[mountainmilers] Different marathon goal then... :>

From: Terri Rashid <terri@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:16:18 +0000
After asking a bunch of folks about age-graded calculators, I've decided to go 
with this one:

http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html

That's the one several of my masters running friends in NowDead use, and while 
the link still says 06, the webpage says it's updated to 2010.  (The women's 
road WMA tables were updated in 2010.)

Now I was originally using this to see what time I would need to run in order 
to beat my 1999 Portland Marathon time in an "age-graded" sense.  Amusingly, it 
turns out that my 2011 Portland Marathon time already did that:

Dist          Time                    Age        Age Graded        Age-Perf     
         Open Std             Age Std                Factor       Comment
26.2        4:35:37                  32           4:34:34                  
49.27                     2:15:17                  2:15:48                  
0.9962      Portland 1999
26.2        4:56:22                  44           4:28:56                  
49.68                     2:15:17                  2:29:05                  
0.9075      Portland 2011

Since my 2011 time already "bested" my 1999 time in an age-graded sense, I need 
a different goal for my marathon this year.  :>

My 4:56:22 in 2011 was my fastest time marathon (in absolute time, not 
age-graded) since Portland 1999.  So this year I thought I might try to see if 
I could break 4:50.  I think it will be a challenge though because in 2011 I 
raced the most races I've ever done in one year (12) and logged the most 
mileage of any year (942).  That was because when we moved to AZ a bunch of our 
horses got injured so I ended up running instead.  So it's going to be a tough 
year to match, let alone beat.  And last year I most of what little running I 
did was in the spring, so I need to rebuild fitness now.

But just matching it (or beating it by a minute) doesn't seem like an exciting 
challenge, so I figured I would try to see if I could get below 4:50 as a goal. 
 In theory, the St. George marathon route should be a good one since it's 
mostly downhill.  But traditionally I've done my best marathons on gently 
rolling terrain - I think because it lets me switch up which muscles I use.  
But I guess we'll just have to see.

I do have some good hills around here, including areas where there are long 
downhill stretches, so I can get some practice running downhill before next 
fall.

Anyway, that's the goal.  :>

Is anyone else going to try to get in to the St. George marathon this fall?  
(October)

.Terri
[mountainmilers] Different marathon goal then... :>

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