A beginner question about transitioning from all easy running into gradually adding 3 workouts. Would it be better to add the workouts one by one or add all three simultaneously, but with reduced duration, so the spike in load is not too great. Does it even matter?
There are some good answers already. I think you need to play around with it a bit. There will be some individual response when it comes to adding the workouts. A group of my friends and I all ran in college. We kept training for a couple of years after then we’ve all taken 1-5 years off and got back into things last year. One guy in the group really struggled with doing even two workouts a week. He’s a consultant, works like 80 hours a week and travels a lot. He’s also the most talented out of all of us. We often say that with him, he needs training that will allow his talent to show, not training that will burry it. After trying to force it with two to three workouts for a while and getting hurt, he settled on one a week for several months and gradually built volume. We were all a little annoyed when he was the top guy of the group in our most recent 5k. A few guys in the group started with one workout, added a second after a few months, then a third. One guy was able to jump right into three. So there might be some trial and error.
Got the book and am not at the part yet about how to add workouts in the *correct* order, but this is VERY helpful! TY
Thanks, I use a Garmin and I know it's not super-perfect but didn't realize how crappy it was. I see others on Strava/Garmin with perfectly paced intervals and no jagged ups and downs and wonder how they do it. HRMs could be the reason.
Doesn’t matter really as long as you’re in the ballpark and not overcooking. Maybe you try it on a track some time. Also helps to focus on consist breathing rhythm.
Again, run by rep avg pace, then a lot of the jumpiness will cancel itself out.
For myself while the 6min ones are often within 1s, the shorter faster ones are more varied. Doesn’t matter, just do them and off to the pub.
I am attempting my first sub t workout today. It will be on the treadmill due to snow.
Is there any rule of thumb for the sub t in terms of max heart rate? The treadmill is not well calibrated, so I don't feel comfortable going off of pace.
Well, I don't know my threshold rate. I've never used a lactate tester, which is why I asked in terms of HR.
This might be stupid but you sound desperate. HR to pace is roughly linear. You have avg HR and pace from your 5k. NSM gives you a sub-t pace target. Calculate your target HR to be same ratio to max HR as is target pace to 5k pace.
Well, I would use the word cautious rather than desperate. I haven't been running much due to injury, so I'm not even sure about my fitness level.
(Different username as I am on my phone).
Fair. As others have said HR is lagging. Here's a pic from my recent 4x mile. You see it takes about 2min to catch on. So this is a very limited workaround with even lower usefulness for the shorter intervals.
Does anyone know what Sirpoc does for warmups on his sub-threshold days?
I've been doing a 10-minute slow jog followed by dynamic warmups for another 15m and 4 reps of 15-second pickups - finishing the last one around 400m pace.
This gets me essentially race-ready and I feel great, but the workout will be much slower than a race and I'm wondering if I'm doing too much and might be overworking.
Does anyone know what Sirpoc does for warmups on his sub-threshold days?
I've been doing a 10-minute slow jog followed by dynamic warmups for another 15m and 4 reps of 15-second pickups - finishing the last one around 400m pace.
This gets me essentially race-ready and I feel great, but the workout will be much slower than a race and I'm wondering if I'm doing too much and might be overworking.
I do leg swings (10 each leg front/back and 10 each leg side/side), then calf raises (10 stiff leg, 10 with knees bent and slightly bent over. Then I jog my 2-3km warmup. Then A-skips and B-skips and maybe some butt kicks before getting into the reps. It's pretty minimal (like 1 minute on each side of the warmup jog is all the time it takes), but I don't need much for a sub-T session; just enough to open my old hips and calves up, and then the skips to help get ready for the paces.
Respectfully, there's no way I would spend 15 minutes warmup up for ~30 minutes of reps at slower than T pace? A whole point of NSA is to optimize time and mileage for working hobby joggers.
He just jogs for 10 minutes and starts the 1st rep slower. For long reps, he will take maybe the starting of the first half, for shorter reps he will take the first few reps slower.
Your warmup is fine and probably better suited if you just want to jump into the target pace right away.
Do to time constraints I usually just warm up with 5 minutes of easy running and then get into it. Unless you have a bunch of extra time a long warmup is not needed because the paces and intensity really are not putting a ton of stress on your body.
Makes sense. Usually I need to hit a higher intensity to warm my heart rate up or else even lower paces have an elevated heart rate compared to my fully-warmed-up state.
But needing to warm up for 30 minutes kind of sucks when you're stuck inside a gym and don't have much space for dynamic movements. I'll try the 10-minute slow run and ease into the workout the 1st rep and see how it goes.
Saving that time would also be nice since doing a full warmup is kind of daunting every other day when you just want to get the workout in and done with
Has anyone had any luck incorporating 5-10 min bang for buck strength conditions to run alongside this. I don't even know if that exists, but in the spirit of this method. It's something as I get older, I'm starting to thing about. But, don't really have a whole lot of extra time to dedicate.
Since I started NSA in Aug 2025 I've been doing at minimum 2 strength training sessions per week. I modified the original recommended routine from the bodyweight fitness reddit. I do triplets of (pull ups/push ups/split squats) and (dips/rows/single leg dead lifts). Takes me 20-25 minutes and I do it during my lunch break on Tu/Th which are also sub threshold workout days.
I haven't done this for a couple weeks due to time constraints but in the fall I was doing 100 kettlebell swings and 10 Turkish get ups in 20 minutes immediately after easy runs on M/W/F.
According to intervals.icu the load added is minimal and I've been doing this routine (the bodyweight and kettlebells) for years so there's no learning curve anymore either.
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Gymnastic ring for pull and push movements. Dips,pull ups,chest flys,push up (optionally pelican curl). 3x7-10reps each movement weekly 2x. Build into them first without rings.These will build exceptional strenght without to much bulk. Climbing would also do. Sandbag for core and legs (at least your own weight,so build to big weights low rep).3x10meter walk is a good starting point,after you can add ground to shoulder pick ups.I am 50years old this is my regular routine for the last 15 months,so far good bang for buck.
Has anyone had any luck incorporating 5-10 min bang for buck strength conditions to run alongside this. I don't even know if that exists, but in the spirit of this method. It's something as I get older, I'm starting to thing about. But, don't really have a whole lot of extra time to dedicate.
Since I started NSA in Aug 2025 I've been doing at minimum 2 strength training sessions per week. I modified the original recommended routine from the bodyweight fitness reddit. I do triplets of (pull ups/push ups/split squats) and (dips/rows/single leg dead lifts). Takes me 20-25 minutes and I do it during my lunch break on Tu/Th which are also sub threshold workout days.
I haven't done this for a couple weeks due to time constraints but in the fall I was doing 100 kettlebell swings and 10 Turkish get ups in 20 minutes immediately after easy runs on M/W/F.
According to intervals.icu the load added is minimal and I've been doing this routine (the bodyweight and kettlebells) for years so there's no learning curve anymore either.
Why are you doing strength work on your recovery days rather than your workouts days?
Well, I don't know my threshold rate. I've never used a lactate tester, which is why I asked in terms of HR.
I would recommend doing a Friel test to get a rough estimate of your threshold HR. Then aim to keep the reps under that, with the fist rep 7-10 beats under and the last rep just touching your threshold HR in the last part of the last rep. Don’t stress too much about it, might take a few sessions to dial in paces, just be conservative to start with. Doing the same sessions every week you quickly get a feel for it.
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