Long interview with GJERT INGEBRIGTSEN translated to English - 2021

Thank you!

The best thing I have read on this site in a while. Wish there were more post like this.

As a coach hearing from Gert has provided pearls of wisdom. The most important take 'we do what we do and don't worry about what others are doing' in todays world what coach hasn't had to deal with that with their athletes.

It's correct that he did not give many specifics. I could be wrong, but what I took away from this short interview, is that practicality and adaptation go a long way. Have a system and have a training philosophy, but don't be overburdened with too rigid a philosophy. Do what your athletes need, but realize that may constantly change. It may be different for each athlete, each day, season or year.

It seems like Gjert is saying that prior to starting to coach these athletes, he wasn't overly burdened with any specific, rigid training philosophy. That allowed him to mold, shape and fit what worked for his athletes at any given point in time. He obviously has a system and a training philosophy and has taken ideas from others (as does everyone). But he not so invested in one particular school of thought, that he isn't willing to tear it down and start over more than once, if that's what is needed to make progress.

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

I just would like to make it very clear that this with double thresholds is NOT something unique that Gjert would be the first to use in his coaching. This with double thresholds was already used by "The Italian Wonder " by Alberto Cova, Salvatore Antibo, Stefano Mei and some more top Italians back in the -80s- 90s. So it`s not a new invention that so many seem to believe. Anyway it stands clear that the vast majority of world class runners like Kipchoge, Kamworor, Kipruto, Kandie, Cheruiyot and many more do just as well with single lactate threshold workouts.To become a world class top runner has nothing to do with if you run single or double thresholds, it`s mainly a question of superior talent.

I don't agree with everything you write about running, but this comment by you make a golden impression, ' To become a world class top runner has nothing to do with if you run single or double thresholds, it's mainly a question of superior talent. '

John Scott wrote:

I have to admit this is a little embarrassing, but for some reason I wrote 'why' instead of what. The line should read: 'The how' is more important than the 'what'.

You translated this yourself? Kudos!

Here's a Swedish interview with the then new WR holder in 10000 meter speed skating Nils van der Poel, he's since gone on to also break the 5000 meter record. Now he has a really unique way of doing things, first a looong base with almost all aerobic training (including simply biking the entire nation from north to south) and then for about three months doing all his speed traing as race pace intervals with shorter and shorter rest by the week:

15-25x400 @56>52.5 on short rest (longer than 30 seconds, but he doesn't say what) indicates pretty close to wr 1500m ability on that day. Guerrouj supposedly would do 10x400m@53-54 on 30 seconds rest. I think that he was capable of 3:24 (his goal) on the right day with the right pacing, which he did not get.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm9X9tgFmAr/?taken-by=sweatelite&hl=en

Five is the magic number wrote:

Here's a Swedish interview with the then new WR holder in 10000 meter speed skating Nils van der Poel, he's since gone on to also break the 5000 meter record. Now he has a really unique way of doing things, first a looong base with almost all aerobic training (including simply biking the entire nation from north to south) and then for about three months doing all his speed traing as race pace intervals with shorter and shorter rest by the week:

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-ahfbc-d2fdde7?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Unfortunately, the interview is in Swedish.

Is there a script of the interview? If so, I'd like to paste it into a translator and see it.

GI:there's a rule that says the last interval must be the fastest. The average speed of any set shall always be faster than the former. The same for intervals. If an interval is slower than any of the former, you have to stop. That's our mantra. There has to be an unambiguous form of progression in the session. That's a damage control mechanism. And when you run the first lap on 55.7s, you've set the bar pretty high when you have 15-20 to go. The last one was in 52.2s or something.

He ran 25x400 improving by 3.5 seconds, and each one of them was faster than the previous????

Therefore he had to improve each one by less than 2 tenths of a second, which would not have been possible.

That "always be faster" progression comment is obviously total nonsense.

75 still alive wrote:

GI:there's a rule that says the last interval must be the fastest. The average speed of any set shall always be faster than the former. The same for intervals. If an interval is slower than any of the former, you have to stop. That's our mantra. There has to be an unambiguous form of progression in the session. That's a damage control mechanism. And when you run the first lap on 55.7s, you've set the bar pretty high when you have 15-20 to go. The last one was in 52.2s or something.

He ran 25x400 improving by 3.5 seconds, and each one of them was faster than the previous????

Therefore he had to improve each one by less than 2 tenths of a second, which would not have been possible.

That "always be faster" progression comment is obviously total nonsense.

I agree with you there, and that comment is of course as you say total nonsense. The best way of doing a real interval of many reps is to let the pace at the reps stay the same and instead let the increased amount of reps increase the pressure . When the last rep is done in the interval the runner should feel he/she could do at least another one at same pace if forced to. That`s the way to do a perfect interval with many reps .

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

75 still alive wrote:

He ran 25x400 improving by 3.5 seconds, and each one of them was faster than the previous????

Therefore he had to improve each one by less than 2 tenths of a second, which would not have been possible.

That "always be faster" progression comment is obviously total nonsense.

I agree with you there, and that comment is of course as you say total nonsense. The best way of doing a real interval of many reps is to let the pace at the reps stay the same and instead let the increased amount of reps increase the pressure . When the last rep is done in the interval the runner should feel he/she could do at least another one at same pace if forced to. That`s the way to do a perfect interval with many reps .

