Who says a week can't end on a Monday? 😅
Hi everyone, my name is Julia and I'm running the Bridge to 10K programme following Ju-Ju's Magic Plan (distance edition). I've decided to log my progress during the course of the programme and I'm hoping to provide a motivating read for the other members of this community. I do all my runs on a treadmill and I use a neat little game called Zwift to supplement my training.
This week's post is a bit late as last Wednesday I summited Alpe du Zwift (Zwift's most famous, if not the most difficult climb) on a bike. That effort knackered me good and I had to spend the most of the week recovering! The 5K I did was absolutely terrible and I realized I was in no shape to run a 9K. However, I more than made up for it today...
Oh, I also managed to iron out the issues with the NPE Runn sensor and it worked near perfectly the entire week. I'm satisfied. 🙂
Bridge to 10K Week 6 Day 1
For this week's short run I decided to do an interval workout from Zwift's workout library. And oh boy, it was a great time! The workout was called over/unders and as it says the tin, you go over your 5K pace during the effort intervals and under the pace during the rest intervals. It was a tough workout, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My gf also made a cameo appearance as she was climbing the same hill on a bike. 💙
Week 6 Day 1 on Strava: strava.com/activities/58465...
Week 6 Day 1 on Zwift: zwift.com/eu/activity/88850...
Bridge to 10K Week 6 Day 2
Due to the aforementioned Alpe du Zwift summiting on a bike I was in no shape to run a 5K. It was simply awful. To top it off a bee came inside during my run and even though I am not deathly allergic to bee stings, I'm deathly afraid of them! Cue me running off and hiding as a sweaty mess. I managed to resolve the bee situation eventually and slog the rest of the 5K.
Week 6 Day 2 on Strava: strava.com/activities/58652...
Week 6 Day 2 on Zwift: zwift.com/eu/activity/89114...
Bridge to 10K Week 6 Day 3
After giving my body some well earned recovery time, I returned to complete Week 6's long run during technically Week 7. I chose Alpe du Zwift as my route, as I wanted to revisit the route as a runner-- and to pass by those poor cyclists on the climb! (Runners on Zwift do not feel the incline unless you manually adjust the incline on your treadmill, which I didn't do 😜) I wasn't planning to summit AzD this time around, as the climb is around 12km, which was fine by me.
I didn't feel too well during the first 3km, but I kept pushing on. As I hit the halfway mark to 9K, 4.5km, I started to believe I could finish the run. I played some chill tunes from Old School Runescape and tried to let the kilometres roll by. I didn't enter a meditative state this time around, but I managed well enough. At the 8km mark I switched to more powerful, faster music. I managed to catch that magical feeling every runner craves - runner's high.
I rode the high; I no longer could feel any pain in my tired body. I felt invincible. I hit the 9km mark and I. JUST. KEPT. GOING. At 9.6km I started to sprint and BOOM! There it was! The magical 10K! I did it! I friggin' did it!
I ran my first run on March 1st, 2021.
I ran my first 5K on June 18th, 2021.
I ran my first 10K TODAY!
There's something about Alpe du Zwift that brings the best out in one's athletic ability.
Week 6 Day 3 on Strava: strava.com/activities/58781...
Week 6 Day 3 on Zwift: zwift.com/eu/activity/89280...
I'm quite sure what I am doing next; I'm not going to continue Ju-Ju's Magic Plan. I am going to focus on interval workouts as I've noticed them being my cup of tea over endurance running. I'll keep doing 10K's every once in a while and someday, I'll start a training plan for running a half marathon. Until then, I'm signing off. Hopefully you enjoyed my journey of crossing the bridge... to 10K! Thank you!
Previous post [Week 5]: healthunlocked.com/bridgeto...
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
