Advice: Negative Splits

September 27, 2008 | in Fitness | 0 Comments

Chaz Hinkle (aka Chazzerguy, aka WebZealot) offers some sound advice on successfully pulling off negative splits in longer races.

Chaz Hinkle, our favorite running curmudgeon and frequent GoRun contributor, has racked up many miles on the road; he’s nearing the 2000 for this year alone, and it’s not even October yet. Long story short, when Chaz talks about running, it’s a good idea to listen.

He recently posted his thoughts on The Art of the Negative Split, defining the negative split, offering anecdotal experience as well as an excellent five-point plan for nailing negative splits in a race.

Once thought to be the domain of only the elite runner, the negative split strategy is something I am CONVINCED has the potential to make every runner better, if they can pull it off.

I have seen negative split times displayed on many runner’s training log sites. Many of them indicate an attempt to run successively quicker split times for each mile (or other defined interval) throughout their race or training run, which ultimately gets you a faster second half of the race. Jeff Galloway at Runner’s World and Jim Fortner at The Final Sprint offer further information on the negative split, citing glycogen rationing and anaerobic delay as fundamental reasons for this method.

Chaz offers more from personal experience, relating a story about a Boston Marathon he ran with his friend Matt. Matt took a different, “banking” approach to running his race, and Chaz watched him gas as he passed him on Heartbreak Hill.

What Matt learned that day was that banking time doesn’t work… The interest payment will kill you!

If you’re looking to step up your game and aren’t training for negative splits yet, check out Chaz’s WebZealot entry, as well as the Runner’s World and The Final Sprint articles. Good stuff.