And the "always be faster " progression comment doesn`t match with what has previously been published by Ingebrigtsen`s interval workouts with even paced reps the entire workout. ;)

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

I agree with you there, and that comment is of course as you say total nonsense. The best way of doing a real interval of many reps is to let the pace at the reps stay the same and instead let the increased amount of reps increase the pressure . When the last rep is done in the interval the runner should feel he/she could do at least another one at same pace if forced to. That`s the way to do a perfect interval with many reps .

And the "always be faster " progression comment doesn`t match with what has previously been published by Ingebrigtsen`s interval workouts with even paced reps the entire workout. ;)

i wonder if this was mistranslated in a way. i think what he is trying to convey is that you absolutely can't get slower. if you slow down, you are done. this is good practice.

my guess is that almost all were in the 55-56 range. only the final one at 52. Gjert said he let him rip one because it was a race specific workout, rather than the typical 5k pace type stuff they are accustomed to

perhaps we will get a special treat and see a piece of this workout on one of the final 2 episodes of TEAM INgebrigtsen.

Well....might be as you propose. :) Maybe mistranslated.... Anyway one thing is clear that the told 15 - 25 x 400s at 52-56 sec was told to have been in sets and then not a traditional interval but a repetition at 1500m race pace or faster devided into 3-5 sets by 5 x 400s. Of course impossible for any runner in history to run 25 x 400m with a little more rest than 30 sec in 56-52 sec. As I told before Asbel Kiprop told me he once did 15 x 400m in a row at 57-52 sec , but then with 3 min rest between ( I`m not 100% sure if it was 3 min , maybe it was 2-3 min. I will check my correspondance with him and see exactly what he told back in 2016 ) .

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

Maybe mistranslated.... .

It's as good as verbatim.

Keep in mind he's talking about a specific session during race preparation (pre DL Florence) which was supposed to be hard and progressive. 'Hard' implies a risk of failure through fatigue. Which means this 'rule' isn't relevant for the vast majority of sessions in the program, because most sessions are not hard.

Context is important.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

15-25x400 @56>52.5 on short rest (longer than 30 seconds, but he doesn't say what) indicates pretty close to wr 1500m ability on that day. Guerrouj supposedly would do 10x400m@53-54 on 30 seconds rest. I think that he was capable of 3:24 (his goal) on the right day with the right pacing, which he did not get.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm9X9tgFmAr/?taken-by=sweatelite&hl=en

The workout was 4-5 sets of 5x400m with 90 seconds rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets. He averaged 56 on the first set and 55 on the next sets. His last rep was 52 high

75 still alive wrote:

Five is the magic number wrote:

Here's a Swedish interview with the then new WR holder in 10000 meter speed skating Nils van der Poel, he's since gone on to also break the 5000 meter record. Now he has a really unique way of doing things, first a looong base with almost all aerobic training (including simply biking the entire nation from north to south) and then for about three months doing all his speed traing as race pace intervals with shorter and shorter rest by the week:

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-ahfbc-d2fdde7?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

Unfortunately, the interview is in Swedish.

Is there a script of the interview? If so, I'd like to paste it into a translator and see it.

Sorry, and it's way too long for me to write it out. But if he's on some other pod that does that (a script) I'll post a link. Dude is one of the most interesting athletes in the world right now, before that long slow base training phase he had on the lead up to his first world record he also did about a year of voluntary military service in the winter warfare elite forces.

Superspikesposter wrote:

The workout was 4-5 sets of 5x400m with 90 seconds rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets. He averaged 56 on the first set and 55 on the next sets. His last rep was 52 high

The average per set is the usual and important metric - any individual lap can be affected by a simple gust of wind or something else and doesn't mean that much if it still feels OK and the pulse is good too and drops down afterwards like it normally should - and over a set those things usually evens out.

I think the big objection is lack if specifics. If you tell us X was needed to be changed people want to know why and what you changed to. Instead we get a bunch of vague generalities.

There are also real world stuff. it is easy to lay out training plans in a year in advance saying you want to peak for x races and the figure out roughly where you want to be. But it is hard to be exact when injuries, illness, weather and the rest of life can cause you to shift stuff around.

Thanks for the feedback. I'd be interested to see more of his training.

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

Well....might be as you propose. :) Maybe mistranslated.... Anyway one thing is clear that the told 15 - 25 x 400s at 52-56 sec was told to have been in sets and then not a traditional interval but a repetition at 1500m race pace or faster devided into 3-5 sets by 5 x 400s. Of course impossible for any runner in history to run 25 x 400m with a little more rest than 30 sec in 56-52 sec. As I told before Asbel Kiprop told me he once did 15 x 400m in a row at 57-52 sec , but then with 3 min rest between ( I`m not 100% sure if it was 3 min , maybe it was 2-3 min. I will check my correspondance with him and see exactly what he told back in 2016 ) .

Now I checked the old chat thread with Asbel and this is the exact words in that short chat segment I refered to from back in 2016. " At what pace do you usually run for example 15-20 x 400m when you train maxVO2 pace......is it usually about 61-62 sec / 400m ?

- I have never done that much reps. The highest have done is 12 times in 2015. Recovery is usually 2 min in each rep. I usually do 56-55 sec but lastly I do 54, 53 & 52. " So, here we see that he has done equal fast reps as Jakob and not in sets of 5 but in a row of 12 of them with a little more rest between and 2 min .