Andreas Almgren Training | Double Threshold & Weekly Plan

Update (July 3, 2026): We’ve corrected the description of Almgren’s bike training based on his own recorded comments. Cycling is a cross-training tool he uses only during injury recovery — it is not part of his regular training menu when healthy. Details below.

Andreas Almgren is a Swedish runner who holds European records in the 5000m, 10km road, and half marathon. At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, he claimed bronze in the 10,000m — Sweden’s first long-distance world championship medal.

His training is built on two pillars: double threshold training (two threshold sessions per day) and a weekly high-intensity hill session. The foundation is the Norwegian method used by Jakob Ingebrigtsen and others, but Almgren has added his own wrinkles. He also uses bike training, but only as a cross-training tool during injury recovery — it is not part of his regular weekly menu when healthy (more on this below).

This article breaks down Almgren’s full weekly training structure using his own words and publicly available data. The second half covers how his approach differs from the Norwegian model and what recreational runners can actually take from it.

Who Is Andreas Almgren?

Profile and Key Records

Almgren’s full name is Karl Andreas Almgren. Born on June 12, 1995, he grew up in Sollentuna, a suburb north of Stockholm.

He competes across a wide range of distances, from middle to long distance. His main records are listed below.

Event	Time	Notes
5000m	12:44.27	European record (2025)
10km road	26:45	European record (2026, Valencia)
Half marathon	58:41	European record (2025)
10,000m	26:52.87	Swedish record
1500m	3:32.00	Personal best (2023)
800m	1:45.59	Personal best (2015, middle-distance era)

He started out as a middle-distance specialist in the 800m and 1500m, winning bronze in the 800m at the 2014 World Junior Championships. Between 2016 and 2019, a series of stress fractures and muscle tears repeatedly sidelined and returned him to competition — yet he kept racing throughout, winning the Swedish Championship 1500m title in 2017.※7 By 2021 he was emerging as a long-distance force, winning Swedish titles in the 5000m and cross country. From 2022 onward, he began breaking Swedish records in rapid succession, and his 2025 World Athletics bronze made him Sweden’s first long-distance world championship medalist.

Almgren’s Weekly Training Structure

Twice a Day, 170–200km a Week

Almgren trains twice a day, every day. His weekly mileage varies with the training phase. In his own words: “Last week I ran 206km. I trained twice a day every single day.”※4 Even during a sharpening block right before a race, he has held around 170km (106 miles) in a single week.※8

The vast majority of that volume is low-intensity aerobic running. Easy runs are typically around 4:00/km (6:26/mile) at roughly 120bpm. This large base of low-intensity running underpins everything — the threshold sessions sit on top of it.

A Typical Training Week

Drawing from multiple interviews and the official COROS feature, here is a typical training week during a base phase.

Day	AM	PM
Mon.	Easy run (approx. 12km)	Easy run (approx. 10km)
Tue.	Threshold intervals (AM)	Threshold intervals (PM)
Wed.	Easy run	Gym (strength training)
Thu.	Threshold intervals (AM)	Threshold intervals (PM)
Fri.	Easy run	Easy run
Sat.	X-factor session (short hill reps)	Easy run or full rest
Sun.	Long run	Gym (heavy lifting)

Double threshold sessions fall on Tuesday and Thursday. The remaining days consist of easy runs and gym work. The Saturday X-factor session (hill intervals) is covered in the next section. Note that this table doesn’t include bike training as a standing fixture — see “Bike Training: A Cross-Training Tool Reserved for Injury Recovery” below for why.

Double Threshold Sessions in Detail

The core of double threshold training is running two threshold sessions on the same day — one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Here is the typical structure Almgren has described for each.

Morning Session: 6×6 Minutes (2–3 Min Rest)

Six 6-minute threshold efforts with 2–3 minutes of rest between each. The same structure used by Ingebrigtsen, with variations like 10×3 minutes also in the mix.

Afternoon Session: 400m Reps (30-Second Rest)

With only 30 seconds of rest between reps, the session is designed to keep blood lactate in a controlled range throughout. The short recovery discourages going too fast on individual reps, making it easier to hold threshold intensity across the full set.※4

Target effort sits around 167–178bpm, with paces up to approximately 2:40/km (4:18/mile). But raw numbers come second — Almgren monitors four metrics simultaneously (pace, blood lactate, heart rate, and RPE) and adjusts intensity on the fly based on how he feels that day.

