Expaning on my previous post about accessibility features being features for all and not just those that rely on them, I decided to highlight one of the features my sighted friends use.

Setting up VoiceOver to read Kindle books out loud. This is a great feature and one that can make reading a book a breeze. Want to have a book read to you while working at the computer? Commuting on the train? Well this will allow you to do it without purchasing the audiobook! This is the feature I use to read all my books. Without it I frankly wouldn’t be able to read.

This feature has been made far easier with iOS7 too. As the ability to activate VoiceOver and invert colours has been added to Siri. This alone is great for me, now I can pickup my wifes iPhone or indeed anybodys and with a quick Siri command be able to use it. This is great for doing quick things like making a call on someone elses phone, or quickly checking something on the internet. So lets get down to how its done!

Activate VoiceOver – Activate Siri and issue the command “turn on VoiceOver”.

This activates VoiceOver and a press of the home button returns you to the home screen. Now you can launch Kindle in one of two ways: With the Siri command “laumch Kindle” or by using VoceOver gestures. To use the VoiceOver gesture tap the Kindle icon then do an additional single finger double tap to launch the app.

Once in the Kindle app you can activate the actual book by tapping the content, then a single finger double tap to activate it. A quick double finger swipe down will begin reading the book. Thats it! Your book will now be read to you. However you can conserve battery power by issuing a three finger quadruple tap. This will turn on Screen Curtain, a feature that turns off the screen but allows you to issue VoiceOver gestures. With screen curtain turned on simple double finger swipe down to begin reading again. You can turn off screen curtain with a triple finger quadruple tap. A quick warning a three finger, triple tap turns off the Voice for VoiceOver, which at first can be quite scary as your phone appears to stop working, so quickly turn the voice back on with a three finger triple tap and you will be back working. When finished you can disable VoiceOver using the Siri command “turn VoiceOver off”.

I personally think this is one of the greatest accessibility features for sighted and non sighted people. As the ability to have a book read aloud with a few taps is fantastic.

Below is a video of this in action that people can follow along too. A little side note I have VoiceOver sped up on my phone so yours may sound a little slower. This can be changed in the accessibility settings under VoiceOver if required.

For the past few months I have been running in maintenance mode. Generally managing to run around the half marathon length at the weekends and a couple of shorted distance runs in the week. However this week saw a foray into the start of an ultra training cycle. I have signed up for next years South Downs Way 50 so need to start the cycle now to get a decent finish.

So this week I had to do something I always like to believe I can but rarely do – the early morning run. I usually start running around 7am but if I am to fit my training in and university it means I have to run closer to 5am. I always tell myself I can do this but when the alarm goes off I switch it off and roll back over. I still did that this week but then after a few minutes thought “No, if I want to train I have to do it in the morning” and managed to yank myself out of bed.

I am having to train so early due to a few constraints at university. The commute is killing the amount of time I get to work and spend with my family so the plan was to go in fewer days a week but stay longer. So on a tuesday I am at university until 7pm so with the massive commute home I just cant fit the run in and an early rise the following day for university again!

It does mean tuesdays and wednesdays are a desperate squeeze of run, commute, university, commute, bed. It seems to make the days incredibly long but its the only way until next semester I can possible train and put in the work needed at university.

 

 

In an effort to enhance my employability after leaving university this week I decided to attend a leadership course. I figured it would be a great opportunity to get some face time with leaders from industry and to network. The course was put on by Common Purpose a multinational group that looks at Leadership around the world and the affects on the wider communities. They run a number of leadership courses and the one I attended was for disabled students and sponsored by Santander.

Arriving at the hotel with Ascot I was presented with my first challenge. We had forgotten to bring his food, we had packed the food just not put it in the car. If Ascot ate Pedigree Chum this would have been an easy problem to solve, but he is a delicate sole and eats a very specific food. So specific that it isn’t even for Labradors – No, Ascot believes himself to be a German Shepherd. There is usually a 5 day lead time on ordering his food and it is rarely stocked in shops. So after a quick google we headed to Pets At Home and bought the closest thing we could find. For a week Ascot would have to accept the fact he was a Labrador and forego his special German Shepherd food.

The first evening was full of the usual awkwardness. None of us knew each other and with around 40 people on the course the challenge was on to quickly mingle and find people to talk too. As a stroke of luck I sat down for dinner and happened to be sat down next to the person who would be in my working group for 2 days. So we quickly chatted and began to get to know each other.

Day 1

The first day was a mix of group work and talks from leaders from the surrounding areas. The first challenge of the day was to present an object and talk about what it said of you to the group. I took along my NYC 2012 marathon medal. This is a great medal as the race was never run and it reminds me of an unexpected adventure that my guide runner and I embarked on.

