I start planning then that's dangerous because then I have a target that I'm blinkered towards and I won't listen to the warning signs quite so much. I'd rather be in shape and then look around and say there's a race next week and jump into that than have it planned.

I am not driven by any bitterness by what happened in Athens. I learnt a lot of lessons from it and probably came through it a stronger person in the end. There have been a lot of near misses, and that's taught me to keep persevering and that there is a chance it can come right.

Actually I don't choose to expose myself in public. I choose to compete; the other side just comes with the package.

If you look back at my marathons and ask whether I would swap one of them for my one balls-up, of course I would. But you can't choose. You have to make the best of it on the day.

You can't become a winner overnight, or even in a couple of years-it takes time... You will lose races and you will have to accept that, learn from it and believe that you'll win the next one, knowing that you'll probably lose that as well. All the time you have to keep believing that one day you will win.

We, as athletes, have our suspicions about who's cheating, but I'm not convinced that the testing has yet caught up with what people are using or what they are using to disguise it.

In the week before a race, I try to stay away from germ areas. I keep disinfectant wipes in my bag for when I have to use a supermarket trolley or something like that.