Spring 2023 Training Block — Off to Minnesota!

Thar she blows, Lake Wobegon. What’s that you say? Lake Wobegon is not a real place? It’s a fictional town made up by the potentially problematic, very heavily-eyebrowed Prairie Home guy? Oh. Well, I’m going there anyways and I’m going to RUN.

About Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon

  • It’s a paved trail — I’m not that psycho

  • It’s small (400 runners max)

  • Church ladies host a “Pasta Feed” the night before the race

  • It’s point-to-point through small town, rural Minnesota

  • Average temps are 64°F high/42°F low

  • There are free race photos (ooh ahh)

Yes, hot on the heels of my craptastic second marathon back in January, I immediately signed up for another, the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon, in May because my life is clearly not filled with enough suffering.

My gels are packed. My hot bod is tapering. And my support crew — Molly, my sister — has already thrice noted that the lakefront fishing cabin we are staying in has no wifi or television. We are good to go!

But wait, are we? What have I done? Oh god, oh god, OH GOD. I have zero idea what to expect this time. Let’s reflect.

My Weird Little Training Block

I took two weeks completely off after Houston (did some walking only) and then spent three weeks easing back into running before attempting any workout or longer runs. Even with the break, I have to say, this marathon build up has been bizarre.

It was short. On paper, it’s 14 weeks, but really it’s been more like 11 weeks since I didn’t start doing workouts until three weeks in. I’ve had some great workouts and I’ve struggled desperately to hit paces in other workouts, so I basically have zero idea where my fitness is at.

My body hasn’t felt that great. I really spent this block slowing down and listening to what my body is saying (STOP, YOU BITCH, mostly) and resting more instead of trying to push through fatigue.

My mileage was super low. I peaked with 43.5 miles, and only did six weeks with 40+ miles. There was a week where my mileage was just 25 miles because I felt kind of sickly and weak. Another was just 20 miles because I had to go to Florida to help my father “move some furniture” after his tile floors buckled throughout the house and he had some rando handy man guys install the world’s ugliest vinyl flooring from Lowe’s. Between the 10 hour days of cleaning, rearranging backbreaking antiques, hanging pictures, shopping for and laying down rugs, and also partaking in some light surfing in 25 mph offshore headwinds, I at least got in some decent “crosstraining.”

My long runs were shorter. My longest run was18.6 miles. It took three hours in the heat, which was good enough for me. I had another 18 miler with the final 4.5 at pace. I also logged a 15, 16, and 17 mile run. Should I be worried? I don’t entirely think so, since four of them were were over 2.5 hours long. We shall see.

I switched to a (mostly) plant-based diet. I live in a state of perpetual gassiness, just extreme gas all the time. I’ve tried to troubleshoot my ongoing stomach issues, and have switched to a mostly plant-based diet (some meat still slips in), and I started drinking lactose-free milk with my coffee and occasional bowl of cereal. I still have days where the stomach does an icky gurgle-sitch on runs, but for the most part I am trying to be better about what I’m taking in and how it makes me feel — gassy, it’s usually gassy. There is no escape.

I did less-intense workouts. My workouts didn’t have the intensity or duration of the ones I did in the previous two cycles, and I didn’t do any build up races, but again I just went off feel. Last week, I did 8 x Yasso 800s in an average of 3:39 and still felt fresh at the end. I also ran a 14 mile run with 3 x 2 miles at pace and felt great. This week I felt like absolute garbage trying to do 2 x 1.5 miles at pace, but I’d also gone to see Ween the night before and destroyed my body standing around for three hours, so yay. I have noticed, overall, it’s been taking me longer to warm up into faster running.

Some of the workouts I did:

  • 2 miles at goal marathon pace + 5 x1k at tempo down to 10k

  • short hill sprints

  • 8-12 x 1 minute on at VO2/1 minute off

  • 2 x 1.5 miles at tempo

  • progression and fast finish runs

  • 2 x 1 mile at tempo, 4 x 400 at VO2, 1 mile tempo

  • 1 mile tempo, 4 x 400 hard, 800 tempo (kept it short while visiting Dad’s)

I have no idea what to think. I am now in the taper (granted, not much of a taper due to the lower mileage) and am just respecting the distance and thanking my body in advance for all it will give on race day. I did not train as balls-to-the-wall as my last two marathons because I know my limits and I am very much looking forward to a summer break after the race.

My Goals for the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon

A Goal

Negative split the course. I have yet to run a “smart” marathon (is there even such thing? lol). But I WILL start slow this time. I may do the first mile at 9 minute pace and plan to hang around 8:45 pace for the first 3-5 miles. I’m still working out exactly what I hope my paces and splits will be after that, probably not much faster though. I don’t really have a time goal (somewhere in the 3:40s, I’m guessing? If slower, so be it). I just want to experience running faster splits at the end of the race, so my overall goal for this race is really to conserve energy at the start, fuel wisely, bring a bottle of electrolytes for the early miles, hydrate at the water stations, pray for no stomach issues, and try to push the final 10k — famous last words.

B Goal

Catch the 3:45 group by the finish. Wait, how can the B Goal be faster than the A Goal? Girl, I don’t know. Anyhow, I am not planning to go out with the 3:45 group because they’ll likely start on-pace (around 8:35/mile me thinks), and I plan to go out slower than that — somewhere between them and the 4 hour group. Since this is a paved trail, I’m hoping to just zen-out and knock off splits, speeding up a little each three to five miles. If I feel good, hopefully I can catch the 3:45 pack and hang with them to the finish.

C Goal

Finish! Let’s be honest, the C goal is always just to finish. Will I only be a C Goal girl forever? Hopefully I’ll move onto achieving my goals this time. I do intend to have fun, stay positive, eat the church lady pasta, behold the pastoral beauty, and hopefully (please please please) enjoy cool temps on race day.





Gwendolyn Knapp