So - now he is off to play rugby league for Castleford - or at least he has a trial to play for them.

He held a press conference this morning and seems to be quite excited about the new opportunity he has to make some money with his undoubtedly natural speed (which was for a while enhanced illegally). 

His tone at the conference did suggest that given the opportunity to run at the Olympics he'd grab it and ignore rugby league completely - which is understandable as this was the sport he has chosen to take part in since he was a youngster and the Olympics has been his goal for at least 15 years.

I can't help feeling that he isn't going to be given the opportunity to run though - he has said to much and offended too many - on top of his actually taking the drugs in the first place.

I'm sure the saga will continue, would love to hear what other people think.

Just 2 weeks to go now.

People should be well into their taper and thinking about the big day.

What food should you eat in the last week?  How much should I drink on the way round?  How will I ever make it to the end?

All questions to be thought about between now and crossing the finishing line - we'd love to hear your thoughts on the race.

There were some great performances at the World Indoor Championships and none of the better than the enormous 17.75m leap of Phillips Idowu in the triple jump to claim gold with the 5th longest indoor jump of all time.

This was fantastic.

To be backed up by 4 silver medals in a global championship by Britain is equally a great performance from the team.  Kelly Sotherton, Dwain Chambers, Jeanette Kwakye and Chris Tomlinson all got silver medals in their events. 

For me Jeanette Kwakye, coached by Michael Afilaka, was the star of the track for Britain, with a new British 60m record, eclipsing Bev Kinch's 20 year old record.  Well done Jeanette.

Much of the talk has been about Dwain Chambers, and for all the wrong reasons - so I guess we should talk about it here.  First of all, on a positive note, it was a great competitive performance to break you PB, under all that pressure in the final of a World Championships.  Mentally, he has been very strong and seems to have been able to use all the adversity to his benefit to motivate him over the last month or two.  He should be congratulated for this.

Next, the drug issue.

He took drugs - and no-one can condone that.

However, he has served the penalty stipulated for doing so and, I believe, should be given a chance to make amends and be a positive contributor to the world of athletics, as despite his obvious flaws, talents like his don't come along very often.  In my view, (and that of former UK Members Council's vice president, Mike Winch), he should have been brought into the fold to tell youngsters about the mistakes that can be made in the sport - oh, and tested VERY VERY regularly!

If the sport wishes to have stronger rules against those who cheat, then great - 4 years sounds good to me - but everyone deserves a second chance.

In my opinion, he would have been welcomed back a second time, as he was before, if he hadn't done an interview with Inside Sport and stated that to be Olympic Champion you need to take drugs.  Instantly he created hundreds of enemies, many of whom work in the media that he is now trying to woo, by implying that they are all drugs cheats as well (not a smart move!). 

In the long-term if this serves as a wake up call to the sport and drugs are taken even more seriously than before, then this is great - but the safeguards need to be even stronger that individual errors are not made in testing and innocent athletes punished, especially if the penalties become more draconian.

Here is to the athletics and not the drugs making the headlines over the coming months!!!! (I may be a little optomistic to hope this!).

A lot has been said about these Championships in Valencia, not everything for the right reasons, and now it is time for the action to start.

Dwain Chambers is bound to be a huge story, particularly in the British press, but there are a number of other athletes that have been performing well and can bring back medals.  Kelly Sotherton is an obvious candidate and will flourish more than normal in the absence of Carolina Kluft.  The womens middle distances will be strong - headed up by Jenny Meadows and Jemma Simpson in the 800 and 1500 respectively.

On the mens side Richard Buck has been improving race on race and will be at least eyeing a place in the final and in the field Phillips Idowu will hope to show that the Picketts Lock training facility has continued to help him improve his consistency on top of his undoubted talent.

Watch this space....

So, the count down is well and truly under way.  By now you should have done much of your training and be up to near you peak mileage.  You'll have done one or two very long runs, and maybe have another one or two planned (although some will already be starting their taper).

So - how many long runs should you do, how fast should you do them and when.  These are some of the toughest questions you'll have to ask yourself as you prepare for the race, and like much in life it is down to individual taste to an extend.  Certainly, the consensus is that you should do these run slowly, saving your faster "tempo" runs for shorter runs during the week.  This does leave some nervous about how they'll manage the distance on the day having not run fast in training.  There are two things you can do to combat this - firstly, do a race or two over 15-20 miles to practice not only the pace, but also the feeling of running a race, the preparation and the crowds etc.  Secondly, trust in the experience of millions of others that doing fast long runs weekly (as many would like) will leave you too tired to rack up the overall mileage you'll need to run well.

We'd suggest two races in the period from 8 to 4 week before the race.  Remember, you'll need a couple of easy days training after each to recover properly.  For your long runs you should make the peak distance occur just before your taper starts - this is one of those things that are down to taste - some start 6 week before, others just 2, a sensible mid-point would be 3-4 weeks.

After that you'll come  to your taper - we'll come back to that soon.

Enjoy your running.

These are some of my favourite running quotes. 

It is great to hear what the good and the great of our sport (oh and Victoria Wood) think about the sport.

I've always felt that long, slow distance produces long, slow runners. Sebastian Coe

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves. The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable." Roger Bannister

If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough Steve Jones

Jogging is for people who aren't intelligent enough to watch television. Victoria Wood

Check out more Running Quotes on the main website

Welcome to the New Running Blog from Momentum Sports.

We'll be post our thoughts about everything running here, with news, tips, and general musings over the coming months and years.

Whether you are a sprinter, a marathon runner, or somewhere in between - or even just a fan of the sport, we aim to keep you entertained and informed.  Part of that is for you to let us know what you are thinking about the posting we make - if it is great, we'd like to know, equally if there is something you don't like, we are quite thick skinned and can take constructive criticism.

Enjoy the blog and, of course, your running.