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There's a lot of arms and legs when two of the world's top runners do drills on the indoor track at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
Jakob (22) and Filip Ingebrigtsen (29) bounce, stretch and kick their way across the blue deck.
It looks less elegant than lying at up to 26 kilometers per hour in a forward-leaning diagonal with a God-given step. But there is a necessary down payment to be able to do that sort of thing – in spiked shoes – without getting hurt.
Here in Flagstaff in Arizona, Jakob and Filip spent four disciplined weeks at an altitude of 2,000 meters this autumn.
It's all about 2023. To be among those who dominate next season.
Among other things, the WC in Budapest awaits in August.
This Wednesday is one of the quiet days in the weekly programme: jogging, drill exercises and a few short stretches.
- Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are the hardest days. 182.5 kilometers is standard for a week, but we can allow ourselves to go a little higher at camp because here we can focus on things like sleeping and eating. At home, we like to have some commitments, says Jakob.
Including fiancee Elisabeth Asserson, and a now planned wedding in September, he reveals.
And for Filip house building in Aurskog with his spouse Astrid Mangen Ingebrigtsen.
In February, the break between Gjert Ingebrigtsen and the three sons became known. He was finished as a coach, and Henrik was going into a role as team manager.
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Ingebrigtsen
On NRK, Norwegians had seen for several years on the documentary series "Team Ingebrigtsen" how the impossible was possible:
Two parents, seven children, a father who raised and trained three of the boys to the world elite. Lifelong dedication without compromise and family relationships that endured all this through banter, arguments and the very, very greatest emotions - in front of an open camera.
Then it wasn't possible anyway.
This delightful, entertaining and extremely successful Norwegian model was not sustainable where it should have been strongest.
- I will try to patch up the relationship we have, Henrik Ingebrigtsen said of his father Gjert in an interview with Aftenposten not long ago.
There is silence for twelve seconds as we ask what the biggest difference will be in the future, without the man they have mostly called Gjert on TV.
Filip drums a little with his fingers on the pouf he is sitting on. Jakob takes the floor.
- There is not that much difference... People may not have believed that we have not been responsible for ourselves. That is not entirely true, but of course it is so to a greater extent now. I really enjoy being responsible myself for the mistakes I make. I have no coach to blame, he says.
- It is a natural development, perhaps. We like to bear that responsibility ourselves, says Filip.
What has perhaps changed the most is that I don't get that training plan from someone else every Sunday night or Monday morning, says Jakob.
Later, when asked if they are reconciled with Gjert, Filip replies that he has nothing to add beyond what has been said previously.
- What is interesting is that people want more. And there is not much more. People are very confused, but they have been answered a hundred times, says Jakob.
Filip's finger drumming probably mostly meant that he was hungry.
- Are you going to join us for lunch, right? he asks.
Inside a diner in Flagstaff, they each order a generous burrito and a heavy plate of French toast.
- When you train so much, it's about getting enough, says Jakob.
For breakfast, there is cottage cheese, yoghurt, fruit, "skewed egg". Then there is a big lunch. Then a snack and a lot of food again in the evening.
It's a bit of a question how terrible we've had it in training, whether we treat ourselves to pizza or a burger. Yesterday we had a lot of pizza. Then we felt very sorry for ourselves, laughs Jakob.
Also sitting around the table are the runners Jacob Boutera (26), European Championship finalist in the 3000 meter hurdles, and Magnus Tuv Myhre (22), Norwegian U23 champion in the 1500 and 5000 meters last year.
During the Olympics in Japan last year, Jakob Ingebrigtsen took gold in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:28.32. It was also a new Olympic record.
Now a whole world of runners is wondering if he can take the world record of 3:26:00, which Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj has held for almost 24 years.
- It is a dream to run faster than 3:28, but primarily to run faster than before, says Jakob.
Together with Henrik, they have seen the Diamond Leauge meeting in Monaco on 21 July next year as a place to attack a faster 1500m time.
Jakob is still disappointed with his own performance during the WC in Eugene, Oregon last summer, where he took silver in just under 3:30.
Such missed chances are one of the "most negative" things about the sport for the brothers.
- If he knows he's in 3:26 shape, but abuses that chance to screw up tactically in a race, then it's damn disappointing because he's throwing away a chance he might not get again, says Filip.
