Originally Posted by
Clyde1820
For whatever reason, my body seems to respond best with the "negative splits" approach. All of my personal-best times on courses have been with that. I've always figured my body performed best when well warmed-up, worse when it wasn't quite ready for the push. Have had record course best times on both shorter distances and long ... best when I warmed up gradually prior to the race, came ready to go, started at a somewhat slower pace, then hammered the "race" pace on the tail third or half of the course. Funny how that works.
As I have aged, I have found that your approach of warming prior to pushing it works for me. When I burn matches upfront, such as tackling hills too hard, then I pay for it on longer (50+ miles), when there are even more hills and one big one to get home. A typical ride 30 mile ride is 2000’ whereas a 50+ goes 3500’+. Warm up first and then slowly build up the watts for the last half.