My left knee has been complaining these past two days. That’s pretty normal, really – after a certain number of miles, about 15 or so within a week, it starts to act up from overuse. That’s been a regular occurrence for quite some time now. So rather than do 5 miles today and carve even more stalactites into my fraying kneecap, I lavished more attention on running’s neglected half-siblings, weights and stretching. Did circuits of pressups, lateral raises and tricep kickbacks while watching the Superbowl video; then did some abs and stretched some, mainly hamstrings and lower back.

Can you spell F-L-A-K-E?

My new running shoes are lying somewhere in a mail-sorting office. Can’t wait for them to arrive.

I also can’t wait for the mid-term break. Two more days – woo hoo! It’s been hard this week, for some reason, to get jollying along. Maybe it’s the bug going around in schools – a lot of the kids have been sick or displaying symptoms of flu. Maybe things are like that this time of year. One thing I’m glad about though – even if it’s getting colder, at least it’s getting darker later in the evenings, at about 5 o’clock on this side of the Atlantic. It makes such a change from the dark dreary days of December, when you feel like it’s getting late, you want to go home and get to sleep (or watch 24), and then you look at the clock… and it’s only half-past three.

I need advice. I know sports drinks should be carbohydrate drinks with a high amount of electrolytes, but being such a rookie so far I’ve relied on water and – on really cold days – tea. I have an absolute lack of knowledge on sports drinks. Where are all the real athletes out there?