The X-Factor: Weekly High-Intensity Hill Session

On top of the double threshold work, Almgren runs one X-factor session per week at an intensity above threshold. This is part of the Bakken training system that Almgren follows — an approach rooted in the original Norwegian method.

The session uses hills of roughly 200 meters, with rest equal to about twice the effort duration (e.g., a 45-second hill gets 90 seconds of rest). During the base phase it is done on hills; as the race season approaches, the effort shifts to 300m track reps.

The effort exceeds threshold and approaches VO2 max intensity. By adding this single X-factor session to the large base of easy running and double threshold work, Almgren maintains a continuous speed stimulus week after week.※5

Gym: Supplementary Strength Work

Gym sessions happen four times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are supplementary strength work; Sunday after the long run is dedicated to heavy lifting. The frequency is unusually high for an elite runner, targeting injury prevention and the muscular endurance needed for high-volume long-distance training.

Bike Training: A Cross-Training Tool Reserved for Injury Recovery

Cycling is not part of Almgren’s regular training menu when he’s healthy. Asked what his cross-training looks like on the Coffee Club podcast, he was direct about it:

“I usually only do cross training when I’m injured. So when I’m in full training I only run.”※6

When he was injured in the fall of 2023, he reached out to a cycling coach he knew (a coach at Lidl-Trek) and got a roughly six-week bike program, which he used to build up to climbing the Alpe du Zwift benchmark climb in 38 minutes at an average of 352 watts (about 5.4 W/kg).※6 This was a time-limited response to that injury — it was not, and is not, a standing fixture of his healthy-season training.

Key Race-Prep Sessions

During the race-specific block leading into competitions, Almgren has attracted attention for two sessions that stand apart from his usual threshold work.

3×3km (3-Minute Rest)

Run on the final day of a 170km week, directly before the Valencia 10km, Almgren completed this session in a negative split of 8:00 → 7:52 → 7:43. The goal is to confirm he can hold threshold pace under accumulated fatigue — a classic sharpening session.※4 He ran it indoors with a cyclist acting as pacer.

10×1km (1-Minute Rest)

Average pace: 2:34/km (4:08/mile); final rep: 2:28/km (3:58/mile); average heart rate: 162bpm. Used as a final pre-race check. After Almgren posted this session on Strava, it went viral in the running community.※4

Six-Week Block Periodization

Training is organized into blocks of roughly six weeks, within which the structure stays largely the same. After each six-week block comes two weeks of more race-specific work (sessions closer to race pace), followed by one week of tapering.

In the off-season, Almgren travels to Sierra Nevada, Spain (approximately 2,500m altitude) for an altitude training camp, using the elevation to boost red blood cell count before returning home.

How Almgren Differs from the Norwegian Model

Almgren uses the same double threshold framework as Jakob Ingebrigtsen, but takes a distinct approach in several key areas.

The shared core is the structure of two threshold sessions per week, each split into a morning and afternoon effort, and specific formats like 6×6 minutes or 10×3 minutes. Almgren himself has said he started doing double threshold training in the fall of 2019.※6

The Nils van der Poel Inspiration

What led Almgren to use bike training during injury recovery in the first place traces back to Nils van der Poel, the Swedish speed skater who won both the 10,000m and 5,000m at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and later made his training philosophy public.

Van der Poel’s approach was to replace some high-impact running with cycling, allowing him to build total aerobic volume without the physical cost. Almgren, whose injury history made impact management a priority, borrowed this idea when he was injured in the fall of 2023, working with a cycling coach on a roughly six-week bike program.※6

As he has stated directly, though, he only turns to bike training when injured — when he’s in full training, he only runs.※6 The bike is a temporary tool for the recovery period, not a standing part of his weekly menu.

More Total Volume Than Ingebrigtsen

Almgren is accumulating more total volume than Ingebrigtsen — with running mileage alone hitting 170–200km+. As he has put it: “Having that volume gives me a big advantage when I start introducing race-specific work later in the season.”

This extends the core double threshold principle of accumulating high volume. Almgren achieves it without the professional infrastructure that surrounds Ingebrigtsen’s training, through sheer running mileage and controlled intensity.

The Science Behind Double Threshold Training

Why Split Into Two Sessions?

The reason for splitting threshold work into two sessions per day is straightforward: it allows you to accumulate the same total threshold stimulus with less accumulated fatigue.

