Cut a loooong and terribly dull story short, I’ve had an ongoing very frustrating problem with tightness behind my ribs and leading down to my hip which became painful then stopped me breathing on high exertion (i.e. short fell, all out races up a 20 min climb), and killed like crazy, so bad I had to stop when flying downhill. So the best physio advice I could ever give you is to go to a really well renowned professional who’s work is in evidence amongst the runners you see around you or maybe even in the press. The price is undoubtedly higher, but there’s a reason for that; they will actually cure you!

During 2012-13 I spent probably the best part of £600 on £30 per hour physios, the first of whom took 10 sessions to locate the pain, then more who had no clue and were just quite happy to keep taking my money without even researching further into what the problem might be. Ali Rose from Coach House Physio in Leeds however, is the best you can get. Amongst countless Olympic, European and Commonwealth athletes, her most well known clients include the Olympic Gold and Bronze medal-winning Brownlee Brothers and Heptathlete Olympic champ Jess Ennis-Hill. The proof is in the pudding! I decided her £90 sessions were totally worth it, and now after my 4th I feel Ali has achieved a break through so I was fired up to run my 10 miles Sat 10 miles Sun back to backer from coach Rory Coleman‘s training plan this weekend.

Low and behold, during Saturday’s 10 miler my right leg was picking up automatically whereas before I felt it always lagged behind. I also felt like I had two fully working lungs! So hopefully that will translate to some more speed come the Great Eastern Run half marathon this coming Sunday! It was really rainy on Sat, then gorgeous on Sun! Made my day!

Saturday’s 10 miler, rain on the road next to the footpath across Burghley Golf Course, but I was happy in my waterproof 🙂

That’s more like it! A delightfully sunny Sunday 10 miler, the kind that makes you feel thankful to have legs, even if they are a bit tired from the day before.

I know some people are going to say £90 a session is too steep – but this is your body. It’s the only one you’ll ever get in your life. You wouldn’t balk half so much if your car needed £360’s worth of vital repairs to keep you safe on the roads would you? So why is it any different to your body. So if you do nothing else, see an excellent physio. Do what they say. Get cured, then jump on niggles before they turn into injuries, and read Ricky Lightfoot’s column in this issue of Trail Running magazine, on sale 6 Nov – due to injury, he missed the race he helped to create, the 3x3000ers 80k Ultra Skyrace last Sat, so hear how he copes by looking at the bigger picture, and, importantly, injury-proofs his body with 6 simple bodyweight moves.