{"id":35950,"date":"2026-06-21T15:55:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harlerunner.de\/?p=35950"},"modified":"2026-06-21T15:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:55:22","slug":"norwegian-singles-method-the-community-training-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harlerunner.de\/en\/norwegian-singles-method-the-community-training-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian Singles Method: The Community Training Method"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Norwegian Singles Method wasn’t invented by a world-famous coach \u2014 it grew out of a running forum. After 410 pages and more than 8,000 replies, it was time for a book that pulls it all together.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: I purchased the book “Norwegian Singles Method” myself. This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Forum Thread That Got Too Big<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How do you turn a thread like that into a book? Who should be the author when the whole thing is a community project? Someone just has to sit down, open Google Docs, and write it all out. No publisher, no editor, no advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it was James Copeland \u2014 known online as sirpoc84 \u2014 who wrote “Norwegian Singles Method: Subthreshold Running Kept Simple” and played a central role in shaping the method itself. He’s upfront about it in the foreword: “I have not invented anything new. All I have done is explain why I think a well-established cycling training technique also works for running.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n
Preview<\/th>\n Product<\/th>\n Price<\/th>\n <\/th>\n <\/tr>\n <\/thead>\n
\n \n \"Norwegian\n <\/a>\n <\/td>\n \n Norwegian Singles Method: Subthreshold Running Kept Simple <\/a>\n <\/td>\n \n 19,53 EUR<\/span>\"Amazon<\/a> <\/td>\n \n Bei Amazon kaufen<\/a> <\/td>\n <\/tr>\n\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The book came out at the end of 2025 and \u2014 given how it and the method were born \u2014 is quite unlike anything else on the running book market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Did This Come From? \u2014 A Family Tree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To understand what the Norwegian Singles Method actually is, it helps to trace where it came from. And it doesn’t start in running \u2014 it starts in time trial cycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Coggan coined the concept of the “Sweet Spot” there \u2014 an intensity zone just below Functional Threshold Power (FTP) that delivers a strong training stimulus while still allowing comparatively fast recovery. Sirpoc had been a passionate time trialist in a previous life, power meters and interval protocols included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he started running, he simply brought that mindset along. The key question was: is there an equivalent intensity zone in running \u2014 and can it be used in a structured way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marius Bakken knows this zone too. His Norwegian Method, the double threshold sessions, the lactate-guided training \u2014 all of it targets the same physiological sweet spot. Sirpoc had been reading Bakken’s texts at 1am and recognized the connection to cycling logic. That doesn’t make Bakken the father of NSM \u2014 but he’s certainly one of its godfathers, which is why he wrote the foreword to the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes Bakken’s Norwegian Method tick is covered in detail in its own article here on harlerunner.de \u2192 The Norwegian Method Applied \u2014 Marius Bakken’s Running Book Reviewed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sirpoc Is the Class Rep \u2014 Not the Inventor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many runners contributed to the LetsRun thread that started it all \u2014 sharing knowledge, insights, and data \u2014 and they were equally important for the book project. “Hard2find” \u2014 still anonymous, one of the most prolific minds in the community \u2014 supplied tables, spreadsheets, and data analysis. Nathaniel Burness (now known for his project modeltherun.com<\/a>) built the graphics and visualizations for the book. Asha Zimmerman MD handled the editing \u2014 and admits in the book with dry humor: “In reality, my job was to translate the manuscript into American English.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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