Posts Tagged ‘age-grade’

Today was my final workout, the standard mini one you do for raceweek. It went quite well, though because it’s a shorty I don’t draw any conclusions from it but it was a nice capper, to be sure.

The run was 8.24mi w/ 3x mile @Half pace w/ ¼ mile recoveries (which ended up being 2min each). The mile reps were a tad faster than Half pace: 6:58, 6:54, 6:53 and the whole run averaged 7:47.  What bodes well about this is that it was 74 degrees with 64 dewpoint but a cold-front is moving in and Sunday morning looks to be around 57 with no humidity.  Huge difference from any of my tempos this summer.

So now all there is to do is taper.  The next few days go 6, 5 w/strides, rest day, 4 w/strides, race.  Gulp.

Race Goals
I’m not going to go into it too much but I’m nervous as hell.  I’ve had some strong running this season but please don’t think for a second that I’m sure of myself or think this weekend is a lock for anything, I’ve had too much weirdness in my racing to ever know what to expect.  Loopy mental state aside, here’s what I’m looking at for goals…

A Goal: sub 1:32
B Goal: sub 1:33
C Goal: PR (under 1:33:51)

I’ve been training with 7:00 as my goal pace, so that’d be 1:31:42 – I would love that.  While you might think “Dang girl, you ran all those miles and all you think you can do is sub 1:32?  Hardly seems worth it.” But to me it’s much more than that.  Remember, my PR is from 2009 and last year the best I could do was 1:34:40, so this is now a 2-year catch-up game.

I want to say this about whatever happens: whether I fuck it up or run a great race, those miles were important.  Not only did they make me a much better runner (I’m not commenting on how good a racer I am, the jury’s out on that) but beyond aerobic conditioning, increased efficiency and breaking an interminable plateau, I’ve enjoyed the experience thoroughly.  Even the few runs that sucked, and there were so few, were necessary to the experience.  I’ll hark back to my 99% post because that is what this season was for me (and the percentage has even gone up due to the increased mileage, lol).

Age-Grading Update
While playing around with the Age Grade calculator, I’ve noticed that the numbers are different from what they used to be.  The percentages I mentioned a couple posts ago that apply to my goals are correct but my old AGs scattered around this blog in various old posts are now obsolete. Not a big deal since they’re only good for the year in which you run the race anyway and I’m about to get me some fresh results, but anyway…

I noticed the Half percentages in particular seemed quite a bit tougher and after some investigation, discovered that in 2010 there was an update for women’s Age-grading factors (this takes you to part of a much larger page so if you scroll, you can see info for men as well).

As a general note, be aware that when you do use an AG calculator some still use older factors so they’ll seem more generous percentage-wise.  I like the one from Runnersworld but this one is also good (it’s the source one actually, but has an uglier interface).

My Latest Goofy Purchases
What I’m about to discuss will seem ridiculous to people with houses or washers/dryers in their apartment, but I’ve a feeling my fellow city apartment dwellers will understand…

All summer I’ve come home (as most as you have) with sopping wet running clothes.  In the Blue Hovel, I’d wring them out in the sink, then hang them till dry enough to throw in the hamper the next morning.  In my new apartment however, they take longer to dry especially when it’s rainy and damp stuff can turn into smelly stuff.  Summer maybe be over but my running clothes are sweaty year-round so it’s not just a seasonal situation.

So I started checking out portable spin dryers and found a dandy little countertop spin-dryer.  My original idea was just to dry my sweaty clothes so I could put them in the hamper immediately.  According to the reviews, this mini dryer gets nylon-based clothes completely dry whereas cotton ends up mostly dry (dryer than a regular washer’s spin cycle but still slightly damp).  Btw, while you never want to put your running clothes in a dryer because heat will mess with wicking fabric and make your stretchy stuff crispy, this thing works with centrifugal force, like a big salad spinner, thus no harm to the fabric.

After I decided to purchase the thing, I started thinking about washing clothes as well because trekking down to the basement to throw a bunch of quarters in somebody else’s washer/dryer has never been my idea of fun, so if I can lessen that need, all the better.

Thus, I began to investigate mini washing machines, of which there are two popular types.  One is electric, the Wonder Washer, while the other has a hand-crank and, hilariously enough, is called Wonderwash.  I didn’t know that washing clothes could be so filled with Wonder, but apparently it is.  I can only imagine the lawsuits that went down between those two.

Anyway, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on both, even a newscast review of the hand-cranking one, plus read a ton of reviews and comments.  Ultimately, I decided against either of them for a few little reasons but also because they don’t rinse your clothes, you have to fill the receptacles again and repeat the process to rinse. Seemed too much of a production if I’m to retain my lazy-ass status.

However, in those reviews I read about an alternative low-tech item, the Breathing Mobile Washer.  It’s incorrectly named Rapid Washer at Amazon.com(the Rapid Washer is metal and rusts but I’m linking to it so you can read the reviews if you’re a review reader like me).  It’s basically a souped-up plunger that seems easier to deal with than the two mini washing machines and supposedly gets clothes cleaner, too.  Also, you can use it in the bathtub, sink or bucket…whatever size vessel you want for the job.

