Jakob Ingebrigtsen Training: Norwegian Double Threshold Method

One athlete is redefining what’s possible in middle-distance running. His name is Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway.

Jakob won gold in the men’s 1500m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 3:28.32 — an Olympic record. At the 2023 Oslo Diamond League, he ran 3:27.95, the 6th fastest time ever by a European.

He has since dominated the World Athletics Championships, Diamond League, and European Championships in both the 1500m and 5000m. If you’ve ever wondered what training drives that kind of performance, you’re not alone.

This article breaks down Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s training and examines the lactate threshold training philosophy behind his success.

By the end, you’ll understand not just what Jakob does, but why it works — and how to apply these principles to your own training. We also cover why lactate threshold improvement is critical for every middle-distance runner.

The bottom line: Jakob places enormous emphasis on threshold training, and his record-breaking performances stem directly from precise control of training intensity.

Who Are the Ingebrigtsen Brothers?

The Ingebrigtsen brothers of Norway have produced exceptional results across the 800m to 5000m. Jakob is the fifth son in the family.

Event	Jakob	Filip	Henrik
800m	1:46.44
1500m	3:27.95	3:30.0	3:31.5
5000m	12:48.5	13:11.8	13:15.4

It’s not just Jakob — his brothers Filip and Henrik are elite athletes in their own right, as their Tokyo Olympics performances showed.

Genetics may tempt us to explain their success, but with three brothers all competing at world level, it’s far more reasonable to look at what they do in training.

The Theory Behind the Training: Marius Bakken’s Method

The brothers are coached by their father, Gjert, but their training system is built on the principles of Marius Bakken.

Marius Bakken is a Norwegian track athlete born in 1978, with personal bests of 3:38 for the 1500m and 13:06 for the 5000m.

Using himself as a test subject, Bakken experimented with multiple training approaches before settling on “double threshold training” — a method that dramatically improved his performances.

Double threshold training means performing two threshold sessions per day, with intensity controlled precisely based on blood lactate.

By meticulously logging heart rate, blood lactate, and perceived fatigue, Bakken laid the foundation for the Norwegian threshold training model that exists today.

This same two-a-day threshold structure is embedded in the Ingebrigtsen brothers’ training.

Key Principles of the Marius Method

Here are the core principles of Marius Bakken’s training philosophy. Notably, Bakken himself emphasizes that his theory grew from personal experience and experimentation — not from textbooks.

In Bakken’s own words on his training philosophy:

Why does splitting sessions offer an advantage? A crossover trial by Talsnes et al. (2024) ※1 compared a single long threshold session with two shorter sessions of equal total volume. The split condition produced lower heart rate, blood lactate, and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) in the second session, with better recovery markers the following morning. Splitting the same load across two sessions allows athletes to accumulate volume with less physiological stress — improving next-day training continuity.

The Marius method recommends using blood lactate as the primary intensity marker. The Ingebrigtsen brothers measure their blood lactate throughout training sessions.

For recreational runners who can’t access lactate testing equipment, heart rate is the most practical alternative for monitoring intensity.

Accurate heart rate measurement requires either an armband or chest strap heart rate monitor.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s Training Schedule — In Detail

Let’s look at the specific training the Ingebrigtsen brothers follow. They often train on treadmills or at altitude.

Exact conditions — elevation, treadmill incline settings — haven’t been made public, so treat the following schedules as reference rather than a definitive blueprint.

Off-Season Weekly Schedule

Here is the basic weekly training structure during the off-season, when no races are imminent.

Total weekly mileage is approximately 100–112 miles (160–180 km).

Tuesday and Thursday each include two threshold sessions (morning and afternoon). Saturday features hill sprints, and Sunday is an easy long run. Strength training is scheduled on Friday and Sunday.

What stands out is that Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday each include quality sessions in both the morning and afternoon.

Most runners structure their week around two quality sessions. The Ingebrigtsen brothers fit in six.

Overuse injuries would seem inevitable — but precise intensity control is what keeps them healthy.

Threshold Workouts

“Threshold” here refers to lactate threshold training — intervals performed at or near the lactate threshold.

The 5 × 6min set and the 400m × 25 / 1000m × 10 sets operate at distinctly different intensities. The 5 × 6min is sometimes swapped for 3 × 10min.

The 5 × 6min session is a lower-intensity interval. Based on Jakob’s performance level via VDOT Calculator, the pace equates to marathon pace or slower. Blood lactate is kept at or below 2.0 mmol/L.

Pace is adjusted flexibly based on how the body feels each day, with heart rate and blood lactate monitored closely.

For the 400m × 25 and 1000m × 10 sets, blood lactate is managed below 3.5 mmol/L. Because each rep is short, lactate stays relatively low even at faster paces.

This two-tier intensity structure is formalized as Lactate-Guided Threshold Interval Training (LGTIT), systematized by Casado & Bakken (2023) ※2. The lower session targets ~2.0–2.5 mmol/L; the higher session targets 3.5–4.5 mmol/L. Blood lactate is tested during each set and pace is adjusted in real time. This intensity range was chosen to efficiently stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis via AMPK and calcium signaling pathways, while sitting just below the threshold that would carry fatigue into the following day.

Uphill Sprints

The “2 × 10 × 200m uphill” is a hill sprint session. While exact pace isn’t disclosed, effort is estimated at 5K race feel. Recovery is a jog back down the hill.

The work-to-recovery ratio is approximately 1:1.5–2.0, with post-sprint blood lactate reaching 5.0–8.0 mmol/L. Recovery jogs last 70–80 seconds — a fairly brisk pace for a recovery interval.