- I had a golden opportunity to do what I could, then it slipped away. You work really hard to recreate it, but there is no guarantee of anything in this life, he says.
The WC in Budapest next year will be the next opportunity for the 22-year-old to become world champion for the first time in the 1500 metres.
The brothers measure everything in terms of risk and reward. What risk, for what gain?
what is the risk against training, or overtraining? Congestion vs gain? If the gain is potentially huge, you are willing to take more risk, explains Filip.
- This is where Henrik is completely shy, says Jakob.
The older brother is very reasonable when it comes to others, but too emotional when it comes to himself, he believes.
- And that is probably why things have gone so badly in recent years. Because the gain is so enormous if he can only run a little faster. Then it goes as it goes. But he tried anyway, says the 22-year-old.
They joke that Henrik was not "allowed" by them to join the altitude training while he is now working his way back after another injury layoff.
The question now is what kind of risk Jakob himself is willing to take to approach the world record.
- I still have quite good faith that if I do the same as I have been doing, I can run faster.
Filip interjects that Jakob still has a lot to learn due to his young age, although at one point in the conversation Jakob also states that "in terms of training, I am very old, ultra old"
- We must not forget why you have become as good as you have become, says Jakob.
And how have the brothers become as good as they have become?
- What lies in our philosophy - and which goes a little against everyone else who has become good - is that you don't need what people think to run faster, says Jakob.
Team Ingebrigtsen shuns risk and resorts to high-volume fitness-based threshold training, instead of training at competitive speed.
The threshold is where the body gets rid of lactic acid as quickly as it is produced. A lactate meter is needed to find this point.
- We have to run insanely fast in competition, but we almost never train at that speed. It only happens in the middle of summer, he continues.
Take the day before VG visits: Six-minute intervals at 20 km/h in the morning. In the evening, 500 meters at a speed of 21–22 km/h. Total volume around 32 kilometres.
Jakob maintained a speed of 25.9 km/h when he took the Olympic gold in the 1500 metres. And Filip's personal record for the same distance – 3:30.01 – corresponds to 25.7 km/h.
Their program only exceptionally contains intervals longer than six minutes, and then at an even lower speed.
- Too much and too hard, says Filip about the most common misunderstanding many people have about how to train to get fast.
This is where the Ingebrigtsen family believes there is another path to becoming the world's best than the one taken by Hicham El Guerrouj. He used to run 30–45 minutes continuously at a speed of up to 20–21 km/h and 1000 meters at 24 km/h.
- I do much of the same as I have done for the past five years, with a little tweak. But only based on the same training, I have had a progression in the results, says Jakob.
"Tweak" are the small adjustments, which over time can set completely new patterns.
- The more experience you get in carrying out the last ten days before a competition, the more you notice very well what works. Last year I had a very good season, but this year I have changed towards the races. When I looked back at last year, I saw that "oh, I didn't need to do that session", explains Jakob.
The last two seasons have been difficult for Filip Ingebrigtsen.
- I don't really understand what people are talking about, says Filip.
Last year with the Olympics in Japan was a setback, after a negative reaction to the covid vaccine. This year's season with the WC in the USA had to kneel due to an Achilles injury.
So then the question is whether he is motivated to fight his way back to the top of the world. It's a question he doesn't like too much.
- "Are you going to hang up now?" ask people. No, that's not how it works. We are doing this for the long term. Being in pain sucks, so now knowing that your body works twice a day, that's what's nice. That's what we value: Having a good session, says Filip.
For the two training partners who have joined Flagstaff this year – Jacob Boutera and Magnus Tuv Myhre – it's been about adapting to a regime many people think they know what it is.
So it's not quite what they thought, after all.
- There is an extremely large amount to learn. So there is always a balance between doing as much good training as possible, but adapting it to your own form and intensity, so you don't leave here injured, especially because we are at altitude. It's not everything he does that we can do, says Boutera and nods towards Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Magnus Tuv Myhre realized that he was dealing with things that neither Jakob nor Filip would handle with tongs when he came to Flagstaff.
Jakob tells.
- The vast majority of people in Norway train like us, but not many have asked what we actually do. It has only gone by-by-by, he says.
2nd part of article in comment below due to length restrictions .........
