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simon college, running , , Comment

Undoubtably the next week is going to be monumental. My wife is now beyond her due date so the arrival of our son is highly likely. We are both becoming anxious now and just want him to be here already!

Tomorrow is also my first day of college. The long road to my degree begins. I am a little nervous about mobility issues but not so much the lessons. I am frantically converting books to ePub as I write this in preparation for the morning. I just hope it all works! I will detail my first day in a blog post tomorrow.

This week will also be my first double digit long run. Saturday holds the possibility of a 10 mile run. This may be jeopardised by labour or a little baby. Hopefully I will find a sneaky couple of hours to complete the run!

Looking forward to a truly life changing week.

Supporting The Community

simon Life , Comment

Over the past month I have been increasing my presence in both the running and visually impaired community. This has involved following many users on twitter, reading blogs and chatting to the odd person.

Recently I saw a blind twitter friend ask a question about OS X. Previously I supported OS X within an education setting so thought I could lend a hand. It was quite an unusual issue related to the MacBook sleep process. After a little reading I discovered it could be corrected with a small application.

After a few minutes we began to screen share and I installed and configured the software for the user. Making sure it worked as intended we chatted briefly and parted ways.

A week later the same user required a little more assistance configuring Windows 7 within a virtual machine. Again I have previous experience so began screen share to troubleshoot once again. After changing a few settings we had Windows installed.

Its been a while since I have used windows and I was shocked. The font system is EVEN worse than I remember. For anyone with a visual impairment its worth simply taking a look at OS X. The colours and fonts on windows simply bleed into each other and make it unreadable, while OS X remains crisp.

I felt particularly good about helping a fellow blind user so will extend the offer to anyone else in the community.

If you need any support or advice related to anything under OS X and Windows simply contact me and I will be more than happy to help.

Waiting on eBay

simon running , 2 Comments

On my last run I managed to tweak my left knee. I assign blame squarely on the cyclists I was forced to dodge. Pesky cyclists!

I decided to rest my knee for a full day and hope for the best. With the pain still present when walking, I thought back to my ankle. Rather than hoping for the best I decided to get on eBay and order a Vulkan knee support. The previous Vulkan ankle support was fantastic in aiding in my recovery, so I have high hopes for the knee support.

With the order placed I became even more recovery conscious and cracked out the ice pack. Laid back in my leather armchair I ate a sneaky Snickers ice cream as the ice pack worked its magic. At the end of the ice cream I noticed the ice pack no longer seemed cold on my leg.

I removed the ice pack and felt some kind of sticker on the back of my knee. I tried multiple times to peel it off. Then I realised, it wasn’t a sticker at all, I had frozen my skin. I panicked and rushed upstairs to show Sian, thankfully no permanent damage. But a great reminded not to leave the ice pack on to long.

I am hoping the knee support arrived in time for sundays run. Otherwise I wont be running till next week.

Hitting The Miles

simon running , 3 Comments

Recently getting anywhere near the computer has been a challenge. My wife has been hogging the computer as she works on her hand made plushy store.

My running is progressing nicely at this point. I have lost my guide runner, so I now rely on a nice strech of road for all my runs. This has been a far easier transition that I first feared, so hopefully the miles will keep on rolling by.

My feet are starting to take a real pounding with blisters being an all to common occurrence. Some new equipment is definitely in order, my shoes are falling apart. I have nearly worn through the sole! I should be able to afford a new pair sometime next month so the duct tape might be making an appearance.

CrossFit has also returned to my weekly schedule, I am currently trying to fit in 3 workouts a week. 60 BW deadlifts and a 4 mile run was a challenge on my core. But crossfit is all about pushing the limits of fitness.

Time to throw some weight about my head and do some running.

What Can I See?

simon Life 7 Comments

As soon as the word blind is banded about it is natural to assume total sight loss. Statistically only 4% of blind people have total sight loss.

At this stage I am in the 96%, but what can I see? Lets do this chronologically and start at the beginning.

Around the age of 13 I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa. At this age I was still convinced a radioactive accident would leave me blessed with super powers; so being told I would go blind didn’t register.

