GRETCHEN Jones has memorised the layout of her gym.
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Ms Jones is vision impaired and exercises by working her way around the machines at Fitness Revolution at Gateshead. She has recently started attending group classes, but almost all her physical activity remains indoors.
"Apart from dragging my sister out for jogs that's the only avenue I really have to get those endorphins pumping," Ms Jones said.
"Being outdoors and getting that Vitamin D and the freedom of having wind in your face is just a next-level kind of experience everybody needs."
Ms Jones hopes to benefit from Newcastle Cycleways Movement (NCM)'s RidesAssist program, which provides Hunter residents with vision impairment the opportunity to ride bikes outdoors.
They act as a stoker at the back of a tandem bike, while a sighted and trained pilot pedals at the front.
Ms Jones, 31, said while she uses a stationary bike in her gym's spin classes, it has been a long time since she had ridden anything else.
She found out when she was 14 she had a condition called cone-rod dystrophy.
Her eyesight has deteriorated and she can see light, dark and blurred figures.
"At the moment I can't take my daughter [aged eight] for a bike ride and do many activities outdoors, so to do this together would be very special," she said.
NCM won a $10,000 grant in the Heart Foundation's inaugural Active Australia Innovation Challenge and used the funding to buy two tandem bikes and train three pilots.
NCM vice president Peter Lee said the pilots would co-ordinate to bring the bikes to the person with vision impairment's workplace, home or other locations and to ride together for transport, recreation or fitness.
Ms Jones tried a bike on Thursday and said they were "surprisingly really comfortable" to ride.
"Michael who was piloting did a really good job at making sure the nerves weren't elevating too much," she said. "Once you get the feel of the pedals and work together... it was a nice little cruise."
Mr Lee said he has been riding a tandem bike with vision impaired Paralympic triathlete John Domandl for about a decade and they discussed the idea for the program as long ago as 2012.
Mr Domandl and his guide Paul McGlynn were the 2017 Long Distance Triathlon World Championships winners and in 2016 became the first vision impaired team to break 11 hours in an Ironman triathlon.
"There's a lot of depression and isolation with blindness," he said.
"People feel they can't do things they used to do before... but there's always an easy way and hard way.
"Sometimes we have to do things the hard way. If anyone wants to ride a bike, here's an opportunity now to get back in the saddle."
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