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.

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

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.

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.

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 🦘🦘

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!

Always look forward to your videos. Thank you.

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

Very nice video 👍appreciate the extra effort with editing and graphics.

Excellent video! thanks from Brazil! keep going!

Yet another superb video! Many thanks! :)

Awesome video! I just subscribed too! Love your approach to making videos. Currently I have been obsessed with learning about Jakobs life and training. Look forward to more of your training videos

Fantastic Gorman the info is spot on 👌🏾

Outstanding as usual Goran, can't say thank you enough! Take care mate, run safe.

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.

A good video about the topic. Thank you!

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.

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