I was going to try to aim for negative splits during my next race (6k). I used to be in shape to run a 21 min 5k PR where my first mile was always the fastest around 6:35, but recently I had a horrible race and split a 6:45 - 7:08 - 10:29 (walked). I want to aim for a sub 27 minute 6k (distance changes next race) by starting around 7:15-7:20, and then working down from there. I'm going to talk to my coach, but is this too slow to start out?
The reason I'm asking is I was looking at past results for this race where they gave the breakdown splits and it seemed like it was common for the first mile to even be a minute faster than the second. I really don't want to put myself through that kind of pain, even though I know that all my 5k PRs have been from positive splitting (yet my half marathon PRs are from negative). Everyone who finished around 26:50 for the 6k seemed to go out in 6:45 which is 30 sec faster than I was planning..... Does that even make sense? If so, I'm a little worried. What happens if I start out at 7:15 and can't really get down from there, but instead go SLOWER? How can I be patient with negative splits....?