In a recent podcast interview, Dr. Marius Bakken, the mind behind the Norwegian training method, challenged a belief most runners hold dear.
Training hard every single week, he argued, is not the fast lane to better results.
His alternative promises sturdier health and quicker race times at once.
Even better, the weekly blueprint fits on a sticky note.
Stick around for a hidden factor, one most runners ignore, that decides whether a given day feels springy or heavy.
You would think that going hard every week almost we get the most benefit, but it’s not true.
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The Weekly Split Bakken Recommends
For anyone running four or five times weekly, Bakken’s template has just three ingredients.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
- Two subthreshold sessions: comfortably hard work, split into intervals
- One harder “X session”: pushed well above threshold, limited to once weekly
- Easy runs: kept below roughly 70% of max heart rate
Sounds simple. Execution is where runners stumble.
The trouble for most athletes or runners, even on a top level, is that it’s easy to run a little bit too hard on the easy runs and a little bit too hard on the harder runs.
Blending intensities this way, Bakken says, leads to accumulated trouble over time.
How to Find Subthreshold Without a Lab
Threshold marks the point where aerobic work tips toward accumulating anaerobic effort. Bakken wants runners just beneath it: fast enough to build real running economy, slow enough to dodge the downsides of going over.
- Talk test: speak three to five words per breath
- Heart rate: about 80 to 87% of max if well trained
- Feel: comfortably hard
Most runners naturally drift faster when tested. Pushing harder feels natural, which is precisely the trap.
What an Elite Winter Week Looks Like
Bakken described the “light” Norwegian method used by elite athletes in winter.
- Tuesday and Thursday: double threshold, two sessions in one day
- Saturday: the hard X session, usually hills in winter
- Sunday: longer easy run
- Monday: easy day
Two easy days follow the hardest effort. That’s deliberate.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
The trouble with more intense running training is that sometimes recovery is one day, sometimes it’s three days, and it’s difficult to know and control.
Threshold work, by contrast, usually needs only one easy day afterward. Recovery becomes predictable.
Interval Lengths, Rest and the X Session
Bakken suggests pairing one short-interval day with one longer-interval day.
- Short reps: 45 seconds to 1 minute, with about 30 seconds of recovery
- Longer reps: 4 to 6 minutes, with roughly 1.5 minutes of recovery
- Ten-minute reps: only for runners who control pacing well
- Total volume: around 25 to 40 minutes per session
Longer repeats make intensity harder to police. Hence the caution.
For 5K runners, the X session pushes toward or beyond race pace. Bakken himself still runs 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off every Saturday, now on flat ground.
Hills, he explained, slow the speed while adding strength. Hill work counts as X-session territory, never threshold, since climbing prevents reaching proper pace.
Lessons From Kenya: The Golden Zone
Bakken didn’t merely admire Kenyan dominance. He tested lactate on Kenyan athletes to see what they actually did.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
I think that the big hidden thing that I would discover was that the intensity when you actually measured it, it was lower than you would think.
His response: squeeze more work out of that narrow band, which he dubbed the golden zone. He described it as the fastest running possible without the negatives of going faster.
The trouble is you cannot run at 5K pace every day.
The Hidden Variable: Muscle Tone
Here’s the open loop closed. Bakken considers muscle tone, the firmness and viscoelastic quality of muscle, central to everything.
If your muscle tone is balanced, for example, and you have a high elasticity, each step of your running will feel so much better and you will get so much more force in your stride each time you hit the ground.
One caveat: Bakken openly admits “we don’t know exactly what is involved”, pointing to water content, the elastic protein titin and muscle cross-bridges. His framework rests largely on his own testing and clinical observation, so treat it as a practical coaching model rather than settled science.
Tone should rise on hard days and fall on easy ones. Accumulating it all week is the danger.
Three Warning Signs You’re Overdoing It
- Stair test: climb the same stairs daily and note how heavy the legs feel
- Springiness: track how light each step feels during sessions
- Heavy starts: several runs in a row that feel worse at first, then improve, signal trouble ahead
Lactate and heart rate tracking can add detail. Still, Bakken says the stair test and in-session feel are the most important signals.
Smart Tweaks That Protect Your Legs
- Mid-run breaks: a one-minute pause every 5K can lower tone and make long runs feel better. Bakken notes lactate runs lower at the same average pace when work is split into intervals.
- Finishing strides: short strides or 45-15 repeats after strength work or long runs help bring tone down.
- Shoes: in his clinical practice, Bakken saw fewer running injuries after carbon-plated, modern-foam shoes arrived. His advice: switch brands if trouble persists.
- Baths: cold after hard days, warm on easy ones.
On cold baths, Bakken concedes that studies suggest they may not help muscle growth. His focus is purely muscle tone, and he stresses that extras like these are minor next to getting intensity right.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
What About Strength Training?
Bakken supports it for recreational runners and lifts weights himself, upper body only these days. At elite levels, he calls the combination tricky.
In terms of like top performance, it’s difficult to combine due to muscle tone.
His rules if attempting it: lift year-round, schedule it alongside the X session, then finish with strides and a longer cooldown.
Training for a Marathon
Periodize. Roughly four to twelve weeks out, swap in marathon-specific durability work: easy running that ends in intervals, Italian-style speed changes, or simply longer easy runs.
Before that window, the standard method builds a strong base. Tapering? Keep it simple and controlled.
Why Social Media Is the Enemy
Asked whether social media or science shapes people more, Bakken didn’t hesitate.
Oh, I would say unfortunately social media, which is why good books are important.
Flashy “special workouts” are risky, he warned, because they don’t fit a larger framework. Look at the big picture instead.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
The Biggest Mindset Shift of the Last Decade
Bakken, now a practicing doctor, was asked what he has changed his mind about over ten years. His answer applies to busy, time-crunched runners most of all.
I’ve understood more and more actually that training must be balanced even more if you’re training just a few times a week than at the top level.
Seeing patients hurt by overly intense loads taught him how little it takes to tip the balance. Consistency beats heroics.
