For Tobi Probst, running brings structure and purpose
What was your introduction to running?
I’ve been interested in running since I was very young. My mother started running after giving birth to my older sister and found a hobby she was talented at. She competed in 5K’s and 10K’s at local races most weekends in Germany and later in the Tampa Bay Area. I remember going to races with my mom and my sisters when I was young and later running at the same events. So those are the earliest memories I have.
I played club soccer and raced motocross in my early teens, but I always knew I was going to run when I got to high school.
In high school I went out for the XC and track teams my freshman year and had some success there.I really enjoyed being on a team, racing, and traveling to meets together. My first XC season we had a coach who was a distance runner, and our training was quite good. From my sophomore year forward our XC and Track coach was a former sprinter who really didn’t know anything about distance running. We trained a lot on the track and just did a ton of interval workouts at max effort with full recovery between reps. Looking back our training was awful, but we didn’t know any better. I don’t think I ever ran more than 20 miles a week back then.
After high school I had a few options to run in college but decided to stay close to home and ran for the University of Tampa, a NCAA DII program. Suddenly I found myself in a true distance program running 60+ miles per week, and it was a huge shock to the system for me. I was also commuting an hour to practice every morning and had to wake up at 4am every day. Since I didn’t live on campus I felt like an outsider on the team and I kind of fell out of love with running and competing. It was too much for me. I ultimately left the team and focused all my energy on school instead.
Around the same time I found rock climbing at a local gym and completely fell in love with it. From then on bouldering, sport climbing, and yoga became my focus for the next 8 years. I still ran occasionally for exercise, did a fair amount of strength training and HIIT workouts but I didn’t have any interest in competing.
How has this sport shaped your sense of purpose?
I have never been a structured person in my personal life. I don’t really like planning and I prefer improvising. But something about running brings out the complete opposite in me. I stick to my training religiously and I don’t ever miss a scheduled run. There is something so motivating about having an event or objective on the calendar that I need to prepare for. I really enjoy the process of setting goals for myself and doing everything I can to achieve them.
How did you find out about RCTC?
I believe the first time I came across RCTC was in XC race pictures I saw on Instagram. It was when my friend, Jess Ditto, joined the club that my interest was piqued about applying. I read about the team's mission on the team website and decided this was the club for me. As much as I enjoy training alone, I realized I was missing community and a group that was dedicated to achieving their running goals.
You have a strong background on the trails. Tell us about what inspires you to trail run!
I first became interested in trail running after reading a NYT article on Killian Jornet back in 2013. At the time I still lived in Florida so trail running seemed like an exotic take on a sport I had stepped away from. Even though I didn’t have much in the way of trails to choose from I was inspired to run a few days a week and its slowly grown to where I am now. When I moved to Portland in 2016, I started running regularly in Forest Park and naturally became interested in running longer routes in the Gorge and in the mountains. I would get up early on the weekends, pack my vest up with food and water, and then head out into the woods for a few hours and still be home for lunch. It was an amazing feeling to cover so much ground in a day. But even during this period I wasn’t interested in racing.
In the fall of 2019, I strung together some consistent weeks of running and ran the Wildwood Trail end to end in a little over 4hrs. After that I signed up for a 50K . I was overambitious in my training and injured myself about three weeks into the training plan. In 2020 I tried again, injured myself about 6 weeks in, but then Covid happened, and my race was cancelled anyway. Finally in 2021 I hired a coach and successfully trained for a 50K trail race. Since then it’s just spiraled to where most of my free time is scheduled around running. These days I climb once per week and haven’t done yoga in ages. Running will do that to you.
How do you feel racing on the roads compared to the trails?
I will say the biggest difference is the size of the fields. Road races tend to be way larger than trail races. Even competitive trail races only have a few hundred participants, whereas a local charity road race will have more than that. The energy is also completely different. Trail running is about different things for everyone. Some are there just to finish the distance while others are competitive but it’s almost never about time.
Most of the racing is about where you place in the field, whereas in road running most competitive runners are shooting for a time. I feel like road running is much more personal and internal whereas trail running you are more concerned about the competition around you. After a road race, if you showed up alone most people just go home after. Whereas after a trail race there is usually a celebratory atmosphere with beers and burritos. It’s not that I prefer one or the other, it's just that they are different in that aspect.
What’s your approach to training in general?
For many years, my running was sporadic, and I would just grind out big efforts with little preparation or overarching strategy. This kind of worked when I was younger but would often result in having to take a break from running because I would get sick or injured. Since working with my coach, Brett Hornig, in 2021 I’ve come to focus on building aerobic capacity through lots of easy running and being very strategic on where I focus my intensity. Most of my training is based on time on feet rather than mileage and going off feel while recording HR data to analyze after. I was a little impatient with this approach at first, but the results are there, and I’ve been able to continue to train consistently without any injuries for two years now. And I’m getting faster so that is great too!
You recently raced with us in Houston. How did it feel to travel across the country with the team?
It was so much fun! Starting the week before the race with the sendoff and support from teammates who weren’t travelling was awesome. Being able to meet up with the team and that sense of purpose you have from everyone setting striving to achieve their goals is so motivating for me. Getting into the starting corral before the race and having teammates around made me more comfortable and less nervous. We were all about to go through the same thing and for me that was calming.
Tell us about your life outside of running!
As I mentioned earlier, I also love climbing which includes pretty much every type of climbing (except ice climbing). My wife, Brooke, is a strong climber which is actually how we met. We still climb together once a week but she’s way more fit than I am these days. I also like skiing a lot. Alpine, Nordic, and backcountry touring. I am really interested in history, economics, and sports (Bundesliga soccer, and Ice hockey - FC Bayern and Tampa Bay Lightning are my teams).
For work I am an Operations Manager and part owner of an SF6 Gas Equipment Manufacturer and Service Provider. It’s a very niche business but to summarize, SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 23,900 times greater than carbon. It’s used in high voltage transmission and distribution. My company manufactures equipment and provides services that prevent it from being leaked into the atmosphere.
Anything else you’d like to share about yourself?
Although I grew up in Florida, I'm not a true "Florida Man." Both of my parents are originally from Germany and my entire family (besides my siblings and I) lives in Western Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and northern Austria. I am fluent in German as well. I also lived in Austria for two years which is why I can ski despite growing up in the swamp.
Bonus: What are you reading right now?
Currently I am reading The Ice Coven by Max Seek. It’s part of a Nordic Noir series based in Helsinki. Its dark and thrilling and is fitting read during Portland’s moody winters.
