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[runningseason]

Negative is Positive!

We’ve all done it. The gun goes off, the adrenaline takes over and before we know it, we went out too fast in a race. We approach mile 1 about 20 seconds too fast. No big deal, right?! Now we have 20 seconds in the “bank”. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the Bank of Running doesn’t exist! Depending on how long your race is, this could be a very detrimental mistake made by both beginner and experienced runners alike. 

Coincidentally, this error is a hard one to break away from. It’s very easy to get “caught up in the moment” and run too fast in the early part of a race. “But I feel good,” you may tell yourself. “This could be my day for a big PR.” While this can be true, you are most likely setting yourself up for slower splits later on in the race. 

Don’t get me wrong, you can still PR with positive splits, but speaking from experience, it feels so much better (both physically and mentally) when you have a strong last mile and are passing people instead of barely holding on and getting passed. 

Running a negative split takes a lot of practice and patience. 

Let’s start first with practice. When I run workouts, I go in with a plan. My coach prescribes a pace and it is my job to run that pace for a certain amount of time and/or reps with a finite amount of recovery in between. Just like in races, it is easy to go out too fast on the first rep. This is why it is very important to be conscience of your pace and make adjustments as needed. My general rule of thumb is that if I feel I can do the entire workout at a slightly faster pace, then I better be able to keep the pace I start at and not slow down as a workout progresses. Many times, I will run my last few reps a bit faster than I started to practice negative splitting. 

Patience is the hardest part of running a negative split. Patience should be practiced during workouts, but the true test is always during a race. You need to fight that feeling in the beginning of a race that tells you that you can do anything; embrace that feeling later in the race. I have found my Garmin to be very helpful at keeping me controlled early on in a race. I’ve been told in the past to ditch the watch and run on feel, but my problem is that I feel so good in the beginning of the race, that if I don’t have my Garmin to tell me my pace, then I will go out too fast. There is nothing harder than watching people you know you are faster than go out in front of you. This is where you need to be the most patient. If you are truly faster than the person, then you will catch up. 

Last night was the men’s and women’s open USATF-NJ 5k championship. My goal going in was top 5 and sub-17:46 (which would be a PR). The time goal was most important and I figured the place would come with the time. I knew there was going to be some tough competition, but I had to be patient. My coach and I devised a pace plan for the race earlier in the week: 5:49-5:45-5:35-kick. Mother Nature decided to throw in an added obstacle—heat and humidity. The temperature was approaching 90 degrees when I arrived at the race. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to drop down to negative splits based on the conditions, but I decided I would at least go out smart and see what this 36-year-old body was capable of. The gun went off and it took everything I had to keep my pace controlled. I caught myself in the beginning and immediately slowed myself down. A few friends saw what I was doing and tried to stay close as I am known to “go out smart.” The first mile I was constantly being passed. I knew many of the people and I wonder what they were thinking when they passed me. Did they know I had a plan to run negative splits, or did they think that the heat was too much for me? 

I hit mile 1 in 5:45. Although I knew this was a few seconds faster than planned, I knew that this was a good starting point. The previous week, I made the mistake of going out in 5:37 and paid for it dearly in miles 2 and 3. As soon as I hit that mile mark, I increased my effort. Mile 2 had some uphill, so I knew I would need to push harder to maintain the same pace. It was during mile 2 that I started catching up with some of the people who passed me in the beginning and I was not going any faster. Mile 2 of a 5k can be the hardest mile because it is your maintenance mile. It’s the mile in which you want to either maintain your speed from the previous mile, or gradually increase your speed. If you went out too fast in your first mile, you probably already started slowing down before you reached the 1st mile marker, which sets you up for a much slower pace at the start of mile 2. I gave a lot of effort in my second mile of this race. I stayed focused on the task at hand. When I approached the mile marker, my Garmin clicked off another 5:45. 

With 1.1 miles left in the race, it was time to turn it on. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I had worked my way up to the 7th female position. The last mile of this course is downhill. It’s nothing substantial, but you can use it to your advantage if you run smart in the beginning of the race. It took me years of running this course before I realized the last mile was downhill. I typically ran too fast in the first mile and was on a slow death march until I reached the track finish. This year I had a plan and I was sticking to it! I started picking up the pace. I was hovering around 5:40 pace. I pushed harder to get in the high 5:30 range. I started passing a lot of people, mostly men. I saw a woman that I didn’t know in a cluster of men from my old team. I pushed hard to catch up and then I kept pushing forward to pass them. There was another woman that I passed on the downhill as well. All of a sudden, it was time to make the final right turn before the left onto the track to finish. I could see my teammate Alex getting closer. She was the only woman in sight. 

***A few days before the race when I was discussing my plan with her, I told her that I hope to see her in the 3rd mile. Alex and I run very differently, but our 5k times are similar; she is a beast in the longer races.*** 

I made that right turn and it felt like forever before we were able to make the left turn onto the track. The road approaching the track is the slightest bit uphill, so you really need to push here. Finally, I made the final left turn and my feet felt soft rubber underneath. With about 2 tenths of a mile to go, I kicked my pace up to a new gear. I was approaching the 3 mile mark. Just a curve and a straight away until the finish line. Mile 3 clicked off at 5:37. I was fast approaching Alex, so I made a move. I passed her on the curve. At this point I was giving it everything I had. Alex responded and picked up the pace. I could not go any faster, so I watched her cross the finish line 2 seconds before me.  I was so proud of her for taking it to that next level. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t have the competition. She is not only a teammate and a friend, but we both pushed each other to new PRs!  My pace was sub-5 minute for my final kick—a new Strava course record for the track portion of this race. I ended up accomplishing both of my goals by running a 17:42 and placing 5th female!

Knowing I ran smart and gave it everything I had to progress my pace to the point of not being able to go any faster is such a positive feeling. If you haven’t tried it yet, I encourage you to try running negative—you will have nothing but positive results!