too hard, slow down. When you have slowed down, slow down again! If you feel like you could walk faster, or like you are jogging, that is OK just keep going.

What will happen is, you download the app or podcast, go out for the run, the podcast or app will tell you when to start and stop running. If you get the podcast, then enjoy Laura talking you through each week and enjoy the running. In the first week for example you do the warmup walk, then Laura will tell you to run for one minute, after this she tells you to walk for 1.5 mins and you repeat.

Here are some links to get started,

Explanation of C25K on NHS website

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/get-running-with-couch-to-5k/

The actual C25k program in written form, you can also download as a podcast, or download an app from itunes or google play. This page also outlines the program week by week

http:// https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/couch-to-5k-week-by-week/

A forum for people doing C25K, pleas use this, the people are extremely nice and always encouraging. Sign up and post about your progress to stay motivated. This helped me get through it

https://healthunlocked.com/couchto5k


In my time on the forum I have seen people in their 70’s and 80’s starting couch to 5k and falling in love with running, who had never run a day in their life

Parkrun

Parkrun is awesome, it is a relatively recent thing and is revolutionising how people see running, it is completely non-competitive. It is a free weekly (Saturday at 9:00 in England other times elsewhere) 5k walk/jog/run. You sign up, get a free barcode and get a time. People now travel all over the world to take part in different parkruns and it gets very addictive.

If you want a goal why not try to run a parkrun after graduating C25k, find a parkrun near you, it’s addictive and free! In fact I wouldn’t even wait till you finish c25k, people walk run and jog parkrun, and a volunteer always tail walks so you will never come last so do it even if you walk the whole thing, lots of people do, or do one of the c25k runs at parkrun.
http:// http://www.parkrun.org.uk/events/events/

The hardest thing about running is getting your trainers on and going out of the door, that is still true for me. Even after hours fretting about wheather to go out or not, I have never once regretted going for a run, there will never be a time when it “feels right” to start C25K, so just go for it. Do it as an experiment. Slow down and enjoy it. It’s the best thing I ever did. Don’t let another year go around without trying it.

I am going to try and put a post up each week about my training for the London Marathon, I am running for the LGBT foundation and you can find the donation page here

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SofieLewis

London Marathon Update #1: 600meters

Hello everyone!

In a complete surprise, I recently got into the London Marathon, I still can’t believe it. I will be running to raise money for the LGBT foundation, please consider donating on my virginmoney giving page:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SofieLewis

It has been a huge blessing as it is something constructive to work on, and also to use all the negative energy I get for being trans in a positive way. It is also a huge honour to run for the LGBT foundation.

All the times I go on twitter, all the times I walk down the street and people look at me and then down with a look of disgust on their face, as if to say, “I am not impressed, look at what you are wearing” all the times people whisper to their partner when they see me coming and I hear them laughing at me as I walk past, all the crap on the news… Fuel for the fire!!!!!

Post crosstrainer world record earlier in week :p

I keep saying it is a surprise and it really is. To show how popular the London Marathon has become, this year 21 members of Didsbury Runners, including myself, entered the ballot. Out of 21 of us, 0 got in, nought, zero!

So how did this happen? I attend events at the LGBT foundation for transgender and nonbinary and questioning people, it has helped a lot even before I had come out, and it helps a lot now to meet people and be somewhere with people who understand, to get advice and friendship. People who know me know I don’t leave the house under any circumstances, unless its a run, and I will get my shopping on the way back from a run if I am particularly low. So the fact I go to these events shows they are useful. At the end of October I was very down, due to all the transphobic media around trans people and the GRA consultation, by the way, the media never let up since then unfortunately. I read an article published by the LGBT foundation, called the harm of trans misrepresentation.

https://lgbt.foundation/news/the-harm-of-trans-misrepresentation/237

I was so happy that somebody somewhere was on our side. I was feeling annoyed, depressed and powerless at the time and wanted to help in any way I could so I wrote an email to the LGBT foundation to ask if they had any charity places. I expected not and indeed they had all been assigned.

But a few weeks later I got an email saying that Virgin Money Manchester Lounge had organised extra places for the LGBT foundation, and would I still like to run for them? It can take me years to send an email or reply to text messages but it didn’t take long for this one.

I have also been contacted by Virgin Money Manchester Lounge and they are going to help me with fund raising in the new year.

It is all good news, I thank you everyone who has already donated and please donate if you can, the LGBT foundation are kick ass!!!!

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SofieLewis

I am thinking of things to do, should I do training runs in a costume to help raise money? I will look for a unicorn running outfit 😀

I am still doing crosstrainer world records at the gym, it turns out that I may indeed have broken one of the machines, as it has no resistance any more, hence why I could so 1470 calories. But yesterday I was on it, burning up a lot of hate from the streets and the internet, kicking ass, and doing it for the LGBT foundation and managed to get 1396 calories in 60 minutes, so I am tantalisingly close to getting 1400. It was extremely hard! I am running it on max resistance and If you really step on the gas you can add about 1 to 1.5 cal per minute, so something in me is getting fitter since I have gone from 20 cal/min average to 23.3 cal/min average for 1 hour.

Was on 1396 cal at the 60 min mark, so close… I am dying at this point

As for running………

My foot is feeling a lot better! It is still sore at times but after doing the crosstrainer world record, I did a run!!! My first one in 4 weeks and 2 days. It was only for 600m, I did it carefully on the treadmill and my foot held up. Everything feels unusual but it wont take long to get back in the rhythm. My Strava training log is very bare looking 😦 it barely even registers as a blob! I have been doing a lot of crosstrainer world records in the mean time!

If you had told me I wouldnt run for 5 weeks after the bolton abbey half I wouldnt have believed you, I felt fine. Also wouldnt believe I’d be in the London Marathon.

Because I only found out about the London Marathon whilst injured, All my runs this side of the injury will count as training. So my total mileage is currently 600m, many more to come but slow and steady.

I will keep you all updated regarding mileage, hope to get a nice total before the race. The key I have realised is not to get injured before the marathon!! :p

I have had other nice things happen which I hope to share soon.

Lots of love, thankyou all!!!!

Sofie Xx