Hello running blind fans, It’s been a while since my last update but life sometimes gets in the way I find. My last post left you wondering if my “Blind Runner” t-shirt would work in Norway. Well I’m pleased to say that I have no idea! My runs in Norway were relaxing and beautiful but the track I chose to run on also meant that I saw not another person on it. Or maybe it worked so well and was so easy to see that everyone stayed out of my way, sometimes it’s hard to tell but I’m sure it was the first one.
My training plan has took me to the distance of 12 km so we are now half way to the distance required for the great north run. This done by slowly stepping up my distance each week. With a 2km add on over the last 3 weeks, I feel that I can really make the distance although I have now somewhat run out of road.
While in Norway I pushed the run distance to 10km but this was limited by the length of the cycle track I was running. It was 5km from where I was staying at Trollactive in Evje to the start of the village, this gave me a 10km stretch there and back. As I stopped when we hit the road way into The village as from there would be to difficult to navigate without a guide. My brain is not a fan of running over old ground as it would feel somewhat like doing laps. Even when I go out hiking I prefer to have a circle route rather than a there and back again. It always feels like you have traveled somewhere when it’s a round route even when you end up back at the same place.
Image shows a view over the top of a waterfall looking down into the the town of Byglandsfjord with the lake and river in front of it. The background shows a ridge line of the mountains covered in woodland and a blue sky with clouds in it.
Since getting home I’ve struggled a little to get back into a running routine as I settled back into balancing my work, life and other hobbies or commitments. I only managed 1 run the first week back and struggled with the distance of 8km, which I felt was down to being tired and also eating to close to going running. The following week I managed to get back to hitting the 12km and kept that distance last week. With work being quite busy I have been unable to get out running more than once a week and this is a concern going forward because as the distance increases so does the time slot I require to go running in.
As I mentioned earlier it seems I’m not just having issues with time to get out running but I have also ran out of road to run on. the stretch that I have been running along the river on is only 6km so when I run out and back I make 12km. I can of course simply do laps but this feels less enjoyable to me. With this in mind I tried to push the comfort and run a stretch of river higher up stream, in my head this section was ok but in reality the pathway was narrower and the surface was quite busy with potholes. This led to me hurting an ankle and eventually given up the run and walking back to the start point.
I think my need to run further also links to my need to run with a guide runner, that way I can explore other areas and environments to run in and also not have any issues with distance as I will have a guide to navigate me. I’m also still conscious that prior to the Great North Run I need to understand how to run with a guide and how to take direction from them. The fear of running in a race with a group of people still needs to be addressed. The plan would be to look at Park runs but again without a guide this may not be all that possible. My local Park runs don’t lend themselves well to running solo with sight loss. The routes are all of a more trail style and means they have an uneven surface to navigate as well as narrow paths to negotiate. Once we add some people to avoid this may be a step to far without a guide being in place.
Still lots to do before the run and we are now at less than 100 days to go. hope you are enjoying following my journey, do feel free to leave and comments if there is anything you would like to hear about or want to know.
If you want to follow my progress with my training and learning to run while I get ready for the race you can always follow me on Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/134879567
If you would like to help me raise money for Blind Veterans as I continue on my running to get fit journey the please use this link https://AJBellgreatnorthrun2024.enthuse.com/pf/steven-holliday
To learn more about the great work that Blind Veterans complete click the link https://www.blindveterans.org.uk/
Keep on running!
Steve
Blind Steve Adventures 
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