I have a confession!!!

[Tillybeach]

Ok lovely people!

I read lots of posts and I am now ready to confess. I don't know what negative splits are? What does this mean?🤭🤭

Thanks

[Tasha99 Graduate10]

When you get faster each mile or kilometre

[Tillybeach Graduate10 in reply to Tasha99]

Assume your watch tells you this or phone app

[John_W Graduate10]

Underwear accidents.

[Tillybeach Graduate10 in reply to John_W]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

Tasha says it all. It is what we aspire to because your body takes a while to warm up, and get the blood circulating, so it is like changing gear to get faster.

[nowster Graduate10]

Negative splits means that the pace at the start is slower and it gradually picks up over the course of the run.

You're holding back at the beginning to have more in the tank at the finish.

The natural tendency is to start out fast and then get slower as you tire out. That's positive splits and causes the pace timings to increase over the run. Negative splits is the opposite and the pace times decrease over the run.

[Tillybeach Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

Ok thank you, so negative splits are a good thing then! I'm not sure my tech goes that far, only the Km pace.

Thanks

[Peter44 Graduate10]

Glad you asked that, I was wondering too! 🤔

[John_W Graduate10]

What is a 'split'?

Running-wise, it's a way to 'split' up a specific portion of a run and compare it to another 'split' of the same distance.

Think of a marathon on TV:

A commentator might say:

"his/her kilometer splits are very consistent". What they mean is that the runner's times over each kilometer (or mile) are very similar.

And in most running distances above 400m, then certainly the elites will aim to run a negative split race, in which, generally, the 2nd half of their race will be quicker than their 1st.

So written down, a negative split marathon might look like:

1h:59:40

13.1 mile (half marathon) split times:

1st half: 1h:00m:00

2nd half: 0h:59:40 (-0:00:20s)

[Tillybeach Graduate10 in reply to John_W]

Thank you. im getting it now!!