By keeping hill work in the program year-round, the transition to race-specific speed work becomes seamless. Six weeks out from a target race, hill sprints are replaced with track speed sessions.

Easy Runs and the Long Run

Quality sessions are connected by easy runs. One long run per week — 12.4–15.5 miles (20–25 km), around 90 minutes — is also included.

Bakken has noted that for distances up to 10K, a single run of up to 60 minutes is sufficient. Even for Jakob, the long run caps at 90 minutes — shorter than many recreational training plans.

Bakken’s key rule: easy days must stay easy. On recovery days, intensity is kept below 70% of maximum heart rate.

The science supports this. Seiler (2010) ※3 found, across multiple studies of elite endurance athletes, that world-class runners consistently perform about 80% of their training sessions at low intensity — below 2 mmol/L blood lactate. Easy runs aren’t filler; they expand the aerobic base and enable recovery from the double threshold sessions. Push too hard on easy days and the quality of the next threshold session drops — reducing the overall training return.

Strength Training

Jakob has been doing strength training since he was 12 or 13 years old.

The benefits of strength training for runners are well supported by research. A systematic review and meta-analysis by Eihara et al. (2022) ※4 covering 22 studies found that heavy resistance training (≥90% of 1RM) significantly improves running economy (effect size g = −0.32). Strength work doesn’t produce aerobic adaptations directly, but it lowers the energy cost of running through improved neuromuscular efficiency, increased muscle-tendon stiffness, and a shift from Type IIX to Type IIA muscle fibers. Jakob’s lifelong commitment to strength training aligns precisely with this evidence.

Strength work is scheduled on Friday and Sunday. Friday’s session is kept light — minimizing fatigue before Saturday’s hill sprints — while Sunday allows more volume. Load is adjusted based on the running schedule.

Pre-Competition Phase

As race day approaches, the training shifts — though the specific details haven’t been made public. Only general comments are available.

When targeting the 1500m, hill sprints are replaced with rep workout intervals — 300m × 10 or 400m × 10 at approximately 1500m race pace.

This transition begins roughly six weeks before the target race. Training specifics for 5000m competition prep have not been shared publicly.

The need for race-specific training is clear, and the optimal timeframe for this specificity phase is still an open question worth considering.

Race Week Tune-Up

Here is an example race-week tune-up schedule for a Saturday race:

Race-week prep varies by individual, but this example offers a useful reference point.

Controlling Threshold Training Intensity

The hardest part of implementing double threshold training is intensity control. Jakob monitors blood lactate throughout every session — something most recreational runners simply can’t do.

I’ve personally purchased a lactate meter to cross-reference blood lactate with heart rate — building a personal map of which heart rate zones correspond to which lactate levels.

Since 2023, I’ve been building my training primarily around threshold work. Whether it produces the same results at a recreational level remains to be seen, but my performance has been steadily improving.

I’ve also compiled my experience and a detailed breakdown of double threshold training into a book: Threshold Training Complete Guide.

Can Recreational Runners Use This? — Kristoffer’s Example

Kristoffer Ingebrigtsen — Jakob’s older brother — is a recreational runner who shares his training log publicly on Strava.

Kristoffer isn’t training at Jakob’s competitive level, but his log shows threshold training as the core of his program — a version scaled for recreational runners.

His log reflects the same training model as Jakob’s — threshold-focused, with the same structural priorities.

Why Lactate Threshold Improvement Is the Foundation of Middle-Distance Running

Lactate threshold improvement means suppressing the rise in blood lactate during exercise. Building it requires two things: reducing lactate production in the first place and improving lactate metabolism.

Both capacities are essential for every event from the 800m to the full marathon. Threshold work is sometimes deprioritized by 800m and 1500m runners, but it is just as important as anaerobic speed training.

Bassett & Howley (2000) ※5 identified three primary determinants of distance running performance: VO2 max, lactate threshold (LT) velocity, and running economy. Among the three, LT velocity is the single best predictor of performance. VO2 max sets the ceiling of your aerobic capacity, but LT determines how much of that ceiling you can actually use. A higher threshold velocity means sustaining a faster pace in aerobic-dominant conditions — which translates directly to better performance in every middle-distance event.

As we’ve seen, Jakob dedicates most of the year to threshold training. If you have a stretch without races coming up, consider making lactate threshold improvement your primary focus.

Applying It to My Own Training

I continue to compete at the recreational level.

Before encountering the Ingebrigtsen approach, I structured my training primarily around Jack Daniels’ Running Formula.

Is the Ingebrigtsen method completely different from Daniels or Lydiard? Not really.

With some adaptation, the workouts translate across systems. The real difference, in my view, is the clarity of priority: the Norwegian model makes the lactate threshold the non-negotiable center of everything.

If my performances continue to improve, that will validate the approach. When that happens, I plan to share my own training data publicly.

References

• Really Good Ingebrigtsen Training Discussion
• 218: Kristian from Norway returns (Podcast)
• Three Norwegian brothers all European 1500 m champions: What is the secret? (Research paper)

Scientific References

• ※1 Talsnes R et al. (2024) “Comparison of acute physiological responses between one long and two short sessions of moderate-intensity training in endurance athletes” Front Physiol
• ※2 Casado A, Foster C, Bakken M, Tjelta LI (2023) “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
• ※3 Seiler S (2010) “What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes?” Int J Sports Physiol Perform
• ※4 Eihara Y et al. (2022) “Heavy Resistance Training Versus Plyometric Training for Improving Running Economy and Running Time Trial Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” Sports Medicine Open
• ※5 Bassett DR Jr, Howley ET (2000) “Limiting factors for maximum oxygen uptake and determinants of endurance performance” Med Sci Sports Exerc