Football aches

I am getting really nervous now. Only three weeks to go and I haven't done as much training as I should do this week because I have been too stiff from playing football on Wednesday evening. I haven't played properly since I was 12, which is probably why.

All the blokes from work go every week to have a game of five-a-side and I have always meant to go with them but have been too intimidated by all the testosterone. But I just decided life is too short and went along to have a go, or rather, was pushed into going to make up the editorial team's numbers. I was the only girl across about eight pitches, but it was still fun and I wasn't too bad. I probably got a bit too into it because for the next two days the fronts of my thighs and my back absolutely killed every time I moved. It was impossible for me to run like that, especially with the back pain.

One thing that I noticed was that I wasn't getting nearly out of breath as the blokes were because of all the running I have been doing over the last 12 weeks or so. But I was in a hell of a lot more pain than them the next day.

This is the annoying thing about different types of exercise - you use whole sets of different muscles to do different things. I do indoor climbing about once a week, running three or four times a week, and I swim, and all of these things have caused different muscles in my limbs to ache the following day.

I have been put down to play football next week, but then it will only be a couple of weeks before the half-marathon, so I might lay off that one so I can concentrate on running without having to worry about all the different dimensions of agony I would be causing myself!