70% Age Graded marathon in 2012 (Read 1741 times)

We have a lot of threads with a specific target time - I thought it might be interesting to do an age graded target as a variation. I've picked 70% because I've done 70% (or a little better) in some shorter distances in the last couple of years, but not in the marathon, so it's a good one to aim for me. I'll maintain the table if there are other interested people. Post your age and sex below if you want to be included.

What is age grading?

We realise that as we age we tend to get slower, and that women tend to be slower than men. Age grading is a way of scoring performances so as to compare across ages and sexes (or to compare your own performances as you age). There are various ways in which you can do this, but the most often used one is to convert to a percentage of the world best for your age and sex.  So, taking the 70% age graded marathon as an example - this would be ~2:58 for a 25 year old man, and ~4:05 for a 55 year old woman. The idea is that these performances are in some sense equivalent. Or, looking at it another way - a 3:30 marathon, for example,  would be a 59.5% performance for a 25 year old man, or an 81.9% performance for a 55 year old woman.

The percentages for a given time don't change very much across the range 20-35, reflecting the fact age doesn't really start to bite until your late 30s.

Whether you prefer to compare raw times or age gradings is really up to you, but as you get older trying to maintain age graded performances provides some motivation even when you know your raw times are slowing.

Longer explanation here: http://www.usatfmasters.org/fa_agegrading.htm

A couple of online age grading calculators: 

http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator

http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/racepaces/agtimes

(Edited to add age grading explanation.)

pr100

I've tried a couple different online calc's and I'm coming up with different solutions.

I'm also 46. My current Marathon pr is 3:24:10 and this puts me at an age graded time of 3:12 for 66%

I always took it to mean what % you fall bellow top elites - Handicapped for Age.  I do not know axactly how they compute and when they update - Since with recent marathon times - It should be updated to reflect people are getting better and be harder to acheive 70%

I guess I have never ran a race and said hey my 37 minute 10k is age graded to a lessor time - I have always said I ran 37 minutes which is 78.6% age graded.

So I think pr100 was using it the way I would.

I have always shot for 80% age grading and always fell just a bit short - So I would like to find a race that I can make 80% - I do not care the distance.

Yannis was in his 40s when he ran 303K or 188+ miles in 24 ~ So more maybe almost 80% - 24 hour racing is full of old farts. 

I think the 80% age-graded time for your age bracket in a 125 mile race is about a day.

 

I'm not sure what the 99% age-graded time is for a 154.5 mile race... probably about a day. 

70% is actually a really good marathon goal for me, since all my other distances are around 70, but marathon is 63.  Don't think I'm going reach it this year.

MTA:  That would be a 3:35 for me.  No, not going to happen in 2012.

I get better percentages on that graph at mile and 5K than longer distances, and do much worse at marathon. Just like if I try any other calculator....

As an over-the-hill hobby jogger, (61), I support this thread!

I have managed low 70% range a number of times, my best being a half marathon 3 years ago, but don't think I can manage 3:40 for a marathon.

70-80% is regionally competitive, 80-90% should be nationally competitive, over 90 international.