WEDNESDAY 5th AUGUST
I really wanted to do the Whittle Pike race in Rossendale tonight, the second of the midweek series over there, but I felt a bit of old knee trouble coming back to haunt me when I was out on the moors on Sunday and had to cut my run short. Head and heart were having a right old tussle when I got in from work. For most of the day the head was ruling and thought I had best not risk racing, even though the knee had eased a bit. But my heart was well up for it, I put my watch on, started getting my stuff together until my head butted in again and said, ''Well do a few reps up and down the stairs then and tell me you don't feel a twinge? Go on dickhead.'' So I did a few reps and the head was right, I felt a twinge, although I didn't take kindly to being called a dickhead by myself. And so sensibility prevailed, but it was a close call. Whittle Pike will still be there next year.