I read an article from 3-4 years back that mentioned that Jakob’s longest ever training runs were capped at around 20km. Does anyone know if that’s still the case? I’ve seen a few posts about “what could Jakob run in full marathon tomorrow”. If 20km really is his longest training runs if would definitely be interesting to see if he could still fair well over a much longer distance. Thoughts?
the very best runners in the world doesnt really benefit that much from a massive long run, according to Marius Bakken in (i det lange løp podcast, september 2023)
If you run over 160 km/week, it doesnt take much to get the necessary muscular adaption in place (the same podcast)
how fast you can run is based on your threshold pace -> Jakob was running 10 x 1km at 2,40 pace with 2,0 in lactate a few years ago (according to narve nordås, earlier episode of the same podcast).
Learning how to get enough calories by eating enough maurten products while running for roughly two hours would probably be something he would have to practice though.
I hold the opinion that mileage is super important in the mile-3k distance range but long run distance is entirely irrelevant.
You could get very very effing close to your potential with 7-8 mile runs/workouts and 5-6 mile doubles as long as you’re hitting 70+ mpw.
You want to stimulate your aerobic system very often but 13+ miles over a minute per mile slower than race pace isn’t doing anything special compared to what I highlighted above, you are working the wrong energy/muscular systems.
Bring me my downvotes.
This post was edited 37 seconds after it was posted.
Long runs are not an important part of Norway style training. Double-T days are around 20 miles normally so why do a long run as well, especially if you're doing it twice a week. Lots of coaches this year trying to steal double-T but keeping their normal weekly long runs are in for a rough year.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
When he's doing 10km worth of threshold intervals, he's probably warming up and cooling down with 3-5 km before and after, plus if he's jogging between each rep that's another 1-2 km. So he's doing four 18-20 km runs per week . Overall volume is what matters and with how much is at threshold, there's no need for him to do a 20 mile long run. More should learn from him, especially for mile to 5000 athletes. Instead of expending so much energy slogging for 2 hours, do a double threshold. You'll end up with the same or more mileage for that day anyways.
My VERY humble opinion is that if you're not racing the marathon you don't have to go that far.
1500-10,000 (10K) 12-15. !/2 marathon more in the 15 mile range. Especially if you're doing the kind of (and volume of) threshold training Jakob is doing.
When he's doing 10km worth of threshold intervals, he's probably warming up and cooling down with 3-5 km before and after, plus if he's jogging between each rep that's another 1-2 km. So he's doing four 18-20 km runs per week . Overall volume is what matters and with how much is at threshold, there's no need for him to do a 20 mile long run. More should learn from him, especially for mile to 5000 athletes. Instead of expending so much energy slogging for 2 hours, do a double threshold. You'll end up with the same or more mileage for that day anyways.
My VERY humble opinion is that if you're not racing the marathon you don't have to go that far.
1500-10,000 (10K) 12-15. !/2 marathon more in the 15 mile range. Especially if you're doing the kind of (and volume of) threshold training Jakob is doing.
I think it's been proven at this point! Not like a long run will destroy you, but we've seen enough guys thrive at 1,500 or 5,000 with nothing over 20-25K.
When he's doing 10km worth of threshold intervals, he's probably warming up and cooling down with 3-5 km before and after, plus if he's jogging between each rep that's another 1-2 km. So he's doing four 18-20 km runs per week . Overall volume is what matters and with how much is at threshold, there's no need for him to do a 20 mile long run. More should learn from him, especially for mile to 5000 athletes. Instead of expending so much energy slogging for 2 hours, do a double threshold. You'll end up with the same or more mileage for that day anyways.
I’ve never seen more people care about one person’s training than I have with Jakob. What works for him might not work for you. I can totally see people doing only a 20k long run at lower mileage than Jakob and saying he’s the reason they should be doing this.
I’ve never seen more people care about one person’s training than I have with Jakob. What works for him might not work for you. I can totally see people doing only a 20k long run at lower mileage than Jakob and saying he’s the reason they should be doing this.
It's interesting and we have a wealth of information and sources to talk about it.
Typically runners love to talk about training. I enjoy it when we get viewpoints from different eras- Malmo's contributions are invaluable.
Talking about the training of the past greats, Rogers, Pre, Shorter, et al is fun.
I’ve never seen more people care about one person’s training than I have with Jakob. What works for him might not work for you. I can totally see people doing only a 20k long run at lower mileage than Jakob and saying he’s the reason they should be doing this.
Training like Jakob would improve most average runners who can handle the training. Few will se as spectacular of results.
I hold the opinion that mileage is super important in the mile-3k distance range but long run distance is entirely irrelevant.
You could get very very effing close to your potential with 7-8 mile runs/workouts and 5-6 mile doubles as long as you’re hitting 70+ mpw.
You want to stimulate your aerobic system very often but 13+ miles over a minute per mile slower than race pace isn’t doing anything special compared to what I highlighted above, you are working the wrong energy/muscular systems.
Bring me my downvotes.
From reading about Canova it seems he doesn't believe in long runs either. 90mins moderate is the longest I saw for a 1500-5k guy so probably around 25-26km