2010, January: the road to Molly Malone's

[marathondan]

You're right of course Dan. The caveat is that this strategy is more relevant to the shorter distances:

runners world article

The 2 ten milers I've done this year proved to me that even pacing during longer distances is probably a more successful approach.

I suppose all I'm really saying is that negative splits don't appeal to me mentally. I like to force myself into abit of a corner and see what I'm made of.

But then other people advocate it:

negative splits article

Maybe I should try it

Thanks for the links, both interesting articles. In 10Ks I've gone out hard, and it's been quite successful. My rationale being that I can put up with considerable discomfort for 45-50 mins. For my last marathon I used a gently declining pace, based on Hal Higdon's book, but tightly monitored and controlled, and it worked a treat. Maybe a half marathon would be an interesting arena to try planned negative splits.