By the narrowest of margins...

Last night saw the latest round of interclub races, with Preston Harriers having their turn to host the event this time around.

It was the third race of the season and having won the previous two, the objective was clearly to try and keep up the momentum and add to that tally. However, having won easily last time out at Lytham, I knew that this one would be much tougher. David Rigby and Rob Affleck (who both missed Lytham, having finished 2nd and 3rd respectively at Blackpool in the opening fixture) both returned for this fixture.

The course was a certified accurate 4 miler, a two-lapper with some big undulations and testing sections to it. The start had been moved from where it had been last year - supposably to allow more room - although to me it seemed narrower than ever!

In hot and sunny conditions, I was a little bit slow out of the blocks and actually found myself behind a couple of my Wesham team mates within the first few metres of the race, as I struggled to work through the field in the tight bunch. However, I soon managed to get into my stride, squeeze through and catch up to the front to lead out from the opening straight alongside Dave Rigby.

Dave has been flying recently and setting pb's left, right and centre, so I knew that I faced a huge task racing against him in that form. I also knew though that if I want to win the series this year, then the outcome of last nights race could be vital come the end of the campaign, so I was determined not to let the opportunity slip.

The opening mile was fractionally downhill and so the pace was fast - we went through the first mile neck and neck in 4:51, but the second mile saw two big hills, and therefore the pace dropped quite significantly to 5:24. We shared the workload through that mile, as the lead chopped and changed a couple of times, with probably less than a metre ever in it between us. Mile two was also notable for Neil McDonald struggling to get his bike uphill, and therefore all the leading racers overtaking him!

Slightly past the 2 mile mark, the second lap began and having got my nose in front I held the lead through this mile, as Dave seemed happy to sit behind, ready to attack later on in the race. The third mile included the second time up the biggest of the two steep hills, and the pace was around the 5:05-10 mark. By the end of this mile I could start to feel my legs tiring, but I just kept setting myself little targets, to keep in front to the top of the hill, or to the bottom of the next downhill section etc.

Anyway, it seemed to work, as I now found myself just one mile from the finish and thinking "Just hold out for 5 more minutes of pain and it will all be worth it..."

That final mile saw us lapping many of the runners towards the back end of the race, and meant we had to duck and weave, shout to say we were coming through and saw us a bit short of room. I know Dave felt hard done by for this perhaps denying him the chance to make a move through this section. If we had still had a lead bike, perhaps more room would have been afforded.

As we turned into the final corners, I could see Dave trying to make a move on the inside around the final bend and made sure to close any gap and hold the shortest line through the corner. Having denied him the chance to make a break for it there, it all came down to a sprint finish over the final 200 metres or so. I managed to hold out and cross the line ahead of him to take the win. In similar fashion to the opener at Blackpool, only one second seperated us again.

It has been a close faught battle between us so far this series, and I'm sure it will stay like that throughout, which is great as the rivalry is pushing us both to run quick times and improve each other's performance.

The final mile was 4:50 pace, to finish in 20:05 (unofficial).

Track Tuesday

Tuesday nights usually mean one thing for me - about 2 hours of training on the track, and a session of pure pain. But it is well worth it because you know it will benefit you and make you quicker. That's why we do it, and why we keep going back for more!

Until I began training under the influence of coach Affleck, I had never set foot on an athletics track in my life - but 18 months or so on from it being introduced to my regime, it is now probably the single most important aspect of my weekly training plan.

I have come on quite a way since in those last 18 months, and I strongly believe that this has much to do with the Tuesday night pain game I put myself through most weeks! The actual hard part of the session only probably lasts for about half an hour, but with a stringent warm up and cool down being an essential part of the process (in order to avoid silly injuries) the session as a whole can take well in excess of three times that long.

When I first started out on the track sessions, I struggled to get my head around how such short reps could really make such a difference to the performance of a long distance road runner. But results don't lie and having taken chunks out of everything from 5k through to marathon distance, there can be no doubt of the influence the pace work has had on me.

Usually my session will consist of a 20 minute jog to warm up (2 - 2.5 miles), stretches of all the major muscle groups in the legs, a series of 50 metre sprints, and heel flicks. When the muscles are nice and supple we get into the hard part.

Each week I look to get through anything from 3-5 miles worth of pace work, depending on whether or not I have had/do have a race in the few days before or after.