As the years rolled on despite a large amount of hospital visits I didn’t appear to suffer many physical effects of my impending sight loss. Mentally it took its toll; I became convinced the effects of my disability would be devastating to my future.

Around the age of 16 the effects began to manifest. Night blindness was my biggest problem. As the typical british underage drinker I spent many nights in local nightclubs. A vast space of thumping bass, sheer blackness and strange halos of light. At this stage I began to receive help from a few close friends. This was mainly in terms of mobility, guiding me round the dark clubs for essential toilet trips.

I began to adapt to cope with the night blindness. I literally memorised the floor layouts of all my favourite night spots. To this day I could still draw a scale map of the floor plans. This memorising of layouts served me well over the next few years.

At the age of 18 after a few field of vision tests I was registered blind. While I knew my field of view had drastically reduced over the last few years, it had little effect on my day to day life.

I was still incredibly mobile at this point, using no aids to traverse the streets. The level of vision needed to be mobile was far lower than I had anticipated.

My vision stabilised and remained pretty constant until around the age of 22. The night blindness was now effecting my day to day life. No longer was the issue reserved to the dark clubs, it now effected dimly lit areas too.

As an example if I was walking down an indoor corridor with the lights on all would be fine, someone hits the light switch and I would be plunged into darkness. My eyes would take a few minutes to adjust and I would regain some clarity. This made the transition between bright and dull problematic. As two rooms are rarely lit equally. So upon entering a room it would take a few minutes until I could see.

My field of vision also deteriorated and began creating odd and scary visual defects. As my vision deteriorates I lose my periphery and central vision, leaving a strange mish mash for my field of vision. This results in a few scary effects. The scariest issue being objects appearing out of nowhere.

Imagine walking down a street which to you is free of all obstacles. Then BAM a lamppost appears 2 feet to your left. Looking ahead the path again appears clear, “Hello!” where the hell did they come from. This becomes scarier when it involves say a car, motorbike or cyclist. Especially when the first indication of their existence is an impact.

Reaching the age of 25 I began to introduce adaptations to my IT equipment. Windows was quickly disposed of, its horrible text rendering made reading to difficult. Enter OS X and its far superior font system. At this stage this simple change was all that was needed.

By now my lack of vision was only just becoming noticeable to my colleagues and friends. Even to date some friends don’t even know I am blind. As my vision deteriorated I began requiring more assistance with mobility.

This was more down to changes in lighting than field of view. The field of view was actually easier to deal with, memorising floor plans was still serving me well.

At the age of 27 my vision deteriorated rapidly. For the first time I would class my field of view and environmental lighting as a serious issue. The time to acclimatise to new lighting conditions had increased and the clarity simply didn’t come through.

So that brings me to where I am now.

My field of vision is now a problem, mobility has become an issue. Moving around outside unassisted is now a safety issue. Tripping over curbs, walking into posts is an all to commmon occurrence.

The night blindness is now severe. Changes in environmental lighting has a dramatic effect on what I am able to see. Walking into a dimly lit room results in a sheet of darkness with a few silhouetted features just edging through. A few minutes of adjusting simply gives me an improvement on the silhouettes not clarity. Lighting is now more important than ever.

Adaptations, at this point a few simple changes to my base OS X install does the job. I will go into detail in a future post about my particular computer setup.

I hope that covers a brief overview of my current and past state, any specific questions don’t hesitate to post a comment or email me.

The Ups and Downs of Running

simon running , 2 Comments

Overcoming my recent injury has been incredibly difficult, the levels of fatigue seem new and unkown. In recent memory I was able to get up early on a Sunday and do a leisurely 7 miles. This Sunday the best I could achieve was 3.15.

On Saturday night I became a little bored and decided to run some sprints. So I headed down to the local football pitches and ran lengths. I would run a length than walk the distance back and repeat, in total I covered a little over a mile. Pushing the limits of speed felt great as I was running double my usual pace.

As the rain began to pour traction was rapidly decreasing so I headed home. Waking up in the morning I was *sore* determined to complete my sunday distance run, we headed out. I realised I was in trouble when a the throbbing in my thighs began within the first 10m. Last nights sprints had broken me. I dug deep and managed a few meagre miles at a 10:00 pave before phone for the cavalry.

