My coach likes to give his athletes long runs, where the goal is to achieve a ‘negative split’.  A ‘negative split’ is a run, where the athlete completes the second half of the workout, at a faster pace than the first half.

Why would you want to ‘negative split’ a run?  It’s all about achieving your fastest time in a race.  If you look at the record books for running, almost every one of those records, was run by someone who negative split the race.  It is rare for anyone to achieve their best ever time at a particular distance, by starting off really fast and ‘hanging on’ to the end.

My ‘negative split’ long run today was unusual, in that I was asked to run for two hours and to increase my pace every fifteen minutes. This progressive negative split approach is actually fun to run, because it teaches to run be patient and to stay focused.  You are constantly thinking about managing your pace and this helps the time fly by.  The key to successfully executing this workout is your pacing at the start.  Run too fast in the early part of the run, and you will not be able to negative split at the end. 

So how did I do?  Below is a list of the eight, fifteen minute segments, with the difference in pace between each of them.

• 2nd compared to 1st :    24 seconds per mile faster 
• 3rd compared to 2nd :   15 seconds per mile faster
• 4th compared to 3rd :      6 seconds per mile faster
• 5th compared to 4th :      9 seconds per mile faster
• 6th compared to 5th :    23 seconds per mile faster
• 7th compared to 6th :    11 seconds per mile faster
• 8th compared to 7th :     …same pace…..

I did quite well.  I negative split every fifteen minutes except the last one.  In hindsight, I pushed the pace up too much, between the 5th and 6th segments.  That made it hard to go faster on the last segment; my legs were tired by then and on the route I ran, the last mile was mostly uphill. 

Overall though, a great run, and considering it came after a monster bike ride yesterday, I am very happy with how I did.  This was a big weekend, and I am glad that tomorrow is a recovery day with just an easy swim scheduled.  The big, build block continues…