Football’s Dirty Doping Secret

It may not be about athletes, but surely that’s a good thing? Essential reading by Cathal Dennehy on a potential doping scandal in football.

“68 players across the Champions League, Europa League and European Championships between 2008 and 2013 were most likely knocking back some good ol-fashioned ‘roids — and that’s not even opening up the poisonous can of worms that is blood-boosting.”

Full piece here.

The Winning mindset

Former UK 400m record-holder Derek Redmond shares his experiences in preparing mentally for championships.

“When you first make your national team, there are two ways to look at it: The first is to think, “Yes! I’ve made it!” and the second is to think, “This is just the start”. I was definitely in the second camp”

Full story here.

Marathon Champ Blazing a trail

“Ghirmay Ghebreslassie caused one of the bigger upsets in Beijing last month for two reasons: 1) His marathon win at the World Championships delivered gold to Eritrea for the first time in the championships’ history; 2) At 19-years-old, he became the first ever teen to win the event.”

Read his Spikes Mag interview here.

Kipchoge Hoping for Berlin Record

Eliud Kipchoge is an Olympic and world medalist over 5000m but he’s now hoping to add a world record to his tally, the marathon world record. Having a personal best of 2:04:05 for the distance, he’ll need to find just over a minutes improvement to topple Dennis Kimetto’s record.

Full story here.

Lower Back pain advice

The first video in our “Ask Larry” strength and conditioning series looks at lower back pain in athletes and what can be done to counteract it.

Check out the video here.