The first talk of the day was on questioning. Studying psychology I had been fortunate enough to have read around the topic. While the presented used different terminology who was talking about question framing. He went on to demonstrate how framing (constraining in his words) would shape an individuals response. I am a huge fan of Kahneman and Tversky whose early work on framing and anchoring is incredibly enlightening. Reading up on any of their early work would be a great supplement to this talk and really bring to the front the power of framing. I personally have a great interest in anchoring and especially irrelevant anchoring and its outcomes on decision making. So this talk definitely resonated with me and just made me think of how everything he spoke about worked on a number of different levels with the research that backed it up. Another great supplement to this talk would have been Influence by Robert and Cialdini. While this book focuses on influence and persuasion it can readily apply to questioning.

We then undertook a number of group challenges, including one on diversity. These were a great opportunity to be presented with opinions in views that greatly differed from your own and how as an individual and a group you would deal with that. Other challenges of the day involved using play doh and a Mr Potato head to represent the qualities of a leader.

A second talk of the day was incredibly interesting. It was a frank and honest portrayal of an individuals journey to become a leader. Interestingly once he became a leader he spoke about encouraging others to grow and develop. The ideas he spoke of were similar to those of Daniel Pink in his book Drive. Especially the elements on autonomy of his staff and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Again the terminology different by the presented but definitely fell in line with Pink’s ideas.

The final piece of group work we did was to highlight our strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves a challenge for the following day. As we went around the group everyone highlighted a challenge for the following day and mine was to work on approaching people. While I feel confident to give a speech because I have no idea where people actually are the initial approach can be quite difficult.

Day 2

After a few group challenges we had the first talk of the day. This talk I believe was supposed to be about influence. However I struggled to relate to this particular speaker. I felt his point of influence became a little muddled and lost within his story. This may have been due to the fact I did not relate to the sector he was from. I took as much as I could from the speech but found it a little lacking on influence. A cursory read of the influence book above would of given a far greater overview of influence. However what it did do and was perhaps the entire point was to introduce us to the idea of influence, preparing us for the afternoons challenge.

The challenge for the afternoon would be to meet with a company, be presented with a challenge they were currently facing and offer a new view or insight. This seemed incredibly exciting and was the challenge I was most looking forward to. We were presented with our brief that identified two clear challenges, we quickly divided ourselves into two groups and began to make notes of possible questions. This quickly fell apart on arrival as we were divided into exactly the opposite groups we had decided on beforehand!

In hindsight this was for the best. The entire point of the course was to challenge ourselves. So before arriving we had chosen the task we were most comfortable with, then presented with the task we were least comfortable with.

In the time we had been allotted we had to come up with some concepts, present them and answer questions. Our group seemed to come up with some unique ideas and even highlighted some emerging technologies that the company had not heard of. I enjoy pitching ideas so this challenge for me was incredibly enjoyable.

Day 3

The final day was a slog. Not due to the amount of work we had to do but more related to the time spent in Revolutions the previous night consuming copious amounts of vodka. However our group knuckled down and began the days challenges.

One of the most interesting was the opportunity in small groups to ask questions of local leaders. For me the most interesting was the CEO of a tech startup. I love technology and I also enjoy the idea of the elastic demands of entrepreneurs in the early days of a tech startup. Under a large amount of questioning the CEO reiterated Daniel Pink’s work in To Sell is Human. I find the mindset of serial entrepreneurs interesting, that constant cycle of intense drive with a clear exit strategy and the next idea. I found this particular individual fascinating.

In the afternoon there were a couple of notable group tasks. Soap boxing which involved standing up and sharing your vision with the group. The group would then vote with their feet and stand next to whosoever pitch was the most persuasive or compelling. There were some great ideas put across but I voted on emotion. Any pitch that can make you smile and evoke an emotion for me is the winner. If you can make someone else feel your passion your are half way there!

The second interesting challenge was “Who I am” which was a 10 minute task in order to tell the story of who you were to one listened and one observer. The person I had told my story too seemed a little shocked, I had only mentioned my past achievements to people who asked or directly asked about things like the TV commercials. It was a great chance to cram my story into 10 minutes but I did feel like I was cheating a little when at the end it was commented that I delivered it incredibly well and covered the important points. So I felt obliged to reveal that I have told that story many times in one guise or another!

The final task of the day was to present another individual from your group with their graduation certificate. This was assigned at random and I was fortunate enough to be presented my certificate to someone who I had become close to through the course.

