After Saturday's Gungahlin parkrun, I was delighted to see a Facebook post from Chilli Man which highlighted Kelly Varey's great run for second place over the line and first based on AST, and which mentioned that I was third on AST.
For those not in the know, AST% is a very simple formula which enables performance comparison across all ages and both genders.
The formula is "MY AST = WORLD BEST TIME / MY TIME * 100" where world best is a figure for one's age and gender, usually in five year age ranges but can be for single years.
I reversed the formula to see what time I needed to get the same AST as Kelly:
"NEW GOAL TIME = WORLD BEST * 100 / Kelly's AST"
Of course you don't need to know or calculate what "WORLD BEST" is; eliminating that, the formula reduces to
"NEW GOAL TIME = MY AST * MY TIME / Kelly's AST"
and the result was, I had to run 20:50 to achieve her AST. This is slightly more achievable than the sub 20 goal I have had for a long while now. Both goals are not impossible.
The parkruns always show ASTs but I have not been showing them when I record parkrun results here, let alone taking any notice of them up until now.
Latest speedygeese results:
Monday 9 March AMRA Mt Rob Roy 25 km
28 Leonie Doyle W45 2.53.41
31 Peter Thomson M50 2.57.51
42 finishers
Tuesday 10 March YCRC Summer Series #7 Black Mountain Peninsula 5k
9. Jennifer Bright W35 20:59
17. Geoff Moore M65 24:08
20. Julia Anderson W40 24:40
22. Ewen Thompson M55 24:51
25. Vanessa Palmer W40 25:32
26. Gabrielle Brown W50 25:35
28. Sarah Pau W40 25:47
44 finishers
Thursday 12 March ACTVAC Track
1500m
M50 Colin Farlow 4:54.49 84.0%
M50 Dale Moore 5:13.53 78.9
M55 David Clarke 5:35.69 75.6
W55 Helen Larmour 5:55.35 83.1
W60 Kathy Sims 6:06.95 90.3
3000m
M55 David Clarke 11:38.89 75.6%
W55 Helen Larmour 12:29.51 83.8
W60 Kathy Sims 13:47.84 85.1
W60 Ruth Baussmann 16:19.81 73.1
W65 Margaret McSpadden 17:07.21 74.3
5000m
M55 Roger Pilkington 22:23.04 67.7%
Friday 13 March Customs 5k
Peter Burke 21:54
Peter Thomson 22:25
Bronwyn Calver 26:39
Saturday 14 March 5k Ginninderra Parkrun #151
64 Bron Sparkes 25:41 W35
73 Thea Zimpel 26:26 W30
198 finishers
Saturday 14 March 5k Tuggeranong Parkrun #108
21 David Clarke 20:02 M55
25 Peter Thomson 20:13 M50
46 Ewen Thompson 22:38 M55
237 Nicole Robinson 35:57 W40 New PB!
306 finishers
Saturday 14 March 5k Gungahlin Parkrun #74
33 Geoff Moore 22:37 M65
34 Julia Anderson 22:40 W40
36 Janene Kingston 22:52 W50 New PB!
42 Gary Bowen 23:42 M55 Happy Birthday Gary!
119 Margaret McSpadden 29:06 W65
202 finishers
My splits were 4:35, 4:32, 4:30, 4:28, 4:22.
Saturday 14 March Six Foot Track
565 Jen Bright 5:42.38
835 Cathy Montalto 6:44.06
874 finishers
AST% FOOTNOTES
1. As you can see from the formula, AST% cannot be negative, no matter how long you run for.
2. However AST% can exceed 100% - provided you beat the world best!
3. World best factors are smoothed- so the world best might actually differ slightly from a time which gives you 100%.
For those not in the know, AST% is a very simple formula which enables performance comparison across all ages and both genders.
The formula is "MY AST = WORLD BEST TIME / MY TIME * 100" where world best is a figure for one's age and gender, usually in five year age ranges but can be for single years.
I reversed the formula to see what time I needed to get the same AST as Kelly:
"NEW GOAL TIME = WORLD BEST * 100 / Kelly's AST"
Of course you don't need to know or calculate what "WORLD BEST" is; eliminating that, the formula reduces to
"NEW GOAL TIME = MY AST * MY TIME / Kelly's AST"
and the result was, I had to run 20:50 to achieve her AST. This is slightly more achievable than the sub 20 goal I have had for a long while now. Both goals are not impossible.
The parkruns always show ASTs but I have not been showing them when I record parkrun results here, let alone taking any notice of them up until now.
Latest speedygeese results:
Monday 9 March AMRA Mt Rob Roy 25 km
28 Leonie Doyle W45 2.53.41
31 Peter Thomson M50 2.57.51
42 finishers
Tuesday 10 March YCRC Summer Series #7 Black Mountain Peninsula 5k
9. Jennifer Bright W35 20:59
17. Geoff Moore M65 24:08
20. Julia Anderson W40 24:40
22. Ewen Thompson M55 24:51
25. Vanessa Palmer W40 25:32
26. Gabrielle Brown W50 25:35
28. Sarah Pau W40 25:47
44 finishers
Thursday 12 March ACTVAC Track
1500m
M50 Colin Farlow 4:54.49 84.0%
M50 Dale Moore 5:13.53 78.9
M55 David Clarke 5:35.69 75.6
W55 Helen Larmour 5:55.35 83.1
W60 Kathy Sims 6:06.95 90.3
3000m
M55 David Clarke 11:38.89 75.6%
W55 Helen Larmour 12:29.51 83.8
W60 Kathy Sims 13:47.84 85.1
W60 Ruth Baussmann 16:19.81 73.1
W65 Margaret McSpadden 17:07.21 74.3
5000m
M55 Roger Pilkington 22:23.04 67.7%
Friday 13 March Customs 5k
Peter Burke 21:54
Peter Thomson 22:25
Bronwyn Calver 26:39
Saturday 14 March 5k Ginninderra Parkrun #151
64 Bron Sparkes 25:41 W35
73 Thea Zimpel 26:26 W30
198 finishers
Saturday 14 March 5k Tuggeranong Parkrun #108
21 David Clarke 20:02 M55
25 Peter Thomson 20:13 M50
46 Ewen Thompson 22:38 M55
237 Nicole Robinson 35:57 W40 New PB!
306 finishers
Saturday 14 March 5k Gungahlin Parkrun #74
33 Geoff Moore 22:37 M65
34 Julia Anderson 22:40 W40
36 Janene Kingston 22:52 W50 New PB!
42 Gary Bowen 23:42 M55 Happy Birthday Gary!
119 Margaret McSpadden 29:06 W65
202 finishers
My splits were 4:35, 4:32, 4:30, 4:28, 4:22.
Saturday 14 March Six Foot Track
565 Jen Bright 5:42.38
835 Cathy Montalto 6:44.06
874 finishers
AST% FOOTNOTES
1. As you can see from the formula, AST% cannot be negative, no matter how long you run for.
2. However AST% can exceed 100% - provided you beat the world best!
3. World best factors are smoothed- so the world best might actually differ slightly from a time which gives you 100%.
