Kristiansand, April 21, 2025 The original article on the Norwegian model of lactate threshold training was written in 2022 and hasn’t been changed since. It was written to provide a descriptive ove…
The reason why Bakken posted this - which is because Gjert claims (in court) that he invented everything by himself - is interesting.
I would compare the situation to someone (Gjert) buying a catalog home and claiming that since he's using one of the bedrooms as an office it makes the building completely unique.
Deep inside Gjert knows that he's standing on the shoulder of giants, and in the 21st century I'd say that's an equally important skill. That is being able to identify, extract and build on the knowledge of those who came before you, as opposed to reinventing the wheel from scratch and wasting 30 years in the process. Just remember to be honest about it.
On a different note it's also reminiscent about the "founders don't always make great CEOs" trope. Although Bakken identified the formula, I think Gjert's mindset (albeit extremely costly) was better for implementing it (purely speaking about results). The Ingebrigtsens had a lot of grey years before the results started showing up, and the autocratic relentlessness in pushing through made it work in the end. Almost everyone would have thrown in the towel (pun not intended) and saved their family relations from deteriorating beyond the point of no return. And don't get me wrong, I think you can accomplish both at the same time - coming extremely close to realizing your full athletic potential while maintaining a great relationship with your family and coach. It's just a lot harder when the coach is your father.
Would of liked to see a more detailed plan for competitive phase to peaking like the normal structured weeks we have already seen a lot. The transition to race specific work and working out the double threshold.
1. I really like how generous Bakken is in discussing all the other coaches and runners who influenced his training model. His double threshold training has become widely adopted and I could see other coaches wanting all the credit, but he clearly wants to share the credit.
2. He put a lot of experimentation into figuring out exactly what kind of training worked best for him. I think because his double threshold method is so regimented with the same schedule week after week many runners today want to copy it exactly. But if you really want to be like Bakken I think another lesson is you need to experiment and listen to your body to find out what kind of training you respond best to.
Would of liked to see a more detailed plan for competitive phase to peaking like the normal structured weeks we have already seen a lot. The transition to race specific work and working out the double threshold.
I always wondered what on earth Coe had to do with the Norwegian model as to me they could not be more different. I understand Coe to be all about super hard intervals starting at 5k effort early in the season and then progressing to 3k pace and faster. Plus a ton of sprinting/plyos and "easy" runs done at fast paces sub 6 min miles anything slower a waste of time etc.
The Norweigian model in stark contrast seems to be about higher volume, easier running, intervals very light in intensity not crossing threshold/half marathon pace, develop the aerobic system first etc.
If muscular recovery was not a factor, would continuous vs interval sessions yield the same adaptations (assuming pace and volume are identical). Seems there is no point in continuous efforts such as tempo runs.
King Seb never ran slower than a 6 minute mile. He spent the winter training with the sprinters (the proper 100m & 200m guys). why does no one do this anymore?
you can do all the threshold you like but a lot of these runners are getting smashed to bits in the heats at the olympics cos they cant accelerate and have a poor top speed, ie. Stewy McSweyne
I like how in his article he shows the progression to achieve that 6 x 800m workout that Jakob did last outdoor season. Of course, Jakob's paces are much different than what he mentioned, but it still reveals that the rest between reps was around 3 minutes.
*From his website
1) 6 x 500m @ 75 sec. with 3 min. recoveries between runs.
King Seb never ran slower than a 6 minute mile. He spent the winter training with the sprinters (the proper 100m & 200m guys). why does no one do this anymore?
you can do all the threshold you like but a lot of these runners are getting smashed to bits in the heats at the olympics cos they cant accelerate and have a poor top speed, ie. Stewy McSweyne
All sorts of top 15-ranked runners have gotten bounced in the 1500 heats due to apparent finishing speed/shifting deficiencies: Hoare, Katir, McSweyn, Mills, Tefera, Mechaal. I don’t see the correlation with one system.
I always wondered what on earth Coe had to do with the Norwegian model as to me they could not be more different. I understand Coe to be all about super hard intervals starting at 5k effort early in the season and then progressing to 3k pace and faster. Plus a ton of sprinting/plyos and "easy" runs done at fast paces sub 6 min miles anything slower a waste of time etc.
