Brief Explanation of the Best Performances List |
| In this listing, mens and womens local Buffalo area road race performances from the year 2004, for all distances, are ranked by PPL. Any road running performance equaling or exceeding 80% PPL is included and ranked by quality of performance. PPL (percantage of standard performance level) is a metric developed by Dr. Howard Grubb which compares individual race performances against a statistically based theoretical world record standard speed over the given distance. The standard speed constants are derived from a performance curve representing a wide range of running distances. This approach enables very accurate predictions of human performance based on the resultant simple parametric model. The constants describing the performance curve employed here were developed and published by Dr. Grubb in 2000. For more details see the original article at: Grubb, H.J. (1998) Models for comparing athletic performances. The Statistician, 47, 509-521 |