Why Negative Splits are Positive Things

A negative split is almost like a character from mythology in the world of running; it’s something that everyone talks about with reverence, but relatively few athletes see them or experience them regularly.  Learning to run negative splits can be a profoundly impactful skill for athletes both in terms of their results and their emotional growth.

Read this Coach Tip Tuesday: 

https://www.fullcircleendurance.com/blog/coach-tip-tuesday-negative-splits-are-positive-things 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening
• 0:16 Negative Split Mythology
• 1:07 What is a Negative Split?
• 2:43 Why is a Negative Split a Good Thing?
• 6:55 How Can You Learn to Run a Negative Split?
• 7:02 Try it When It Doesn’t Matter
• 7:36 Incorporate Training Runs with Structured Progressions
• 9:13 Incorporate Training Runs with Structured Negative Splits
• 12:05 Accurately Assess Your Current Abilities
• 15:05 Negative Split = Positive Experience
• 16:04 The Bottom Line
• 16:42 Closing

Transcript

(0:04 - 0:20)
Hello, and welcome to the Full Circle Podcast, your source for insights into the science and art of endurance sports training and racing. I'm your host, Coach Laura Henry. Today is Coach Tip Tuesday.

(0:21 - 0:36)
The negative split. The way runners talk about it, you would almost think it's like a character from mythology, like Thor or Zeus, Athena or Poseidon. And in some ways, I guess I understand because it can be compared to mythology.

(0:36 - 0:56)
The negative split is talked about with great reverence, but it isn't actually achieved on a broad scale by a lot of runners, especially at the age group level. Because of that, it can feel elusive and nebulous, and this makes it feel unattainable or like it's a myth. But negative splits are actually very real things.

(0:56 - 1:25)
If runners embrace what it takes to successfully run one, it can be a profoundly transformative skill, both in terms of their actual results and in the athlete's emotional growth. A negative split is a race strategy that involves completing the second half of a race faster than the first half. For instance, if an athlete runs a marathon in four hours flat and runs the first half marathon in two hours and two minutes and the second half marathon in one hour and 58 minutes, that is a negative split.

(1:25 - 1:53)
Conversely, a positive split is when an athlete runs a race and the second half of the race is slower than the first half of the race. If we reverse our marathon example from just now, if an athlete runs a marathon in four hours and runs the first half marathon in 158 and runs the second half marathon in two hours and two minutes, then that is a positive split. In order to run a race with a negative split, the athlete must speed up over the course of the race.

(1:53 - 2:21)
This can be challenging as the second half of the race is also when an athlete has the most accumulated fatigue in their body and also, honestly, in their mind. As such, it requires much more effort to run faster at this stage of a race and it is a skill that must be learned with time, practice, and training. At the same time, while running harder and faster when you are feeling tired is definitely a challenge, it's actually physiologically easier to run faster or harder once the body has properly warmed up.

(2:21 - 2:35)
The body is only fully warmed up after several miles or a longer duration, 20 plus minutes of running. This is especially true for masters athletes. Masters athletes need much longer warm up times than their younger counterparts.

(2:36 - 2:58)
Once an athlete is properly warmed up, it is easier physiologically on their body when they push it to run harder or faster. Perhaps it's paradoxical because of its name, but a negative split is actually a positive thing in running. As of the time of this podcast, every current world record from the 1500 meters to the marathon in running has been set by running negative splits.

(2:59 - 3:24)
This is not a coincidence. When we look at the habits and results of elite athletes, professional athletes, and world record holding athletes, it becomes very clear that how athletes run races is just as important, if not more so, honestly, as the final results of a race. Without an effectively deployed strategy, aka the how, the best results do not happen.

(3:25 - 3:51)
I certainly advocate for, and I tout the benefits of negative splits to the athletes who I coach. The workouts I write for athletes that are on performance coaching or on a custom built training plan contain workout progressions that are designed to help athletes refine this skill so that they can have it in their athlete's toolbox to deploy on race day. That being said, over the course of my career, the majority of age group athletes that I coach have had positive splits in their running races.

