"I'll run over it."

You bend until you break

“I’ll run over it.”

So that was unexpected. It was actually just a little pinch in the back of my knee. A typical "I'll run over it" kind of pain. Especially since everything was fine while I was running, only afterwards it hurt a bit. On my last run in the mountains on Sunday, however, things changed dramatically halfway through. The knee shut down completely and I had to limp back to the station for the second half. At home, the knee was swollen, red and a full 3/10 on the pain scale.

A small but important note here for correct classification: on my pain scale, a 10/10 means "burning alive".

Not dramatic, but not "I'll run over it" either.

(Don't be deceived by the light. This is not a spiritual awakening scene)

On Strava, my friend Benni replied to my last 200m run attempt and asked me what was wrong. My spontaneous answer was

"Oh you know, nothing special, just typical runner stuff".

There were three reasons for that instant answer.

1. “You bend until you break.”

We are all in the same (sinking) boat. Running is a hard sport, and both ambition and enjoyment are powerful forces that constantly drive us to push our bodies to the limit. This happens mostly unconsciously, but sometimes very intentionally, for example during the peak weeks of race preparation or during the race itself. We have all experienced what it is like to take that famous one step too far. You bend until you break.

At the same time, we know that the body will recover from almost anything we put it through. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but in the end we are back to running again. A Blessing and a Curse.

2. “What’s an injury anyway?”

In my (or can I say "in our"?) "I'll run over it" attitude, there is also a superpower, along with all the almost comical ignorance. And that is the ability to tell which injury is no big deal and which is really serious. The body gives us very clear signals, and over many years of running we learn to interpret them more and more correctly. Not everything that hurts is a serious injury.

But you can never be sure. So feel free to remind me of my self-assured words if I still can't run in 3 weeks. Huh.

3. “Ist mir scheissegal.” (*)

(*) actual quote from me, when my wife Lisa asked me when I thought I'd run again. Yes, it is a bit overdramatic.

Somehow I don’t really care that I have to take a break for a few days. To this day, I'm not quite sure how to interpret this "not caring", but the feeling was clearly there right from the beginning. Of course, I'd rather run than lie around on the couch, but it never bothered me so little to wait until I can return to it.

At best, this attitude reflects a new (?) composure that I may have been carrying since my first serious injury in 2023.

If something is lost, it can be found

At worst, this nonchalance reflects a certain listlessness when it comes to my current running projects. I certainly didn't feel that way when I was jumping around in the mountains last Sunday. I was actually looking forward to beating my best UTMB result to date at the Hochkönigman Speedtrail this weekend. Please take this as a teaser, as I'm currently writing a Das Z Letter about this topic.

At the moment, it doesn't look like I'll beat anything this weekend, except maybe the sleep score of my Oura Ring – another article I'll be working on soon.

Thank you for listening. I hope it's clear that I'm not in a bad mood. So you can save your encouraging words for when it really gets serious.

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Everything Not Running

You've probably noticed that the AI revolution is not stopping at music. There are now dozens of apps that can generate songs based on a prompt, i.e. a text command. Including lyrics, of course. It still sounds a bit tinny here and there, but we're talking about a few months when AI music will be indistinguishable from handmade music.

This will be a big change for musicians, or let's call them "creative music makers" from now on. If the ability to play a musical instrument (or better, several) has been a prerequisite for writing and recording great songs in the last few centuries, this will no longer be the case in the future. If you think about how many dozens of hours you have to practice "Smoke on the Water" (or in my case "Troops of Tomorrow" by The Exploited) on the guitar before you even think about writing your own songs, then this is a dramatic change.

Even before AI, tools and methods that have been used in pop music for decades have found their way into rock music. For example, autotune, which automatically corrects vocals or instruments to the correct note, and the "programming" of drums and bass. This makes the work of musicians, producers and songwriters much easier. If nothing else, this has laid the groundwork for the rest of the instruments no longer to be played in a recording studio, but to be created on the screen. AI will pour gasoline on this trend and then set it on fire.

(2009 recording the last THE BLACKOUT ARGUMENT album somewhere in Austria)

My prediction? First, the music market will be flooded with millions, perhaps billions, of songs. Established rating systems like the album and single charts will collapse under the weight and drift into irrelevance. Music fans will argue passionately about whether songs are better before or after AI.

In a second phase, music consumption as we know it will completely dissolve. We will no longer click on specific artists, albums, or playlists in our streaming services, but instead select a certain mood, perhaps a rough genre, and what we want the song to be about. The AI will then generate it for us on the fly and play it directly. With a short voice command like "Hey Siri, change the singer to a female version of Shane MacGowan and make her sing about blue roses," we can alter the song to our liking while we're listening.

Nostalgics and purists, of course, will outlive the signs of the times, just like their vinyl records, but for the majority of us, listening to music will become a pool of endless possibilities.

What do I think? I honestly have no idea. Do I have to?