r/NorwegianSinglesRun

I was looking for inspiration from runner with PB of 5k at about 25-30 minuter and how NSR worked for them?

Because i open many posts here and i see the 5k times of 20 or sub-20 minutes.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone!

I’m Willi and I’m 20 years old and will be doing an internship in Bergen. I’m looking for a room in a shared apartment from November 1st, 2026, until March 31st, 2027, preferably close to the city center.

I’d love to find a cozy place with nice flatmates during my stay in Bergen.

If you have a room available or know someone who does, please feel free to send me a message. I’d really appreciate any help!

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I just finished the book and used lactrace to get my training paces. I’ve built my plan in Excel and I’m starting at about 4 hours a week, with the plan to build up gradually.

I’ve set up intervals.icu and linked Coros and Strava, but I’m unsure what to focus on. For those of you running NSM:

• Which charts or metrics do you check weekly vs. monthly?
• Did you change any settings?
• Is there anything you’d ignore in the platofrm?

Thanks all !

I thought I'd post my experience with NSM here in case it's of benefit to others. I started training with the NSM method about 15 weeks ago today. I'm a 44 year old male, and have been running pretty consistently for the past 10+ years. I've had many injuries up until about 3 years ago, where for whatever reason (maybe moving away from stability shoes?) I became less injury prone. My lifetime bests were 3:02 marathon (about 8 years ago), 1:23:15 HM and 18:21 5K. I was running about 50 miles a week prior to starting - typically one day of intervals, one longer run, and maybe one tempo day too. I was feeling burnt out from intervals sessions, which I found quite painful and had inconsistent performance in.

When moving to NSM I started running 7 days a week (instead of 6), and started running easy runs quite a bit easier than I had previously (staying under 125 average BPM, while I'd run them more like 133 BPM before). This slowed down my easy runs from around 8 min/mile to 8:50 min/mile. I started with three subT runs a week: 4x10', 10x3' and 6x6' - all with 1 min walk/jog recovery.

I use a local parkrun (5k) to see how I've been progressing:

• 3 weeks in: 19:12 (6:08 pace, 161 average HR).
• 8 weeks in: 18:45 (5:58 pace, 162 average HR).
• 12 weeks in: 18:32 (5:54 pace, 164 average HR)

I should note that I started this training in July in NE America (fairly hot and humid), and conditions are better now in October.

Then this past weekend, 15 weeks in, I ran a local 5k that had about 3000 other runners. It was a last minute decision; I'd run a subT session two days earlier, and had run the most milage I've ever done in a week (70 miles). I'm still not too sure what happened, but somehow I ran a 17:45 (5:43 pace, 163 average HR). This was 36 seconds faster than my best time set 8 years ago - so it really shocked me. My best guess is the jump in performance was due to the adrenaline from a bigger race, a slightly faster course (both courses were pretty flat, but this one was a little less twisty), good conditions, and a slightly shorter race (3.10M vs 3.14M, as per my watch).

A few things I've changed since starting NSM:

• gradually increased weekly milage from 50 to 70. I've found I enjoy running at a very easy pace (except perhaps being overtaken by runners that don't look very fit!), it makes my legs feel better/looser, and it doesn't seem to take much out of me
• Replaced 4x10' with 3x10', and now 3x11'. At one point I felt like 4x10' was too much, and I was concerned I wasn't recovering well enough.

The thing I've found hardest about NSM is determining the right pace to run my intervals at. I don't have a lactate meter, but do use a chest strap HRM. I've been looking at suggested paces from both LacTrace and the book (the latter of which seems too fast), and also using HR to set an upper bound on how fast to run. I do mess this up sometimes and end up starting too fast and then having to slow down a bit in later reps - but I'm mostly getting better here. The pace normally feels pretty easy to me, especially in later reps where I have to hold myself back to avoid my HR creeping up.

I've enjoyed this program and will keep doing it. I find I'm normally looking forward to the workouts, and the easy days leave me feeling better when I finish them than at the start. It feels sustainable to me in terms of injuries and recovery - but I do worry how long before I'll plateau. I'm planning on experimenting with adding some more easy milage though and slightly upping the intervals -- when my body feels ready for it. Hopefully I can post another update here in a few months.