A study comparing endurance athletes who did 6×10 minutes in a single session versus those who split it into 3×10 minutes morning and afternoon found a clear difference.※1 The single-session group saw heart rate, blood lactate, and RPE all climb as the workout progressed, with slower recovery the next day. The split group showed less fatigue accumulation in the second session and better recovery by the following morning.

The key insight is that splitting today’s session makes it less likely to compromise tomorrow’s quality. Over weeks and months, the total threshold stimulus you can accumulate adds up significantly.

How Lactate-Guided Training Works

Of the four metrics Almgren tracks, blood lactate is the most important. The target range is 2–4.5 mmol/L — if pace is too fast, he backs off; if there is room, he pushes a little harder. All in real time.※2

Heart rate alone is too easily influenced by conditions and body state to accurately reflect true training load. Using blood lactate as the anchor means Almgren can keep delivering sufficient stimulus without overdoing it. Over time, that consistent stimulus increases mitochondrial density in the muscles and reduces the energy cost of running at a given pace.※2

Research integrating training data from world-class runners confirms that more than 80% of their work falls below the lactate threshold, with the remaining threshold and high-intensity stimulus driving adaptation.※3 Almgren’s structure — high-volume easy running plus twice-weekly double threshold plus one X-factor session — aligns directly with this principle.

How Recreational Runners Can Apply It

Here are the key points for recreational runners looking to take something useful from Almgren’s approach.

What “Not for Under 75km/Week” Actually Means

Almgren himself has stated clearly: double threshold training is not suitable for runners doing under 75km (47 miles) per week.※4 For those running less than that, VO2 max intervals are a more effective tool.

Double threshold training is built on a foundation of high aerobic volume. Without that base, stacking threshold sessions into the week simply piles up fatigue before the body can recover. For runners who are consistently running 75km or more per week, though, it is worth exploring.

The Norwegian Singles Method

For most working runners, two sessions in a day is not realistic. The arrangement that has spread through the recreational running community is the Norwegian Singles Method.

The basic idea: one threshold session per day, two to three times per week, with everything else at low intensity. Without a lactate meter, use heart rate (around 85–90% of max) or feel (comfortably hard — talking is barely possible) as your guide. Staying below threshold is non-negotiable; push too hard and you damage the next day’s session.

Where to Start

The first step for anyone wanting to try the Norwegian approach is building weekly mileage. If you are under 60km (37 miles) per week, that comes first — nothing else.

Once 60–75km per week is consistent, introduce two threshold sessions per week. Formats like 4–6×1km (1–2 min rest) or 2×15 minutes work well — pick something you can sustain at threshold intensity. Above 75km per week, you can consider adding a third threshold session, but always prioritize building low-intensity volume before adding more structured sessions.

References

※1 Kjøsen Talsnes R, Torvik PØ, Skovereng K, Sandbakk Ø. Comparison of acute physiological responses between one long and two short sessions of moderate-intensity training in endurance athletes. Front Physiol. 2024;15:1432918. PMID: 39139482

※2 Casado A, Foster C, Bakken M, Tjelta LI. Does Lactate-Guided Threshold Interval Training within a High-Volume Low-Intensity Approach Represent the “Next Step” in the Evolution of Distance Running Training? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023;20(5):3782. PMID: 36900796

※3 Haugen T, Sandbakk Ø, Seiler S, et al. The Training Characteristics of World-Class Distance Runners: An Integration of Scientific Literature and Results-Proven Practice. Sports Med Open. 2022;8(1):46. PMID: 35362850

※4 “Inside the Training of One of Europe’s Fastest Runners” – Marathon Handbook (February 2026) https://marathonhandbook.com/inside-the-training-of-one-of-europes-fastest-runners/

※5 LetsRun.com Discussion Thread: Andreas Almgren training week (2024–2025) https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=12538338

※6 Coffee Club Podcast Ep.195 “The Fastest European of All Time (and how he trains)” (aired around July 2025). Almgren, on cross-training: “I usually only do cross training when I’m injured. So when I’m in full training I only run.” He also describes, in the same episode, working with a cycling coach on a roughly six-week bike program after his fall 2023 injury. In the same episode, he also states that he started doing double threshold training in the fall of 2019: “I started doing this double threshold in the fall of 2019.”

※7 Wikipedia (Swedish) “Andreas Almgren” https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Almgren (competition history and personal-best tables, each result individually sourced)

※8 COROS “Behind the Training of Andreas Almgren” (January 6, 2026) https://coros.com/stories/more-than-splits/c/andreas-almgren-training