So, what are splits?

[JohnBlake]

Sounds painful! But something to do with dividing the time of a run, but for what purpose, please?

[Tomas Graduate]

You've got it right. A split is just a section of your run, measured either by time or by distance. You can have splits that are the same length/duration or splits that are different. If you use a running watch (eg Garmin) it might be able to create splits automatically for you, or some will have a button you can press when you want to split your run.

Why? So you can compare different sections. If you're doing an interval run where you mix fast and slow parts (e.g., 6 laps of 1 minute fast and 2 minutes slow), then it would make sense to make each section a split, so you can compare how much faster you're running in the fast sections against how fast you're running in the slow ones.

For a "normal" run, it can still be good to have the run split. Say your route is a mixture of grass, gravel and road. It'll take more energy to run on grass, so if you were to make that grass part a separate section, you can then see how much slower you are on grass compared to tarmac. Having that knowledge will enable you to guestimate how long you'd take to complete a grass covered route (say, a new park run) based on your regular 5k road runs.

Or maybe you want to compare how your speed develops over the course. If you're getting slower it's proabbly because you're tiring, and maybe you could get a faster overall run if you start out a little slower so there's energy left for the last part. Conversely, if your split are getting shorter (i.e., you're running faster and faster) then that might be interpreted to say you're managing your energy well.

At the end of the day, it's just a way to break the run up into smaller parts to allow you to understand your time/tiredness better and to let you try to tweak things to easer/faster/better reach whatever goal is important to you.

[Irishprincess Graduate]

They can be painful John! A run's total time is divided into smaller parts ( usually miles or kilometres). These are called splits. If you run the second half of the race faster than the first half, that's called negative splits. They are a measurement of how fast you are running each part of the race.

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to Irishprincess]

And it is better to run the later splits of a run at a faster pace than the earlier ones - this means that you are finishing the run fast and strong rather than tired and weak

[JohnBlake Graduate in reply to Bazza1234]

Good one, Bazza, but only if you're feeling fast and strong, which would be a first for me! Up to now, I've been able to guarantee the tired and weak! lol

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to JohnBlake]

Those terms are all relative - so everybody has their own personal "fast and strong" and "tired and week"

[Hidden]

Yep, that's it. However, they are not too important unless you want to compete against yourself for PBs, or against others. Our son uses them a huge amount for rowing...but then he is up for GB selection.

I would suggest just enjoying your running for now, and think about them if you start getting competitive.

[JohnBlake Graduate]

Thanks Sally, but I have a PB for my one (so far) and only 5k, that'll do me for a while!