Age ranking in Sports App

mbreum

I have for several years been a happy user of a TomTom running watch

One of the best facilities is actually one TomTom (as far as I have googled), doesn't tell much about

After uploading a run to the the mysports app you get the message

"This pace ranks you in the top x% of men your age"

It is fun competing against people my own age, but I have a couple of questions to this ranking:

1)
Does the ranking come from some scientific material outside of the accumulated TomTom user database or should it be read as

This pace ranks you in the top x% of men your age, who have tracked their run using a TomTom watch?

The difference being, men using a sports watch to track their runs, are probably more serious about running and might have a better pace than the general public.

2)
And another question about the ranking:

Is the ranking dependent of the length of the run? If my run has been 7 miles, should the ranking be read as

This pace ranks you in the top x% of men your age, who have been specifically running a 7 miles run.

Hope for an answer and perhaps a link to a page, where this ranking is discussed

tfarabaugh

There is no scientific basis at all for the rankings and is based on TomTom users only. It is fairly meaningless as it does not take into account training load, fitness, distance, terrain run on or anything else. Enjoy it is you find it useful but bear in mind it has no relevance to reality.

FastFreddie

@tfarabaugh I am a bit puzzled by your phrase "There is scientific basis at all for the rankings and is based on TomTom users only.".

Do you mean:

a) it is based on a general database containing data on all people of your age and gender?

OR

b) it is based on all TomTom users of your age and gender?

I believe elsewhere in this forum you explained it was a), but this leaves me puzzled?!

Thanks for any clarification!

tfarabaugh

FastFreddie wrote: »

@tfarabaugh I am a bit puzzled by your phrase "There is scientific basis at all for the rankings and is based on TomTom users only.".

Do you mean:

a) it is based on a general database containing data on all people of your age and gender?

OR

b) it is based on all TomTom users of your age and gender?

I believe elsewhere in this forum you explained it was a), but this leaves me puzzled?!

Thanks for any clarification!

I meant there is no scientific basis for it. It is a meaningless statistic.

FastFreddie

Thank you.
But although meaningless, is it based on the data of a general population or just the data of TT runners?

tfarabaugh

FastFreddie wrote: »

Thank you.
But although meaningless, is it based on the data of a general population or just the data of TT runners?

That is not clear, but at best it would be just TT users which was a limited sized sample as they never made any significant inroads into the market. More likely they just picked numbers that seemed reasonable.

FastFreddie

tfarabaugh wrote: »

FastFreddie wrote: »

Thank you.
But although meaningless, is it based on the data of a general population or just the data of TT runners?

That is not clear, but at best it would be just TT users which was a limited sized sample as they never made any significant inroads into the market. More likely they just picked numbers that seemed reasonable.

Exactly, I can’t find anywhere just what data they they use. My guess would be they just build upon previously established data and add the TTrunners to it.... perhaps someone else reading this might know more? Until then, we have no clue as to exactly what these %s of our age are, that we are competing with!!

@tfarabaugh : Thanks for your explanation!