Jakob Ingebrigtsen lays out ten lessons from his training on a snowy January morning in Norway
On a snowy Norwegian morning in January, Jakob Ingebrigtsen spoke on his treadmill during an interview and set out ten lessons about his training and approach. The 26-year-old had, in recent weeks, added a European 5,000m gold, the World Ultimate 5,000m title and a world road silver medal despite Achilles surgery in February and a flu that lingered through May and June.
Ingebrigtsen described a highly structured daily life in which, apart from his family, training is his sole focus and said: "I prioritise the absolute crucial." He reports running around 175-180km in a typical week and accepted that his regimen is not for everyone, adding: "A lot of people could never be in my shoes, having my responsibility. They just wouldn’t handle it. But that’s how I want to be. If there’s anything that’s out of my control, then I’ve not done my job properly."
His weekly routine centres on twice-daily runs with specific emphases by day: hills on Saturday and a longish run of 20km on Sunday, supplemented by drills, mobility and core work on Monday and Wednesday and weights every Friday and Sunday. Ingebrigtsen stressed consistency and gradual increases in load as a principle for amateur runners, noting he follows the same pattern week after week unless injured.
Ingebrigtsen outlined the double threshold sessions that characterise his midweek training, typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a morning example of 5x6 minutes effort with a one-minute jog recovery and an afternoon example of 25 laps around a 400m track at 5km-10km pace with 30 seconds recovery. He said "the biggest difference is how often we train and the size of our sessions – we very rarely do more than 10km-12km of quality in one session" and added that spreading volume across more sessions reduces spikes and peaks in load: "With having more sessions you can spread the volume out a lot more without having spikes and peaks in load."
He described his treadmill usage as a way to control variables throughout the year: "I’ve always used treadmills, not only because of the conditions in Norway, but also to control a lot of the variables." He detailed a summer morning threshold session with a playlist that includes Green Day, Blink-182 and Black Sabbath, and identified the Nike Zoom Fly 6 among his preferred shoes, saying: "You can decrease the load and impact by the amount of cushioning that’s now available in shoes" and "So if I can get out of my Monday to Sunday programme 95% fatigued, that is enabling me to do the same the next week with the same amount of quality … just with 5% extra intensity."
On holiday routines and traditional practices he offered practical comments: "Last year, I ran twice and did 22k. I think that counts as an easy day," and on Norwegian festive food he said: "Christmas dinner in Norway is very rich in fat because we have pork ribs. I just had to be a little bit careful with the amount because we have different sausages, sheep and meat cakes too." He dismissed training in mud or cross-country as unnecessary risk: "It is pointless. Training in mud or grass is not something I believe in. Let’s say I was going into a field and all of a sudden I’m doing 1k reps in mud and stones. Think about the extra risk that I’m taking, not only in terms of load and training but also tripping and snapping my ankle? Why would I risk it?"
On the athlete-coach relationship he said open discussion with his brothers Henrik and Filip suits him better than a top-down approach and referenced his past working relationship with his father and former coach Gjert, noting he ended up facing him in court in 2025. He criticised a reverential attitude toward coaches: "With a lot of coaches, it’s more like a priest. You can get really attached to them and it’s almost dangerous in the way it takes away responsibility from the athlete. If you have an ex-professional runner as a coach, it is always going to be ‘I did this, I did that, this is what worked for me, this is something new and revolutionary’. I don’t believe in it."
He concluded by returning to personal accountability as a central theme: "You have to take responsibility for yourself," he says. "Each individual and every athlete needs to build their own toolbox regarding their qualities and maybe lack of qualities. Responsibility, I think that’s the key word. And accountability."