The Norwegian Method: Why Double Threshold Works

In 2021, Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the Olympic 1500m. His brother Filip ran 3:28. Their approach — double threshold training — has since been adopted by elite distance programs worldwide, from OAC Europe to the Bowerman Track Club. But the method didn’t start with the Ingebrigtsens.

It started with Marius Bakken, a Norwegian middle-distance runner who ran 13:06 for 5000m and conducted over 5,500 lactate tests on himself and his training partners. Bakken’s insight was simple but radical: conventional threshold training was set too high, and athletes could accumulate far more quality volume by running at a lower lactate concentration — if they structured it correctly.

Conventional coaching places the lactate threshold at roughly 4.0 mmol/L. Bakken discovered through extensive testing that lowering the training intensity to 2.3–3.0 mmol/L — well below the traditional threshold — allowed athletes to complete substantially more quality work with less muscular fatigue.

At this lower intensity, lactate production and clearance are still balanced, cardiovascular and metabolic stress are still significant enough to drive adaptation, but the musculoskeletal cost is dramatically reduced. Bakken’s argument: it’s not the cardiovascular system that limits threshold training volume, it’s the muscles. By reducing mechanical stress per session, you can do more total work.

His sessions used interval formats rather than continuous runs: 6-minute, 5-minute, or even 1-minute repetitions with 15–90 second recoveries. The short rest periods allowed for lactate sampling and muscular relaxation without losing the aerobic stimulus.

The “Norwegian method” concentrates threshold work into 2–3 days per week, with two threshold sessions per day — morning and evening, separated by 2–3 hours of rest.

A typical double day for Bakken: morning session of 6 × 6 minutes at 2.5 mmol/L lactate; evening session of 10–15 × 1 minute at slightly higher intensity (2.8–3.0 mmol/L). The variation in interval length across sessions targets the same metabolic system through different mechanical pathways.

The remaining days are genuinely easy — heart rate below 70% of maximum, lactate below 1.0 mmol/L. Total weekly volume for a serious 5K–10K runner: 140–180 km. For a marathon runner: 180–220 km. But the intensity distribution is stark: threshold or easy, almost nothing in between.

One additional day per week includes a different “X element” — hill repetitions or shorter, more intense intervals at 5–8 mmol/L. This provides a neuromuscular and anaerobic stimulus that pure threshold work doesn’t address.

Bakken developed a simple readiness protocol. Before each threshold session, evaluate warm-up heart rate and the first lactate reading:

Green: warm-up heart rate is lower than typical, lactate reaches target at a higher pace than last session. Extend the session — you’re supercompensating. Yellow: normal readings. Execute the planned session. Red: warm-up heart rate elevated, lactate accumulates faster than usual at the same pace. Terminate the session early — pushing through will deepen fatigue without driving adaptation.

This is essentially HRV-guided training applied through lactate measurement. The principle is identical: when the body signals recovery, push. When it signals fatigue, back off. Bakken’s version just uses blood lactate as the readiness signal instead of morning HRV.

A study published in Frontiers in Physiology compared a single 6 × 10 minute threshold session against two 3 × 10 minute sessions separated by 6.5 hours of recovery. The total threshold volume was identical.

The split-session group showed lower perceived exertion, reduced blood lactate accumulation, and similar or better cardiovascular stimulus — supporting Bakken’s core claim that splitting threshold work into doubles allows more total volume with less physiological and perceived stress.

The implication for non-elite athletes: even if you can’t do true doubles, splitting a long threshold session into a shorter morning effort and an evening effort may allow you to sustain higher weekly threshold volume than cramming it into one session.

The full Norwegian model requires a high training age and significant aerobic base. The total weekly threshold volume (100–180 minutes) far exceeds what most recreational runners can absorb. Attempting true double-threshold days on 50 km/week is a fast path to overtraining.

For well-trained runners (>80 km/week, multiple years of consistent training, proven ability to handle 60+ minutes of weekly threshold work), the model offers a structured way to increase the primary driver of distance-running performance: the ability to sustain a high fraction of VO2max.

For everyone else, the takeaway is the principle, not the protocol. Lower your threshold session intensity from 4.0 mmol/L to the 2.5–3.0 range. Use intervals instead of continuous tempo runs. Keep easy days genuinely easy. Even a single threshold session twice per week, structured this way, captures most of the benefit.

And if you don’t have a lactate meter, that’s where tools like DFA α1, heart rate-based zone estimation, or simply the talk test come in. Bakken used lactate because it was the most precise tool available. The underlying signal — metabolic state at moderate intensity — can be approximated through other means.