Ingebrigtsen long run

Most of these studies relate to short-term impacts of different categories of workouts on sedentary individuals. Not sure that tells us much about what Jakob should do to maximize his potential. What is far more suggestive of the effectiveness of his approach is the fact that he's been the best middle distance runner in the world the last five years. That seems to suggest that what he's doing is working just fine. He couldn't do what he's doing *and* do a quality long run without taking out something else. I doubt a 20-mile run at 5-5:30 pace is going to make him a better 1500-5000 guy than his DT approach. As Canova points out, it would probably help him in longer races, but at the sacrifice of his current strength at middle distances.

I'm a little confused at what this means. Are you saying if an athlete goes 4-5 years with close-to-ideal training without getting injured, they max out on their aerobic development, and further improvement comes from higher intensity workouts? Like once you're at 180km/week as Jakob has been for years, you're not gonna get anything out of running more mileage, only faster paces? Is that mileage (kilometerage?) limit pretty similar for most people?

very nice text above. noting 2 workouts per day is check mark,, and 4 years ish to lay down the aeroblc foundation, check mark. which is somewhat a novelty for some, and agree that people should change their training routine after you have a good aerobic base in the first years..

what i'm talking about that is apparently different, for the 1500, is to focus much of the quality on near max 2.5 minute work with resistance (hill). and make the event very very different from 5k.

that said, you could not help but run a decent 5k off the proposed training.

of course you would take Canova's advice over my musings, though assuredly, it comes from good sources......

Long is long, baby.

These claims are well-known and as far as I can tell stem from research completed long ago in 1967 (Holloszy) and 1982 (Dudley, et al.). Hadd, known from old letsrun discussions, created workout schedules adapting their research.

Influence of exercise intensity and duration on biochemical adaptations in skeletal muscle G. A. Dudley,
W. M. Abraham, and
R. L. Terjung
01 Oct 1982https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1982.53.4.844

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/jappl.1982.53.4.844?checkFormatAccess=true

The more recent research is more complex and harder to take clear lessons. I list a couple studies below.

Here's a 2024 study that doesn't go into length of run but compares efficiency of gains among sprint, high intensity interval, and easy running, giving sprint training per time the most efficient for improvements in capillary and mitochondrial--most take place early and a higher percentage gain is for women but all ages benefit.

link.springer.com

Effects of Exercise Training on Mitochondrial and Capillary Growth in Human Skeletal Muscle: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression - Sports Medicine

Background Skeletal muscle mitochondria and capillaries are crucial for aerobic fitness, and suppressed levels are associated with chronic and age-related diseases. Currently, evidence-based exercise training recommendations...

Open link

This study I can't see beyond the abstract but it looks like it might refer to training time adaptations in mitochondrial content.

link.springer.com

Training-Induced Changes in Mitochondrial Content and Respiratory Function in Human Skeletal Muscle - Sports Medicine

A sedentary lifestyle has been linked to a number of metabolic disorders that have been associated with sub-optimal mitochondrial characteristics and an increased risk of premature death. Endurance training can induce an incr...

Open link

Some studies have little mitochondrial development after 90 minutes, and most taking place between 60 and 90, at somewhere between easy and threshold pace. Some have just as much mitochondrial development from sprint as HIT and easy runs. Others show changes in a lot of different markers within the mitochondrial systems so that you can't any longer just say, there's x amount of mitochondrial development because various measures, including different proteins, show different levels of development or none at all. So, here it appears that the science is becoming too complex to take any easy lessons from it.

Jakob is not really developing intensity in roughly his tenth year of high volume but rather gradually increasing his pace at particular lactate measures, so that faster paces are easier for him. He really limits his intensity work in comparison to other top 1500m runners so as to avoid injury and continue gradual improvements.

Not likely since it isn’t true

By this logic an athlete running 10mi in 90’ daily for training would have vastly superior mitochondrial, enzyme and capillary adaptations to a runner who trains a mere 8mi in 45’ daily.