This question is not innately tied with the Norwegian Singles methodology, but asking here as the data-driven running community. Feel free to remove if inappropriate.

We all know that a run can depend on a lot of different factors such as weather, terrain, and fatigue. My question is - do these things matter if your heart rate and perceived exertion is the same?

Let's say I do two runs:

1. One run is Portland, Oregon in a lovely 15°C with a breeze. I'm well rested and fueled and run a easy 4 mile run at an 8 minute pace. My average heart rate is 130 bpm with a rate of perceived exertion of 3/10.
2. The next week, I take a flight to Tampa, Florida where it is still 31°C. I'm still tired from my flight and ate only fast food from the airport. I run 4 miles at a 10 minute pace with a couple of walks when heart rate starts to elevate. My average heart rate is 130 bpm with a rate of perceived exertion of 3/10.

From a training perspective, are these runs the same "value?"

I understand that NSA and running in general is far more about consistency than conditions. This isn't meant to dissuade myself or anyone from running when the day isn't perfect - this is simply a theoretical question that may or may not have a definitive answer.

Disclaimer: I used AI to help organize my thoughts and turn them into a coherent post.

I started running in December 2025 at 34, coming from a pretty sedentary lifestyle. I hadn’t really done any sports since high school, apart from occasional phases of going to the gym and lifting weights. My cardio was honestly terrible — even Couch to 5K felt difficult at first. My Apple Watch estimated my VO2max at around 35 when I started.

I initially started running because some friends and I had signed up for a half marathon during a vacation. That gave me a concrete reason to start, but I quickly discovered that I genuinely loved running. More importantly, my mental wellbeing has probably never been better than since I started running.

I ran that first half marathon in January, after less than two months of running. My longest run beforehand had only been 10 km, and I finished in 2:35. I ran it together with my friends, one of whom was really struggling, so I think I could probably have run quite a bit faster if I had raced it on my own.

After that, I completely fell down the running rabbit hole and discovered the Norwegian Singles approach. In February, I decided to try it and immediately jumped into running seven days a week, around 45 km and 5.5 hours per week.

Somehow, I adapted surprisingly well. Two months later, I ran the Berlin Half Marathon in 1:45. That was a huge surprise because I couldn’t even run that pace in my threshold workouts beforehand.

Since then, I’ve gradually increased my volume and I’m now running around 75 km and 6.5 hours per week. My current goal is to break 1:30 at the Venice Half Marathon at the end of October.

I’m very happy with how the Norwegian Singles approach has worked for me, but I’m also conscious that I’m still less than a year into running. A huge part of my improvement is probably simply the consistency and the massive newbie gains that come with going from essentially zero aerobic training to running regularly.

This is where I’m starting to question whether I should change course.

I had a pretty bad case of ITBS in August that kept me from running for almost a month, and I’ve also had a few smaller niggles since then. More recently, my legs have started feeling very fatigued. After some threshold sessions, I wake up the next morning feeling like my legs have been completely trashed.

My current week is roughly:
- Monday: 50 min easy
- Tuesday: 3×12 min @ 4:30/km
- Wednesday: 50 min easy
- Thursday: 5×6 min @ 4:20/km
- Friday: 50 min easy
- Saturday: 12×3 min @ 4:15/km
- Sunday: 90 min easy

My long-term goal is to run the Berlin Marathon in 2027 in under 3 hours.

So I’m wondering what people with more experience would do after Venice. Would you deliberately back off the volume/intensity for a while and build a more sustainable aerobic base or keep progressing?

Very interesting discussions with James, and Nathan and Asha who helped with the book. About their background, around the book, training stimulus and ultras.

hey there, please help me create my first week plan of training Norwegian singles.

I’m 53 years old and started running 6 months ago to prepare for a half marathon in my home town next Monday. I started asking Claude how to train for it and it gave me a training plan very common, with easy runs, moderate and hard intervals from 6 weeks on (it first made me build a base of just easy runs) and a long run. I’m going for a sub 2 hour half, maybe on a good day I can break 1:50. I’ve been training recently in 4 days, with a schedule of:

Monday rest / strength training (45 mins)

Tuesday easy 8kms

Wednesday rest

Thursday tempo run / intervals ~8kms

Friday recovery run 4kms

Saturday rest

Sunday long run (last weeks 17-18k before taper)

I’m excited for race day next Monday, but I think I’m even more excited now to restart training after the race with this new method and go for a marathon in 12 months. In the last couple of weeks I found some podcasts and YouTube videos about NSR, read James’s book and I think it will suit me great as I just want to have the consistency and the slow growth it advocates.

