Key Team Blizard member Jo Goodier has turned her running - and her life - around over the last 12 months, and is gunning for some top race results this year now she’s injury free!

If anyone is the epitome of triumphing over adversity, it’s our Jo! Racked with, in Jen’s words, a ‘horrendous achilles injury’ for six months last year, she was also struggling with a physically and mentally demanding job.

Despite missing key sessions, suffering with low motivation in her training, and battling excruciating pain, she still managed to run incredibly well, but the final straw came when she was physically assaulted at work at a Behaviour Unit, and she resigned.

It was at that point though, that she picked herself back up, sought the help of our experts at Blizard Physiotherapy, and recovered from not one but two injuries, and turned herself into one of the top club runners in the whole region!

Jo explained how important her physiotherapy with Jen was to her recovery.

“By the time I had treatment, I had spent months stretching and self massaging my achilles to no avail. I was very stressed emotionally and my running was suffering.

“Jen said my achilles was horrendous! After a thorough assessment and a process of elimination, she diagnosed a tight back, which wasn’t helped by my high stress levels.

“She immediately advised me to only do recovery running, gave me acupuncture, manipulated my back, and then sent me home with some exercises, with clear instructions to complete them three times a day.

“After four months of treatment, reduced stress, and a total commitment to stretching, drinking water and eating properly, things have slowly come together.

“More recently, Jen came to the rescue again when I developed a sore right foot arch. Thankfully, after only two sessions, she diagnosed a stiff lower back as the cause, and, following some painful back manipulation and some more exercises, it was ‘cured’, and I am injury free again!”

Jo has also benefitted from Dave’s wise words of wisdom, applying her lactate threshold test results with absolute commitment, reaping the rewards as a result.

She explained how the coaching relationship has helped her achieve increasingly impressive times in just a matter of months.

“It was only last July when I reached out to Dave for help with my training, alongside receiving physiotherapy from Jen. He took me on a hour’s run and made it clear how important consistency, diet, and prioritising running is to allow everything to fall into place!

“From that day onwards, I have stuck to his every word - I live and breath running, and have ‘manned up’ a lot in Dave’s words!

“I do my long threshold runs and long Sunday runs with the blokes, which helps me run a lot faster than if I did them on my own - they have really brought me on over the last few months, though they are tough!”

Jo is so committed to not only staying injury free, but working on her weaknesses to get stronger and faster, she has recently started attending Blizard’s Functional Movement classes, helping her to address her ‘weak core, unusual running action and arched back’, which cause issues with her posture.

The classes focus on stretching, balance, and building up core strength to improve posture. Jo has reaped the rewards of being taught how to stretch and complete strength work using the correct technique, and has vowed to ‘continue attending the classes to help address my poor balance and core strength leading up this year’s London marathon!’

“My stretching at home remains part of my daily routine to help me remain injury free”, she added.
“As Dave says, there is no secret to success, it is simple - train consistently and in the right zones, and eat and drink properly.

“I can honestly say without Dave and Jenny’s help, I wouldn't be where I am today. Dave has an absolute belief in the lactate test data, which really inspires you to believe you can do it too.”









Armed with a team of experts supporting her to stay strong and healthy, and giving her the tools she needs to get fitter and faster, Jo is excited about her goals for 2016.

“This year I am aiming for sub-38mins for 10k, a sub-85min half marathon, and sub-3 hours in London, and, as I’m only working part-time at the moment, I am going to use that extra time to squeeze the training in.

I have a few 10k races planned for the next few months, and I know there's more to come out of me yet!”

Jo is a great example of someone who listened to her niggles and pains, sought help from expert physiotherapists, and, when the treatment allowed her to return to full training, used our expert lactate testing and coaching service to progress herself towards fulfilling her true potential.

You too can follow in Jo’s footsteps, if you there’s a will there’s a way!

Make a start this Saturday by attending our FREE physiotherapy advice morning at the clinic between 10am to 12 noon, where you will have the chance to chat with one of our experts for 15 minutes to have any issue assessed to see whether you will require ongoing treatment to get you back on track!

For more information, go to the Physio Advice Service section of the website, or visit the event on our Facebook page!