Vertical Pain & Trust Issues

An unlikely report of my first race since... quite some time

This week marked a giant step in my injury recovery process. I raced for the first time since February. And for the first time in the mountains since Western States. I participated in one of the public races at the World Mountain and Trail Championships, which are currently taking place in Innsbruck, Austria. These public races take place on the official race courses and are open to all runners, not just the official country selections.

I decided to race the Vertical. Short and hard. A roughly 7 km uphill course with a little more than 1000 meters of altitude gain in the wonderful Stubai valley in Austria.

(Elevation profile of the WMTRC Vertical Race)

I picked this race because for the last 4 weeks I have been almost exclusively running uphill. My coach Karim and me found out, that running uphill has the least impact on my slowly healing Osteitis Pubis (Never mind, that’s the latin name of my injury). So, we put the focus on running up mountains and taking the cable car down. The cable car ride felt weird in the beginning (I love running downhill) but I was thankful that I could finally work out properly and get my heart rate pumped up a bit.

Therefore, the Stubai Vertical seemed to be perfect, to find my way back to racing.

Trust issues

To be honest, I was very nervous and doubtful before the race. It was much more about trust than about actual physical constraints. Trusting my body. Trusting its healing power. Trusting that I am on the right path. Trusting that it can bear some athletic stress. Much more than I had asked from it, during the last few weeks.

You must know that I am treating my injury very conscientiously. Simply because I don’t want it to become chronic. I rather forego a few months of proper training now, and get a complete recovery in return. However, I could be a bit overcautious sometimes. I (over)analyze every signal my body gives me and A/B-test the hell out of everything I do, to find the optimal middle ground between stress and rest. I doubt that this optimum exists, but I still strive after it.

Racing issues

Either way, once I pinned on that bib, it was crystal clear that it’s not the time to rest and care. The gun went off at 11 a.m. and after a flat kilometer through the mountain village of Neustift, we climbed the first 600 meters through steep narrow forest trails until the course mostly flattened out for at least 2 kilometers. I didn’t expect that, even thought I had carefully studied the elevation profile before.

The flat running unsettled me a little. Only 3 weeks ago I was still in the rehabilitative run-walk game (running with walking breaks), and even after that I had solely run on grass to reduce the impact.

My decision to take the flat part of the racecourse easy came naturally when I additionally found out how much I had unlearned to run hard. I unconsciously settled in a smug “below lactate threshold effort” (For everyone who’s not into training zones, that’s the sweet spot where it usually “gets tough”. At least for me. A solid 7/10 on my personalized RPE scale) and the temporarily flattish forest trails made up a great excuse not to push any harder.

Honesty-mode on: I am no natural-born competitor. I don’t have that famous “switch” in my head, that I flip and then go bonkers in a race. It totally depends on my day form, how hard I can push myself. If it’s not there, it’s simply not there. There’s a nice 20% of overall effort and output that I can only access when I am lucky. But I am fine with this. Races can be highly rewarding, even if you cannot give it all and go all out.

After that flat part, we left the tree line to face the last climb of 200 meters. A merciless ski slope up to the Elferhütte at 2004 m. This last stretch of the racecourse proved why Verticals are a race format of their own. People with grim faces were groaning and grunting, pushing the last steps up to the finish line. My war-face maybe was a bit more noncommittal, but I secretly enjoyed this special kind of pain, despite my shaking legs.

Crossing the finish line was a great relief. Surely because the race was over. But even more so because I had proven to myself that my body would withstand the exertion I put it through. The Stubai Vertical has reinforced my confidence, that Sierre-Zinal, as my first A-race sind the injury, can turn out great.

Rising Above Injury

(Trying my best not to be too melodramatic, but I was sincerely grilled)

I stayed on top of the mountain to see the finishes of the men’s race and a good part of the women’s race. Thereafter, I took the cable car to get off the mountain. Just like in training. I shared the gondola with the 3rd man, Josphat Kiprotich (wow, you can even see my arm in this picture behind the link) and a race official, who turned out to be his doping control agent. An unlikely trio, but we had a great time pulling flat jokes and revealing the reason for his unbelievably strong performance: Just like our jokes, his shoes were the flattest road racing shoes you can get. Who needs trail running shoes, when you fly up the mountain, anyway.

Everything not running

I’m vegan.

Calm down. I believe I am not the type of vegan who permanently tells you he is vegan, but I’m going to make an exception today.

Every once in a while, every vegan and vegetarian (there are no exceptions) happens to accidentally buy groceries that include animal products such as milk, cheese, gelatin, or even fish sauce. Shrimp sauce, to be more precise.

So, here’s an ethical question for you. If this happens to you, and you find out while you are already eating, will you eat up, or throw the dish away?

Thanks for being honest. I’m excited about the poll results!

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Sprachnachricht

Today’s Sprachnachricht #05 has kind of a poor sound quality. I am still in Innsbruck and recorded it with my AirPods instead of a studio microphone. You probably don’t care, but I do.

Vertical Pain & Trust Issues (SPRACHNACHRICHT #05)