You did see my reference to lactate measures, right? But if you look online for a pace definition of threshold, it varies a great deal, by reference to VO2 max, anywhere from 68%, which really is jogging for most people, to the 80s, but that's not at all the same physiological effort and virtually no one actually is taking Lactate measurements in workouts.
Who said they do double threshold twice a week all year round? During their base phase they do (plus the 200m hills as already mentioned), but Indoors and Outdoors there is a shift to introduce more 1500m pace workouts (Ingebrigtsen's).
I watched Jakob working out in Chiavenna (ITA) in July and he was clicking off 55 points looking as smooth as I've ever seen someone at that pace off a short rest. This was 8 days before running 3:26.73
Double threshold alone does not make you a good miler. Jakob does 20x200m hills every week during the base phase. if you remove that element he wouldn’t be nearly as good of a miler.
This.
For reasons unknown to me, the theory that the "Norwegian approach" is all about maximizing threshold volume and avoiding anything faster is persistent. In this bizarre thread about the "Norwegian approach" and lower mileage, people are creating a cult of slow running.
Double threshold alone does not make you a good miler. Jakob does 20x200m hills every week during the base phase. if you remove that element he wouldn’t be nearly as good of a miler.
This.
For reasons unknown to me, the theory that the "Norwegian approach" is all about maximizing threshold volume and avoiding anything faster is persistent. In this bizarre thread about the "Norwegian approach" and lower mileage, people are creating a cult of slow running.
The reason people think that is that they do three to four double threshold sessions a week for much of the year. This is in the context of about 100-110 miles per week, once a week hill sprints, frequent strides, and then close to competitions, a few harder race specific sessions such as 10x400m@1500m or 6x800 ten days out from pr's. The reason that Jakob can run so well throughout the year is that they don't do a lot of those harder sessions, maintaining the double "threshold" (and again, we're talking about paces around 95% of what he could run for 8 minutes, "VO2 max", nothing slow like the 68-80s percentages you will find all over numerous websites) almost all year.
You did see my reference to lactate measures, right? But if you look online for a pace definition of threshold, it varies a great deal, by reference to VO2 max, anywhere from 68%, which really is jogging for most people, to the 80s, but that's not at all the same physiological effort and virtually no one actually is taking Lactate measurements in workouts.
Defining threshold by a percentage of vo2 max is utterly pointless.
You get the massive range (68-95%+) because it will vary in indiviuduals, especially when comparing well-trained endurance athletes with untrained people (for some people a simplye shuffle might be at threshold).
Not many people are taking lactate measurements, but a lot of people are using another internal metric (Heart Rate), which isn't quite as good as lactate, but is much better than pace.
For reasons unknown to me, the theory that the "Norwegian approach" is all about maximizing threshold volume and avoiding anything faster is persistent. In this bizarre thread about the "Norwegian approach" and lower mileage, people are creating a cult of slow running.
The reason people think that is that they do three to four double threshold sessions a week for much of the year. This is in the context of about 100-110 miles per week, once a week hill sprints, frequent strides, and then close to competitions, a few harder race specific sessions such as 10x400m@1500m or 6x800 ten days out from pr's. The reason that Jakob can run so well throughout the year is that they don't do a lot of those harder sessions, maintaining the double "threshold" (and again, we're talking about paces around 95% of what he could run for 8 minutes, "VO2 max", nothing slow like the 68-80s percentages you will find all over numerous websites) almost all year.
He has the best of everything, so its worth mentioning that despite that he did get a major injury. Just saying.