Key takeaways
Norwegian singles means three controlled sub-threshold interval sessions a week, one per day, with everything else easy
It began on the LetsRun forum in 2023, was popularised by the amateur runner James Copeland (sirpoc), and spread widely in 2024 and 2025
There are no controlled trials of the method itself, and the research it borrows from comes from studies and reviews of elite threshold training
The Norwegian singles method takes the controlled threshold work some elite Norwegian runners do twice a day, slows it down slightly, and does it once a day, three times a week. Here is where it came from, what a week looks like, and what the evidence does and does not say.
Where the Norwegian singles approach came from
The method was not designed by a coach or a lab. It grew out of a LetsRun forum thread started in 2023 called "Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage". An amateur runner, James Copeland (username "sirpoc"), studied the public training of Kristoffer Ingebrigtsen, the non-professional brother of the famous running family, and built a repeatable week for someone with under an hour a day. He documented his own progress, and the approach spread through Strava groups and a dedicated subreddit through 2024 and 2025. Copeland later published a book, Norwegian Singles Method: Subthreshold Running Kept Simple (2025), and a community guide summarises the method.
His reported improvement, from roughly 19-minute 5 km fitness to a 15:01 5 km and a 2:24 marathon at 41, is one person's result, not a forecast.
How Norwegian singles running works
- Three quality sessions a week, each a single sub-threshold interval workout, on non-consecutive days.
- Everything else easy. Copeland caps easy runs at an average of about 70% of maximum heart rate, often lower.
- Sub-threshold, not threshold. The work sits below the second lactate threshold, the point above which lactate keeps rising. Breathing stays controlled and you finish each session with something left.
- About 20 to 25% of weekly training time is spent in the work intervals (warm-up, recoveries and cool-down do not count). As volume grows, that share tends to settle nearer 20%.
- Short recoveries: standing, walking or very slow jogging for 60 to 120 seconds.
Newcomers start with two quality days and add the third once recovery is solid.
Sample sessions and paces
The guide summarises the duration-based starting ranges from Copeland's book as follows, with paces taken from current race fitness, not goal times:
| Session | Warm-up | Reps | Pace / HR / RPE | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short reps | 10 min easy | 8 to 10 × 3 min | About 12 to 15 km race pace; HR 10 to 15 beats below threshold HR early on; RPE 6 to 7 | 60 s standing or walking |
| Medium reps | 10 min easy | 4 to 6 × 6 min | About half-marathon pace; RPE 6 to 7 | 60 to 90 s |
| Long reps | 10 min easy | 3 × 10 min | About 25 to 30 km race pace; RPE 6 | 90 to 120 s |
| Easy runs | none | continuous | At or below about 70% of max HR; RPE 3 | none |
| Long run | none | about 1.7 × a normal easy run | Easy; RPE 3 to 4 | none |
A typical week: long reps Tuesday, medium Thursday, short Saturday, easy runs between and an easy long run Sunday. Heart rate should approach threshold heart rate from below in later reps; if it sits above, slow down.
Is there a Norwegian singles calculator?
There is no official tool, though community spreadsheets and the Lactrace pace guide exist. Do it yourself:
- Enter a recent 5 km or 10 km result into the VO2max running calculator.
- Take its threshold (T) pace and run your reps a little slower: slightly slower for 3-minute reps, more so for 10-minute reps.
- Use the heart rate zone calculator with a threshold heart rate from a 30-minute time trial (average of the last 20 minutes) as a guardrail.
Norwegian singles approach vs double threshold
| Norwegian double threshold | Norwegian singles | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | World-class middle- and long-distance runners | Recreational runners, roughly 5 to 9 hours a week |
| Structure | Two threshold sessions on the same day, several days a week, plus one VO2max session | Three single sub-threshold sessions a week |
| Intensity control | Blood lactate, typically 2 to 4.5 mmol/L | Pace, heart rate and feel; lactate optional |
| Volume | 150 to 180 km a week | Whatever you currently sustain |
The double threshold figures come from a review by Casado, Foster, Bakken and Tjelta (2023), described in more detail in lactate threshold training. The singles guide stresses that moving to double threshold is not just splitting a workout in two.
What the research says
Plainly: no controlled trial has tested Norwegian singles. The case for it is borrowed.
- Casado and colleagues argue that threshold intervals let athletes run fast with relatively low metabolic stress, so they recover quickly enough to repeat the work often. Their paper is a descriptive review, and the authors note that no controlled studies have tested the efficacy of the elite model either.
- Mostly easy training with a smaller share of hard work echoes 80/20 training, though singles puts its hard work in the middle zone, not near VO2max.
- Threshold work raises sustainable speed more than the ceiling. If your goal is a higher VO2max specifically, sessions like the Norwegian 4×4 or other VO2max workouts target it more directly.
A plausible reason it works for amateurs: it replaces overcooked hard days with sessions you can repeat for months. That is an explanation, not proof.
Who it suits and how to start
It suits 5 km to half-marathon runners who tend to race their workouts. Replace existing hard sessions rather than adding to them, and hold a manageable load for at least a month before adding reps. Watch for persistent fatigue and rising resting heart rate (recovery signals, overtraining signs).
For variety, a tempo run is a continuous cousin of a long-rep day, hill repeats add strength, and a fartlek works as a relaxed alternative. More sport guides are on the running page.
Safety: if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or have been inactive, get medical advice before starting structured interval training.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Norwegian singles method?
A training approach for recreational runners with three sub-threshold interval sessions a week, each done as a single session on its own day, plus easy running and one easy long run. Roughly 20 to 25% of weekly training time is sub-threshold work.
How fast should Norwegian singles intervals be?
Below your lactate threshold. The community guide based on Copeland's book suggests about 12 to 15 km race pace for 3-minute reps, about half-marathon pace for 6-minute reps, and 25 to 30 km race pace for 10-minute reps, starting at the slower end.
Is there a Norwegian singles calculator?
There is no official one. Community spreadsheets and pace guides exist, but you can get the same starting paces by entering a recent race into a VDOT-style running calculator and reading off paces just slower than threshold.
How is Norwegian singles different from double threshold?
Double threshold puts two lactate-controlled threshold sessions on the same day, inside a very high weekly volume. Norwegian singles spreads three standalone sub-threshold sessions across the week at recreational volumes, usually without a lactate meter.
Sources
- Copeland J. Norwegian Singles Method: Subthreshold Running Kept Simple. 2025.
- Norwegian Singles: An Approach To Running (community guide). norwegiansingles.run.
- LetsRun.com forum thread, "Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage", 2023 onwards.
- 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.