The Norweigian model in stark contrast seems to be about higher volume, easier running, intervals very light in intensity not crossing threshold/half marathon pace, develop the aerobic system first etc.
Those 25x400m sessions are done around 8k pace. The hill sprints are closer to 1500m effort. There is a decent amount of fast running but you can argue they avoid prolonged high levels of lactate.
There is a lot of good stuff but context always seems to be missing. When do you do the cows special speed sessions? When was he doing those 800m progressions? was he really doing 6x1000@3k pace 4 days before a 5k race? You could say the same thing about Coe where we have seen a few weeks of training but never a complete overview..
I always wondered what on earth Coe had to do with the Norwegian model as to me they could not be more different. I understand Coe to be all about super hard intervals starting at 5k effort early in the season and then progressing to 3k pace and faster. Plus a ton of sprinting/plyos and "easy" runs done at fast paces sub 6 min miles anything slower a waste of time etc.
The Norweigian model in stark contrast seems to be about higher volume, easier running, intervals very light in intensity not crossing threshold/half marathon pace, develop the aerobic system first etc.
Those 25x400m sessions are done around 8k pace. The hill sprints are closer to 1500m effort. There is a decent amount of fast running but you can argue they avoid prolonged high levels of lactate.
There is a lot of good stuff but context always seems to be missing. When do you do the cows special speed sessions? When was he doing those 800m progressions? was he really doing 6x1000@3k pace 4 days before a 5k race? You could say the same thing about Coe where we have seen a few weeks of training but never a complete overview..
Bakken was not doing 6x1000 @3k pace, he was doing 4-6x1000 follow by 3-7x300 @3k as race prep, pace for the 1k was not specified in the article.
Reading it im assume 2-3 months out from the last race they replace the morning threshold workout with that first 3k/5k workout and as it gets longer and harder and closer to peak racing they take out the second threshold workout of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then maybe if not racing replacing the hill repeats with fast 300s. Thats my guess.
I like how in his article he shows the progression to achieve that 6 x 800m workout that Jakob did last outdoor season. Of course, Jakob's paces are much different than what he mentioned, but it still reveals that the rest between reps was around 3 minutes.
*From his website
1) 6 x 500m @ 75 sec. with 3 min. recoveries between runs.
2) 4 x 600m @ 90 sec.
3) 6 x 600m @ 90 sec.
4) 4 x 700m @ 1 min. 50 sec.
5) 6 x 700m @ 1 min. 50 sec.
6) 4 x 800m @ 2 min 06 sec.
7) 4 x 800m @ 2 min 02 sec.
8) 6 x 800m @ 2 min 10 sec.
9) 6 x 800m @ 2 min 05 sec.
10) 6 x 800m @ 2 min 00 sec.
The first thing I thought of when I see this breakdown was seeing the Ingebrigtsens doing 700m repeats on afternoon on the track in St Moritz. I always thought that was weird, but perhaps this explains it?
Those 25x400m sessions are done around 8k pace. The hill sprints are closer to 1500m effort. There is a decent amount of fast running but you can argue they avoid prolonged high levels of lactate.
There is a lot of good stuff but context always seems to be missing. When do you do the cows special speed sessions? When was he doing those 800m progressions? was he really doing 6x1000@3k pace 4 days before a 5k race? You could say the same thing about Coe where we have seen a few weeks of training but never a complete overview..
Bakken was not doing 6x1000 @3k pace, he was doing 4-6x1000 follow by 3-7x300 @3k as race prep, pace for the 1k was not specified in the article.
He says he was running 2:32s for the 1k repeats which is 7:36 3k pace. Bakken's PR was 7:40. And his 5k PR is only 2:37/k. So it sure looks like 6 x 1k at 3k pace.
Every training schedule is unique in itself. So Gjert is the inventor of THAT specific training schedule.
However, everyone is influenced in some way or another by other people n training ideas.
No one start from scratch and build their schedule.
So he should have said i was influenced by a ton of people, from Lydiard to Åstrand to Daniels. Too many to name. To build my training philosophy. But my specific schedule n training is unique.
Gjert got the entire model from Bakken shared with him for free. Then later after his kids were successful, Gjert claimed he came up with the Norwegian method and wrote a training book that costs $50 where he doesn’t share any specifics of the method. That’s most likely why Bakken is open sourcing all of this knowledge
