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Norwegian Singles is a way of organizing running around controlled workouts and easy runs. In a workout, you alternate a few minutes of purposeful running with a short easy jog. You finish while you could still do more, so you can recover for the next run.

The full routine has three of these workouts each week, with easy running between them and a longer easy run. “Singles” means one workout on a workout day. You can learn the approach with fewer workouts, using the running days and rest days you already have.

Start from the running you do now

Think of a recent ordinary week that you could comfortably repeat. Write down which days you ran and for how long. This is the week you will adapt. The calendars later in the guide are examples for different runners; their weekdays and hours are not requirements.

If you are new to running, returning after a break, or struggling to recover from your current runs, keep building a comfortable easy routine first. This guide is for runners learning a training method, rather than a plan for starting running from scratch.

If you already run regularly but have never done intervals, begin by changing one existing run into a controlled workout that fits within its usual time. Keep your other runs easy and your rest days free. The three-day example shows exactly how that can look. Adding a second or third workout is a later decision, based on how you recover.

Follow the guide in this order

1. Learn how the running should feel. Understand easy running, controlled effort, and the short recovery jogs between repetitions. You can start with a timer and these effort checks.
2. Plan your own week. Keep your usual days and total running time, then choose a suitable example and workout length.
3. Follow a complete workout. Each set of instructions includes the warm-up, repetitions, recovery jogs, and cool-down.
4. Review and adjust. Record how it felt and decide what to do if you are tired, miss a run, or have less time.

These chapters are enough to begin. Read the race chapter when you have an event to plan around. The later chapters on equipment, training scores, and other methods are optional.

A recent race result can help estimate pace, but you do not need to race before trying a workout. A heart-rate watch, lactate meter, and paid training platform are optional too.

Build a training plan with your agent

Copy this prompt into an AI agent that can open links. It points to the complete guide:

Read https://norwegiansingles.run/llms-full.txt and help me build a
sustainable training plan for the coming weeks and months.

First ask about my goals, race dates, availability, experience, and
recovery. Ask what activity data I already have, such as watch/app
history or a training log, and review it with me. Use recent weeks
and months to understand my consistency, weekly running time,
longest runs, harder sessions, and recovery. Ask about gaps rather
than guessing.

Agree a manageable starting week that fits this foundation,
preserves my rest days, and initially keeps total running time
stable. Then outline how to progress, when to reassess together
using new activity data and how I feel, and when to hold or reduce
training.

Give complete workouts and effort guidance, plus adjustments for
fatigue, missed runs, and races. Treat the guide's calendars as
examples and explain unfamiliar terms.

Background & conceptualization

This guide grew out of the LetsRun discussion about adapting Norwegian threshold training to recreational running. James Copeland, known as sirpoc84, shared his training and helped popularize the singles approach in that community. His account drew on his own experiments and observations of Kristoffer Ingebrigtsen’s running.

The full routine described here uses three controlled workouts per week. Marius Bakken’s work on lactate-controlled training is part of its background; his double-threshold model and the different Ingebrigtsen routines have their own schedules and context.

• James Copeland’s book, Norwegian Singles Method: Subthreshold Running Kept Simple, has a foreword by Marius Bakken.
• Marius Bakken’s The Norwegian Method Applied covers threshold training and intensity control. Sample pages are available online.
• The original LetsRun thread contains the discussion from which this guide began.
• The Strava group and r/NorwegianSinglesRun host ongoing community discussion.
• The LacTrace pace guide provides starting estimates from current fitness.

See Sources & background for more references and how this guide uses them.

Read offline

Download the PDF or EPUB from the sidebar. Both contain the same schedules and session instructions as the website.

Contributing

Corrections and practical examples are welcome through the GitHub repository. Include the source for a specific training recommendation.