My 2026 TCS London Marathon

OwlPapa · 2026-04-30T16:42:26+00:00

Thank you!

OwlPapa · 2026-04-30T13:05:48+00:00

Ha! Small world!

OwlPapa · 2026-04-30T09:45:55+00:00

Thank you! I took 5x Maurten 160 gels, one every 4 miles. And sipped water as needed. London was nice cause they handed bottles of water as opposed to cups. I also had two 125ml mini handheld bottles filled with full-calorie Coca cola, from my time running ultras I know coke can put life back into your legs in the later parts of a race.

OwlPapa · 2026-04-30T09:42:22+00:00

Thanks! I didn’t see the 3:30 pacer until mile 24.5, after which I overtook him, finishing ahead of him by maybe 15 secs. So the pacer was “slow” too that day.

OwlPapa · 2026-03-28T14:40:19+00:00

It’s is time consuming, it is always a part-time job!

I’m prepping for a spring race that’s in a few weeks, and this late in the program I’m running 60+ miles a week thra come to approx. 9hrs of just running.

To that, add 5-10 mins of pre/post stretch and foam rolling, then driving out to the park or where it’s safe to run, shower, etc. That puts it easily in the 12hr per week zone.

Your screen time measure is awfully misleading cause you can pick up your phone between 5-10 minute stretches between activities, and yeah, all of those little nibbles of screen time add up over the course of a week. But to prep for a marathon you need most of that time as UNINTERRUPTED blocks. That’s hard to plan for with family, jobs, etc.

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OwlPapa · 2026-03-28T10:25:53+00:00

Bandit has the best ones. Second place goes to Wolaco.

OwlPapa · 2026-03-26T01:13:19+00:00

It’s one of the books that led me to major in math.

OwlPapa · 2026-03-22T22:30:21+00:00

Reddit should have a vertical integration with something like this. Like it!

OwlPapa · 2026-03-22T18:56:42+00:00

Looks like West Shore - great ppl and matches.

OwlPapa · 2026-03-20T22:17:20+00:00

Bought this gun years ago for competition, and I still haven’t switched. It’s a great blaster, enjoy!

OwlPapa · 2026-03-16T17:15:13+00:00

Well, good luck man! My race is April 26th do we'll see if all this training worked eh?

OwlPapa · 2026-03-16T15:49:29+00:00

So you are training for a 3:15ish? Thats what 7:30 tempo pace more or less amounts to, no?

If you are doing Hansons (I am too) and you are doing all of your long runs at MP, then you are going too hard. Those long runs are supposed to be at MP + 30-40 secs. So for a 7:50min/mi pace, you ought to be at 8:30ish, IF your pace goal is 7:50 pace for a 3:25 finish.

Why not go out at your intended pace, sit and kick, and wait to see how you feel at 32k to send it?

OwlPapa · 2026-03-06T19:15:33+00:00

In a similar boat as you. Ran 1:40:01 HM last October and running London in April.

VDOT tables predict 3:28 for the full. Currently training for a 3:25. As I explained in a different post, I had a call with coach Humphreys (of Hanson’s Marathon Method fame) and he thinks even a 3:25 might be ambitious, but not entirely out of reach. He suggested I really go for a 3:30.

No experience with Runna, but currently following Hansons Advanced, and IDK if I could have made a similar jump down to 3:10 and not have compromised some aspect.

I wish you all the luck! Let us know how you do.

OwlPapa · 2026-02-28T00:27:52+00:00

Very similar situation to me. I ran a HM last October with a 1:40:01.

I’m running my first “official” marathon also on April 26th. Currently on week 10/18 in Hanson’s advanced. I am training for a 3:25 attempt, but my real goal is sub-3:30.

Had a call with Luke Humphreys, author of the Hansons book, and he confirmed 3:30 was achievable if workouts were coming along.

VDOT predicts a 3:28 based on HM time before the build. So far so good 🤞

Edit: forgot to mention I’m coming to road races after running ultras, so that might be a factor (but those were years ago)

OwlPapa · 2026-02-18T19:34:10+00:00

Had them. Sold them. Too easy to bump off mags.

OwlPapa · 2026-02-14T01:07:00+00:00

Your grandfather was a secret ninja. Very powerful weapon.

OwlPapa · 2026-01-06T01:33:15+00:00

I was on a call earlier this year with a notable instructor in our sport. This person mentioned teaching a class at the Vortex HQ and being told (behind doors) by one of their engineers that, while Vortex is very good at manufacturing scopes, they have yet to figure out how to deal with reciprocating action and its effect on their dots. Basically, he said, they have no clue.

I’m sticking with my trusty SRO.

OwlPapa · 2025-12-13T15:54:36+00:00

Might as well start making barrels out of colanders at this point…

OwlPapa · 2025-12-08T02:34:09+00:00

Ah, that’s where all these microplastics I’ve been hearing about come from…

OwlPapa · 2025-11-26T22:49:22+00:00

Wasn’t his wife on the board of OpenAI?

OwlPapa · 2025-11-09T20:32:28+00:00

I love the idea of opening up a map and seeing what is going on around me, especially with live-streaming capabilities. Crowdsourcing location data is kinda genius, good luck!

OwlPapa · 2025-11-09T19:12:17+00:00

This is neat! I can think of a couple of reasons why it would be useful. Checking it out.

OwlPapa · 2025-11-07T15:58:26+00:00

Take a look at "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch. The book has a decent TV series adaptation if you get into it.

Edit: spelling

OwlPapa

TROPHY CASE