Lesson well and truly learnt, do not sprint in the late evening!

HIgher Education For The Blind

simon Life , , Comment

With startling statistics such as: 66% of blind and partially sighted people of working age are unemployed, Those blind or partially sighted people who are working are concentrated in unskilled and lower paid jobs, Nine out of ten employers rank blind and partially sighted people as either ‘difficult’ or ‘impossible’ to employ.

Education for the blind is essential. After being made redundant and returning from my USA tour last year I began to apply for jobs. During an economic downturn trying to gain employment is always difficult, add to that a disability and my job prospects were low. The majority of roles I had the skills for required a driving license. During this period I began to asses whether my future was still in the field of IT.

The parts of my previous job I enjoyed were no longer solely IT focused. Process and project management were the two aspects of my job I enoyed the most, but at the core was simply helping people. I enjoyed working on projects that had a direct improvement to children’s education. So after a month of deliberating where my future may lie I realised returning to higher education was the solution.

Thankfully the UK has a wonderful structure for the blind to return to education. There is a solid financial and support structure. With a higher level of education and a more focused degree I hope this will improve my job prospects. I would advise anyone who is partially sighted or blind living in the UK to consider higher education.

If you would like to have a chat about the financial aspects of returning to education feel free to email me.

A Reminder of What is Possible

simon Fitness, running , 4 Comments

With a fantastic diet of: 2 pancakes, a chicken sandwich, protein shake and a slice of toast, I was under fuelled and ready to run. After a quick conversation with my guide runner he was unable to make it. Dammit I wanted to hit the tarmac.

Near my house there is a small strip of tarmac around 1.6 miles long that is perfect. Wide path, no lampposts and more importantly no pedestrians. I decided without my guide runner this strip of asphalt may be possible. After persuading my wife I wouldn’t die she reluctantly dropped me at the far end.

With no assistance apart from the thumping beat of Jay-Z I began my run. The first mile I had to hug the curb to avoid a few trees, after a long curve to the right time to swap to the left of the path. Reaching the end of the first mile I had a rush of excitement, for the first time in over 2 years I was running on my own.

No guide runner, no cane, no GPS just me and my iPhone. The way it used to be. It was a fantastic feeling and I wish it had lasted. But the burning of my lungs began at the 3 mile marker and I took a little rest. The run wasnt over yet, I had to get to the pick up point another 1.5 miles away. I dug deep and completed the run.

Overall the run was a fantastic reminder of what is possible. It is far to easy to become over reliant on the assistance and aids provided. I will continue to push myself to see what is possible.

100 miles will be mine.

A Mile Too Far..

simon Fitness, running , 2 Comments

My return to running has been far more difficult than anticipated. The ankle pain has gone but taken my stamina alone too.

I figured a couple of runs and I would be back at full strength, instead nearing the 3 mile mark yesterday I felt my lungs collapsing. Where did it all go wrong? A month ago I was happy with my goal of a 100 mile run next year. Now the thought seems impossible; I can’t even run 3 miles!

My guide runner graciously stopped running during my injury in the hope we would stay at the same level. This didn’t pan out as hoped, as he seems to be coping with the return far better than I. As I struggle on the familiar home straights he stretches out and runs ahead.

Starting so far back in my training programme is incredibly demoralising, 2 months hard work wiped out by an awry foot strike. Damn you Bawtry Road and your crappy paving!

Slow Recovery, Slow Posting

simon Fitness, Life, running , Comment

While my ankle continues to heal I find my blog posts have dropped off. Until my injury I hadn’t realised how important and reliant I had become on my running. With my vision difficulties and my wife working through the week, I rarely leave the house. So my main outlet for fitness and socialising was my running.

My guide runner has been coming round to visit in the day times, but it simply isn’t the same. Venturing out and running the local streets gave me the freedom I strive for. The injury is having a serious impact. In an effort to hit the streets quicker I have ordered a Vulkan ankle brace. This should allow me to run through part of the recovery period.

This also means I will miss my first ever competitive race. It was schedules for next week, I am confident I could complete the small distance, but the prospect of further injury and a slow time is not appealing. So regrettably I will miss the race in the hopes of coming back stronger later in the year.