I'm a professional athlete, me.

Finally got round to buying some decent, proper, moisture-wicking running attire at the weekend. Trousers, top, wind jacket. This after my long run on Saturday was cursed by the frustration of my old and far too baggy trousers flapping around and threatening to fall down with every step I took, meaning I kept having to clutch them and pull them up every five minutes - soooooo annoying. In the end I gave up and let them hang and twist around my hips like a fourteen year old My Chemical Romance fan, but this resulted in my water belt rubbing directly against my skin and when I got home I realised that the friction had caused a red, neat, bleeding sore all around me. Nice!

There's so much to think about before a weekend long run (although this was one of my cutback weeks so was 'only' 12 miles) and they have now started to dominate my entire weekend. Friday nights I'm normally stuffing my face with carbs and drinking loads of water, then Saturday mornings I need to make sure I get another carb-filled breakfast and then wait at least two hours for them to do their job, and for me not to feel so stuffed. So I normally get up and eat porridge and bananas and then go back to bed for a bit (still gotta have that weekend lie-in or I feel totally robbed). Also need to make sure I'm properly hydrated, so am swigging water more or less constantly, and then a Lucozade Sport about an hour before.



(I know come June I will never want to see or taste another droplet of this stuff for as long as I live but it's the sports drink that will be used on the day so I want to get used to it).

Then I normally revise my running playlist for a bit just to mix things up a little, and work out my route on gmap-pedometer.com, before getting my gear on, warming-up and stretching.

Unbelievably, all this seems to take about four hours. This is because I'm a terrible procrastinator.

I didn't really enjoy the first half of this weeks' run, partly for the reason above, but also because my legs just killed for the first five or six miles. This problem I get with numb feet is really getting me down. I wonder why I get this? Again, I had to stop and walk for a minute in an attempt to make it go away. But it came back as soon as I started running again. Seemed to disappear on its own after about eight miles, so the last four were ok. I was very slow though. Although did have one very fast burst whilst listening to the Libertines and Super Furry Animals, oddly enough.

On a good note, the knees seemed to hold up ok, and today they are not too bad at all. Still very tender but not the really sharp pain that I was having at the end of last week.

It doesn't stop at the end of the run though. Need to spend at least another half hour stretching when it's over, otherwise I won't be able to walk the next day. Then the next hour is spent icing my knees and ankles........ and then the day is pretty much over. Jesus, what a thrilling life I lead at the moment.