FaceTiming your running club on your lonely lockdown 5k is no longer cutting it (plus it’s giving you arm ache). The next step to running together without running together? Racing each other on screen.
The tool is Zwift’s new Meetup feature, which lets you pound the streets of the platform’s virtual worlds with up to 100 friends.
Choose your location, select your duration or distance, invite your crew of choice and Zwift will transport you all on to the same exclusive running track, free of other Zwifters and with your very own leaderboard. Only those in the meet-up will be able to chat.
Just like your real-world cardio sessions, it’s all about the feeling of being in a tribe. You, the run leader, will be given a yellow beacon while others will be highlighted in green so you can keep tabs on where everyone is and make sure no one falls behind.
How you structure your session is up to you: download the same audio run-club and jog together in sync; host your own lockdown championships running race; or create a Midnight Runners-style bootcamp.
Though Zwift doesn’t support structured workouts (yet), there’s no reason why you can’t organise your own: get the group leader to call out changes in pace, recovery periods and exercises and you can all sprint and stretch together while you catch up.
The best part? You don’t have to worry about dodging strangers on Southbank or getting the Tube home afterwards.
