ST GEORGE 70.3: I'M SLOWING DOWN

GETTING TOUGHER EACH YEAR

                                                                                                                                                                I'M SLOWING DOWN 
I won the 65-69 age group with a 5:38, but slower than last years 5:33 on an easier weather day.  So, what is happening?








Well, I'm just getting older.  It's tough to compete at the "old" end of the "older" age groups.  In a prior post I compared the relative performance of the best age-groupers as a function of age.  I did this utilizing the USAT ranking system, and the USAT statistics for 2014 reaffirmed the general trend of an accelerating decline after age 40. To further smooth the recent 2014 USAT statistics, I averaged the scores of the top 5 ranked athletes in each age group.  The results were as shown below:


               AGE-GROUP                 MALE                FEMALE(1)
                 20-24                                104.3                   102.0
                 25-29                                104.6                   104.1
                 30-34                                105.3                   103.1
                 35-39                                105.8                   103.7
                 40-44                                103.9                   101.7
                 45-49                                101.2                    99.4
                 50-54                                 97.9                     99.6
                 55-59                                 93.8                     94.8
                 60-64                                 90.2                     85.9
                 65-69                                 84.0                     79.4
                 70-74                                 76.2                     72.9
                 75-79                                 66.8                       (2)

                 (1)  Females are given an extra 10 points in the USAT ranking methodology
                        to account for gender
                 (2)  Insufficient data



Since in the older age groups its mostly the younger bunch that finish in the top 5, you could reasonably calculate that, for example,  a 65 year old male should expect to be approximately 7% slower than a 60 year old [(90.2-84.0)/90.2 = 6.9%].  If you assume a linear degradation within age group with age, you can make this comparison and calculate an age-adjusted index for any age athlete.  For example, a 69 year old male (me) would have an index of  77.8 [ 76.2+(76.2 - 84.0)/5 = 77.8].  You can age-handicap your buddies!!!!  You can race for who buys the beers!!!!



THE RACE:  Drove up from Scottsdale with my younger (66 yr old) friend from Houston who was interested in the qualifying slot for 70.3 Worlds to be held August 30 in Austria.  We both achieved our goals, me to gauge my fitness level and friend George Rux got the slot on a roll down.  The swim

GEORGE RUX CELEBRATING

in the 62 degree Sand Hollow reservoir was uneventful and I had the same time as last year, 37 minutes.  I was cautious on the bike as it is a hilly course (Garmin says ---- 3304 ft of ascent) and was keeping my average power under 200 watts for about 25 miles when my power meter stopped transmitting.  So riding power-blind, I was even more cautious and put in a 2:49 leg, 4 minutes slower than last year which was a windier/hotter day.  The transition was a bit slow as I stopped at the port-a-potty.  Since my long run (actually, a run/walk "run") in training was 6 miles, my goal was to do my run/walk routine and not suffer too much.  The only event on the run was me spilling all my salt capsule's on the road before I could ingest any of them.  Not to worry, I just scooped up a few of them off the road on my way back on the out-n-back course.  I was able to clock a 2:04 which was 2 minutes slower than last year.   Total with transitions 5:38.

ST GEORGE 70.3 VOLUNTEER CEREMONY

THE VOLUNTEERS:  Wow, they had a lot of them and they were good.  I stayed around past the roll down to watch some of the Volunteer appreciation ceremony and meal at the end of the day. The St George 70.3 local race organizers and volunteers go out of their way to ensure a safe and fun race for everyone.  Fun city to race in.









MY AGE-ADJUSTED FINISH:  Since I spent the front end of this blog on calculating age-based indexes, how should you apply it to see who buys the beers?  Lets compare me to the overall Amateur winner on an age-adjusted basis?  The Amateur winner was Ken Peterson, M30-34, time 4:12, Age Index 105.3.  This would give him an age-adjusted time of 4:25:24  (4:12 x 1.053 = 265.4 = 4:25:24). My time was 5:38, with an index of 77.8, my age adjusted time would have been 4:23 (5:38 x .778 = 263 = 4:23).  I like this indexing system.  Don't know you Ken, but next time lets race for beers????