Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage

Find someone else over 40 years old running 2:24 on debut, in a marathon where just about everyone fell to bits. Oh and who has managed time so well that you would struggle to find maybe a dozen people in the same age range in the world running as low mileage with as good results. It's basically still hobby jogger mileage. 7 ish hours a week and only over 8 a few times ever.

That's why people care. That's what we all are looking for a piece of. The thought and detail and planning that's gone into it is why people who have switched up their training to this have had better results. That's why I'd buy a book as clearly others would as well.

Come back when you break 20 in your local Turkey Trot.

This is definitely me as well. As new minted 50 year-old, who's been running from 2008 until now (with a break from about 2019-2022), with very low talent, and finding myself either not progressing on lower mileage approaches, or burning out on the higher mileage/intensity approach in most of the books, this approach seems unbelievable, yet all makes perfect sense: Focus solely on aerobic development, and ditch everything else.

Yeah it is pretty broad. I was just doing in the middle. So with a 20min 5k input I was running:
8x800 @ 6:58/mi; 4x1 mile @ 7:12/mi; 3x10 min @ 7:22/mi

Now that I'm closer to 19min 5k I'll stick to the upper range and gradually move down to the middle and eventually the lower, but I think by the time I get there I'll already have another race to go off of.

sirpic will run sub 13

On one hand, it's not all that different from what the existing books prescribe (weekly long run, alternate between hard and easy runs). On the other hand it completely upends them. The idea that "you must run fast [in practice] to run fast [in a race]" seems not true at all!

Perhaps I am wrong and/or the game has changed, but by "wider reach" I mean selling hundreds of thousands of copies, being translated into multiple formats and languages, etc.

By way of comparison, Phil Skiba self-published Scientific Training for Triathletes just before the 1st edition of TRWPM was released. Although the focus is different, I think it is better written (not being a mish-mash of two authors, one of whom mostly contributed forum posts). Although I don't know how many copies he sold, there was never a 2nd edition, and AFAIK was only ever available as a (pricey) English language paperback.

I've never contributed even a single cent to a Kickstarter or similar crowdfunding thing in my life. But if there ever is one for a Sirpoc book, I'll throw in 100€ the minute it goes live.

(But only if that makes me eligible for the "Sirpoopy Shuffle" running singlet reward)

Pay the man in mars bars, doughnuts and beers by the sound of marathon pre race diet.

Whatever gets me the shirt.

I'll add my name down for any help with edit and proof reading. If sirpoc does do it I'm sure he will have a ton of help. Hopefully he keeps the same style of the posts. Not everything always needs to be too serious. Nothing against academics but I find often PHD books miss the mark of the reader.

Anyone know what happened to Hard2find? Enjoyed his stuff and I know both him and sirpoc mentioned they often were in dialogue. He mentioned a long time ago in the thread with the PDFs that they were 'sirpoc' approved. Would be a great join force perhaps. Practical and technical.

sirpoc - would you consider ghostwriting or collaborative writing? I would bet that someone trawling through this thread and then interviewing you over a number of sessions would get to a decent manuscript that could be worked on by an editor.

If you’re interested, I spend a lot of my working life researching, interviewing and writing. I’d love to help!

Not looking for personal gain - I just think this could be a hugely valuable resource. If it helps, I grew up near Gosport and don’t live too far away now. Could do all of this over several pints?

I’ve been around a couple of book launches (again, work) and FWIW I suspect a self-published version of this could do quite well. I think 10,000+ copies sold is a not unreasonable target, and that 50,000+ over several years would be an incredible but not impossible result.

Hard2find was great. I assumed he just vanished as did all his posts on Strava. Real shame and a loss to the thread.

My favourite fan fiction was the troll who wrote about how sirpoopy and Lard2find got married.

Some of the trolling is pretty lame but that was actually quite funny.

Living up to his user name then it seems.

Thank you! Based on this at some point I bet Citius will do a piece on it. I'm sure they are aware of the 252-page thread on LRC. I don't think there are threads that have gone this long! At one point a few months ago this thread dropped to page 3.

There was a follow up a few years ago titled Scientific Training for Endurance Athletes, which I believe was a 2nd edition sort of. Again a somewhat pricey paperback. It was ok - first time as a runner I was exposed to the training load impulse-response framework. Definitely different way of viewing training than this thread though - he is much more into Critical Speed/Critical Power...Lexel would like it.

Definitely not Andy's. That belongs to Seth....

The interesting part will be marketing strategy--how will this be showcased to the general public in a way that goes viral and grabs everyone's attention?!

I didn't know that - thank you.