ONE LAST RANT AND READY TO RACE 
It all seems to be coming together now. Something has changed. I'm not tiring as much, I'm recovering quicker, I can run fairly hard on consecutive days, I can actually clock up some reasonable mileage and get stuck in. This is how it's meant to be! A few weeks ago I thought it might be much deeper in to Spring before getting anywhere near some sort of shape to race, but on the back of this month's training so far I think within the next couple of weeks I ought to get myself on a starting line somewhere and find out where I'm really up to.
For the sake of these Running Ramblings of Nobody In Particular, being in better running fettle will bring a welcome return to the tedious accounts of my racing performances, so hopefully less moaning and groaning and a backburner for the rants - related and unrelated to running - that have filled some blank spaces since last pinning a number on back in November.
But one last rant for now please if I may, because off road cyclists are getting on my wick. I know of a few actually, but it's nowt I wouldn't say to their faces. I'm not condemning every single individual but feel I am about to make a fairly reasonable generalisation. I'm trying not to be a killjoy either, but in any case, where landowners and leaseholders do not prohibit the use of mountain bikes then who the hell am I to persuade otherwise?
But my beef is that I'm not convinced many of these cyclists are particularly sensitive or empathetic to the environment through which they're big wheels wade. Certainly on the moors of Pendle and West Pennines, upon which I frequent the most, an ever increasing amount of aggressive tyre markings through the peatlands not only cuts up the existing paths and trods, but breeds deviation from the original line and so further scarring these vulnerable areas of natural habitat and beauty. In my view, these cyclists that find the proper right of way too technical or difficult to ride over should find a hobby that they're actually competent at.
Essentially, it's about respecting the environment in which you find your fun and showing a conscientious approach to the damage it may be doing. In Wheelton Plantations - a dense woodland of mature pines and conifers near the village of Brinscall, for those not in the know - off piste downhill bike tracks are cutting through swathes of previously untouched forest floor. Bluebells that are starting to show have been churned up and crushed. Ok, so maybe I should go and catch some real criminals I suppose. But what remaining wild country we have at our disposal to explore and enjoy, can we not do so respectfully?
It looks like local walkers, ramblers and the like are busy trying to blockade these bike runs by placing bits of fallen branches and logs in strategic places. At least I know it's not just me then who is getting uppity about them. But on a stretch towards Great Hill from White Coppice, some overzealous bike saboteurs have been displacing large stones from the remains of centuries old wall boundaries and dropping them upon any trod with a bike tyre print on it. This in itself is a ruinous act and will a biker come across one and think, "Ooh, what's this big stone doing here? I'll carefully place it back where it looks like it came from"? Unlikely. Steering around it to start cutting up even more ground would be the more probable scenario.
It's fair to say walkers, ramblers, hikers, fellrunners all leave a footprint on the landscape over time. But folk on foot tend to stick to the well worn line and I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority wouldn't dream of indiscriminately flattening flora and fauna.
This particular grievance has stewed within me for some time and particularly as some organisations purporting to take care of our countryside's welfare have had a hand in the bans and restrictions of fixtures on the fell racing calendar. Erosion and land sensitivity are the common reasons forwarded, but I consider this to be extremely misdirected and making fell racing the scapegoat. A hundred and odd studded shoes hammering it once a year takes the wrath, meanwhile the far more erosive impact of mountain bike tyres are free to cut up the land on a daily basis without any sort of restrictions whatsoever. It's a crazy world in which we live.