(3:51 - 4:02)
This is for a few reasons. Athletes don't truly value the ability to run slow. They also don't fully develop their self-awareness as it pertains to how they're executing their workouts.

(4:03 - 4:29)
A lot of athletes get caught up with checking the box and they don't focus on the details of how they're actually executing the workout, or they don't think how they're executing the workout really matters, just as long as they do complete the workout. And that's not true, especially when we're talking about advanced skills like this. In my experience, athletes also allow their emotions to guide their race execution, or at the very least, they let their emotions guide the beginning of a race.

(4:29 - 4:37)
So for instance, athletes will get caught up in the excitement and joy of starting a race. I get it. It's very exciting.

(4:37 - 5:13)
But then they kind of let the race dynamics dictate what they're doing in the beginning of the race instead of staying where they know or where they should be at that point. Athletes will also try to hang on, so to speak, to their desired pace for as long as possible starting at the beginning of a race. So for instance, if an athlete wants to run an 830 pace for a race, they'll start at that pace and just try to hold on as long as they can versus really developing the skill of executing a race that averages out to an 830 pace, which is not necessarily the same thing as running 830 pace from mile one on.

(5:13 - 5:29)
And finally, I observe that athletes don't actually take the time or invest the mental energy to fully develop, practice, and execute a planned strategy in their workouts or races. This takes time. It takes a lot of time, but it's something that is valuable.

(5:30 - 5:54)
That being said, like I said, I don't see athletes on a broad scale actually taking the time or mental energy that is necessary to do this. None of these things that I've observed in my career or any of these habits mean that athletes who run positive splits are not good athletes. So if you're an athlete who's run a positive split or you're an athlete who engages in any of the behaviors or you see yourself in any of the behaviors that I just listed out, it doesn't mean that you're a bad athlete.

(5:54 - 6:14)
That being said, good athletes become great athletes when they start honing in on and taking the time to practice and fully develop advanced level skills. A negative split is not something that just happens magically. It takes a very real amount of time, effort, and patience to execute it.

(6:14 - 6:38)
It doesn't just happen. It has to be cultivated. The hard truth is that many age group athletes who are using their workouts for more than just the physiological benefits that they provide, there's a reason why the phrase running is cheaper than therapy is so popular, don't have or don't want to carve the mental and temporal space that is necessary to fully develop advanced level skills, such as the negative split.

(6:38 - 7:02)
This being said, if age group athletes want to continue to see progress in their running results over time, and they want to feel the very best that they possibly can while they are running, there is immense value in carving the time and the mental space to develop the skill of running a negative split. Running a race with a negative split might be difficult, but it's not impossible. It is a skill that can be learned with time, patience, and dedicated training.

(7:03 - 7:24)
One of the easiest and best ways to start developing the skill of running a negative split is to test out these skills in situations that aren't as important to you as your races are. So for instance, you can try to finish your easy endurance runs at a slightly harder effort than you started them. You can use the warmup of a workout to run at a very easy effort.

(7:24 - 7:46)
Then you can finish a run at a more moderate effort than what you started at. Really dialing in on different effort levels can make variations in pace, or in this case, running faster later in a run, easier to obtain. When I have athletes practice the skill of negative splitting in training, I like to start by incorporating shorter intervals into their workouts at increasing effort levels.

(7:46 - 8:19)
So an example of a main set in such a workout would be 5 by 400 meters, increasing effort as RPE4, RPE5, RPE6, RPE7, and RPE8. So basically, the athlete would be running 400 meters 5 times, and they would run each of those 400 meters at a slightly increasing effort level, starting at RPE4, a rating of perceived exertion 4, and ending at RPE8. They would have recovery in between those so that they can really dial in on those increasing effort levels.

