[0:00]So you're interested in the Norwegian singles approach to training? Awesome, welcome. Just on my way to do a 9x3 workout. So come along with me and I'll show you the whole thing start to finish. Now the Norwegian singles approach is a training methodology that alternates between sub threshold workouts on one day, easy runs the next day, sub threshold, easy, sub threshold, easy. Then a long run, that's your week. And the principle of it is consistency, sustainability. It's not periodization, it's not down weeks. It's about putting in work constantly at a sustainable level. How much work can you put in and stay not injured? A lot of pretty good work beats a little bit of really tough work. At least in the long run, because this isn't approach that's meant for long-term training, sustainable training. Not weeks, we're talking months and years. So today is one of those sub-threshold days. You got to find somewhere appropriate to do these sessions, ideally somewhere flat and uninterrupted. Now, once you've picked your area, do an easy run on your way there. I'm doing about 10 to 15 minutes of easy running just to get to the spot. A couple other things I recommend that are not mandatory but could really help out. First one is getting an arm band or chest band for heart rate monitoring. I find the optical one on the wrist doesn't work so well, especially in the winter. The other thing I recommend is setting up the workout on your watch. With Garmin, you can set up workouts that's going to control your pacing and also do the intervals for you, so you don't need to think about it when you're on your run. Just makes it a lot easier, your watch beeps, you do the next thing. All right, after the warm-up, I like to do some dynamic stretching, just grab a signpost or a fence or something, swing your legs back and forth. Whatever drills you're comfortable with to get you ready to do these intervals. Today's workout is nine times three minutes with one minute recovery. So I'm going to run three minutes at sub threshold pace and then rest for 60 seconds. I repeat that nine times. But what is sub threshold pace? Now, the way I learned it, threshold is the pace that you could hold for up to about an hour. But I'm not running for up to an hour. The whole point of the Norwegian singles approach is for sustainable training. You want to keep your lactate levels down, but I don't have a lactate meter. So instead, we use other things in the place of lactate meter. Pace is a pretty good proxy. Threshold is going to be faster than my half marathon pace, but slower than my 10K pace. But as I said, I'm not running for an hour, so I can actually go a little bit faster than I might think, as long as that lactate doesn't have a chance to accumulate. Now, honestly, the easiest way to start is just look up a pace calculator online or from the book. There's a pretty good one called sweetsspot.run, I'll link in the description below. Now, ideally, this would be based on a recent race result. I don't really have any of those right now, I'm going to fix that soon.
[2:59]But for me, this is going to boil down to between 4 minutes and 4:15 per kilometer. And it'll kind of feel it out from there. You do also need to make adjustments based on the conditions, so whether you're running a hilly route, or if it's hot out or windy, or if the footing is really bad, or if you had a bad night's sleep, or your HRV is elevated. All of these things should prompt you to make some small adjustments here and there. But let's start running this and we'll see how it goes. All right, so we're going to lap the watch and that'll be the start of our first strap. Let's go.
[3:35]Okay, voiceover Ben here as we speed this up. Now, as I navigate these snowy sidewalks here, what I'm looking for in the first interval is to get into that pace range without going past it. I'm assessing the conditions, this first rep should not feel too hard, it shouldn't leave me gasping for air. I really want to sneak up to the threshold bit by bit. Today, it's still pretty snowy and there's a bit of a headwind, and I don't want to just dogmatically reach for the prescribed pace here if it's going to take too much effort to get to that pace. It's not about being so rigidly attached to hitting a very specific number, you do need to adapt with the conditions. Oh.
[4:20]All right, that's the first strap done. I can tell today is going to be a little tougher than I anticipated. Now for the one minute recoveries, you can stop and rest, you can walk, you can do an easy jog. It's up to you. Here's the benefit for setting up your Garmin, because in 10 seconds, I know that my next rep starts when the watch beeps, you just go again. Okay, rep two, I'm a bit more tuned in to what the pace is looking like today. This time, I find I've clear sidewalks and a bit of a tailwind, so I can run in the faster end of my pace range. I'm checking my watch regularly along the way here, both for pace and heart rate. If you have configured a garment workout with pace or heart rate ranges, it will beep at you when you're out of the range, but I find it's a bit delayed. So while that can be useful for longer reps, I prefer the immediate feedback, just looking at my watch, especially early in a session like this. All right, I could tell that rep was easier because I made it farther on the out and back. This sidewalk is definitely the winner. All right, seven more ups to go. See you in a little bit, just going to get these done.
