trying to be more negative...

...but only with my run splits.
I had this funny (okay, it was funny to me) thought last night as I tried to envision my run today. I'm supposed to be practicing negative splits on my long runs. This means that the 2nd half of your run (or the 2nd part or whatever) is run at a faster pace than your 1st half. Usually this means that you really have to make sure you don't go out too fast. Which I'm notorious for doing. Actually, my usual m.o. is to go out at a steady pace and just hang there. Or, in a race, I go out great guns but then can't maintain that pace over the longer distances (case in point, CDA where I started with paces averaging in the 9s...this is not a good long-term plan for ETG in a marathon distance run!). So, I'm working on dialing it back at first and having something leftover so that I can finish faster than I started.
But my thought about negative splits was: "If when you finish faster than when you started is a negative split, does that mean that if you finish slower than you started it's a positive split?" If so...then I'm overwhelmingly positive in my running! And maybe given my wiring, this whole idea of negative splits is totally contradictory to my typically positive nature. Don't think that excuse will fly with my coaches!
I'm having a tough time switching to become more negative (in my splits). But I shall try...being more negative with my splits and still positive about my running.
P.S. Don't worry...that chart is just an example of someone's negative split. Not mine. I don't think I could run those paces for 26.2 miles (or even a few miles) even if I was being chased.