Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage

Here Hadd, here wrote:

ews1982 wrote:

Started doing easy at 70% max about a year ago. Had to run walk for about 2 months. Everytime I hit 137 (70%) walk till it dropped to 120. Just kept on going. Now im running 6.30/6.40 a km with an average hartbeat of 132 for an hour running and never over 137 anymore. Im actually really happy and proud of this.

As with a lot in this program: people just need to put there ego to the side.

I attempted to get down to 70% on my easy run again today (failed) and had a thought (rare). The consensus is that NSA is all about the sub-T, and easy days need to be so easy because it's a balancing act and it all hangs on recovery. Go over 70% by a gnat's crotchet and your core will melt down to radioactive sludge.

Is it more of a double act though? Is NSA actually more of a variation on low HR training like Hadd than we've realised? I.e. the easy days aren't just scaffolding for the sub-T, they're an integral part of the training, delivering long-term gains quietly in the background while sub-T takes the limelight.

If so, then does NSA only really work if you treat easy days as Hadd days and be ultra-disciplined about HR? I'd like to know if anyone who's posted a success story has regularly been over 75% or if they stick to 70% as much as the rest of the protocol. My median easy HR is 83% MHR (!) and median sub-T is 88%, yet pretty much all the easy days feel truly easy in RPE, breathing, muscles, etc. and I'm not fatigued. Am I doomed?

And is NSA actually Hadd in disguise? (Twilight Zone music...)

Here Hadd, here wrote:

I attempted to get down to 70% on my easy run again today (failed) and had a thought (rare). The consensus is that NSA is all about the sub-T, and easy days need to be so easy because it's a balancing act and it all hangs on recovery. Go over 70% by a gnat's crotchet and your core will melt down to radioactive sludge.

Is it more of a double act though? Is NSA actually more of a variation on low HR training like Hadd than we've realised? I.e. the easy days aren't just scaffolding for the sub-T, they're an integral part of the training, delivering long-term gains quietly in the background while sub-T takes the limelight.

If so, then does NSA only really work if you treat easy days as Hadd days and be ultra-disciplined about HR? I'd like to know if anyone who's posted a success story has regularly been over 75% or if they stick to 70% as much as the rest of the protocol. My median easy HR is 83% MHR (!) and median sub-T is 88%, yet pretty much all the easy days feel truly easy in RPE, breathing, muscles, etc. and I'm not fatigued. Am I doomed?

And is NSA actually Hadd in disguise? (Twilight Zone music...)

Confused about low HR wrote:

Would welcome any advice on an issue I'm having, namely my HR has gone way down on workouts, but not simply in a way that indicates high fitness.

My LT2 HR, measured in a lab and basically confirmed anecdotally through many workouts, was about 160 - 162, max HR 180-184. Then I moved to high altitude 4 months ago and boosted my mileage, from about 40 mpw, to now about 55 mpw.

My most recent workout was 6 x .85 miles on one minute rest (that's the road segment I have between stop lights). My average heartrate on those segments was 124, 126, 127, 132, 133, 134. My max heartrate was 143 on the last rap, and my HR actually went down over the course of the rep to 134. My lactate level, measured just after the run, was 4.9 mmol. Based on previous measurements, ~3.5 mmol is a better measure of Sub-T for me. By RPE, the workout felt hard, above Sub-T, but I keep looking at my watch and thinking I should be going faster. (I've measured my HR by chest strap on several runs; it showed the same pattern.)

I don't know how to separate and evalutate the cause of this. There's the altitude change. The mileage change. My job is more stressful. I am feeling more fatigued than before, but my paces have improved, particularly on the shorter intervals.

The one chance I had to do a business trip at sea level, I got in one workout: my pace was fast, it felt incredibly easy, and my heard rate got into the high 160s. Sometimes when I workout later in the day, my heartrate is somewhat higher, and the two long runs I've done where I've added some quality, my heartrate gets to the expected range.

Is this what altitude does? Is this a sign of fatigue and I need to dial things back? Have I gotten a lot fitter, and I just can't access that fitness because I can't get enough oxygen at altitude? Since I can't depend on biomarkers to judge how fast I should be going, do I run a 5k timetrial at altitude and base paces on that?

My HR on easy runs has also gotten much lower, but the RPE also feels low, so I'm not as concerned there. But my workouts are driving me crazy.

Here Hadd, here wrote:

ews1982 wrote:

Started doing easy at 70% max about a year ago. Had to run walk for about 2 months. Everytime I hit 137 (70%) walk till it dropped to 120. Just kept on going. Now im running 6.30/6.40 a km with an average hartbeat of 132 for an hour running and never over 137 anymore. Im actually really happy and proud of this.

As with a lot in this program: people just need to put there ego to the side.

I attempted to get down to 70% on my easy run again today (failed) and had a thought (rare). The consensus is that NSA is all about the sub-T, and easy days need to be so easy because it's a balancing act and it all hangs on recovery. Go over 70% by a gnat's crotchet and your core will melt down to radioactive sludge.

Is it more of a double act though? Is NSA actually more of a variation on low HR training like Hadd than we've realised? I.e. the easy days aren't just scaffolding for the sub-T, they're an integral part of the training, delivering long-term gains quietly in the background while sub-T takes the limelight.

If so, then does NSA only really work if you treat easy days as Hadd days and be ultra-disciplined about HR? I'd like to know if anyone who's posted a success story has regularly been over 75% or if they stick to 70% as much as the rest of the protocol. My median easy HR is 83% MHR (!) and median sub-T is 88%, yet pretty much all the easy days feel truly easy in RPE, breathing, muscles, etc. and I'm not fatigued. Am I doomed?

And is NSA actually Hadd in disguise? (Twilight Zone music...)

Here Hadd, here wrote:

ews1982 wrote:

Started doing easy at 70% max about a year ago. Had to run walk for about 2 months. Everytime I hit 137 (70%) walk till it dropped to 120. Just kept on going. Now im running 6.30/6.40 a km with an average hartbeat of 132 for an hour running and never over 137 anymore. Im actually really happy and proud of this.

As with a lot in this program: people just need to put there ego to the side.

I attempted to get down to 70% on my easy run again today (failed) and had a thought (rare). The consensus is that NSA is all about the sub-T, and easy days need to be so easy because it's a balancing act and it all hangs on recovery. Go over 70% by a gnat's crotchet and your core will melt down to radioactive sludge.

Is it more of a double act though? Is NSA actually more of a variation on low HR training like Hadd than we've realised? I.e. the easy days aren't just scaffolding for the sub-T, they're an integral part of the training, delivering long-term gains quietly in the background while sub-T takes the limelight.

If so, then does NSA only really work if you treat easy days as Hadd days and be ultra-disciplined about HR? I'd like to know if anyone who's posted a success story has regularly been over 75% or if they stick to 70% as much as the rest of the protocol. My median easy HR is 83% MHR (!) and median sub-T is 88%, yet pretty much all the easy days feel truly easy in RPE, breathing, muscles, etc. and I'm not fatigued. Am I doomed?

And is NSA actually Hadd in disguise? (Twilight Zone music...)