27 September 2013

Running as good as ever?

Just a steady week coping with the aches and pains of old age. 
Will give the 5km a burl at  parkrun North Lakes in the morning as a birthday celebration #52 for me!
Scary numbers - but it got me thinking about my running and goals on the track this year and wondering what I can achieve.
There is a calculator on the running for fitness website that tracks back and forward your times based on Age Grade % and VO2 Max (calculated from performance rather than in the lab). A good starting point is plugging in your PB then you can see if your currently running as good as you used to and what you might be running in 20 years time!! The calculator is here
As a 17 year old running 5000m in 14;31 is worth 93% age graded and 72.3ml/kg/min and the equivalent performances for are; Click on to enlarge.


The table seems to reflect my Masters career quite closely, I ran 15;29 age 46,15;50 age 49 and 15;55 age 50. The slightly galling aspect is that for me to now run 15;50'ish I am going to have to put in an age graded time well above my PB actually 94.6% Age Grade for a 52 year old (though the predicted VO2 Max is down to 64ml/kg/min?). Of course the table assumes a linear decline year on year and for some lucky people that is not the case. But is is a fun table not only to be used for nostalgia but also to look ahead. Plug in your current times and have fun seeing what times you could have run or what times you might run in the future!
Here is the table worked out on my PB 3000 8;23 age 17; which is 91.6% age graded / 71.8ml/kg/min. It suggests I'll be running as good as I ever ran if I can run 9;18 from tomorrow onwards!



1 comment:

TokyoRacer said...

Thanks, that's really interesting.