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To understand negative split, runners have to grasp the concept on what make this method not easy for everyone.

“Lactate is an organic molecule produced by most tissues in the human body, with the highest production found in muscle.Here’s a quick and basic review of how lactate is produced. The body normally produces energy by way of aerobic metabolism, which requires oxygen to break down carbohydrates, amino acids, and fats. Via glycolysis, glucose is converted into pyruvate, which enters the Krebs cycle to produce oxygen and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or energy. If oxygen isn’t available to body cells, anaerobic metabolism kicks in to produce energy. ”

That’s basically saying lactate is built up within muscles whenever running fast pace and require a ton of oxygen intake to perform thought-out the exercise. Lactate is a natural waste product and will always be there but if not properly train. The body will struggle and produce more than normal, which give that burning sensation in commonly thighs or hamstring area in a race. To successfully achieve a negative split strategy, getting out slower to finish faster the key, but for professionals, they start off fast and finish faster and it takes lots of training to successfully perform that. Ways to reduce the lactate is training,

“Anyone can and should run negative splits. Unfortunately, most runners don't. Instead, they start in a near sprint, hang on through the middle and resort to a survivor's shuffle at the end. In contrast, those who opt for negative splits patiently run a bit slower for the first third of a run, pick up the pace in the middle and finish with strength and speed. The reason this works is because it can take your body several miles/meters to get warmed up. After that, your muscles are charged, your joints lubricated, and mood-boosting endorphins flood your system. You'll find yourself running faster without feeling any more effort ."

"To build confidence in the method, practice negative splits during your training runs, practice on running the first portion of the workout 10 to 15 seconds per mile slower. By the end of the session, you'll be running faster than planned. As you near the middle of the race, you want to hit your race pace. Then, toward the end, use those fresh legs to pass as many tired runners as you can .” Basically stating to trust the pace set in the beginning of the race and never fell tempted to speed up before hitting half way through the race. The goal is to hopefully have energy left back within to finish at a faster pace than the rest.

Numerous athletes have train to avoid this problem and the truth is, one can’t completely get rid of it. Runners can only reduce the amount of lactic acid that generate in a race. Obviously, including negative splits workout into practice will train your body physically about this strategy. More than likely, the burning sensation build up will lessen with harder workouts in practice. Going on longer runs and training the muscles train through that lactic acid at a gradual pace generally reduce lactate to perform a negative split in a race.

This method of racing is an extremely great example on how to better oneself. Strategies like this, test mental and physical strength.Test competitor and fighter, what ones willing to push to complete that task. Teaches a lesson that there’s always something to improve on in life, just takes hard work that takes lots of trials and errors.

“A negative-split strategy utilizing heart rate and pace as tools for time-trial-type events, such as non-drafting triathlon, helps us manage the production and elimination of acid within our cells. We want the fastest pace that allows us to go the distance without having to slow down, or stop, due to a system overload. Overall race intensity must be considered in addition to the intensity within each sport. You can negative-slit each sport within the race and in the best case, finish the entire event stronger and faster than you began .”

Negative split is usually associate with track and field events but it can also relate to other sports such as swimming or football in a different concept. As for track, events such as the 400, 800 or mile that can evenly split in half, give runners race plan to run faster on the second half. For the 400m is running the second 200 faster and the 800m is pacing the second 400m faster etc. Not usually thought about in marathons, even though 26.1 miles can be split in half, having a mindset to take off 13 miles in is extremely hard.

Similar methods to negative split are “even split” and “sit and finish”. Sit and kick is similar as you’re practically saving energy the first half of the race to finish as fast as possible. Negative split is still going out hard but being smart to finish faster on the second half. Sit and finish doesn’t consider splits times for each section of the race, so runners practice “sit and kick” start “kicking” whenever the race get tight or whenever the runner feels is right. As for even split, it’s more for distance races as runners want every lap or mile to be within the same area of time. Takes a lot of pace training and no temptation to go faster and being strong to not slow down throughout the race. It’s different from negative split as it’s more of a pacing strategy and no intentions to run the second half of the race faster.

Usain Bolt is one of the most known and acknowledged track athletes in the history of track and field. He has numerous world records in the most watched events. He successfully performs a negative split when breaking the 200m record in 2009 at the World Championships. “Bolt's reaction time in this race is 0.133 seconds. This is much better than his 0.145 second 100m world record reaction time. However, we have already discussed and know that Bolt can start fast too. As expected Bolt runs the second 100m faster than the first 100m. This is expected, as the start and getting up to speed takes time, while the second 100 meters can be run at close to maximum speed. Bolt's first 100m was run in 9.92 secs with the second hundred taking only 9.27 secs (a negative split) .”