Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Negative Splits

No, that is not some sort of reverse gymnastics move!  Negative splits is a running term used to say that your mile times get faster as you go along rather than longer.  The basic premise is, if you run the first half of your run slightly slower than the second half  you will have a better over-all performance.  It also helps reduce the chance of injury because you are well warmed up and joints lubricated before you really start pounding the pavement. If you're interested in more information on negative splits and how they work in a running program check out Running Planets list of how and why negative splits work (and when using them may not be the best idea)!  Anyway these were my times for my four mile run this morning:

Mile 1 - 14:17
Mile 2 - 13:41
Mile 3 - 13:27
Mile 4 - 12:50

I just went and checked and that last mile is my fastest mile yet.  I know it's slow but I'm getting there.  I have my next 5k race on July 4th and I'm hoping to run it as close to 12:00 as possible.  I don't know though because it doesn't start until 0900 and it's in Virginia so I expect it to be really muggy and HOT.  All in all I'm really happy with my progress.  I really do feel like 12 min/miles for the Army 10 miler are totally doable.  We shall see!

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