Negative Splits

Positive splits will kill your finish

Remember the 5:46 mile from a few days ago. Well, for the first time in years, I ran a positive split. The first half 800 was faster than the second 800. Splits of 2:50/2:56.

Here’s the thing, had I run a 2:56 first 800, a 2:49 was doable for the second 800. Running a full six seconds slower at the beginning would have netted a time one second faster.

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PS. Analyzing the situation, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Was excited (too excited in this case) to go out fast. About 90 seconds in I realized the split was not going to be negative. What happens then is how long can you hold the pace without crashing and burning. Fun stuff. You’re having fun too, right?

stories — stay with me, this will make sense...

If you are looking for creative ways to play games with yourself, in any form or function, to stay motivated with exercise, one of my favorites is running negative splits. Say you run one mile. The second 800 split will be faster than the first 800 time. This is very difficult to do when your pace is fast, but sissy-easy to do when you stroll for the first half.

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6 Minute Mile?

Before you go to bed each night, do you think about when you’re going to exercise the next day? Maybe you should. What would happen if you did?

So last night I asked cousin Mike, “Can you run a 6-minute mile as a 51-year old?”

“No, I can run a 7-minute mile”, Mike said.

I continued, “We’ll go 5 miles. First mile a warm-up, and then mile two as a time-trial. I’ll slow up (a lot) after that and you can catch up and we’ll run the last three miles together.”

Last week’s time trial netted a 5:45 mile. With splits of 2:55 and 2:50.

Remember when I was only running one mailbox per day? Good thing it never felt like a Green Mile.