Together, it should totally lessen my need for the basement washer/dryer downstairs, appealing to my lazy self while saving money and keeping damp duds from laying about as well.  I’ll post a review on them next week after I’ve used them a couple times.  Supposed to get them tomorrow…I’m so excited!

Hilarious…I’m 50 friggin’ years old today.  Seriously, this is the goofiest birthday ever: a half-century old, that much closer to death, recent recipient of an AARP card…but really, there’s only one thing that matters on this day and it’s not my health.  It’s the fact that I’m now a baby in a brand new Age Group.  Yeehaw! Gonna create some 50-54 year-old carnage this year (and the next and the next).

My Age Graded scores promise to be quite fun as well.  Unless something goes terribly wrong (because wrong is never complete until it has “terribly” before it), it looks like I’ll be solidly in the 80% “National Class” bracket from here on in.  I’d already hit 79% for a couple distances but if I get my goal for this coming Half (1:31:40) I’ll have an AG of 81.35% and if I get even the slightest sub20 5K (19:59) I’ll have an AG of 83.89%!  Makes life a little more entertaining, anyway.

I don’t have a lot to say about the birthday itself, every time I think “OK this is the best time of my life”, it manages to get even better. And for a hermit like myself, to have all you blog readers, forum pals and Facebook friends always being so supportive and constantly sharing the good vibes, you really bring me joy.  Imaginary or real, I’m honored to have all you crazy cats in my life.

I guess now would be the perfect time to instill you with something wise and elder-ish, but in lieu of that, here’s my favorite 50 year-old of all time, Ms. Sally O’Malley.  She can kick, stretch and kick!

As for me, I did what any self-respecting 50-year old running freak would do…celebrated with a hard run: my usual 9x (3min on/1 off) fartlek fun.  Here’s the old lady on the way out the door (she kicked ass, btw:  8.9 mi@7:38).

Here’s the podcast if you haven’t moseyed on over yet.  It was fun to do and the guys on the panel were way cool – an enjoyable time was had by all.  I don’t think we helped Joe decide whether to race the NYC marathon or just run it, which was probably the whole point of the podcast, but I think he’s getting closer to figuring it out.

Runs
Yesterday, a 13-miler.  I dawdled too long so it was hot by the time I got out, but that helped keep my pace easy @ 8:47 avg.

Today, Kick Ass.    An 8 miler w/3 tempo and whoa doggies, the speedwork is working! Compare my previous tempo run to today (note the temperature difference):

May 7, 66F:  7:11, 7:12, 7:09, average 7:11
Today, 75F: 7:05, 7:05, 6:58, average 7:02

And I suck in the heat!  The best part?  Both my interval and tempo this week are a hair’s breadth away (5 seconds) from where I was this time last year and that was my short-race prime.  Whew!

Now for the meat of the post…

Age Grading Explanation and Stuff
I initially became aware of age-grading when I got my first running book (and running bible), Bob Glover’s Competitive Runner’s Handbook.  In the first few pages, he has tables for what he calls “Basic Competitor” through “Semi-Elite” with ages and corresponding race times for each group.*

I drooled over the different tables and as I moved up from Basic to Advanced to Local Champion, it was exciting, but it wasn’t till I’d owned the book a couple years that I realized the numbers next to his categories were age-grade percentages, split up like this:

Basic Competitor (50%)
Competitor(60%)
Advanced Competitor(65%)
Local Champion(75%)
Semi-Elite (85%)

How Age-Grading Is Calculated:
They (World Masters Athletics) take the world record holder of each age and sex, call that 100%, then your race time is divided into that, giving you a percentage called your Age Grade.  So, taking an example from Running For Fitness, “the world record for a 53 year old woman running a 10km is 35:01. So if a 53 year old woman finishes a 10km in 45:18, she has an age-graded performance of 77.3% (which is 35:01 divided by 45:18).”

Bottom Line:
It’s tells you how high you rank in your age group and is often used for major track meet classifications.

This is the breakdown:
100% = Approximate World Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

What This Means For Me:
Last year I came very close to 80% in several race distances and now I’m ready to get in there and sit my ass down.   So my goal from here on in, besides the standard time-based ones, is to enter “National Class” for all my race distances (sans Marathon) and then see how far I can move up.  I’d be lying if I didn’t admit Glover’s “Semi Elite” classification sounds pretty sweet to me.  Hell, even the phrase “National Class” makes me giggle.

Now here’s the cool thing…
I didn’t realize till last night that my 5K PR, which was 79.91% at age 47, is 80.86% at age 48…I’m in the door!  Kind of.  I mean, I have to redo it to count, but that’s in the cards and then some (sub 20 will be mine by Fall, gosh dern it!)

Which brings me to my upcoming 5K.  To get 80%, I need 20:38, which looks doable (if the temps are good).  If not this race, I’ll get another chance 2 weeks later.   So there you have it: a race goal, thanks to the goodness of Age-Grading.

*It should be noted that in my version of the book, Glover’s tables are outdated, which might have been fixed in a newer edition.  There are two sets of age-graded numbers floating around the interwebs: 1994 and 2006 factors.  The latter is most current and happily, more generous, so if you see conflicting numbers between online age-grading calculators, the slower one is using the older, outdated world records.