Calculating the "Age Graded Percentage" for a run is a well-known way of standardising the time taken to complete a run according to the age and gender of the runner involved. Knowing that my age graded percentage for a 5k run is higher than somebody else's necessarily and by definition means that I performed better than they did over that distance. If I only knew that my time for the 5k was faster, I would not be able to fairly reach the same conclusion without first considering whether I was younger or older than the other runner or whether I was the same or different gender. Calculating an age graded percentage is easy (lots of websites allow you to do it) and it could be done for every run on Strava.
I would love to see a "Best Efforts" page that is based on this percentage because it would allow me to compare my best efforts with those of another athlete much more fairly. At the moment, my best effort according to Strava might not really be my "best" effort at all. For example, my second best 5k time of 20:05 might constitute a much better effort than my personal best time of 19:50 if, for example, I achieved the 20:05 time when I was in my fifties but the 19:50 time in my teens.
See the following websites for more details:
https://world-masters-athletics.org/?s=age+grading
https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20801263/age-grade-calculator/
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.