Post-race fatigue is in my blood...Literally

The turn-around at the top of the Rainshadow Running Angel's Staircase 35k race

I was bent over, struggling for breath in the middle of the trail with sticky phlegm projecting with each cough, and the only thing I could think was: What the heck is happening? I was only four miles into my usual eight-mile trail run through the hills outside Ephrata, Washington, and my body was putting on the brakes. So, as I stooped over my spittle I thought about what had led me to this lowly point.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence that my current running struggle follows my longest—and toughest—trail race to date, the Angel’s Staircase 35k by Rainshadow Running? Perhaps it was the 21.7 miles of trail-running bliss peppered with 5,926 vertical feet of gain that could have done it? Perhaps not, so I decided to take a deeper look into what affects happen following an all-out race effort.

The Basic Premise: Getting to the root of my fatigue

Gravity sucks. And, when gravity meets altitude and incline, which, in the c

ase of the Angel’s Staircase race which peaks at 8,000 feet, you get an all-out battle for muscle-recruiting oxygen. The battle is most noticeable through the huffing and puffing that occurs as the elevation (and trail grade) increases. But what causes all this deep huffing and puffing when the altitude and distance increases?

An important thing to note before carrying on is that a large part of the struggle (or lack thereof) is dependent on your pre-race physicality, but elevation and altitude cannot be discredited.

The rapid transition to higher altitude—and yes, 8,000 feet is high for someone living at or near sea level—will cause red blood cells to multiply as they attempt to make the most of the dwindling oxygen in the atmosphere. When cells multiply, according to altitude.org, they make the blood thicker, which causes the runner to feel sluggish.

Combine the increase in red blood cells with the change in air pressure (which is roughly 25-percent less at 8,000 feet compared to sea level) with a substantially higher heart rate caused by the need to filter more oxygen, and you get one worn out runner. The speed at which this cell increase occurs is not clear, but the quick transition to higher altitude can cause quite a bit of physical discomfort.

Many runner training groups recommend high altitude training as a safe, legal competitive edge—a roundabout way of blood doping by making you blood thicker prior to sea level competitions. But there are limits. “At these higher altitudes [above 8,000 feet], your exercise capacity decreases to the point that ‘deconditioning’ can take place,” according to the Institute for Altitude Medicine.

So, what is one possible result of my racing venture above tree line? A buildup of red blood cells, which can significantly prolong recovery time and time between future training runs. This, of course, is not the only combination of factors leading to my unsavory mid-run state, so I will be addressing other factors associated with post-race fatigue and hopefully building a plan to counter it.