Four weeks ago at Crystal Palace, in a cold, empty stadium long since deserted by the crowds who had earlier watched him win a Diamond League 5,000m race, Mo Farah stepped back out onto the track and once again pulled on his running spikes.

It was closing in on midnight, the lights low, the only people left in there were his coach Alberto Salazar, training partner Dathan Ritzenhein and a few of us journos filing late stories.

As we watched on from the dark stands, Salazar poised on the infield with stopwatch and clipboard, Farah and Ritzenhein threw themselves into a brutal session - a 3,000m time trial, a brief recovery and then four lots of 200m sprints, each completed in exactly 26 seconds and separated only by a 200m jog.

What was it Muhammad Ali said? "The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."

Farah shares more than Olympic gold with the great man. Here in London's Olympic Stadium, almost exactly a week after his 10,000m triumph provided a memorable crescendo to Britain's Super Saturday, the harvest of that cruel regime bore the most beautiful fruit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19229223