(8:19 - 8:36)
And once athletes get comfortable with that type of structure and progressively building their effort levels like that, I will often write a progressed version of the same workout. And that might have main sets that look something like 5 by 400 meters descending pace. Sometimes I give guidance on the pacing for the first interval.

(8:37 - 9:04)
So in this case, the first 400 meter interval out of those five, and then I let the athlete self-pace the remaining intervals so that they get practice determining their efforts and their paces on their own. This is really important because turning over that responsibility of managing the pacing to the athlete is a really effective way to help athletes develop their own self-awareness. And as I've talked about so much, self-awareness is a critical skill for athletes to have both in training and in racing.

(9:05 - 9:50)
And so anytime we get an opportunity like this in training to have little opportunities to even just refine that skill, it's so important. Once you've developed a feel for what starting off slower and finishing faster feels like, you can start to incorporate specific pace targets in your training by doing training runs that have paces planned to result in a negative split for the workout. An example of a progressed version of the aforementioned workouts might be something like 5 by 400 meters descending pace as 9 minutes and 3 seconds to 9 minutes and 5 seconds, 8 minutes and 58 seconds to 9 minutes, 8 minutes and 53 seconds to 8 minutes and 55 seconds, 8 minutes and 50 seconds to 8 minutes and 52 seconds, sub 848.

(9:50 - 10:12)
So basically, you would give a pace range, even if it's small, even just 2 to 3 seconds, give a pace range such as 903 to 905 for each interval and then progressively chop away a little bit of time off of each interval. And then I really like to give athletes the ability to go pretty hard in that final interval. So that's why it's kind of wide open.

(10:12 - 10:21)
Just be under a certain pace or in this example, just be under 848 pace. So that leaves it wide open. Maybe you can run 815 pace, but as long as it's under 848 pace.

(10:21 - 10:41)
But this is important to plan ranges because it's really hard to dial in on an exact pace. So to say to an athlete, hey, run 903 pace, that may or may not happen. Giving a suitable range increases the probability that the athlete will actually hit the workout as planned, which is really confidence boosting for the athlete.

(10:41 - 10:57)
And that's tremendously important as we continue to build the skill of developing the negative split. Running on pace like this can be much more challenging than running on effort because you need to pay attention to your pace throughout the entire workout. Running based on targeted paces requires a lot of focus.

(10:58 - 11:09)
And that in and of itself is really challenging for athletes. Again, a lot of age group athletes are using workouts for more than just the physiological benefits that they're getting. They're using it as a mental break from their day as a de-stressing time.

(11:10 - 11:31)
So to have something that they need to put a lot of focus into can feel kind of overwhelming if I'm being honest at times. So if you're going to run on pace, you have to understand that it's going to require a lot of your mental energy. And because we can't be pulling from a bank that's empty, meaning we can't overdraft our own bank, that means that that mental energy needs to be coming from somewhere.

(11:31 - 11:51)
So you need to give up something else in most instances, or you need to carve something away so that you have the mental space to do this. In addition to all of that mental side of this, aiming to hit specific paces means that you'll be pushing yourself harder as you move through the run in an attempt to hit your planned pace targets. And so physiologically, the cost can be a little high.

(11:51 - 12:14)
As athletes demonstrate proficiency with this type of workout, these targeted paces, I then progress them to more advanced versions of structured workouts with the goal of a negative split. And we progressively refine and practice the skill of negative splitting from there. If you want to run a specific time in a race, you must have an accurate, not an optimistic or not a delusional sense of what your current abilities are.

(12:14 - 12:35)
You must understand what you're actually capable of and what's actually realistic for you so that you don't start off your race at a pace that is too fast for you. This is the number one mistake that age group athletes make, whether it's running, which I know we're talking about today, or honestly, triathlon too. Athletes start off at two idealized paces.

