Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Negative splits

I was quite pleased to see negative splits on yesterday's afternoon run. I wasn't trying for that specifically, although I always hope to at least pick up the pace in the last mile or two. This time I shaved a few seconds off of every single mile...

1 - 10:37
2 - 10:14 (23 seconds faster)
3 - 10:06 (8 seconds faster)
4 - 10:05 (1 second faster—hey, it counts!)
5 - 9:58 (7 seconds faster)
6 - 9:32 (26 seconds faster!)
7 - 9:15 pace for half a mile (4:38) (about 8 seconds faster for the half mile)

You can use a race pace calculator to determine what your splits should be to achieve a desired result. Simply use this quadratic curve formula:

Percent of time = (2-4*ø)*(percent of distance)^2 + ((4*ø) - 1)*percent of distance)where ø is the percent of the distance to be covered at half way.

Don't like this?* Then just plug your information in here.


*Too complicated for you, perhaps? High school calculus too long ago? Me too.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Great run!! WTG on the negative splits. You've inspired me and that is what I am going to try to do on my long run tomorrow.

Lisa said...

Btw... great link! It let me know that I am running at the right pace (maybe even a little faster) for running a 4 hour marathon.