Easy Out Negative Split Is The Way To Race For Older Athletes

Hi folks,

Over the years I find that I have settled into a pre-race behavior pattern, including boosting liver glycogen levels over the previous day or so, staying well hydrated, preparing all of my gear the night before, and not the morning of, and so on. Most of this I learned from my various coaches. One of the best pieces of advice for running races, ever, that I first received from one of my early coaches, Dan Shugars (also a great athlete), was:

“Now, Kevin, don’t forget, easy out negative split.”

This means that you start out slowly to warm up, gently increase your effort, whilst your pace will increase of its own accord. A negative split means running the second half of the distance faster than the first half. Another one of my coaches, Chris Haute, said the same thing in another way, which was, “Keep pushing, and hang in there.” The effect is the same. As you warm up you go faster. By the way, the effort might feel as though it is increasing gently, but the pain increases fairly dramatically as time goes by. That is just the deal in running races.

Give it a try. It works, and it reduces risk of injury. Running fast on cold muscles is not a good idea, especially as you age.

Easy out, negative split.

-k Your Medical Mind