Anyway, I started making a weekly plan based on the vanilla NSM plan for my training load right now, which is 4 to 4.5 hours a week but with a caveat: I need the Saturday off and my long run needs to be on Sunday.

This is where I’m having doubts. James says in the book to ditch an easy day if you go for six days, but from what I read about the placement of training sessions, I should have an easy run right after the long run on Sunday, which will make Monday easy, and then I’d have to stack two sub threshold sessions in two consecutive days. Should I start Monday with quality, or should I stack my ST time in two sessions?

Here’s what I’ve come up with for now:

Monday - easy 35 mins

Tuesday - ST 30 mins

Wednesday - easy 35 mins

Thursday - ST 30 mins

Friday - easy 35 mins

Saturday - rest

Sunday - long run 80mins

( total hours 4.1, ST 24%)

I’d appreciate some feedback from whoever experienced a similar problem and how did you solved it.

I’m on week 13 of my marathon build, where I’m aiming to run sub 3:20 in just a few weeks, having followed NSM since around January. On Friday this week I completed the 5x5KM (17 mins intervals for me) session. In the book James uses only the word “brutal” to describe the session, insinuating that it was the hardest run of his build.

I finished the session honestly feeling like it was relatively comfortable. I could’ve run another one or two 17 min reps before being done. Surely this is a good thing right? But there’s two things concerning me.

Firstly, anyone who follows people training for a marathon will often hear about how common it is to have a really good session just a few weeks out from the marathon, to only be spent come race day like peaking too early. Secondly, the week 12 Sunday session is a HM race effort. Due to other commitments, I moved this to Friday and changed it to 1 hour easy, 1 hour marathon pace, 30 mins easy which provided a similar load to a half marathon I did 2 months before and gave me an opportunity to test my shoes and dial in my race day routine (breakfast and gels etc). Has the extra two days between the sessions defeated the object of running on tired legs (I still run every day anyway) or made the session easier by having more recovery time?

I’m hoping I’m just adapting better and I’m just fitter, but I wanted to see if anyone else has had similar experiences!

Last thing as well. The 3x8km (30 min session) on week 14. It says in the book a progressive run starting at 92-93% going to 100%. But I saw someone say on here that it’s meant to be so the first rep is run at 92%, the second at 93%, and last at MP?

Thanks for the advice!

Hey everyone ​I’m currently entering an offseason/ base-building phase and considering using NSM as the core foundation for this block. My plan is to keep the standard NSM structure and gradually increase the training load/volume every 4 weeks. ​Does anyone have experience using NSM as a base build? Any advice on managing the progression or structuring the volume increases?

Bonjour

Ne pouvant pas faire la séance de 55k en semaine 13 le jeudi mais le samedi . Je pensais ne pas faire le 10 k du dimanche du coup et enchaîner normalement avec le 3*8k du mardi en semaine 14. Cela enlèverai 10 k a allure spe . Pensez vous que ce changement est judicieux . Merci.

Pace	TSS/HR	Time
8:30	50	15
8:00	55	6
7:30	60	6
7:05	70	6
6:40	85	6
6:15	100	6
6:00	110	6

How good/bad is this for a testing protocol?

8:30 is around my easy pace, 7:05 is what I think my LT1 is, and 6:15 is what I think my LT2 maybe is.

My plan right now, since I haven't raced in a while, and have no clue where my paces are, is to do a less precise test, then another more precise one later. The one i'll do later will probably have longer stages and will be better honed in on what I think LT. My LT2 could honestly be like 6:00 or 7:00.

Like, if I thought from the initial test my LT1 was between 7:05 and 6:40, then I'd do a second step test the next week where I'd do maybe 7:05, 6:58, 6:55, 6:45, but with 8 minute stages and slowed down a bit because the stage is longer.

I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know if I'm missing something really obvious.