[5:44]Okay. Just finished interval number eight. I'm going to bring you along for the last one. All right, here we go, last rap. And as the session comes to a close, it can be tempting to finish strong and put in a bigger effort for the last rep. But for this style of training, I suggest resisting that temptation and staying controlled. You will finish the workout with a little bit more left in the tank, and that's intentional. If you truly think you've left too much on the table, make a small adjustment in the next workout. Remember, the potential gains by running above threshold right now are pretty small compared to the benefit of being fresh for the next workout, and the next one, and the next one.
[6:52]All right. So there we have it. 9 laps down, it's the end of the workout. Just have the cool down left. First, I just want to end this workout to show you one other benefit. Execution score, 86%. If you enter your intervals in a Garmin workout, and you give them a prescribed range, either pace or heart rate, then you will get an execution score. You don't have to read too much into it, but it can be a nice little pat on the back to tell you that, yeah, you actually stuck to what you said you were going to do. Now for me, 86, is pretty good. I have a feeling it's because I went too fast at some points. But honestly, that's part of it. I didn't earn a perfect execution score for going too fast. Once you've finished your intervals, it is time for the cool down. You should run easy for another, you know, 10 minutes or so. Now, a big question you might have is, how do I know if I did this right? And for me, I think the better question is, how do I know I didn't blow it? Because remember, this whole training approach is about doing things consistently and sustainably. It's not about nailing a workout. If you blow up on one of these workouts, then you're not going to be able to do your rest, sub threshold, rest, sub threshold. The whole point of this is that you can do three speed sessions a week. Yeah, they're not as intense, but you get three of them. Honestly, it kind of feels like cheating. So how do you know if you did it right? Well, for me, at the end of the workout, my hands aren't on my knees, I'm not gasping for breath. It is a tough workout, but it's not one that's going to leave me on the ground. If I had to do another rep, I could. I wouldn't want to, but I could. If the answer to that is no way in hell, then you went too hard. Another factor I like to look at is heart rate. Now, for an hour-long session, I know that if my heart rate strays above 172, 173, I'm going to be in trouble. I'm into threshold territory at that point, and it's going to start getting unsustainable from there. Now for these shorter reps, I'm okay going above that a little bit for a little bit of time. In the early reps, I don't really want to be getting there, but by the later reps, if I'm getting to 175 or so, I'm okay with that. If I start hitting 180 and like really going into zone five anaerobic, I know I've overcooked it. And honestly, the biggest proof is, can you do this again two days from now? And can you do it again two days from then? And can you repeat that cycle week after week? And I think if you look in your heart, and you're really honest with yourself, and that's not easy, you'll have your answer. Okay, super quick recap. You want to take a recent race time, put that into an online calculator, get a pace. Then use an arm strap or a chest strap to get your heart rate, program your workout into your watch. Then do a nice 10-minute easy warm-up out to a flat, out-and-back kind of area or a loop, somewhere that you can do these reps. Do your dynamic stretching, any drills that you like to do, then hit your reps. Your early reps, you should be getting closer to your threshold heart rate, but not quite getting there. By the later ones, you probably want to be hitting it, maybe even going a little bit above it, just a little bit. Kept it all off with another 10 minutes easy to cool down and you've done it. Now the key part's all this. You want to take your next day super, super easy and then repeat that. So sub threshold, then easy, sub threshold, easy, sub threshold, easy, then do a longer run. That's your weekly structure. Repeat that for weeks, months, years, who knows? Now of course, this isn't the only way to do sub threshold sessions, and it's not even the only structure for sub threshold. I personally like doing them by time, some people do them by distance. The three workouts that I do are 9x3 minutes, 4x6 minutes, and 3x right now 11 minutes. The amount of reps you do and the length of those reps can sort of increase over time, but remember, the point of this isn't to push yourself to exhaustion. You're not trying to peak every so often, you want it sustainable. Have you been doing Norwegian singles? Let me know in the comments. Be really curious to see how other people are getting on with it. See if they do it in a different way, or if they have a different proxy that they use for lactate, or maybe you actually use a lactate meter. That'd be pretty cool to hear about. Anyway, that's it for this video, thanks for watching. See you next week.