(12:35 - 12:53)
They don't start off where they actually need to, to run the ultimate pace, the overall pace that they want to. As simple as this sounds, I have found that this specific ability to accurately self-assess one's ability can be one of the hardest things for athletes to do. Honestly, it may sound crazy, but it's true.

(12:53 - 13:36)
In some cases, I've seen athletes be in full out denial that their current abilities are not in alignment or the same with what they want their abilities to be. This leads to a lot of frustration because then if athletes do not have an accurate sense of what they are actually capable of currently doing, when they try to do what they want to do, and then they find that they are unable to do it because that's what happens, they're frustrated and they don't understand why. So it's really, really important to continue to hone the skill of self-awareness and to really look honestly at your recent training results and compare them against what you actually want them to be and to see if there's a wide gap there.

(13:36 - 14:11)
If an athlete wants to have a negative split in their marathon, and let's say they make the assessment that running a four-hour finishing time is within their current capabilities, it's helpful if the athlete runs a pace for the first 10 to 15 miles that is going to seemingly net them a finish time of four hours to four hours and four minutes. A four-hour to four-hour and four-minute finish time translates to a pace range of nine minutes and nine seconds to nine minutes and 18 seconds. So an athlete in this situation should aim to run that pace range, nine minutes, nine seconds to nine minutes and 18 seconds for the first 10 to 15 miles of the marathon.

(14:12 - 14:44)
Once the athlete gets to the final 10 or so miles of the marathon, they can pick up the pace slightly for each remaining mile, and that will have them end up running a split in the second half of the race that is faster than their first half. If an athlete runs an eight-minute and 46-second pace at the start of the race, which if maintained would translate to an overall finish time of three hours and 50 minutes, that is too fast for their current abilities. And the highest probability is that they will positive split the race because they overran the beginning of it and ran too fast compared to what they were actually capable of.

(14:44 - 15:05)
So they burn up all their energy, they use up all their resources, and they don't have that energy left or the stamina left or the ability left to run faster paces later in the race. And so they end up slowing down over the course of the race. And then not only do they not hit the goal that they set out to, they end up going quite a bit over, and that's very frustrating for athletes.

(15:05 - 15:35)
Achieving a negative split in a race is an incredibly empowering experience, both physically and mentally. Not only does it translate to a tangible result that an athlete can latch onto, but it is very powerful mentally for athletes to finish feeling strong. Even if an athlete doesn't actually achieve a negative split time-wise or result-wise, being able to finish a race going harder and feeling stronger than they felt at the beginning of the race creates a potent feeling that could be called an emotional negative split.

(15:35 - 15:57)
I have learned from my career working with athletes that these types of mental wins are just as important, if not more important, than tangible results. If athletes finish a race feeling strong, then they have a higher probability of feeling satisfied with their overall race performance. This snowballs into increased or continued motivation over time to keep up their training for other goals that they set for themselves.

(15:58 - 16:19)
The value of the impact that a mental win such as this has on an athlete cannot be understated. Negative splits may seem like a mythical skill that only elite runners can achieve, but that's not true. Any runner of any ability can practice the skills required to run a negative split in their training so that they have this tool in their athlete's tool belt come race day.

(16:19 - 16:48)
Fully embracing the idea of approaching a race with a thought-out tactical plan of going slower at the beginning and building to a stronger effort and faster paces by the end of the race is a game changer for any athlete who decides to take on this challenge. Give training for executing negative splits a try and see if you don't have a more positive race experience and feel more satisfied with your race results. That was another episode of the Full Circle Podcast.

(16:48 - 17:05)
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(17:05 - 17:27)
As always, we'd love to hear from you and we value your feedback. Please send us an email at podcast at fullcircleendurance.com or visit us at fullcircleendurance.com backslash podcast. To find training plans, see what other coaching services we offer, or to join our community, please visit fullcircleendurance.com. I'm Coach Laura Henry.

(17:28 - 17:28)
Thanks for listening.