Running Off the Grid: A D1 Runner’s Training Retreat at the Lake of the Ozarks

Running off the grid was exactly the reset I needed as a college athlete. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your training is step away from everything. I needed a mental reset, and I needed it badly. So I drove out to my grandparents’ cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks, a place so far off the grid you have to drive a mile up a hill just to get cell data. The plan was simple: clear my mind, run, and come back to Kansas City with a whole new headspace.

Running Off the Grid: Why I Needed to Get Away

Lately a lot had been weighing on me, to the point where I was losing focus on things that really should have been important. As a D1 athlete at LSU, the pressure is constant, and when your mental state starts slipping, your training follows. I have learned that you cannot push through a bad headspace by just running harder. Sometimes you need to remove yourself from the environment entirely, reset your priorities, and come back sharper.

Setting Up at the Cabin

After the drive, I got the water turned on, the air conditioner running, and settled in for the night. The first evening was about figuring out how to productively relax while still setting myself up for a successful rest of the summer. That is a balance a lot of athletes struggle with. You want to decompress, but you also cannot afford to waste time when you are in the middle of building a training block.

Training on Lake Roads: Tempo Workout

The next morning I had a tempo workout on the schedule. The structure was one mile easy, one mile at tempo, repeating that four times until I hit eight miles total. If you have ever been to a lake area, the roads are insanely hilly. I am talking 300 to 400 feet of elevation gain in a half-mile hill. To avoid that, I actually drove a couple miles down to the highway and did my workout on the flat road there.

The tempo paces were not anything spectacular, but the effort was right. One thing I have always struggled with is keeping tempos controlled early in a session, so having the structure of alternating easy and tempo miles helped me stay patient. I finished the workout drenched but feeling better about my fitness than I had in weeks.

Swim Doubles and Active Recovery

In the afternoon, I got in a swim double down at the dock. Swimming is one of the best active recovery tools for distance runners because it keeps you moving without any impact. After weeks of pounding pavement and track, the water was exactly what my legs needed. I also spent time cleaning up the shed on the dock and even tried my hand at fishing, which I am admittedly not great at.

Cooking, Reading, and Unwinding

One of the highlights of the trip was the cooking. I went full Gordon Ramsay mode in the cabin kitchen, making real meals instead of relying on dining hall food or quick snacks. There is something about preparing your own food that feels restorative when your entire life is usually structured around someone else’s schedule. I also got through a book I had been meaning to read, which gave me some perspective on things outside of running.

The Long Run and Hitting Peak Mileage

My last run of the trip was the long run, and it capped off my second consecutive week at 55 miles. That was my peak mileage for the summer. Hitting that number consistently meant it was time to shift focus. Now that the volume was built up, the next phase was cranking up the intensity. Workouts would get harder, pacing would get more structured, and tempos would start getting faster. That is always the progression: build the aerobic base first, then sharpen it with speed.

I also realized it was time to start locking in and actually getting up early for my runs. Summer training can make you lazy about your schedule, and discipline in the small things carries over to the big things on race day.

Reflecting on the Trip

Driving back to Kansas City, I reflected on the whole experience. Honestly, the trip was not as productive as I had hoped in the traditional sense. I came in with expectations of editing five videos and reading through two books. I finished one book and barely edited a single TikTok. But I still count it as a success for two reasons.

First, I got my priorities straight. I realized a couple of things I needed to scale back on so I could put my full effort into what really matters to me. Second, I got three or four perfect days of running, eating right, getting all my recovery and prehab work done, and just unwinding. Sometimes that is exactly what your body and mind need to take the next step in your training.

If you are feeling burned out or stuck in a rut with your running, I cannot recommend a change of scenery enough. It does not have to be a cabin at a lake. It just needs to be somewhere that lets you step back, breathe, and remember why you started doing this in the first place.

See what my normal training looks like in a day in my life as a D1 athlete.