The “Norwegian Method”: the double threshold every runner argues about

Every major championship gives birth to a new training fad. After the Ingebrigtsen brothers' victories, running forums were swept by the “Norwegian method”: amateurs began en masse to do two threshold sessions a day and to buy lactate meters. It sounds serious and scientific — but what here is actually proven, and what is just a nice story about someone else's success? Let's sort it out calmly.

What the double threshold is

The “double threshold” is an approach that the Norwegian physiologist and former runner Marius Bakken systematized, and that the Ingebrigtsens made famous. The idea is to do two separate threshold sessions in a single day — for example, morning and evening, with a 6–10 hour gap for recovery.

The key word is “threshold.” This is about work between the two lactate thresholds: aerobic (LT1) and anaerobic (LT2). The intensity is held so that lactate stays in a corridor of roughly 2–4 mmol/L — that's “comfortably hard,” but not to failure. Each segment lasts 20–40 minutes (usually in interval format), and lactate is checked with a finger prick after the sets.

The philosophy of the method: accumulate a lot of time at threshold rather than grind yourself down with hard intervals. Two moderate sessions a day give more quality work than one exhausting one — while causing fewer injuries and burning out the nervous system less.

What the science says

The systematic review by Kelemen and colleagues (2024) gathered everything in the literature on the training of elite Norwegian runners over 1500–10,000 m. And here's the honest picture: only 7 studies were found, describing 13 athletes in total. These aren't experiments but observations of what already-made champions do.

What was recorded for these athletes:

Volume of 120–180 km per week.
75–80% of all running at low intensity (62–82% of maximum heart rate).
2–4 threshold sessions per week, in the base period not uncommonly twice in a single day, under the control of a lactate or heart-rate meter.
1–2 high-intensity sessions per week (>97% of max heart rate) — short intervals (>800 m) or sprints.
Closer to the season the share of pure threshold is reduced and work at race pace is added.

Important conclusion: the review describes, it does not prove. Thirteen elite runners is not a randomized study. There is no data that the double threshold in itself is better than the classic scheme for an amateur. What really is reliably confirmed is not the magic of “two thresholds” but the huge volume of easy running as the foundation. It is this, not the lactate meter, that does the main work.

How an amateur can adapt it

Good news: a lactate meter is not required. It's needed to hit the narrow corridor at high volumes, but an amateur has three working substitutes:

Heart rate — hold the top of the aerobic zone, below the threshold “ceiling.”
Pace — a bit slower than the pace you could hold over 10 km or an hour-long race.
Feel and the talk test — at threshold you can utter a short phrase but not keep up a conversation.

The main mistake is copying “twice a day.” That's a tool for pros, whose sleep, nutrition and recovery are their job. An amateur is wiser to do one threshold session, and to try the “double threshold” at most once a week, splitting the sessions into morning/evening.

An example of a cautious week for a runner with 4–5 workouts:

Mon — easy run.
Tue — threshold: 5 × 6 minutes with 1 minute of jogging between.
Wed — easy run or rest.
Thu — threshold: 4 × 8 minutes in the same corridor.
Sat — long easy run.

80% of the week stays easy — that is precisely the essence of the method, not the number of finger pricks.

Limitations

The method works only on top of a large base of easy running. Without volume, two thresholds a day is a straight road to overtraining.
It's easy to get the intensity wrong: “a bit faster” turns a gentle threshold into hard work, and recovery isn't enough.
Who should not: beginners, those who run <40 km per week, sleep poorly, live under stress, or have recently come back from injury.
A lactate meter without the experience to interpret the data is just an expensive toy.

An expert view: the “Norwegian method” is not a breakthrough but a smart packaging of long-known principles (polarization, intensity control, volume). Its value for an amateur is not in the lactate meter but in the discipline: keeping easy easy, and threshold truly threshold.

The bottom line

The double threshold is two moderate threshold sessions a day with lactate control (~2–4 mmol/L), not hard intervals.
Science so far describes the method on 13 elite runners (7 studies) but does not prove its superiority for amateurs.
What really works is the foundation: 75–80% easy running and high volume.
A lactate meter can be replaced with heart rate, pace and the talk test.
An amateur is fine with one threshold per workout; “twice a day” at most occasionally and only on a solid base.
Not for beginners, low volumes and poor recovery.

Source: Kelemen B., Benczenleitner O., Tóth L. The Norwegian double-threshold method in distance running: Systematic literature review. Scientific Journal of Sport and Performance, Vol. 3(1), 2024. https://doi.org/10.55860/NBXV4075