No? Anyone? Just me then.
It's intensely annoying. I can go to bed the night before feeling tip-top and in prime condition, ready to crank out a PB the next day. Come the morning and my body is finding all sorts of excuses to stay at home and not spend the next hour pounding the pavements. It takes quite a lot of willpower to overcome that sometimes.
It's not all in the mind, though. Sometimes you have actually done yourself damage. A couple of weeks ago, I did something to my upper calf when practising hill sprints - a little twinge which may just have been the muscle tightening up but could also have been a little pop or tear. Either way, the only thing to do was to stop immediately - and then rest it for a few days to make sure it was nothing more serious.
I've torn my hamstring while sprinting in the past. It was excruciatingly painful, incredibly embarrassing (it happened at the Lee Valley athletics centre, in front of a bunch of proper runners and their coaches, while I was trying to out-sprint my stepdaughter) and it left me unable to run for six weeks. I never want that happening again if I can avoid it.
Last week too, I started having real problems with my left heel. There's an ailment called plantar fasciitis which the runners among you will be only too well aware of. For the rest of you, it's like a bruise or tenderness around the heel which can make it extremely painful to walk, especially when climbing stairs.
Runners suffer from it a lot because we put a lot of strain on the plantar fascia, the ligament that connects the heel to the toes. Even Mo Farah had it at one point, so it's an occupational hazard.
I've had it in a minor form in my right foot for several years now, but basically just live with it as it's not too severe. It's slightly annoying for the first few steps after I've been lying or sitting down, but that's about it.
It doesn't hurt when I run, though it does necessitate sticking my foot in a bucket of ice water (see picture) after a long run to reduce the swelling and aid recovery. What fun.
But now it's in my left foot. And it hurts like a demon. The first step walking upstairs is almost enough to bring tears to my eyes. It really doesn't make you feel any more encouraged to tackle those long runs.
I've been told to try a new stretching exercise, which involves standing on the ball of my foot on the edge of a step, dropping my heel down to stretch my calf, and then (and here's the clever bit) bending my knee slightly to concentrate the stretch in the muscles closest to the heel. Then hold it for a minute.
Best to do it indoors. It's not an easy or elegant position to hold. You look like you've been caught out while squatting for an emergency poo. And it's uncomfortable too. But it's very effective. Within days, the pain reduced to barely noticeable levels - to the point where my mind can hardly justify using it any more as an excuse not to go running.
However, it's raining out and there's this nagging ache in my back.....
*NB For more on plantar fasciitis, here: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/tc/plantar-fasciitis-topic-overview#1
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