Race Information

Name: Charles River Marathon
Date: May 3, 2026
Location: Cambridge/Boston, MA
Website: https://racecancer.org/charles
Time: 3:11:27 (BQ - 8:33!)

TL;DR:

Another data point: Marathon-flavored NSM worked for me, an older runner.
My results from NSM were solid but not spectacular.
The main modifications from vanilla NSM are: more volume, longer long runs, substitute longer MP intervals for some subT. Some periodization. Details are in the book.
My main personal mods were: cross-training, strength work, nagging injury management.
It is possible to over-do a carbo load.
I plan to continue with vanilla NSM going forward, and do Marathon NSM for my next marathon (NYC 2026)- I like the lifestyle and the results.

Gory Details

Background

M53. Middle-of-pack endurance athlete (cycling, running, rowing) for nearly 40 years.

Marathons: 9, including this one.

Non-Boston: 1994: Cape Cod: 2:59. 2000: Bay State: 2:58. 2014: Clarence Demar: 2:59. 2023: Beantown: 3:17 (1st > 50yo; dew point in the 70's!)

Boston: 1995: 3:07. 1996: 3:09. 2001: 3:57 (ran with friend, both under-prepared, hilarity ensued). 2016: 3:15 (pretty impressive blow up)

Objectives

Boston is my white whale; I've never run a "good" Boston where I could feel good crossing the finish. 0-4. 1995-1996 were expected (undertrained); 2001 was a story for another time, 2016 was unexpected (great build, bad race). So I want another shot. Which starts with qualifying. My 2023 race was a BQ (the standard for M50 was 3:25 then), and that was during the overlap week, so I had two shots. Alas, I DNS'd in 2024 and 2025 due to injury and other life issues. Back to the drawing board!

Training

I first tried NSM in early 2025, after coming back from an injury. I had a good stretch for about 6 months, culminating in my first sub-18 5k in ~10 years last August. It was a big surprise; I was way faster than I expected to be. Alas, I also aggravated shin splits in that race (a calculated risk I knowingly took), and had to back off a bit for most of the fall. 3-5 hours per week, a mix of running and cycling, not a lot of quality. I resumed something close to vanilla NSM in November.

This year, I followed the sirpoc marathon build closely in spirit, but not literally. I am a firm believer that workout plans are just ink on a page; while the good ones are built on sound principles, they are not perfect for each n=1 runner. My main mods were doing a fair amount of cross training (mainly rowing ergometer, some elliptical) in Jan/Feb due to a pretty legit winter and desire for variety, and backing off toward the end of the build while managing a nagging glute/hamstring issue. But I did the main sirpoc mods of adding a bit more volume, longer long runs, and working in higher-volume MP runs.

Training summary (all numbers are weekly averages):

Weeks	Running Miles	Running Hours	XT Hours	Total Hours	XT %
1-4	36.8	5:08	1:39	6:47	24%
5-8	27.2	3:47	2:41	6:29	42%
9-12	46.0	6:11	0:37	6:48	9%
13-16	57.0	7:48	0:03	7:51	1%
Overall	41.8	5:43	1:15	6:59	18%

This table runs from the start of 2026 to mid-April, when I started a 2 week taper. Various stuff flared up in weeks 5-8 (main culprit- 2 track workouts with my club at the BU track; the fast stuff was fun, but got me). Weeks 13-16 included the marathon NSM "special phase," which I followed pretty closely (time-based).

I like sirpoc's approach to the taper; basically full gas until the last 2 weeks, and sneak in a solid workout at the beginning of the first taper week. The idea is to keeping adding stimulus as late as is beneficial, while allowing enough time to recover (which is relatively short for NSM because you're not as deep in the well as other plans).

What I really like about NSM generally is that it's not stressful. Mentally it's easy to plan, emotionally it's easy b/c you're just plugging away at moderately hard workouts, and physically it's not so hard as long as you take the easy days easy. One thing I finally learned during this build was how to run 8-9 minute easy miles and enjoy it. I used to find that pace too boring, but with a harder run every other day, I now look forward to the easy days. I approach them mentally more like a walk than a run. I just chill and get the miles in. I did find that my easy pace actually got slower during the build, as I increased volume, etc.

One thing that was different vs. my 2025 NSM was that I didn't get much faster in general during this build. My subT paces for the right RPE were pretty stagnant, and slower than in 2025. I'm not sure why. I didn't lose *that* much fitness last fall. The fact that I'm an aging coot may well be a factor. I think I also should have raced more, or slipped in something like 45/15's or Mona workouts (my personal favorite). I do think I benefit from some carefully dosed faster work.

