The secrets of double threshold training are revealed. From Norway to Flagstaff: How Double Threshold Training Is Taking Over the World

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The argument that most resonates with me for double threshold training is the consistency it enables.

Everything about training involves tradeoffs. On a per-mile basis, lower intensity provides less stimulus that will produce adaptations for racing fast, but you can do more of it. Higher intensity provides more stimulus, but you can't do as much.

The double threshold training model seems to check the following boxes:

-It is fast enough to provide decent stimulus on a per-mile basis

-It is slow enough that athletes can do a lot of it

-It is easy to supplement with training on either side (like a weekly long run, even if it is only like 80 minutes, and a session of 200 meter hill reps) to fill in the gaps

-When athletes stick to the assigned intensity, it is highly repeatable, necessitating less down-time from real training in the long term. When combined with a long run and some limited shorter work, it is also going to get athletes close to top race shape, so huge blocks of higher-intensity training are unnecessary

All of this means that over the long term, athletes can pile up a huge amount of stimulus and adaptation (maybe even the most?) that leads to them being extremely fit and racing fast.

Wasn’t it Mottram who said something along the lines of never being more than a few weeks from a peak? Seems like this kind of training allows you to be racing fit most of the year too.

great article! Think I'm gonna start doing this and get hella fast. The guys at the park run won't know what hit em!

Nice article. One thing that I haven't been able to find good discussion on is how double thresholds can be used in marathon training. Most of the discussions are on 1500m-10000m runners. Would be curious to know if anyone has links or thoughts on the application of this to marathon training, including changes to volume for the sessions.

It talks about Cam doing them once every two weeks during his marathon build up. But nothing further on distances or insight into why only once every two weeks versus 2x a week. I'm going into a marathon phase soon and was curious.

What? Why do all the morans on here contend that coaching magically improved after 2019?

Always amuses me to read that Bakken's approach ("double threshold") is nothing new in training. It absolutely is something new and before Bakken nobody ever trained like this.

It isn't new. Bakken used it 20 years ago. People have been running multiple threshold runs for a very long time. Paavo Nurmi was doing multiple hard efforts in the same day in the 1920's. There is nothing new.

Remember when Seb Coe's father told everyone he was running low mileage and everyone did that for a couple decades?

In 20 years from now, will we realize that the world record holders were doping and there's no holy grail of training? Always a red flag when one doesn't do a long run and is setting world records. But who knows, maybe double threshold workouts will replace long runs, maybe we were doing it wrong for so many years, though I somehow doubt that.

I think for most of us, time is the limiting factor in training, and doing 2x1hr sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays is about as efficient as it gets. Realistically, that's easier to fit in around most 9-5s than a single 2hr run. So you're covering a minimum of say 17 miles every Tuesday and Thursday, with maybe 9-10 of those at race-relevant intensities. That sounds pretty effective. And then instead of the X-factor Saturday session of hills, you do your structured long run, covering 20+ miles with a bunch at marathon pace or faster. Top-up with easy running and you're doing what, 80mpw with say 30 at marathon pace or faster? So long as you make that weekend run marathon specific, I don't think you need to worry too much about the monday-friday sessions Bakken suggests.