Mercier score calculator? Legit?

I've used it for years. Very good.

Dr snack pack.....crispy creme wrote:

Thoughts?

What are you using it for? What is the goal?

Dr snack pack.....crispy creme wrote:

http://myweb.lmu.edu/jmureika/track/mercier/window7.html

Has anyone played around with this calculator? Thoughts?

Not accurate from my mile to my 10,000m its over 60 sec slower than my 10,000 PB.

WTrunner wrote:

Not accurate from my mile to my 10,000m its over 60 sec slower than my 10,000 PB.

You are using it wrong. It is not a time predictor. It is an equivalency calculator.

These tables tend to score performances at shorter distances really high compared to longer distances. According to the calculator, a 2 flat 800m is equivalent to a 15:13 5K. Tons of high schools put together sub 8 4X800 teams. I don't see many high schools teeming with low 15 5K runners.

trouble with short distances wrote:

These tables tend to score performances at shorter distances really high compared to longer distances. According to the calculator, a 2 flat 800m is equivalent to a 15:13 5K. Tons of high schools put together sub 8 4X800 teams. I don't see many high schools teeming with low 15 5K runners.

Why would the amount of high school runners you've seen mean that the Mercier tables are wrong???

qwertz23 wrote:

trouble with short distances wrote:

These tables tend to score performances at shorter distances really high compared to longer distances. According to the calculator, a 2 flat 800m is equivalent to a 15:13 5K. Tons of high schools put together sub 8 4X800 teams. I don't see many high schools teeming with low 15 5K runners.

Why would the amount of high school runners you've seen mean that the Mercier tables are wrong???

If two times are equivalent, the proportion of runners who are capable of running the two times should be roughly the same, no? If everyone and their cousin can run time A, and time B is relatively rare, I would say that time B is better than time A.

Whether you're talking about high schoolers or runners of any other age, IMO a 15:13 5K is way better than a 2 flat 800m.

Also, high schoolers are measured in numbers, not amounts. And one question mark is sufficient.

trouble with short distances wrote:

If two times are equivalent, the proportion of runners who are capable of running the two times should be roughly the same, no? If everyone and their cousin can run time A, and time B is relatively rare, I would say that time B is better than time A.

No. You're talking about occurence. Mercier is talking about equivalency. The amount of people running a time affects occurence but it doesn't affect how good or bad a time is.

also the calculator is intended for use for comparing times for fully grown individuals, not high schoolers. I would anticipate more high schoolers run sub 8 because they have the leg speed necessary, but not sub 15 because it takes far longer to develop that kind of aerobic power. So just because the high schools occurrences aren't equal doesn't mean its not a good calculator.

juan wrote:

also the calculator is intended for use for comparing times for fully grown individuals, not high schoolers. I would anticipate more high schoolers run sub 8 because they have the leg speed necessary, but not sub 15 because it takes far longer to develop that kind of aerobic power. So just because the high schools occurrences aren't equal doesn't mean its not a good calculator.

This is false. It does not take longer to develop aerobic power than sprint ability or vice versa. How many of those sub 15 guys are running sub 11 for 100m?

5K's in high school are run on cross-country courses, and will be typically 30+ seconds slower than if run on the track. 15:13 would be about a 14:43 on the track, and is much better than 2:00.

Put in my 400, and it spit out my exact 800 time to the hundredth of a second. Put in my 600 and it was off by a couple seconds though.

You can read how the values are scored. For the most part it is very good.

I like using it to compare boys to girls or events like throws to jumps. It's great when trying to figure out the best mark of the week.

I personally ran a 1:51 800m in high school and ran between 15:50 and 16:30 in the 5k.
I’m not evidence that one is harder than the other, I ran with several kids that routinely ran 15-15:30s 5ks but couldn’t touch 1:51 in the 800m.

The two races require different skill sets and more importantly different training. I’d say the longer race was more difficult because I was focused and training for the half mile, but someone training for the longer distance might say the opposite. One is focused on building high end speed and some endurance work whereas the other is more about high end endurance with some speed work. Of course fully grown bodies probably cross those distances easier than high schoolers and my competitive running days ended at the high school level.