Good Run Guide: 40 Great Scenic Runs in England & Wales

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Select a race where your finish time reflects your current performance level and where the race is of a simailar type (hilliness and terrain) to the one you plan to run, as this will improve the accuracy of the prediction (i.e. don't choose a hilly cross-country race if you are predicting a time for a flat road race). This factor reflects your ability to maintain your average speed as the length of the race increases. This varies for different types of runners. Ultra-distance runners tend to have very low factors (as low as 3%) while sprinters have very high factors (as high as 30%). Our suggested default value is 8% - in rough terms, this means that your speed declines by about 8% when the distance doubles. What is Age-Grading Age-Grading is a way of measuring your running performance taking into account your age and sex....you can effectively score every run you do.

Age-Grading is a way of measuring your running performance taking into account your age and gender. It enables you to produce a percentage score for each run based on how old you were when you did the run. It also takes into account your gender so you can use the percentage score to compare your performance with other runners, regardless of both age and gender.

How is my Age-Graded Percentage calculated?

Due to ongoing Covid situation the First Race is now on 21st July. Dates of 2nd and 3rd not changed. Review and recalculate - As your performance or weekly distance changes, recalculate your target paces so that you are training at a level that reflects your current ability. The above advice provides a guide to a developing a regular weekly training schedule but if you are planning a race, you should consider developing a longer-term schedule that builds your training over time with the race date as a goal. The following table provides some general advice on developing a longer-term training schedule for a medium distance race (3 to 10 miles). You should use this in combination with the training pace guidelines above and should recalculate your target paces as your training progress. 8 - 12 WEEKS The Long run can be increased if you are training for a longer race, but limit the time to under 2½ hours.

The calculation uses data collated by the World Association of Veteran Athletics, to adjust your performance for age and gender. It takes World Record performances for each age and disatance, for men and women, and uses these as benchmarks. So, for example: if the World Record for a 40 year old man running 10 miles is 46:31 and another 40 year old man runs 10 miles in 58:30, he has an Age-Graded performance of 79.5% (46:31 divided by 58:30). If you use the Good Run Guide Log Book, we can analyse races you've logged to estimate your Performance Degradation Factor. We recommend that you aim to build in one long run per week to be run at an Easy pace. If you are training for a medium distance race, this should be geared to the length of the race and how far off it is; you should be able to comfortably run the race distance as your long run as you get near to the date of the race.

Spread out your training sessions across the week so that you don't do two consecutive hard sessions. One of the most common ways to categorise running is by how fast you run. However, "fast" means different things to different runners, so in general terms it is best explained by how hard you run, i.e. the level of effort or the intensity of the training session. Vary your training over time with new goals - Don't continue with the same weekly schedule for months on end or you could get bored, disillusioned or even injured. It's a good idea to base your training around a specific goal or race; choose a goal, train towards the goal, then allow some recovery time (perhaps just running at an Easy pace for a few weeks or alternative exercise), and then set a new goal.

Learn to judge how easy it feels - You should be able to hold a conversation while running at an Easy pace and should be able to run at the same speed for at least 20 minutes at a Tempo pace. If you are finding it very hard to do this or you are finding it very easy, adjust your speed as necessary, using a stopwatch to pace yourself if it helps. Over time you will get used to judging how fast you are running, even without the aid of a stopwatch. The following is an example of a weekly training schedule for someone who runs 25 miles a week. MONDAYThese training levels are recommended by Good Run Guide for medium distance runners and are general guidelines only. When you log runs in your Good Run Guide Log Book, you will be able to calculate an Age-Graded percentage for each run. Each finisher receives a mug, chocolate bar and fruit. There are series and individual medals/prizes.