2015 has been an incredible year for us at Blizard Physiotherapy, and we have been lucky enough to share so many successful sporting journeys with you, from those recovering from long term injuries with the help of our physiotherapy and massage team, to athletes of all abilities far exceeding their competitive expectations with the support of our lactate testing and coaching experts!

Danum Harriers’ Paula Davies is one of our highest achieving Team Blizard athletes this year, starting the year with the simple aim of running her first marathon at the age of 46, but ending it having scored race PBs across the board, topping 2015 with an outright 5M ladies' race win!

Paula only started running last year, joining a club in the summer and completing her first race 17 months ago, having only run up to 3 miles beforehand.

Although she impressed in finishing her first marathon this April in 4:09, she has come on in huge leaps and bounds since having a lactate threshold test at the clinic in May, as well as joining in the Team Blizard Tuesday evening sessions with Dave Tune and Jenny Blizard.

Her 2015 race stats speak for themselves, just take a look at these!

• 5km - July 25:44, October 21:05
• 5M - May 45:17, December 38:47
• 10km - September 2014 54:05, October 2015 47:22
• Half-marathon - August 1:55, October 1:43
• Marathon - April 4:09, September 4:00

The former Tickhill Runner is now aiming to break the 3:50 barrier in Manchester in April 2016 in order to attain a ‘Good for Age’ place for London the following year, and who can rule that out looking at her achievements thus far!

Paula knows first hand how lactate training pays off, seeing how she knocked nine minutes off her marathon time just four months after her first threshold test at the clinic, booked for her by her husband, who she says "wanted me to achieve my goal but train safely by following my heart rate".

The talented working mother has also been won over by our On Running Cloud shoes, and is currently bedding in her third pair of the hugely popular shoes, adding that she ‘wouldn’t change her shoes to any other brand’.






Paula is philosophical about her achievements, saying she is not a competitive person, but adding that she understands the importance of competing against herself.

She explained: “I decided to enter lots of events in 2015 as I thought this would improve my experience, continuing to follow Dave’s threshold training along the way and decided to join his speed sessions on a Tuesday evening, even though I am one of the slowest in the group. Dave said just keep coming along and you will slowly notice an improvement. Since August 2015 I have yet to miss a session.”

Paula is clearly a determined personality, a familiar trait amongst all of our successful Team Blizard athletes: “I have always had a strong sense of never giving up at anything, from a young age I have strived to achieve, knowing that the more you practice at something the better you will get. As a result, I have achieved many things that I thought would never be possible.”

Happily, the local runner knows that she is nowhere near the end of her incredible upwards running trajectory, and is fully focussed on continuing her threshold training to help her achieve that sub 3:50 time next April.

Paula’s attitude is one that many runners could do with taking a slice of, proving her balanced attitude to her training and seemingly endless PBs have helped her stay grounded where others may have suffered under the pressure.

“I am just hoping to stay injury free, continue to enjoy running, and, if I gain any new PBs along the way, then they will only be a bonus”, she added.

We are all quietly confident that 2016 will bring yet more phenomenal success for our modest Team Blizard friend, who is a great example of how lactate training pays off!