Stage = 5, actually completed stages = 4, stages which I ran = 3.
Yeah last week was a bad time. But I completed it all the same and somehow I have only missed one event. My plan is to complete that one during male up week.
But that’s all the past and the future. What about today?
Well, today was always going to be a question mark. Whether it was running in bad shoes or running too far, too soon, I managed to really hurt my right knee and have been paying the price for that ever since. It’s taken a week off the bike, followed by a weeks easy riding just to get back on track. Thursdays ride left me feeling sore still and I was really grateful for the Friday rest day.
So going in to today it was a big question mark over how I’d feel once I set off.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately (depending on your opinion of running) I felt fine enough setting off at 10.5kph.
I’d made sure to set up everything ahead of time. I had my fan on, towel ready, windows wide open, music playing, and a full water bottle nearby. The only thing I forgot to do was set the 5km goal in zwift before I set off. Unlike on the bike, once you’re running it’s really quite difficult to interact with the ipad, often requiring several stabs at the menu to hit the right button. Anyway I got there in the end.
Also unlike cycling there really is no easing off once you’re underway. You can’t coast on a run.
About 1km in I nudged the speed up from 10.5kph to 10.6kph. It was barely noticeable but I knew doing this would achieve two things:
- a new PB for the 5km (and any other things tracked)
- the run would be over sooner.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide which outcome I was more concerned with.
The first kilometre went fine. The second I had my sweat on and had bumped my music up a notch.
Somewhere between the second and third kilometre I got quite a bit of pain in my hip on the left side. That was pretty concerning and whilst I pushed on I was genuinely thinking I might have to either slow it down or maybe even stop altogether. I’d say that last several minutes and I still don’t know what caused it or why it seemed to fade away about as quickly as it had come on.
After the 3km marker it became easier. I mean that both mentally and physically. I found some kind of rhythm and, knowing I was over half way helped me push on. Having those on screen markers every kilometre, and then in the last kilometre you get one at the 4.5km marker too, they are something very visual to aim for and I find them a big help.
Whilst in my head this exercise is all about the 5km target the actual event itself was 5.5km today so I knew when I hit that 4.5km marker I still had 1km, or about 5m 45s of running left to do.
If this had been on some kind of smart treadmill the final bit of this run today would have been awful. It ended on the leg snapper segment of Innsbruck, or rather just after it as you crested the rise and turned on to the descent. None of that for me. I’m very much running on flat mode, in more ways that one.
And again as I have said about previous runs, towards the end all of a sudden a bunch of people start racing to the line. Just like in any other zwift event. I wasn’t doing that though. I did bump up my pace to 11kph briefly, though that was more to get the thing over with.
Coming out of the event I felt dizzy. That was the same as my last 5km full on effort. Not sure if that’s a treadmill thing or something else.
Also my calves are so tight after these runs. I’m also suffering from blistering, which I hope will go over time. After I’d showered and had my protein shake, I was sat down in the living room watching the FA Cup (good match, can’t remember the teams), and then I stood up and was back to hobbling again… although it wore off quickly. It’s like my calves have contracted.
All in all though, glad to get this one done. I can’t say I’m loving the running, truthfully. But I will see this event through.
