06.24.2019 Monday Morning Training

If you go to the USAT website you can search results from USAT sanctioned events by Event or Athlete.  They usually are posted about 6 weeks after an event.  If you have done a Triathlon in the USA you were probably asked to either provide a USAT membership number or to purchase a one event membership for $15.  The membership goes towards calculating USAT numbers.  All the athletes that are in the USAT database from previous races have a weighted USAT score. 

If I were to finish a race in 1 hour 0 mins and my score was 92 then my time would be multiplied by 0.92 to give a time of 55 mins 12 seconds.  that would be an estimate of the fastest time possible by an AG athlete.  Similarly, if John Doe had a score of 72 and finished id 1 hour 25 minutes then his time would be multiplied by 0.72 to estimate an estimate the fastest time possible of 1 hour 1 min 12 seconds.  Every athlete with a score would have the race time waited by there score from previous races and the resulting times would be averaged to establish the fastest time possible for and age group athlete.  Then, everyone, ones get a score for the race based on the established fastest time for an age grouper.  So the average between 55 minutes 12 seconds and 61 minutes 12 seconds is 58 minutes 12 seconds so based on that course time for the race my score for a 60 minute time would be a 97 (58.2/60.0 = .97) and Jone Doe at 85 minutes would be a 68.5 (85/55.2 = .685). 

If you look at the pro's USAT scores they are usually about 110 meaning that they are 10% faster than the fastest possible time for an age Grouper.   Some of the top age groups get up t 106-107 too so you can definitely get age groupers that are over 100 but the scores are done the same for everyone so it is a way to judge how well you did at a race regardless of heat, humidity, wind, hills etc.  I got an 89.4 at IM Boulder last year with a finish time of 5hrs 7 minutes and was a point lower as the Redman 70.3 for a 88.4 with a time of 4hr 57 minutes.  So the 6,000 feet of higher elevation and the 30 degrees hotter day at Boulder made a slower time produce a higher USAT number meaning.  So for the conditions of the day, I did better at Boulder than I did at Redman. The number system isn't perfect but a fun way to compare how you did as compared to other athletes and other races.