This JavaScript application calculates your performance as a % of the world record speed, for any distance. You can then compare distances using these %WR(speed)s. e.g. 100% is approximately the current WR, while lower numbers are slower, but approximately equivalent performances for different distances.
To calculate your performance, select or enter the distance - the list includes several standard ones, or you can type a distance in the box below (select miles or km). Enter your age and sex and the time in minutes, or mm:ss, or hh:mm:ss (to enter seconds, you must type 0:ss). Press Calculate to get a calculation of your pace and %WR(speed). Alternatively by selecting the appropriate option from Calculate with fixed, you can enter a pace (mm:ss/mile) or a speed (m/s) and calculate the time and %WR(speed). Or you can enter a %WR(speed) to calculate the pace and time - e.g. to find what an equivalent performance at a different distance would be, change the distance, but keep the %WR(speed) the same. Calculation is based upon a smooth model fitted to WR speeds (see Figure 3 and plots on main page) recently updated to include the top 200 performances for each distance (100% corresponds to the "average" world record, relative to the others, values higher than this are better than we expect). and can be used for any distance within the range from the drop-down list.
The age-graded performance is calculated from age-group WRs, using a simple model to provide a smooth summary of these. Again it is expressed as %AGE-group WR (speed), so that 100% is (approximately) the current age-group WR, and lower numbers are slower.
The World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) produces detailed tables of age-grading for each distance and age. We use these and the WAVA standards (target times) for each event (interpolated between distances) to give a WAVA age-grading, as % of what the WAVA factors consider to be equivalent age-group performances - note that these are faster than the current age-group WRs for older runners at long distances, so that the WAVA%AGE is lower - see age-grading discussion and WAVA calculator for track and field events.
All functions and factors are stored in this page as Javascript, so you can save the page to use off-line. These are also available in an Excel spreadsheet and as VBA functions.
See also race pace calculator for tables of splits in races.
The form at the bottom is used to store your results in cookies and computes averages of the age-graded results to predict future performances. To use these functions, enter a name, then for a particular race, enter the date (or other identifier) and press "Store race". Once you have entered the results of several races, "Show races" updates the table below and "Predict race" will use these to predict a result at any distance in the table above (from the average %AGE-WR(speed) of your previous races). In the future, it will make use of the date (if entered) of each race to down-weight old results. You can delete races from this list by referring to their dates and pressing "Race with date". The cookies should keep the results for next time you return to the page.