Final thoughts

The course was an incredible experience. The opportunity to spend time with other disabled people and hear their unique stories was fantastic. Like the film festival a few weeks back I came away inspired. Our own achievements simply become the things we do to move forward and we rarely identify how special they are. Therefore I always find the stories of others more inspiring and my particular favourite happened while we were knocking back the vodka on the night out. I was talking to someone who had taught themselves to read and write english when they came to this country a few years ago. An impressive task in itself but then when they expanded and described how they learnt I was blown away.

Hearing other peoples stories can often provide us strength and help us push forward in our own lives so I will definitely draw on that story in the future.

One of the greatest things to take away is the bonds that were created while on the course, fore it is those bonds and the networks created that will no doubt lead to opportunities in the future.

 

 

When i first began to run I was always of the philosophy I may not be the fittest person around, but I believed in my mental hardiness.  I believed and still do that I can continue to push beyond what I have achieved on any given day.

This hardiness was built on the back of others achievements.  Reading about other runners such as Dean Karnazes inspired me to start down the long road of running long.  Hearing about others achievements inspires me to go outside and see how far I can push.  One of my favourite ever inspirations was by a runner whose name escapes me.  One day someone sent me a link to a youtube video of ultra runners.

The runner spoke of the runners high and that he preferred to explore the low times.  For if he was able to push in the lows the highs would take care of themselves.  There may be a little para-phrasing there but the idea stuck with me.  From that point on I have always tried to explore the difficult running days.  Making sure to manage my emotions when it gets tough and bring the breathing and heart rate in line.  Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.  This has served me so well and has allowed to to continue to push in a multitude of situations.

So when I heard about an adventure film festival taking place in Buxton I thought it would be a great idea to head on over.  After all I could meet someone who gives me that little piece of knowledge that pops into my head on a difficult run!  There are lots of talks and film viewings of all sorts of athletes you can find a full list over at the Buxton Adventure Festival running 2-3rd of November

I plan on attending on the Sunday with a runner and his wife that I met a while ago, Simon Freeman.  We are managing to squeeze in 3 talks.  The first from Heather Dawe, ultra runner, climber and cyclist who is chatting on stage with Claire Maxted, followed by the film Dragons Back.

Followed by Jez Bragg who is talking about his epic 3,054Km journey across New Zealand.  Then finally the one I am looking forward to the most Rosie Pope-Swale the only person to ever run around the world solo!  Mixed in between all the talks are numbers short films, so it is sizing up to be an incredibly  inspiring day.

I wrote this ost listening to the perfect song — Haim – Falling.  Is perhaps the running mantra i live to, never look back, never give up.

Even with large amounts of vision loss I have still felt the compulsion to keep on running. After you have been running for a while it seems strange to stop. Having a week or two off begins to feel strange, there is a need to pound the pavement (or rubber matting). Due to the compulsion to keep on running even with large amounts of vision loss I have been sticking with the running. I even managed to compete in a short distance event.

The loss of vision has made a dent on my running though, but in more of an indirect way. Learning to run without a reliance on vision means that when you lose more it doesn’t really affect your ability to perform. But what it does affect is the time I have to run. When I am having to spend more time converting materials, or revising due to a change in vision it eats into the time I have to run. So unfortunately my running takes a hit and I just cant train as hard. While I do still manage to eek out the miles and over the past few months I have been averaging a 30 mile week (way to low for ultra distance!). This however has mainly been on the treadmill.

The problem I have with the treadmill is how far I am able to run on it. I seem to be capped at just over the 10 mile mark. This is due to my boredom levels on the treadmill and how much I sweat. My treadmill is currently in my conservatory so that means during the summer months it has been hot. I don’t just mean in the 20’s hot I mean so hot it hurts to breathe. So I sweat so heavy it becomes uncomfortable and I just call it quits after a medium distance.

To counter this I am hoping to begin training outdoors again in the next couple of weeks and get back up above the 60 mile a week distance. This will mean I can return to ultra distance early 2014. I am looking forward to the challenge of running larger distances again. Its a great chance to push my limits and a great confidence booster to be outside and running solo.

I chose the name of this website to reflect a cycle. My eye condition is degenerative so as time goes on I lose more vision. With each decrease in vision there is an adaptation cycle where I have to relearn how to do complex and simple tasks.

In early May this year I lost a substantial amount of vision. Now considering I had little vision before May this latest change meant a change in most areas of my life. It was also terrible timing, as the end of May was the start of my exam window. This created a substantial problem I had under 4 weeks to learn how to study in a new way and convert all my materials to make them accessible after this latest change.

