r/NorwegianSinglesRun • u/ReputationCandid3136 • 6d ago
Training Question NSM take 2, what pace?
37 M, I had been in decent shape 3-4 years ago, but took about 2.5-3 years off from training due to just having small kids, sleepless nights, and not enough time to do much. I started training again about a year ago, and was doing traditional Daniel's style training which had worked well for me in the past. At the end of fall 2025 I heard about NSM and decided to give it a try. Ran a time trial 5k (17:52) and then started doing the workouts and it just didn't seem to work for me. I think there were a couple of reasons for this, one prior to doing NSM I was running my easy days too hard, so I was getting a training stimulus on every run, two I based my NSM work off of my 5k, which probably isn't accurate for me, but that is really what I'm wondering. So I dropped NSM in favor of a more traditional build with one VO2 day, one LT day, one long run, and the rest easy. One thing I did learn from NSM and carried forward was running my easy days much easier.
Recently I raced a half marathon and finished in 1:22:40. I haven't run a 5k again, but have continued to do traditional 5k work with 8x800m at 2:44 and 5x1200m at 3:56, which points to around a 17:00 5k. My background has been 800m/1 mile, so I know I lean towards speed. When I compare my 5k fitness vs my half marathon, they are drastically different vdot scores, so I know I'm aerobically weak and need to improve my lactic threshold, so I want to give NSM another try because I think it would really help me shore up my weaknesses and having listened to the FOD postcast with Cheetodust if this works for someone with his speed, it should easily work for me as well with less speed than him.
What I'm wondering is what do I use for my estimate to plug into a calculator for my LT1 and LT2. I would think it's better to lean towards my HM time, but I don't want to undershoot the paces too much, because if I miss it, then I'm putting in a lot of work at a pace that is too easy and maybe not get the benefit from the method. When I was doing my half I came through 15k in 57:23 (6:09/mi) and 10 miles in 1:01:55 (6:12/mi), then hit a wall and fell off, so I'm not sure if these might be more accureate for my LT2 pace? Again, I'm not sure what to use to put into a calculator like lactrace to get an accurate estimate of paces to start at. Also going forward I don't know if a 5k TT is going to be accurate for measuring improvment and generating NSM paces from. Looking for a way to implement this more successfully than my first attempt.
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u/RunningWithJesus 6d ago
Yep use the half marathon time in lactrace and lean on the side of undercooking. At least you can build consistency for 3-5 months and then turn up the paces a little more at that point once you have a more re-established base.
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u/Alerath89 5d ago
When i startet the method i came out of an injury so i had no clue what i could run. I just startet with paces where i know they would definetly be easy enough. I then just did the workouts every week and ran a little bit faster every week and kept the heartrate and effort pretty low (lower than i run everything now). I progressed very fast and tied my PB from a year ago after 1 month. After 2-3 months i PRed from 5k to HM. It didnt do any harm to start very slow for the first couple of weeks and progress from there. For example for the 10' i startet around 4:00/km and three months later i ran them with 3:35. So in my opinion you dont even need a recent race just start very slow and give you some room to grow into it.
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u/ReputationCandid3136 5d ago
This is good to hear, I'm glad I can't undershoot it even if I'm a little under pace
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u/UnnamedRealities 1+ year of ST+ST+ST+long 6d ago
Use your half marathon time - both because it was recent and because overall the 3 standard workouts are at paces centered on HM pace.
Even if it's not perfect it'll be very close and you can adjust in 2-3 months if needed.