Negative Split Training and Cycling

Written by Pablo Ferrero

Friday, 01 May 2009 16:22

Many endurance athletes struggle to beat their personal records and are on a constant quest for the training secret to make them faster. These athletes will often simply ride longer or ride harder, but they are not always riding smarter. The athlete is not seeing the results they are hoping for, but they make no changes to their training plan. They get caught up in trying to go further or simply follow a teammate’s plan. Many athletes are seemingly successful at the beginning of a race, only to be passed up later in the race day. As we all know, the finish line is the important factor, not how good you looked and felt in the middle of the day. Improper pacing is often the culprit for these athletes who find themselves being passed. Other factors, such as improper nutrition/hydration, environmental heat/humidity, and injury, may play a role as well. Finally, these athletes may just not have enough physical fitness or strength to sustain their pace until the end of the race. What can be done to improve this?

It takes a lot of hard work and some often painful workouts to get faster. The intensity needed to overcome current physiological hurdles is very uncomfortable. No athlete can sustain this level of intensity for long periods of time, so the goal of one kind of strategic training is to spend short amounts of training time at high intensity, and then decrease this stress to allow recovery. Athletes are aware of interval training in running, but may rarely duplicate this effort on the bike. Intervals are periods of high intensity and fast speed followed by an active rest period. During the hard part, the athlete may be at or above their race speed, but they can sustain it for a short period. The goal is to be able to spend more and more time at this high intensity so that the body can adapt. This method of interval training will help the athletes get faster.

Negative split training is another great method to increase speed and help ensure a better finishing time. The athlete simply does the second part of a given distance faster than they did the first part. For instance, on a 40 mile ride, the first half is completed in 22 minutes, and the second part is completed in 19 minutes. The length of these sessions can be varied, but the concept is always the same. A three hour ride can be split into part 1 and part 2, or may have 3 one hour segments in which the athlete will complete 2 faster than 1 and 3 faster than 2. Strategies such as these, as well as “negative splits”, are easy to do if no real effort is put into the first half of the ride, but the key is to try to push the limits while having enough "left in the tank" for a strong second half. Negative splits force the athletes to work at a higher intensity after being slightly fatigued from the first half. This concept teaches pacing and mentally prepares the athlete in race simulation circumstances. Negative split training is an ideal way to train because it taxes the body and forces it to work at a high rate when it normally would like to shut down. Many athletes start racing too hard because they feel good, and are afraid that if they get too far behind the competition, they may never be able to catch up. Negative split training forces the athletes to keep energy stored in their “reserves” and gives the athlete confidence that they are able to go faster later in the race. Get negative and see positive results!

Manny Escalante, Jr. MA, ATC, CPT has a Master's Degree in Sports Medicine,

Certified Athletic Trainer, and Certified Personal Trainer.

Competed in bodybuilding and a 3 time Ironman Triathlon Finisher