The only way I could achieve this was to defer 2 exams and sit 2 exams at the end of the month. I created a plan in order to convert all the materials that involved using a couple of support workers. Unfortunately one of the support workers let me down and told me far to late for me to find a replacement. This meant I would enter 1 exam I had revised for and 1 exam I didn’t even have the material to revise from. It was too late to really do anything about it so I just decided to get on with it and make the most of it. I spent the next 2 months converting enormous amounts of material for my next 2 exams. One of them being statistics and the other social psychology.

Both exams went horrendously. For statistics the exam paper required a number of graphs, very difficult when you are blind and contingency tables. Contingency tables hold a lot of information for the one in this particular exam I had to hold 27 variables in my head and then answer a question on them. As you may be able to imagine that is difficult!

I also totally fluffed the social psychology essay based exam by running out of time and not finishing my answer. So frankly I wasn’t looking forward to results day! But then results day came and I had done surprisingly well, even scoring a first in the essay question I didn’t finish!

So it appears the adaptations I had put into place had worked as far as my university work was concerned. As I continue to lose more vision and enter year 3 I am again changing the way I study, so the never ending cycle starts afresh.

The affects of my sight loss are not limited to my university work they affect all aspects of my life and I have to adapt in numerous ways. I have begun to rely even more on pieces of technology in order to achieve simple tasks, like pouring a cup of tea. Before I just used to pretty much guess from past experience how much water to pour in, but this was beginning to become problematic and dangerous, so now I use a water level sensor.

When training for any event or indeed any goal its important to be able to bounce back quickly from a training session.  The quicker you recover the quicker you can be out training and the easier it is to make gains.  As well as the importance on an increase in training the ability to recover fast also has its benefits when you have a family.  When you are dedicating large amounts of time running the roads its important to recover quickly.  As there are not enough hours in the day for a long run and a long recovery.

Ideally I like to get home shower and rest for 30 minutes and be back out with the family.  This can be incredibly tough after a long run as I am just too fatigued.  It takes all my might to drag myself up from the sofa and go out on a family trip.  Now missing out on those moments due to exhaustive training is a tough balance.

Do I train a lot and miss out? Or reduce my training and go out?

Well if you can recover quickly it is easier to match that balance, as you can train hard and still go out.  So its incredibly important to boost that recovery in any way I can.  So in order to do this I decided to look around for a recovery supplement.  I like the ease of use of a supplement as for someone who can’t see being able to take one scoop and add to some water is so much easier than preparing something (and with my preparation skills a lot tastier too!).

That is where Matrix Recovery XT — from their website:

Matrix Recover XT is a revolutionary new recovery formula harnessing the restoration powers of a detoxifying vitamin blend, multi-stage release carbohydrates, and a sustained release protein complex. Matrix Recovery XT repairs muscle from every angle, from eradication of damaging post-exercise free radicals to amino acid and muscle glycogen replenishment, providing you with the perfect platform to improve physical performance and increase muscle mass

Taste

One of the most important things for any supplement is the taste, if it tastes awful you are not going to use it.  Back when I was consuming masses of protein powder to gain weight I learnt this lesson.  After trialing dozens of protein powders the one I felt had the best taste was Reflex Instant Whey.  This then became my benchmark for supplements.  If it didn’t taste even close to Reflex I discarded it.

So when I first tried Matrix Recovery XT [chocolate] I was a little wary.  I ignored the instructions of mixing with water and decided to add to the milk.  Always a simple way to mask the awful taste of supplements.  It tasted nice, dare I saw it better than Reflex? The only problem was its thickness; mixed with milk it was just too thick (this might be why they suggest mixing with water).  So the next time I decided to attempt mixing with water.  This is usually where a lot of supplements fail, mixed with water they fast awful.  So adding a heaped scoop to 400ml of cold water and giving it a thorough shake it was time to take the first sip……. Ok that tastes alright…. Ok, maybe its alright actually… Ok I admit it, it tastes good even with water.  Not to mention it isn’t as incredibly thick! So from that point on it had achieved the holy grail of supplements: tasting good with water.

Does it work?

In order to test it thoroughly I decided to go for a long run and had planned a family trip out afterwards.  So it had to perform.  In short it did.  After returning home thoroughly tied I chugged a shake (with water!) and jumped in the shower.  After a little sit down I was able to jump up off the sofa and have a family afternoon out.  Even better I wasn’t a zombie on the family outing, I actually felt like I had energy.  For me thats the true test of speedy recovery.  But perhaps the more traditional way, I did feel I had fully recovered for the training sessions the following day.  Sometimes the following day can be difficult, on tired legs with a tired mind the miles can be tough.  But none of that seemed to be present and I was able to train the following day.  So for my Matrix Recovery XT really did work.

Not only did it work but it tasted good doing it!

You can check it out over at Matrix’s website, or here is a handy direct link to Recovery XT.