Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage

Yes, the premise and detailed explanation in the book is very good. You can go out very hard and "feel" fine, there is no red line early of course (unless maybe you ran 1500 pace for the first km or so), but you pay for it and it hits you later in the race. Also there's a very good explanation in another part of the book about the problem with continuous tempo opposed to broken reps, that touches on the same principles

The book is very, very good. Very good. It's up there in "must have" territory if you like to learn about training. It also should provide inspiration for anyone else who has training ideas they would like to communicate and help others, that anyone can publish a book and have a #1 seller, with the assumption they have the skills and patience to communicate that.

Having a paperback is nice. I'm sure the replica ebook will look fine on a tablet with the kindle app or the kindle reader you can get for windows. I do not think it will be great on the phone though. I just thought I would mention this, with some experience of text books that have no choice to use replica. It would be very difficult to make it into a reflowable, plus the majority will just use the Kindle app to read it anyway on non kindle devices, where replica is generally fine. But, just get the paperback is still the best advice, which is what most wanted anyway.

My final thought on coaches: I see this as helping coaches. Some people are still going to be lazy and just want to be told what to do, that's fine. But hopefully coaches will use some of this to think outside of the box. Also, instead of nonsense "Norwegian singles" plans a coaching platform or service would be smart to hire sirpoc himself and actually have someone look over this stuff, if they are going to sell it. I'm NOT against coaching, I still think it's very valuable, but please guys, if you are using this stuff do it properly.

I actually think one of the best things about this system is it teaches you feel.
You learn where the line is and how to run to feel and more importantly how to pull back when you get too close to the edge.

I think this is part of the reason why sirpoc ran such g good London Marathon when so many others struggled.

This. Absolutely this. I just read this part of the book on pacing and what I realized is that what I thought was feel, was far too aggressive and I don't understand it properly, or didn't. The suggestion in there is pacing by feel is a thing, but requires a lot of honing that skill, but here are the tools to practice it and think for yourself. The sub threshold sessions are almost the perfect training ground, for building upon and then understanding what feel is. The checks and balances to safeguard yourself is incredibly valuable, then in time he says you will then naturally understanding pacing better. My mind is a lot clearer just reading that part alone.

As a slower runner, I also appreciate the more 'scaled for time' 5k pace chart as a rough guide, as to where to pitch your sub threshold reps. It looks like you can really sort of think about the 3 minute reps as just 60 minute pace (or around it) no matter your ability and so on. This makes more sense and a really nice addition. It also makes more sense for someone starting out, who can just look down the left of the chart, find their recent 5k time and all the rep times are laid out.

I paid $21 for the book and it's rare with running and training I feel I have underpaid an author.

Does the book also have tables showing pace in min/km and distance in km/metres? Thanks.

My Review

The physical book itself:

Well put together, nice quality cover. Paper is just regular paperback quality and like you would expect. Maybe some countries might have different prints, as I have heard before different Amazon countries have slightly different paper. Out of the box, it looks and feels like a book a publisher would produce. Great start. Little things like the detail of making sure chapters start on the right hand page, good attention to detail and understanding of what books should look and feel like.

The content:

Fantastic, very in-depth but also I laughed a few times. It manages to keep the balance between a very informative piece of work without taking life too seriously. I like that, books can be quite a chore sometimes. Let alone running books, I doubt any book in history has had the names of "Queens Park Rangers", "Johnny Marr" or "Walter White" referenced between the same cover.

The charts and graphs are very useful. Forget what Riccardo is saying, there is nothing saying "you must do this or that". Sirpoc is laying out what he did, why he did it and then giving you the tools to then actually go think for yourself. I learned a lot, some nice additions as mentioned that were not in this thread. It's just nice to have it all laid and spelled out clearly. That's all training books are, a laid of philosophy that is easy to communicate to a range of different people. It does that fantastically.

Who would I recommend this to:

Just about everyone. There's no reason to not buy it. Whether you are a fan of this thread or just a random runner looking to improve, you'll get something out of it I'm sure, plus the tools to probably put you down a path to success.

Yes. The whole book is in min/km. The "freedom units" at the end in /mile are for those who refuse to join the rest of the world, rather than the other way around.

Clearly having read the foreword Bakken and sirpoc are on the same page, talk and are friendly. They should do a serious of discussions or something, just record them and put them up as pods. Help promote Bakken's site which sirpoc links in the book and the book itself.

There would a lot of interest. It's obvious that are minds that think very similar, independently of each others backgrounds which is very different.

I can't use feel to pace the early part of a 5k race. I feel fine for the first 1+k running faster than a pace I can sustain for the full 5k.

The much maligned Stryd pod is very good for keeping early race pace in check

After finishing the book (yes, I finished it in a day and yes, it is THAT good), I plan on using the laid out structure to coach the runners I have. I actually plan on sending them all copies as Christmas gifts. I WANT them to be independent and think for themselves. Of course, I will do my best to explain the nuances and coach them through their individual races. I also program their individual strength training, so having a tool that can help explain some of the running programming I do is a good thing! Especially since none of them are beyond the 8h/week guideline. I myself am only just getting there.

Sirpoc, you have outdone yourself.

Ordered my book, one thing I hope is covered is the role of external factors on our recovery, tolerance for training load, need for strength and mobility work etc.

I remember when Sirpoc was discussing the summer injury he mentioned that he works a job where he is lifiting construction materials and I assume is therefore fairly active. How does that shape his program vs someone who only lifts a coffee mug and sits all day?

Surely I recover better sitting here idle for 8 hours with my HR in the mid 40's. Should I add extra easy running time on feet because of it? Should I add yoga or some bodyweight or traditional strength work in to help my hips and glutes?

I havent had a chance to read more than half of the thread, but have not seen this aspect discussed.

maybe Gault and others here can do a review. I'm surprised Citius, RW and FastWomen haven't really mentioned it yet...

It's still niche but I'm definitely grabbing 4-6 copies for friends!

I haven't quite committed on training by power but at a NYC runner my stryd has helped a ton with pacing runs as the GPS is no good in dense urban environments.

The Scott Fauble books will always finish 7th in sales...;)

We'll probably see lots of reviews of this book on reddit/advancedrunning and also the NSM subreddit...

Book reports now, rather than race reports--that site loves them some race reports. LOL

Lots of people have thrown pacing out the window and have read the whole thing in one day/sitting. Tut-tut I say, there might be a blow-up on the cards.

That said, conditions have been ideal for a good read lately what with all the cold, rainy and dark evenings in the UK. Excellent conditions to smash your 5K words PB.

Ni Slick Nick!

Actually read the whole thing in two sittings. Unheard of for me, but I was engaged. I usually have the attention span of a goldfish, especially when it comes to training books. There is the right balance, not keeping the whole thing too dry and boring, whilst keeping it incredibly informative. As others have said, shockingly good and he's outdone himself with his small band of brothers (plus a really strong foreword from Bakken).

Pretty much done doubting the guy. I'll hold my hands up, fair cop. Firstly I thought the whole thing was just a silly fad, secondly I thought there is no way he would run anything like a good marathon first time out, and thirdly, I assumed this book would be some crappy word document. Learned my lesson with this guy.

Just ordered another copy for my brother for Christmas, who absolutely is one of tens of thousands of club runners in the UK, who I imagine, would improve if they took what they can from this book and applied it to their own training.

I haven't seen the book mentioned on advanced running, but there was a time in which it was discussed quite a lot.