Cookin' Frogs

Photo from Google Images

Ya know the old story about how to cook a frog, right?  If you try to put a frog in boiling water, he'll jump out of the pot.  But if you place a frog in cold water and turn the heat up slowly, he doesn't realize he's being cooked! Then, when it's too late ... he's cooked!  I'm not sure if that's true or not.  While I grew up in Southern Missouri, I don't remember ever eating frog, possum, squirrel, or any of those other stereotypical Redneck foods!  But when it comes to race pacing, I've taken a similar approach.

In marathons ... heck, even 5K's, I am a notoriously slow starter.  Typically I start my first 4-5 miles a minute slower per mile than what I finish.  I guess you could say I like to eeaazzzzzee into it!  I usually run the first half of races about 20 seconds slower than my overall finishing pace, and the second half about 20 seconds faster.  I know a lot of runners take this approach, but I kinda take it to extremes.

Capping off a negative-split second half at the 2011 Boston Marathon

For example, if I finish with a 7:40 pace in a marathon ... about half of the race has been ran at an average of 8:00/mile, while the other half at about 7:20/mile.  I usually have HUGE negative splits, and my last miles are much, much faster than they probably should be.  At the Boston Marathon this past year, my two fastest miles were miles 24 & 26!  I spend A LOT of time running way below my target pace late in a race ... but unfortunately, it's usually to make up time that I spent above it early on in the run.

This whole negative split thing was very much by design.  I didn't just wake up one morning and think, "Hey, why don't I run the first half of my marathon really slow ... and then kill myself the second half!"  Rather, it was to prevent hitting the wall.  In early marathons, I hadn't quite figured out how to run them yet.  And as a result, I started REALLY fast, and then usually hit the wall and dropped way off around mile 22 or 23, sometimes earlier.  If you've done this, you know it can ruin not only your goal time, but also the whole marathon experience.  Walking/running those final 4-5 miles to the tune of a 5 minutes slower per mile is a grind.  So I literally tried flipping that scenario around.  Starting slower has allowed me to finish stronger and enjoy the experience much more.  And I usually finish right around my projected overall pace, but I always look back after and wonder ... "What if I ran the whole race closer to my second half split pace?"

The Extreme Home Makeover Bus with a police escort through Wichita

So I've been experimenting lately during my training runs with starting a little faster on the early miles.  As opposed to 5 or 6 "warm up" miles, I've tried reducing it to 1 or 2.  It seems to be working fine so far, but it will become a little tougher when I start extending my mileage during longer Tempo Runs.  I plan on really putting it into effect after I'm healthy from the back-to-back marathons.  I figure if I can shave a few minutes off of the early stages, but still maintain a negative split overall, my finishing times will obviously get a little faster. I mean if I can run 13-14 miles about 20 seconds under my overall race pace, shouldn't I be able to extend that to 22-24 through training, for an overall lower time?  I guess we'll find out!

So my hat's really off to runners who can maintain the same speedy pace for an entire marathon.  I can't do it!  But hopefully by changing up my training a little toward the end of the year, it will be like the Extreme Home Makeover Bus I saw in Wichita, KS this summer, except it will be an Extreme Running Makeover!  And by decreasing my times earlier in the run, I'll be dropping the frog directly into the boiling water ... I'll let you know if he cooks!  Have a great day!
... be great today!