REF-138 · Sandbakk et al., 2025 · Sports Medicine - Open, Vol. · Paper

Best-Practice Training Characteristics Within Olympic Endurance Sports as Described by Norwegian World-Class Coaches

Blimited evidenceMeasured on world-class athletesWritten before October 2026, being re-checked

Participants

n=12 successful Norwegian male coaches whose athletes have won more than 380 international medals between them, spanning 8 sports: biathlon, cross-country skiing, long-distance running, rowing, road cycling, speed skating, swimming, triathlon.

Protocol

Data collected in 2022: (1) a long questionnaire sent by email covering training at the session, micro-, meso- and macro- level; (2) checking the answers against training logs that successful athletes had reported historically; (3) an in-depth, semi-structured interview with each coach in person; (4) review rounds between the authors and the coaches.

Key Results: Common Principles

1. Periodization:

All coaches adhere to a traditional periodization model
As the competition period nears, overall volume is gradually reduced and training becomes more competition-specific
Pragmatic alignment of training organization with the constraints of the training process

2. Weekly training structure:

Emphasis on a high volume of low-intensity training
Paired with 2-3 "key workout" days per week, which together contain 3-5 intensive sessions

3. Training quality and load/recovery:

Focus on high training quality by optimizing training sessions
Systematic control of the load-recovery balance
Optimal preparation for major competitions

Sport-Specific Variations

Substantial differences between sports in volume, frequency, intensity distribution, and the application of strength and cross training — mainly due to exercise-mode constraints (mechanical and muscular loading), competition distance, and organizational aspects (abstract). Sport-by-sport numbers for road cycling are not in the abstract.

Practical Application

12 Norwegian world-class coaches (athletes with >380 international medals, 8 endurance sports incl. road cycling) all describe traditional periodization, a high volume of low-intensity training, and 2-3 "key workout" days per week carrying 3-5 intensive sessions, with volume falling and specificity rising toward the competitive period. This is the structure the base's weekly template follows: easy days around 2-3 key days.
The coaches treat recovery and load control as an actively managed part of training quality, not a passive gap between sessions — plan the easy days as deliberately as the key days.
Inference, not tested: the 2-3 key-day rhythm is consistent with the distribution evidence in Seiler 2010 REF-087; this paper describes practice and does not test outcomes.
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: the phase order (strength emphasis → base → specific → taper) and any week-numbered plan are house scheduling, not the coaches' data.

Limitations

Only Norwegian coaches (single training culture). Only male coaches. Qualitative design — coaches' descriptions, cross-referenced with logs, not measured outcomes. >380 medals is impressive, but success ≠ causation, and the authors present the findings as hypothesis-generating.

How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level

regraded 2026-09-27 from A: qualitative multiple case-study of 12 coaches' practice, no outcome data, expert description rather than a trial

Content correction 2026-09-27
Level A -> B: a qualitative multiple case-study of coach practice, not a trial or systematic review.
"Road Cycling: high total volume, strength less integrated, key days Tue/Thu/Sat" and "Monitoring: HR, HRV, RPE, mood" -> not in the abstract; deleted. Sport-specific variation kept as the abstract states it.
"Confirms Seiler 2010: 2-3 HIT/week = optimum" -> labelled inference; the paper describes practice, it does not test an optimum.
House plan (strength weeks 1-3, VO2max weeks 7-10, race-specific weeks 12-14) -> relabelled as the base's own practice.
Sport line "cycling, running, swimming" -> the sports of the study: running, rowing, xc-skiing, cycling, swimming, triathlon.
Cross-references pointed at duplicate stubs REF-091 and REF-085; repointed to their canonical entries REF-302 (Tønnessen 2024) and REF-303.