Running Naked on Zwift

A recent game update gave us the option to remove all screen Heads Up Display (HUD) elements when running on Zwift. That means removing information pertaining to your speed, distance, time, and heart rate, as well as removing the list of your fellow runners’ names from the right-hand side.

In real life we call this “running naked”.

Data-Driven Training

With the arrival of GPS watches and consumer heart rate monitors, we’ve become accustomed to having health and fitness data at our fingertips. If you want to know how fast you’re running you just look at your watch. How far you have run, look at your watch. What’s your heart rate? A glance at your wrist will give you the answer.

To some degree, access to this information has altered the way we train. Very rarely do we simply go out for a run anymore. Each run has a data-driven purpose, whether it is to run at a given pace or stay within a certain heart rate zone.

And this is generally a good thing, as it has allowed us to make more informed choices about our running and fitness goals and to tailor our training for maximum effectiveness.

Run Data on Zwift

Running on Zwift is a logical extension of the marriage between fitness and technology. But with Zwift, not only do we have the data normally found on our watches (like maps, mile splits, time, heart rate, pace, and cadence); we also have the names of our running buddies and some of their run data on screen.

In addition, we may be reading chat messages or on-screen instructions from a group run leader. All this while trying to keep our balance on a treadmill as we run over a rickety wooden bridge in the middle of the Mayan Jungle!

Leaving the Watch at Home

Understandably, some people don’t like to feel continually tied to technology. There is liberation for some in occasionally leaving the GPS watch at home and simply running.

There are times when running should have no distractions and no agenda. That’s the time when you should run “naked”.

Naked Treadmill Running

The option to remove the HUD in Zwift brings us one step closer to naked treadmill running. Suddenly you’re no longer glancing up at the colorful heart rate display. You can’t see the jokes that the run leader is messaging in game, or the runner who is 1 minute behind you but catching.

Now you’re truly immersed in the Zwift landscape. Watopia never looked so vast and detailed. You see features you never noticed before and it makes for a particularly unique Zwift running experience!

It’s not something you’ll want to do every time you run and indeed the feature is disabled in Workout Mode. But, while it’s difficult to completely disengage from your run data – information is still visible on the Zwift Companion App and most likely on your treadmill display – it’s certainly a step towards the freedom some runners feel when they leave their watch at home.

Running to Feel

From a training perspective, running without seeing your pace or heart rate can be a very useful marker of how well you can judge your Rate of Perceived Exertion or RPE.

Do you know what it feels like to run at 8 minutes per mile? Do you know how it feels to be in heart rate zone 4? Aside from the liberation of running without distraction and running for running’s sake, running naked is a fascinating training session in itself.

Summary

So whether you are running outdoors or on Zwift, you can now do so without the distraction of data. You can do so in order to free your running and immerse yourself in your surroundings. Or you can do so as a training exercise to gauge how in-tune you really are with your body.

See you on course!