The City of Hull’s Paul Legard has revised every single one of his PBs across the board since his lactate test at the Blizard clinic, inevitably boosting his fitness and speed, but equally important, his confidence is now sky high ahead of his next ambitious racing goals.

The Yorkshireman has used his personal heart rate zones to transform himself from a good club runner to a sub-3 marathoner with legitimate aims to break 2:45 for the distance, and to dip under 1:15 for the half.

Although Paul was no stranger to heart rate training when he came to see coach Dave Tune at Blizard Physiotherapy last August for a lactate test, his incredible form since he embarked on a more personal training regime has seen his PBs tumble to 18:09, 37:59, 64:43, 79:32 and 2:54:30 in just nine months.

It was the latter result, achieved at the recent Edinburgh marathon, that represented the pinnacle of his impressive rise in performance level, seeing the busy education project manager revise his previous PB of 3:05:33 by an astonishing 11 minutes!



Paul explained how his existing knowledge of the fitness testing industry compared to the more tailored service offered by Dave, and how his expectations of what he could achieve with his running were transformed in just a couple of hours:

“Although I had had a couple of VO2 max tests before, the Blizard was much more specific to my physiology,” he explained. “The lactate test redefined what I thought I was capable of, and I was quite shocked at some of the times Dave said I could run! Importantly, the results gave me the belief that I could run a sub-3 marathon, a goal I’d been working towards since I first laced up my trainers. In fact, the test blew that out the water!

“I love a good stat, I enjoy learning about the science, and seeing the equation manifest into a result. I saw every number and stat as an opportunity to improve.”

Paul has had two further lactate tests since August, enjoying a dramatic improvement in the key areas and, in his words, “the ‘statto’ in me has seen the ‘equation’ add up!”

In the lead up to the defining moment in his running career thus far in Edinburgh, he has reaped the dividends of training in his accurate zones, adding that, although he had dabbled with heart rate training before, the biggest difference in the application of the zones to his running is that he has gone from ‘HR based, high volume, low intensity, to HR based, high volume, high intensity.’



The busy project manager, who often works 12 hour days managing the design and rebuilding of six schools, explained how it hasn’t always been easy, but that by making marginal gains in other areas of his life, including diet and flexibility, have added to his success.

“I’ve enjoyed the challenge of the training, but there’s no getting away from the fact that the training is hard, especially for the first few weeks, when every threshold run felt like a race, but I knew I would adapt to it if I persevered.

“Within the first 10 weeks of my new training regime, alongside improving my nutrition and stretching programme, I fairly comfortably knocked a chunk off my 10k PB at the hilly Deepdale Dash. (Paul revised his lifetime best by over a minute just three months into his new training regime, bringing it down to a strong 37:59).

“Come January, I was determined to commit to a new training cycle, and give it my best shot at finally achieving a sub-3 marathon. Working to a new 16 week programme from Dave, I quickly saw results. I was pretty shocked when I knocked more than three minutes off my lifetime best in the New York half marathon in March! I went from being an 85-minute runner to an 81:43 athlete in one fell swoop!

“Then I knocked another two minutes off at the North Lincolnshire half in May, just two weeks out from my main goal - the Edinburgh marathon.”

Clearly, Paul peaking in form at exactly the right time, achieving prime fitness and sky high confidence ahead of his target race, was no coincidence. Working closely with Dave, following his heart rate training to the letter, he reaped the rewards of trusting in Coach Tune’s decades of experience in applying lactate threshold testing perfectly to ensure individual success.



Paul is convinced the 16 week block of training leading up to Edinburgh helped him recoup the lost fitness he had endured before coming to Blizard for a lactate test last summer.

“I ran a conservative race to make sure I ran under three hours, and I could tell I was where I should have been with my endurance and speed on the day”, he adds. “Every time I’ve raced since last August, I’ve found it unusually enjoyable, which suggests that there’s a lot more left in the tank, and more improvements to be made.”

Not content with ‘just’ running his fastest ever times over every distance this year in races, the City of Hull athlete has also been notching up PBs in training runs, adding to his buoyant confidence levels ahead of his next major goals.

“I want to keep ticking off the Good for Age times for the Marathon Majors,” he enthused with understandable excitement. “My next goals are a 2:45 for Berlin, and a 1:15 half marathon to achieve a championship start for London. In the meantime, I want to bring my times down for the shorter distances, and see if I can start mixing it up with the faster runners.”

Watching Paul grow in confidence and transform himself from a 3:05 marathoner to one targeting a championship entry into the biggest and most competitive races in the world speaks volumes for how far the City of Hull athlete has come in such a short space of time. Watch this space to see how much further he can go towards maximising his potential with the power of lactate threshold training!