How the Norwegian Method Is Changing Endurance Training

As far as I understood, the Ingebrigtsen adapted this double threshold system more and more as a search to avoid injuries. Injuries would come up again and again, so they looked for safer ways to increase volume. That becomes very important for professional runners and helps you accumulate volume.

I’m 61 now, and did my first marathon at age 55. When I was younger the training, philosophy was run till you puke. My first marathon was abysmal, my second and third not much better. Then I found the book 8020 running by Matt Fitzgerald. That changed everything for me and convinced me that you don’t have to go all out on every work out. It seems to be a simpler version of this Norwegian method. Of course, I didn’t have VO2 max and lactate threshold, measuring available to me, I only had heart rate. But my 5K dropped from about 26 minutes to 22:56 and my marathon went from 5:15 to 4:18. I’ve hung up my distance running, and I’m concentrating on Pole Vault now, and the sprint training for that is just as different from what I learned when I was a teenager.

When i ran interval training was very hard, much harder than today. But no one understood the concept of adaptation, basically that the gains do not come during the training but in the rest between training when your body adapts to the greater stress. Just knowing that and a heart rate monitor can get you very far. But now you add in lactate, VO2 Max, and sleeping devices to measure how well your body reacts to the training and you can completely control your training without breaking down. When i ran it was Russian Roulette, you trained as hard as you could and hoped you missed the bullet in the chamber(breaking down). Now you can predict that long before it happens. My performances took off when i learned that you should always have a little left at the end of a workout, or even a race. Even though it was a small amount, the psychological advantage of always knowing you would finish strong because you had more in reserve than the other guy made a big difference in my confidence.

You’ll never convince me to get on a treadmill, no matter how logical your arguments are 😂

I've been enjoying your videos a lot, Göran—it's not just your 'content', it's your demeanor which is very honest and hospitable. Cheers from South Australia 🦘🦘

Norway has been low key great in endurance sports. It's just usually focused on cross country skiing - but every so often somebody chooses a different sport and we get a random marathon runner, cyclist, or whatever making waves

I’ve been doing treadmill repeats and tempo intervals on the treadmill about 3 months. I hated it at first and then started enjoying it just like yourself. It’s definitely increased my top end work speed and endurance and helped take some impact out of the joints. I’ve also noticed you have to have better form on the treadmill at those top speeds, but maybe that’s just anecdotal to my experience. Thanks for another great video, Goran! Still my favorite YouTube channel.

With so many videos talking about ‘running slow to run fast’ it’s refreshing to hear of some actually successful training techniques that involve ‘running faster’! I ran slow for the last 15 years, lots of mileage all slowly. I then started training doing tempo and threshold sessions and just smashed my marathon and half marathon PB. As you state, it’s all about the right balance of ‘fast and slow’ + ability to recover that gets results - there aren’t any cheat mode or short cuts! P.s. - treadmills are torture!

Thx to your advice I’ve been trying to run almost every day at a lower easy effort with all my speed sessions up hills, It has helped me so much with avoiding injury and slowly getting faster.

Thanks Goran. As runner and an MD, I can not read Bakken's notes. They are all over the place. I am really curious to look at the data myself but it really needs a re-organization and re-write badly. I am so appreciative that Bakken did this, however. Wonderfully insightful foresight.

I looked at World Athletics, and Norway has 0.97% of the all time toplist for the 1500 even though they only have 0.06% of the world's population. They also have 0.93% of the mile list, 1.13% of the 2000m list, 1.51% of the 3000m list, and 1.7% of the 2 mile list. That's crazy. I guess science-based training works. What a surprise lol

Contnue with running until you are at least 90 years old. I wanna see that. Tack för dina videor och lycka till i fortsättningen.

your camera presence is so underrated

Wow! I loved this video. I cannot run due to a motorcycle accident but was a bicycle racer and junior coach many years ago. I am now 67 years old and still like the idea of well planned training using a heart rate monitor, intervals, rest/recovery and so on. I had a huge increase in speed the last year being able to drop my cycling group at will as a solo rider. The difference was adding swimming in the morning, including interval training dispersed through the routine. I did not really know why I got so much faster on the bike as even young riders could not stay with me. Now I think I understand what happened. Thanks for this video

This makes sense. I ran at my best in Dubai when doing long runs was only possible on the treadmill. My 10km got down to a 32min. For me a lifetime best. When I moved back to Australia, i was doimg hard hill intervals. Also made me srrong but I was no where near as fast. I lacked the treadmill. That is the secret, plus chilling out and not pushing myself like a racehorse. Great video. Thank you.

Marius Bakken is a fucking hero to be so systematic and scientific in his approach, so early before everyone else. There was so many coaches just doing what they always done, and then a young runner comes along and research this in such a systematic way, while also being one of the best runners in Europe AND studying to be a doctor. Fucking epic.

Hej Hej Göran! You inspired me to pick up running agin after a long time with this video! Thank you! - Is the 4x4 intervalls a "sub method" of performing the lactate threshold trainging? I read Marius's paper and searched online but some experts call the 4x4 method the norwegian method... but doesn't the 4x4 train way past the lactate threshold?

Always look forward to your videos. Thank you.

Great video! If you're interested in more history on why this testing and training method works well, watch anything by Dr Joe Vigil or pick up his book, road to the top. Vigil pioneered this style of testing and training in the 70s while head coach of Adams State. They won something like 15 national titles in a row, and Vigil went on to train more medalists from the 70s-early 2000s than any other American coach.

Nice video! Sweet Spot training is an excellent way to build capacity without taxing the ability to recover. Interval sweet spot training to teach close to race pace with greater volume is a really smart approach