Friday, 15 February 2013

Age Graded - It's my motivation



As the years roll on and the chance of a PB has disappeared into the sunset, age-grading has given me the motivation to train a little harder and more often.
I'll never be able to achieve what I did in my forties and fifties but I can compare my previous times using this system. I think that the first time I came across WAVA or age-graded was when I entered the PFR winter handicap. It gave me a chance to look at my performance and compare it with people who were younger and faster. The Power of 10 site provides you with a whole host of information.
These are the top 10 age-graded performances for me:




Event Perf Points AGrade Age Pos Venue Meeting Date
1 5M 31:30 67.72 81.36 56 65 Oxspring South Yorkshire Road League 8 Apr 09
2 10M 65:37 67.64 80.87 56 16 Selby Selby 10 13 Sep 09
3 10K 40:18 66.63 80.72 57 102 Rothwell Rothwell 10K 3 May 10
4 10K 40:22 40:18 66.52 80.59 57 86 Barnsley Barnsley 10K 15 Nov 09
5 HM 87:59 67.30 80.20 56 65 Bridlington Bridlington Half Marathon 18 Oct 09
6 10K 42:31 42:21 63.15 78.52 60 112 3 Royston Barnsley 10K 18 Nov 12
7 HM 90:43 65.28 77.78 56 47 1 Liversedge Liversedge Half Marathon 15 Feb 09
8 HM 92:26 64.06 77.74 58 39 2 Doncaster Isle of Axholme Half Marathon 11 Sep 11
9 HM 94:33 94:22 62.63 77.42 60 86 1 Roberttown Liversedge Half Marathon 10 Feb 13
10 5KNAD 20:50 61.92 76.99 60 12 1 Barnsley Barnsley parkrun 5K Event 102 12 Jan 13


No matter what age I run at, I can set myself realistic or not so realistic targets to aim for. It motivates me far more than anything else. I've managed to achieve over 80% on five occasions. Now that I'm retired, I might be able to get somewhere near that 80 figure again. I wasn't too far off my previous excursion at Liversedge in 09, which is quite promising considering the lack of training this winter.
One PB I should be able to set is for a 5k. I've only ever done the Locke Park run but I'm determined to go to Doncaster this year. Due to work commitments, I've never managed it before.
I'm not sure which age-graded system Power of 10 uses, but I'll need to run a 1:31 ish half-marathon and a 68 min 10 miler. Let's hope the weather improves and I can get back to some sort of training.

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