In the last few sessions I have been doing slightly shorter reps as I am focussing on increasing my top end speed. Prior to that I had been doing longer reps, as I wanted to increase my endurance as well as my pace. Last weeks session saw us doing 5 lots of 1200 metres, and 1 x 400 metres at an average pace of 4:48 per mile. The shortest reps I have done so far are 400 metres, and the longest 2 miles.

On completion of the session, I do another 20 minute jog to cool down, before stretching again to complete.

I train at the UCLAN Arena athletics track at Cottam, the same one used by Helen Clitheroe, Stuart Robinson, David Rigby, Chris Livesey and Chris Tulley (and more!) and hopefully in the near future I will be looking to jump on with their sessions to try and eak out a bit more pace.

Considering how much I used to dread it, I now look forward to #tracktuesday each week!

Could you cheat?

OK, I am a few days behind on this - but I finally got around to watching the Panarama programme "Catch me if you can". Now I am sure you are all aware of this intriguing and fascinating piece of investigative journalism by the time you read this, however for those of you that aren't I will write a quick summary and urged you to seek it out on the BBc IPlayer!

The programme follows Scottish journalist - and amateur athlete - Mark Daly, in his quest to uncover holes in the WADA blood passport system. Astonishingly, without any medical help or guidance of professionals, he manages to 'beat the system' and improve his performance through taking EPO. Not only that, but he also documents and looks at a series of allegations of drug use and systematic cheating by a number of athletes over past decades, and suggests that athletics super-coach Alberto Salazar - who trains amongst others, Mo Farah - may be involved in cheating the sport.

Watching the documentary on Sunday afternoon, after completing my own training run, I found it difficult to comprehend how easy it was, and also how rife a problem it would appear that the abuse of the system could be.

Then, on the back of viewing a programme about catching out the cheats in sport, I turned over to Sky Sports 2 and watched one of the hardest working, and cleanest sportsmen in the world in his quest to break another world record. Yes, Bradley Wiggins smashed the hour time trial and set a new record of close to 55 kilometres. The contrast between the immense feeling of joy I had spectating history in the making, and the allegations of Panarama couldn't have been more stark.

It got me thinking, and convinced me that I had to write a blog as a way of rambling on about my feelings on the issue of doping.

To really understand the rationale behind an athletes decision to become a doper, I suppose you have to try and put yourself in their mind frame - what possible justifications could they have? Let's have a look:

• Steroids, or other drugs, will make me stronger - Wrong. If you take drugs, it does not make you a stronger person. In fact, it couldn't be further from the truth. By taking a banned substance you are admitting that you are in fact a very weak person, with no will power to improve the hard way.
• I'm only a cheat if I get caught - This is the one that I really, really struggle to et my head around. How can somebody cheat so blatantly, and then stand in front of a camera and try to pull the wool over everybody's eyes and deny the lot? To be the sort of person that would do this must mean that they have some sort of different psyché to the rest of us. I know for sure that I could never bring myself to hide in full view of the public behind a web of lies!
• I only cheat because I want success more than everyone else - Wrong again. In my opinion anybody that can take these sort of shortcuts to success doesn't want it any more than the next person, in fact it shows that they want it less than others. I say this because those who really want to improve enough to win things and be successful are prepared to put in then hard yards and all the painful hours in training. Those that cheat simply can't be bothered to suffer as much as the rest to reach the level that they aspire to.

I have been running now for nearly 4 years and have taken a great deal of pride in how far I have come along so far. I have worked tirelessly and continue to try my hardest every week to push myself out of my comfort zone and keep improving. Never in my wildest dreams could I ever bring myself to cheat - eventually they all get caught out anyway - but even so, deep down they must realise that all their 'gains' and improvements are false? They are not real achievements and surely the cheats must even realise this themselves deep down?!

I would much sooner take the pain and the time and all the miles training to get as good as I can, rather than take a few injections and speed up the process. I may never win an Olympic medal, but atleast I will know that all my achievements are real and can't be taken away from me.

In fact, going back to the documentary, Mark Daly found a very interesting quote in an archive article from the Times back in the 1980's which said something along the lines of "if you line up in the blocks and you aren't on something, then you might aswell be in plimsoles, whilst the rest are wearing spikes"...

...in which case, can't we just bring the plimsoles back please? I wonder if I could find myself a pair in orange...