Ingerbritsen response to interviewer question

Facts, most runners these days have no concept of what is actually “easy”. No 7 min mile “easy” run isn’t easy if you’re a 16+ min 5ker. Can’t wait for the downvotes by people who are much slower than me yet “train” harder. Keep blaming genetics, drugs, and whatever else to justify your inabilities!

It is also interesting because Jakob might train harder than 95% of his rivals. That makes his statement kind of hilarious/awesome.

What does he think other runners should do? Train less? Train easier? For people without the same genetics or childhood as Jakob, training is the one thing people can take control of.

Jakob may train “harder” but it’s all very measured so that he doesn’t burn himself out. He has been training at a high level for a decade now and knows his training super well and can make more informed decisions. His criticism is for athletes who run their workouts way too fast or run too much too quickly

I think he is probably talking about how hard other elites/sub-elites run their workouts. Remember that in their staple threshold sessions (5x6 mins, 10x1km etc), the Ingebrigtsen's always focus on staying at or below their threshold (which is close to their half-marathon pace). Although they do a lot of volume, the majority of the Ingebrigtsen's workouts just aren't that difficult individually (obviously discounting things like the recent 6x800m workout that was publicised) .

In contrast, its easy to find other elites/sub-elites pushing their workouts constantly - just look on youtube. I remember seeing videos of Ed Cheserek always going way faster than his prescribed paces on workouts. Another example is this Paul Chelimo workout, where they push the pace much faster than prescribed.

Or that "alpha" dude from Ole Miss who would be vomiting after workouts, and so on and so on. The Ingebrigtsen's just don't do workouts with this intensity on a regular basis, because their approach is volume-based, with higher intensities only coming around race period. It's a lot more boring, but it gets them results. As someone else posted, it does seem like go quite slow (relatively) on easy days. Marius Bakken says that those following the Norwegian approach stay below 70% max HR on easy runs.

He’s not wrong. I was picked as the #6 man to run at a large NCAA meet my Freshman year mainly because all of the fast guys were fvcking idiots and couldn’t make it through a whole season without injury. I had no business being in that meet and my slowest pace on 18 mile runs was 7:30. Healthy runners beat injured runners every time.

He also said it was easier to run fast in the 90s with a smile when asked about the new technology with shoes and etc prob because a lot off the runners used drugs back then

said it to NRK prior to the race

That’s pretty hilarious if he actually said that.

Only a matter of time before he is popped for substance. Nike athletes always get popped.

Jakob trains much easier than, say, an Aden runner. That is, he doesn't usually hammer any workouts. The hardest they usually would go, other than hill sprints, in the past was half marathon pace for the vast majority of their many weekly workouts, with some 10x300 at 1500m pace workouts close to champs. His 6x800m workout was easily the hardest workout I've seen attributed to him.

While there is no proof of illegal drugs, Ingebrigtsen is certainly a product of a laboratory. Every workout is scientifically designed, is blood levels are checked to determine his threshold, his calories and nutrients are counted. He is the best because he uses many resources to optimize his training.

*Note: I said the same thing about Lance Armstrong, and he proved to be a cheat. If science is that involved, it is quite easy to flip the switch to enhance performance.

It's called trying to put two pounds of poop in a one pound bag.

I think he means training too fast both in workouts and on easy days. Even Kipchoge runs a lot of easy days 7:30-8:00/mile pace. When I was in college I hated it because a lot of 4:00 1500 guys would run 6:00-6:15 pace everyday which wasn't smart at all.

He had that one 400 workout (16x400?) where he averaged 55s for the last 4 or something. I think he hammers some workouts when getting ready for big races, but stuff like his 13:02 5k last year was just done off his threshold work. I think that's what he means when he says people go too hard. He can get into 13:02 shape off of work that's way easier than what most runners do.

It has happened before, so it might be so with Ingebrigtsen. Armstrong, so Q.E.D. You are sure this is not a false analogy? His fathers insistence on not fast threshold traing ... product of a laboratory, because of testing bloodlevels? Please, elaborate.

Training harder does not mean training faster. The balance is between overall intensity vs over training. The goal is to raise the middle. Jacobs middle is extremely high and you do not get to that level unless you are complietly dedicated to your runnng.

Training harder does not mean training faster. The balance is between overall intensity vs over training. The goal is to raise the middle. Jacobs middle is extremely high and you do not get to that level unless you are complietly dedicated to your runnng.

On the note of optimization and hence little effort for large reward, I want to see if anyone can answer this Q about my training.

I’ve been mainly recreationally playing sports, lifting weights, sprinting, and other fun stuff for my entire 20s, up to age 27, but I had distance run from age 12 to 19.

In 2020 I did a meager training block of race-pace work in prep for a 5 mile run, where I ran 6:12-6:15 pace. This was on 2-5 mpw, and I weighed 150 lbs, versus my high school distance peak of 5:35 per mike for 5k at 133 lbs.

What do you reckon I could muster for a 5k simply by reducing bodyfat from 17% to 12% and a few pounds of muscle loss in the upper body for a net loss of 12-15 lbs, assuming comparable fitness to what I had in 2020?