I did some strength and mobility work, because my legs have been an issue late in marathons. I aimed to do 4 sessions a week; 2 lower and 2 upper, packaged to be quick and easy to sneak in at home while e.g. folding laundry during the rest periods. I generally did the lower body in the evenings on subT or MP days, and the upper whenever. In practice, my average was probably close to 1 upper and 1 lower session per week. That said, I think it was still helpful, and I plan to do more strength work going forward. For muscle endurance, injury prevention, and to have arms that are not complete twigs.

Other Prep

One thing worth mentioning is my carbo load. I had never tried to do a proper one before, because it seemed risky if you do it wrong (Ron Howard voice: He did it wrong). But knowing that I never have been great in the last 10-12k, I figured that I needed all the help I could get.

So, I went for it. From Wednesday noon to Saturday noon (3 days / 72 hours), I was a carb eating and drinking machine. Sports drinks. Juice. Bread. So much bread (I love bread). It worked; I gained about 4 lbs, which works about to about 1 lb of carbs (~450g) and 3 lbs of water. I felt doughy but OK. My taper runs didn't feel great, but the short MP stints I did felt easy enough. Apart from my glute/hamstring, which if anything felt worse than during the heart of the build. Not terrible, but worrying.

Race

This race is 10 laps of a flat 2.6 mile loop (plus the extra yards on a mini-loop at the start). Which I like- you really can monitor how you feel over the exact same terrain, and the organizers provide tables where you can stage your own food and drink.

The weather was close to perfect: 45-50 deg F; mostly overcast. The only imperfection was a bit of wind.

I had the weirdest race. Normally marathons start easy and get really hard. This one started hard, then was OK, then wasn't so bad for the last 10k.

Two issues: My nagging glute/hamstring thing didn't feel great, and more importantly, I just felt nauseous and bloated. I had a good plan of focusing on gels on odd-numbered laps, and picking up a handheld 12 oz waterbottle with Tailwind on the even-numbered laps. I had practiced eating and drinking at MP pretty extensively. But, on race day, I just couldn't stomach much. I drank a bottle on laps 2 and 4, but barely touched my gel flask. Felt like I could puke. I then decided to just lay off everything for a lap or two, and hoped for things to clear out.

I felt so crappy, and came really close to quitting. Early. Like 5 miles in. But I reminded myself of several times that athletes felt bad early, only to feel great later. So each lap, I decided to stick with it for one more lap.

It also really helped to have a pace group. I was in the 3:10 group. We had great pacers (one per each half), and a solid group- the two leading women and some older guys like me. It definitely helped me stick with it when things weren't feeling good.

FINALLY, around 16 miles, I felt less bloated and nauseous. I still had no interest in fueling. But from ~16-21, I actually felt... pretty good! At that point I knew I was in good shape for a well-buffered BQ, which lifted my spirits. Around mile 21 I fell off the back of the group. I was OK with that; I figured if I kept ~7:30 pace, I'd only lose a minute or 2, and avoid the risk of a bigger disaster if I went deeper into the well. I had fended off disaster so far; no need to take more risks.

The last 5 miles were pretty OK. Hard, but I wasn't stressed, and I wasn't deteriorating too rapidly. I just plugged away. I was able to pick it up in the last stretch and catch up to someone else from my pace group as we crossed the line.

Lap summary (1 lap = 2.6 miles)

Laps	Time	Pace per Lap
1	21:05 (longer lap)	7:16 (approx)
2	18:47	7:13
3	18:41	7:11
4	18:37	7:09
5	18:28	7:06
6	18:36	7:09
7	18:47	7:13
8	18:55	7:16
9	19:41	7:34
10	19:46	7:36

This was definitely my most consistent marathon. It was about a +2 minute positive split, which is quite good for me- I have an impressive array of positive split marathons. And I barely ate or drank for the last 16 miles- I definitely front-loaded my fueling! If it had been any warmer, I would've been cooked. I am so thankful for the good weather!

Summary

NSM works for marathons. Carbo loading works, but apparently you can also overdo it- I will definitely approach that a bit differently next time! While it "worked," it wasn't exactly optimal.

Next stops for me are NYC this fall (qualified at the Fred Lebow half in 2025), and Boston next spring- with one of my sons, who qualified with a comparable buffer at Philly last fall!

u/syphax

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