The “Norwegian Method” of training has had a good run. Its poster boy, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, has been on a tear and has not been shy about attributing at least some of his success to this method of packing in a lot of threshold work in by not making any specific workout too intense.
However, he’s also had a string of losses, including at the Pre Classic this past weekend where Josh Kerr got his number for the second time in a row, going back to last year’s World Championships.
So is his method of training losing some popularity?
Well, it doesn’t appear to be yet and maybe it shouldn’t be.
The health benefits of being an elite runner? Does being an elite runner make you more healthy than the general population? In short, that’s a very complex question and there is no clear answer.
“Air hunger” and performance: This is an interesting discussion on a possible performance limiter for some that most of us probably don’t spend much time thinking about.
Sprint! It’s good for you. Seriously. While we of course do need to be careful to not get ourselves hurt, sprinting does have some pretty powerful benefits.
Asymptomatic bone injuries: This was an interesting piece of research I was introduced to. Basically, if you take imaging of runners (in this case military recruits so maybe not the average recreational or recreationally competitive runner) you find a lot of stress injuries but a majority of them had no symptoms. A significant number of these remained minor over time and many even remained asymptomatic.
I had an interesting discussion with an expert about this study. It seems that my non-expert gut reaction laid in line with what the expert agreed with. If you’re asymptomatic, don’t worry if some test says you have a problem. You might be treating a “problem” that would never actually turn into a real problem. He also said he saw a fair number of cases of imaging “discovering” asymptomatic cases of other “injuries” such as a torn meniscus or other soft tissue (not just bone) damage. His suggestion was, if the imaging shows it but you aren’t having problems, just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t develop problematic symptoms.