Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage

Yes I'll be at the Great South Run. I'll be there with early thread legend Jiggymeister. He is going to be the first one to be inducted into the cult fully. He has to down a pint of cheap English lager quicker than I can say "Coggan Vs Lexel" five times in a row and then he says "Strides Kill" with the glass on his head.

But feel free to come say hi at the start. I'm always happy to chat even in starting pens. Despite me finding it weird anyone would really be interested in chatting to me.

There should be a humorous chapter in the book, about the cult. e.g. Drink a beer a day before the race and eat a mars if you wanna be a real NSM follower ;-)

I think the book is genuinely a good and useful training piece. I'm quite surprised, in fact. One of the reasons it's going to take a little longer is that a few more people have kindly wanted to read it and one of those is such a hugely respected person I'm not going to say no to feedback first. Maybe everyone is just being nice.

But on the other hand, a lot of books are a bit dry. So if you want to get into the weeds with this training and eeeek out the last few % you won't be disappointed. But if you also like references to Brit Pop, the opening ceremony of the 1994 World Cup, tenuous links to "The Wire", or all my thoughts on continental lagers or confectionery of choice, you also will go home happy.

finally, the info the people need

I think this is a fair challenge and had focussed too much on the "if you arrive for each subT session feeling good then you're recovering well" aspect, rather than the long term sustainability.

I did have a holiday 2 weeks before the race so had a very chilled week of running easy at a much lower volume without any workouts. I had wondered if that lack of load effectively tapered me and then I ran the 10k whilst readjusting to the routine?

I think I'm trying to find excuses here for anything but overdoing it at least in the initial weeks when I was starting out. I do feel like it's more sustainable now, but definitely making me consider whether it's really necessary or if I'm falling into the same trap I did of chasing volume (old habits die hard).

Will it be titled Sirpoc’s Running Formula?😀😀

That's a clever method, you let the others correct your book, but keep your earnings alone.

Or do they get somehting for that?

Those commie Canadians will be throwing money at her faster than Kcer throws his horse porn under the bed when his mom comes down to the basement.

Those commie Canadians will be throwing money at her faster than Kcer throws his horse porn under the bed when his mom comes down to the basement.

Intrigued to know who the big name is that's reading the book in advance.

Canova? Seiler? Nick Bester?

FOD

I feel like the two most likely people are Bakken and Magness, since they both have large followings, have commented on the method, and like the method

Sheeeeeeeeeit

i was already excited for the book, now I gotta know where I can preorder!

Yeah it's got to be Bakken I reckon.

"...cheap English lager..."

Oh man, that will surely be pegged as the NSM "kool-aid", 'cause we're a cult ya know. Ah well...raise a pint!

I just did my first 3x10 minute interval and I think I got it wrong. My threshold (LT2) is at 184bpm and I tried running the intervals as close to that as possible (but still under that). Now I'm reading that it should be in between LT1 and LT2, so I went too hard I think?

I am trying to get a grip of this since the interval times I'm getting in calculators (lactrace.com) is so different what I put in (my 5k time at 19:10 or my marathon PB at 3:52), so trying to get a grip from it by using HR instead.

Could someone help me?

I’m not familiar with the tech you’re using to get your pacing but I think the one universally agreed upon principle is to always err on the side of going slower rather than push right up to the limit. HR is great, but it can also be finicky and not consistent everyday. You may want to think about using pace or power as a guide instead.

Tagging on to this after trying the NSM method for a relatively
quick block before Chicago Marathon. TL;DR Really enjoyed the training and set
3 minute personal best.

Some background:
Been self-coached and running consistently the last 5 years
dropping my marathon from 2:53 to 2:28 high at Grandma’s this year. Mostly used
Pftizinger using the 70/18 method running 7 days a week and usually would
struggle to keep mileage up. Pretty durable as I ran for 3 years straight without
missing a day but Pfitzinger would leave me on the edge and be a struggle to
get more than one workout in a week with legs being tired or general tiredness.
I have some natural speed talent though, so Pfitzinger has worked well and I have
consistently improved, setting some personal records at various distances every
year the last 7 years. I had another breakthrough this spring where I was able
to run 15:02 5k off just fairly traditional marathon training at ~65 miles/week
and was setup well for Grandma’s in June. Grandma’s was obviously warm/not ideal
but still ran well with the 2:28 high. Ironically ran almost the whole race
with “Grandma’s Guy” (wigglewaffle) passing him the last half mile, though I
had no idea who he was at that time (super awesome guy to run with). Was signed
up for Chicago this fall so I was hungry to get back to training. Came back a
little too quick and my IT band flared up for a few weeks in July so had about
4 weeks of minimal training and life was busy (summertime and I have a family
with a couple of young kids). This brought me to the end of July where I was
feeling burnt-out and wondering if I would be able to put together a 12-week
block of Pfitzinger to try to PR at Chicago. Browsing letsrun I stumbled upon a
link to a Paul Luttrell article and then afterwards found this thread, and
figured I would give it a shot, as mentally needed a break from speedwork.

The block:
Pretty typical NSM 3 workouts a week. Running 7 days a week
with 8-10 x 3mins/1k, 5x mile, 3x2mile with a long run on Sunday. Sometimes
based on my life schedule or how I was feeling would end up adding the longer
repeats into the long run on Sunday, and then would sometimes only do 2
workouts a week the following week and/or run a few shorter reps. Ran a few shorter
doubles on easy days but pretty much all singles. Didn’t really follow the “special
block” as I wasn’t that well researched going in, so my biggest workouts were a
half marathon tune-up race where I set a PR of 1:09 low 6 weeks into the block,
and the other was a 3x5k at marathon pace on a 23 mile long run 3 weeks out.
Think I would have benefited from some longer/more reps given that I was running
a marathon. Took a little bit to get used to the short rest, and it was my
first time in my running life doing mostly walking rest, but trusted the
process. Some of the benefits of this block echo what many others have said:
-Mentally super easy not to worry about sticking to a more
complicated training plan or dreading speedwork
-Ability to keep mileage up and feel fresh. Prior to this
block had never been able to run more than 2 70-mile weeks back-to-back. I hit
70+ miles for 9 weeks and was able to average 73 miles for those weeks.
-Felt great during the minimal taper. Being able to taper
less and keep training consistent leading into Chicago was a really nice benefit.
Chicago was my 7th marathon and the best I have ever felt during a
taper.

Results:
2:25 mid at Chicago for a PR. Thought sub 2:24 was possibly in
the cards and went out at 1:11:30ish but faded a little the last 6 miles. Didn’t
have a chance to warmup with poor logistics and felt a little clunky/tight the
first 6 miles until I hit a groove and felt decent until 18. The lack of rhythm
at the beginning may have contributed to some of the slowdown late, but regardless
the result was in line with my PRs and happy with the outcome.

Going forward I am super excited to use this method year-round,
especially during the base months, where I am confined to a treadmill a lot
during the cold/snowy winter months, and think this method will be super
conducive to using a treadmill. Plan to stick with it and see what I can do
with more than just 12 weeks of using the method. Appreciate all the great information/testimonials on this thread which helped me decide to give this a shot!

Your 5k pb and marathon pb seem very far from being linked, which might mean you lack of endurance.

Someone posted a website that takes account of 2 race times to get you an approximation of LT pace (so it actualy takes your endurance into account) :

https://timescalculator.appspot.com/

Maybe give a try to run your subt at the pace written, or even just a bit below. In fact, that principle is not to run as close as possible of LTHR, but tend to it for the last seconds of the last rep to be close. Remember that the sessions sould not make you die at all.