Hi, this is Debbie Boyles, coach at Mojo for Running with podcast number 39, about negative splits.

We'll discuss what it means to negative split and ways to train to achieve a negative split in a race.

A negative split is when you run the second half of a race, whatever the distance, faster than the first half.

And I think everyone should train with this

goal in mind. The second best situation is to even split, meaning to run the second half in the

same time as the first half. And the least desirable way to run a race, in my opinion, is to get

slower and slower throughout the race. Now, the reason I think it's far better to negative split than to even split is this.

If you're properly trained for the distance of the race, in other words, if you've run that

distance before or close to it and you're in good condition, then most people will find that

the first couple of miles or maybe the first

three miles of a race, they're still warming up. Even if they warmed up before a race of a mile

or two miles, which personally I think everybody should warm up two miles before a race and they'll

always have a better race. And I'll do a whole podcast about that at some point. But a lot of people, particularly if it's a half marathon or longer, a lot of people won't

warm up at all.

But either way, the thing is, you'll find that you warm up more as you get several miles into

the race.

So it's only natural that you would then be able to more comfortably and with less

energy actually pick up the pace. So for that reason, I think if you try to even split it,

what's going to happen is that you end up maybe running a little bit too hard during those first

few miles because you're not warmed up as much as you could become warmed up and will

become warmed up later. So for that reason, I think you should always start with the idea that

you're going to get faster throughout the race. Also, it feels great to get faster as you get

...