I tell her she had fierce eyes when she said that. I am half-laughing, half looking for the exit in case she tries to impale me on one of those heels. Fierce.

“Yeah. Definitely,” says Louise.

There’s no doubt sponsorship has transformed the athlete’s preparation for the London Olympics.

Louise’s dozen sponsors – her “12 for 2012” – have enabled her to give up her two part-time jobs, at the University of Birmingham and Selfridges, in order to train full time. She may be unique in Olympic history for being sponsored by a cider-maker (Birmingham’s Aston Manor Brewery).

Not that you will find Louise propping up the bar. If she’s got a drink in her hand, it’s most likely a non-alcoholic cocktail.

She says: “You won’t really find me on Broad Street. I went out there after the Commonwealth, to Gatecrasher, and that was the last time. It’s like going back to university, going back in time, and I feel that I’ve left those days behind me.

"When you live such a different lifestyle to everyone, you find it quite hard to relate to people who are puking their guts up in the street. It’s the kind of thing I try to avoid.”

Most of her friends are involved in athletics but she breaks out of the cocoon with mates from outside the sport:

“If I’m honest, it’s nice to have the two sets of friends because it’s a nice escape," she adds.

You don’t want to be thinking about athletics 24-7. I’m the kind of person that when I’m at the track, I’m 100 per cent athlete and 100 per cent focused on what I do.

"Away from the track, I am a person as well and I like to have down time and like to shut off. That’s why I choose to live closer to the city centre as opposed to on the doorstep of the track.

"I have friends outside athletics because that is another part of my character that needs a little bit of attention and feeding. As you grow older, I think it is good to have balance in your life.”

Some sacrifices are harder to make than others. Partying is one thing – love is altogether different.

Being an elite athlete as well as having a boyfriend/partner is “the big issue of my life”, reveals Louise.

A four-year relationship with a Dutch decathlete ended in 2010.

“And then I had my heart broken,” she confides.

That relationship was with a “slightly” older man, from outside athletics, and it lasted “several months”.

Louise says: “I don’t think he was really ready for a relationship that would mean so much commitment.

"It would be quite serious because of what I do, the fact I have got a growing profile. And I felt that, honestly, it’s a lot to take on.

"That’s the reality of it. Going out with an athlete can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.”

Was it the real thing?

“Who knows. Only time will tell. I did love him. He was a lovely guy.”

Is she over him?

“You could say that,” she says, laughing.

I tell her she is being cryptic.

“I know. I mean I have to get over him, don’t I? I don’t have a choice. It’s the big issue of my life. It’s important to me that I get this year right and don’t have any distractions.

“When you are an athlete, you have to be 100 per cent selfish. That’s the difficulty.

"When you are in a relationship and you are a woman – and obviously women are very giving – I find that I kind of lose myself. I find it easier to achieve what I want to achieve when I am on my own.”

Relationships, she says, can be positive and negative and it’s difficult when “it comes to a point where someone becomes a negative distraction, or takes a lot of energy”.

She says: “It is brutal. When you think of it in a general context, it is really brutal but that’s the kind of sacrifices you have to make to become an elite athlete.

“It is brutal and I don’t think many people would admit to it. When you meet someone and you really like them it is hard not to just go with that.

"Sometimes there are occasions when this could affect my training, or could have an effect on me long term. I have got other things to think about.

“I think I could have both with the right person but you’d need someone extremely supportive. It’s very confusing, isn’t it? It’s just got to be the right person at the end of the day.”

Her love life then has been put on hold, at least until after the Olympics. Louise Hazel has got enough on her plate although nerves, at the minute, are not among them.

“I don’t worry about a competition before it comes around and then the night before I’m a different person,” she says.

“The person you see on the track and off the track are completely different. I am quite bubbly, giggly.

"But once I am in the zone and I am ready to compete, that’s when you see a serious side of me. As soon as I cross the line, I switch back.”

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Studio photos by John Ord