by Bill Childs
Measurements are always made relative to standards that remain unchanged or in the case of human performance are not subject to significant rapid change.
Many of our modern standards use the speed of light i.e. the distance it travels in any given time. Human performance however is subject to gradual change but it will be many years beyond the life span of our present clinic members before such changes require the upgrading of marathon and half marathon run and walk standards. The writer cannot envisage complaints forthcoming from performances slightly over 100% provided they are accurately calculated from existing standards.Many of our newer members would not be aware that it is now possible to accurately measure human fitness for running or walking standard race distances. The system of age standards were compiled by the World association of Veteran Athletes and it has become obvious that some of our older members do not fully appreciate the contribution it can make to fitness standards and the advancement of sport.
Fitness is expressed as a percentage and is directly proportional to the pace at which a course is completed on a given day by a person of a specific age. Birth dates on entry are not necessary but information as to whether measurement is to be recorded as open-grade or in a specific five year age band is required. The latter will result in an age-graded percent performance correct to two decimal places, e.g. M55, F55 etc. Open-grade will assume age is between twenty and thirty-seven years when the human body is capable of peak performance. The significance of age-graded percentage or fitness classifications achieved is:
100% =Approximate World-Record Level
Over 90% =World Class
Over 80% =National Class
Over 70% =Regional Class
Over 60% =Local Class
Over 50% =Healthy Class*
Over 40% =Geriatric Class*
Over 30 % =Snail Class*
Over 20 % =Wounded Snail*
For the competitive athlete and the fitness enthusiast, performance classifications ranging between sixty and one hundred percent represent exciting levels of fitness, e.g. Local class implies the ability to be competitive in local competitions, Regional class is practically a guarantee of being competitive in all regional events, National class, highly competitive age band rankings in New Zealand and international marathons, World class is potential for Commonwealth, World and Olympic championships.
Performance measurements are very accurate and provided regular training is maintained should not vary by more than six percent in any given year except in the case of injury or
Case of injury or health problems. It is recommended that members who desire to monitor the progress of their training use the MyPerf computer program rather than the simple but tedious manual method of calculation from the published age-grade table. In the new event screen of MyPerf
It is mandatory to complete the following:
Date of Event
Date of Birth
Run or Walk
Male or Female
Distance in km
Time,e.g. 3h15m00s. Press enter and the computer spits out in the appropriate boxes: The world standard time, your performance and pace, min/km. The computer automatically selected the appropriate age standard and converted it to seconds, converted your actual time to seconds, divided the Standard converted to seconds by your actual time in seconds and multiplied by 100 to calculate to performance percentage correct to two decimal places. To measure Open-Grade Performance simply adjusts your date of birth box to set yourself at age twenty. To calculate Age-graded time, delete all data from the total time and performance boxes, insert your event performance and press enter. Your Age-Graded time, AGT will now appear in the actual time box. AGT records what your time would have been at the age of twenty had your finish time been equal to your current event. The writer’s best performance was 78.03 % at age 60.37 years, his AGT was 2h42m23s.
