Flashback Friday: Bringing Up Old Shit

It's been a slow week, and I don't just mean my pacing. HEY-OH!

Weather, demotivation and other interests have kept me from running this week. Yeah, there has been some beer, but nothing too notable (except Bell's Special Double Cream Stout). I have had nothing worthy enough to bother myself with wasting your time. But then something happened.

I received a comment.

I know, I get a brazilian comments, but this one was special, namely because it ripped on Nitmos. And I love when people rip on Nitmos.

However, this particular comment was posted to a blog from Oct. 8, 2008, as I was preparing for the Towpath Marathon and contemplating a negative split approach, after Vanilla had sent me this link to the WebZealot. The topic seemed kind of old. But what else is Flashback Friday for, if not to rehash something from last year?

It seems the WebZealot was doing some rehashing of his own yesterday and came across my ever insightful post, and he took exception to Nitmos's comment.

As a refresher, here's what Nitmos said:

"Have you practiced negative splits? It's a discipline more than a strategy in my opinion. As long as your body is trained to accelerate at maximum fatigue, more power to you!

Good luck. I think you'll succeed because you sound extra motivated (or extra drunk ... hard to decipher).

Either way, you're still a fool. That's what we all appreciate about you.

Go get that PR!

And now, WebZealot:

"Nitmos- So because the negative split is a discipline, it should be disregarded as something for the elite runner? Did training for your marathon not take discipline? Does your running in general not take discipline?

I certainly think it does. So why should you toe the line on race day and suddenly throw discipline out the window? Going negative doesn't take practice so much as it takes common sense and patience. It's not like your suddenly being asked at the 16 mile mark to start laying down five minute miles. All it's asking is that you use the first half of the race to set up the second half so that you can run at a pace (albeit a quick pace) that is within your ability level.

Look, I'm not trying to be hard on you or anyone else ... But I think the negative is a good approach for ANYONE regardless of ability. Sure, it is not without its downside ... You MAY finish feeling like you left too much on the road. But personally, I would rather finish that way than straggling across the line after walking the last four miles, feeling like I had just been run over by a truck.

Most folks who poo-poo negative splits have either never given them a real honest try, or can't come to grips with the notion that their target time is simply out of their ability range. There is no shame in that. On paper, negatives can seem daunting.

Kudos to Vanilla [Drunkard's note: This is how you know I didn't make this up] for being able to burn it up out of the gate the way he does and still hang on ... But I'd be willing to bet running negative would net him an even better time.

Viper, I'd be curious to know what you end up pulling off...

Let the bickering begin!

Of course, most of you know that I pulled off a double negative, which in mathematical and linguistic terms means, basically, FAIL.

My own take on the negative split argument is that WebZealot and Nitmos are both right idiots.

The strategy didn't work for me at the Towpath Marathon, but I learned a few things:

• Negative splitting is hard
• Though my second half was a positive split, I still PR-ed
• I felt better at the end than I did in my previous two marathons
• My four-hour goal may have been too ambitious, especially given that it was my second marathon in two weeks
• The negative split merits a second try
• But I need to practice the discipline throughout my training.
  

Back Talk
Wherein even though I just posted two tldr comments, I'm going to post another one because that's the kind of regurgitation you've come to expect every Friday.

After I mentioned I had ice in my beard when I finished my 1,000-mile journey, joyRuN, tfh, X-Country2, Ms. V and MCM Mama expressed concern about my facial growth. Thankfully, my shift-button challenged friend, the erratic epicurean, came to my rescue: "hear this blog readers, the viper looks very nice with a beard. it hides his ugly mug!" [sic]

Answer: See? What were you all worried about?

And Xenia asked if the picture from that post was the infamous Towpath.

Answer: Nope.

Happy Hour is nearly upon us. I hope you have a fine weekend brewing. Run well and drink well. Cheers!