Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage

Training has been decent, but I set a cap of only finishing a pint quicker than three reps of "Coggan vs Lexel". No point in leaving my race in training.

However, having been repeating it thrice a week for quiet some time must account for something, right?

I had my first NSM session yesterday (3x10) and it was fine. Struggled with pacing a bit due to Garmin being finicky with the pace delay to show up on the watch.

Thing is, I didn't even come close to my LTHR and I know you should be ~2-3 bpm below on the last rep. Maximum for all reps was ~170 and I think my LTHR is probably around 176-179. I just stick to the pace of 04:54 min/km and hit it in average for all reps.

What gives? The 4:54 came from my half marathon result of 01:41:30 and to be sure I did a 5k TT last Saturday but my result was worse (~22:30) so I kept the laces from the HM 1-2 weeks ago. I'm 100% sure my LTHR is above 173 because that was my average for the HM.

My decision for now is to stick to the paces until a TT next month but... Should my HR be steadily climbing rep by rep? Any chance my HR strap is broken? Maybe my TT was really bad and didn't reflect my fitness? Should I ignore the pace and increase it by 3-5 Sec/km next time to see if the HR makes more sense?

I've got no clue, just looking to see if anyone had a similar situation.

You are way overthinking this. The session looks great, right in the middle of HMP and MP. A few heart beats per minute more or less does not matter. A few seconds per kilometer more or less does not matter. You've done one session. That's great! But if you do it right, you'll do 150 sessions in a year. That's what matters.

Agree that you're overthinking this. It's not magic/critical that you get 2-3 bpm below LTHR on your last rep. Just get into the zone (between 90-97% of your LTHR) for most of the session. The difference of 5 bpm either way isn't worth worrying about.

This is exactly it really, aim for 90%-97/98% for the bulk of the session and you’ll get all the benefits necessary. No need to overthink it. In general a mix of some sessions closer to 90 and some closer to 97 over the course of the year will no doubt provide benefits in their own right too even if you over or under shoot the odd session here and there.

The person that created a post on the reddit sub on asking what the best pace is for a 48M has to be dumbest question so far.

The whole point of this method is to run a 5K TT benchmark to gauge your for Sub-T fitness. This is even stated in the bloody wiki!

I wonder can an even dumber question could possibly be asked? Knowing the reddit types, I think so!

Andrew is trying to create a formula to include 'durability' for his internet training site, which i can take apart later on ... cheers, and happy training

If you want cheap British lager, make it a Carling. The true awful Brit experience.

Have to say, as the thread has gone on lexel has become more chilled and quite funny. Well played, nice post.

I just saw this. Greek singles guy is the gold standard, but this is close. Or someone who asked if it'll work for cross country. No, fella. It only works if you run on tarmac on a track, obviously. You can't make some of this stuff up. To me if shoes you how the general population of runners are totally, utterly clueless. I have a good grasp on training and learned a lot from this thread, but you really do have to spoon field some people.

On Sunday I have a half marathon. It's not the race of my life, so I’m thinking of following Sirpoc’s training plan.. the week with 5x2km and 8x1km. I’ll do a bit less because I didn’t run exactly 2km, but rather 6 minutes (around 1800m @3.20 pace aroung HMP). Tomorrow I’d like to do 8 x 3 minutes, slightly faster, and then take two 'taper' days with easy runs of 45'/30'. I’m surprised because I’ve never run intervals as well as I did these past few days.

15:33 and 70 give 144 idk where 160 is from

Also, “I’ve never seen anybody train with this method and have massive gaps in VDOT” is definitely not true at all. Additionally, time predictions for me are pretty much spot on, as long as the two races were performed in similar fitness and weather conditions, and well executed.

I’d also add that Sirpoc’s 5k and 10k give 2:21 for the thon and 68 for the half marathon, which is almost exactly spot on, especially considering that London might have been adversely affected by the weather. I’m convinced that you literally made up the first two paragraphs of what you said

But isn’t HR the best measurement? I’m using a chest strap.

Sorry if I’m being stupid but isn’t HR better in regards of not going over the LTHR (if I’m running a bit hilly for example, it’s not always straight forward). Wouldn’t pace as an indicator maybe push me over the line in that example for instance? Where having a HR range programmed in my sessions to keep me, say 90-95% of my LTHR?

Sorry, maybe should add that I checked my LTHR and zones in a lab 2 years ago. So I know my max HR etc, if that makes a difference

Love sirpoc slowly turning into a shoefluencer by the way.

Ordered a bunch he mentioned (Elite 5, Challenger 5, Red Hare 8 Pro, Xtep 160x 3.5, Do-Win PB3), arrived within a week and, yeah, so far so good. Wouldn't be surprised if they came from the same factories Adidas and Nike are using, only at a 25-50% discount. Challenger 5 runs slightly narrow and the Do-Win are a tad long but they all seem great bang for the buck.

Ali is a bit of a mess though, some manufacturers don't show up at all for me (Dynafish, Qiaodan) and even for better known brands like Li-Ning and Xtep the titles and descriptions are terrible. Sometimes they seem to lump Pro and Non-Pro shows into the same page, for example. Takes some getting used to.

There better be a chapter dedicated to cheap chinese shoes in the book

On Reddit someone asked if this approach was compatible with running in the rain during a UK winter. Perhaps Sirpoc will come across a line of Chinese bubble suits which might solve this conundrum.