In this episode of Conversations About Running, Gavin and Callum are joined by one of Norway's top distance runners, Simen Halle-Haugen. Simen has a personal best over 5000m of 13.37 and has represented Norway at numerous international competitions, both on the country and track. Included among his accolades are team gold at the European Cross Country Championships and individual gold at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country as an U20 athlete. Simen takes his inspiration from his desire to break his family 5k record of 13.27, set by his Grandfather (who now coaches Simen) a year after finishing 7th in the '72 Olympic Games in Munich. We chat with Simen today about his background as a runner and cross country skier and get into the what's and why's of the Norwegian double threshold training system that has seen a huge amount of success over recent years, highlighted in particular by the rise of the Ingebrigtsen brothers and Jakob's dominance on the track last summer. This is part 1 of our chat with Simen Halle-Haugen 🇳🇴