Hi,
could somebody explain me why is there recommended in marathon to have negative or even split? I know the best perfomances are done by this strategy - this is the fact. Does it have physiological basis? How describe this situation (not accumulate a lactate in first half? energy managent?)...
Any literature references?
Sorry for my English, just curious about this topic.
Most races are best run with even splits. For the marathon it is mostly energy management.
It actually depends on the physiological characteristics of the individual runner. Marathons have been won by eastern Africans using a positive split strategy based on their high anaerobic conditioning. What's good for you may not be what is right for someone else, and vice versa.
I recently did a little analysis of the Miami Marathon splits for the top 18 runners. All of them ran positive splits except for one guy named Christian Arguello who ended up running 2:42:37. He started off at 6:22 pace for the first 10k, then dropped to 6:20 pace from 10k to half, then 6:05 pace from half to 30k, then 6:03 from 30k to finish.
Most of everyone else in the top 18, including the faster guys, slowed down their mile pace by 20 seconds in the last 10k.
Could this have been due to increasing temperatures? Or is this pretty typical of marathon splits (being so positive)?
There are several factors ie. temperature, wind, rivals. Sometimes is better to run faster and trying be in group of runner (mostly in windy race) than try to do a solo race.
Well, imagine this situation: flat marathon course, constant temperature, no other runners. Why to choose even (or positive or negative) pace strategy to get best possible time (exact reason)?
I believe even splits are best in theory. However, there are so many unknowns in the Marathon that can totally screw you up (weather, digestion, ...) that it's a smart solution to start off a bit slower than target pace. But if you're going for PB/broke, even splits should be the way to go.