Say the words “double workout day,” and most runners immediately picture two leg-splitting, lung-burning sessions on the track. They envision workouts that leave them completely exhausted, dreading the calendar date it arrives.

But two-time Olympian Marius Bakken has a completely different idea of what a double day should look like.

Shifting the Paradigm of the Double Workout

In Chapter 1 of The Norwegian Method Applied, Bakken completely shatters the assumption that double days require extreme punishment. Instead, he introduces the Double Threshold day as a masterclass in physiological precision.

Bakken uses this chapter to lay the foundation of his theories. Driven by data from his own athletic career, he discusses how he performed over 5,500 individual lactate tests on himself to find the ultimate training sweet spot. He refers to this as the “Golden Zone.”

The Golden Zone is a training intensity that allows an athlete to recover in hours rather than days, making a second high-quality workout on the same day entirely possible. By analyzing those thousands of tests, Bakken demonstrated that the key to unlocking this zone is keeping blood lactate levels strictly sub-4.0 mmol/L.

The Blueprint: Structuring the Ideal Double Day

Bakken finishes the chapter by outlining a sample double threshold day. It relies on a distinct shift in pacing and duration between the morning and afternoon sessions:

Workout 1: The Morning Steady-State

• The Protocol: 6 x 3 minutes or 4 x 5 minutes.

• The Effort: Run at a “clipped conversation” pace, which ideally aligns with marathon or half-marathon race pace.

• The Recovery: A short rest interval—long enough to clear initial waste products so you can repeat the efforts without straining, but short enough to keep the aerobic system engaged. This is where you focus on building sustainable, high-volume aerobic capacity.

Workout 2: The Afternoon Micro-Intervals

• The Protocol: 30 x 1 minute.

• The Effort: Run at a slightly sharper 5K to 10K race pace. Because the interval length is limited to just 60 seconds, your body doesn’t have time to accumulate heavy acid, allowing you to run faster without crossing the threshold ceiling.

• The Recovery: A very short rest of no more than 30 seconds (walking or easy shuffling).

The Experiment: Putting the Power to the Test

After last week’s track workout disaster, I am taking action. This week, I am attempting my very first Double Threshold day using Bakken’s exact architecture.

As a diehard subscriber to running with power and a long-time proponent of the Stryd ecosystem, I am translating these lactate zones directly into precise target wattages. Here is my operational blueprint:

• Morning Session (Workout 1): A 15-minute warmup, followed by 6 x 3 minutes at 265 watts (safely capping the intensity just below my Critical Power of 270 watts) with a 1-minute walking recovery between reps. I’ll finish with a cooldown jog back to my truck, which is parked about a mile from the track.

• Afternoon Session (Workout 2): Launching directly from my house, I will do a 12-minute warmup, followed by 20 x 1 minute at 275–280 watts with a strict 30-second recovery.

By utilizing Stryd’s real-time metrics, I hope to perfectly mirror Bakken’s sub-threshold physiological targets without stepping foot in a lab.

Will the power targets hold up, or will I blow up again? Check back  to see exactly how the data looks and how the legs felt!