The podcasts often mention how helpful it is when athletes are diligent about their RPE ratings for workouts. They also mentioned a couple of podcasts ago that it’s very common for athletes to under rate their RPE.
Which got me thinking about my ratings and if they’re accurate.
I often read a book while on the trainer, so this plays a bit into my RPE as well.
The way I’ve treated the 1-5 has been:
- Easy. Recovery, totally easy. Might not even sweat or only lightly.
2 Moderate. I felt like I worked. Got a good sweat going. But compliance didn’t take any effort, I read the whole time. - Hard. Ok. Got some burn going on. Sweating like a fool. I’m not reading, I have to focus on maintaining my targets and keeping them up or they’ll drift downward..but during the recovery windows, I recover relatively quick, like a minute or so at most, and usually start reading again while I spin out the rest of the recovery. And this remains true throughout the workout.
- Very Hard. No reading. 100% focus, max sweat. I’m not even reading in recoveries. I’m focusing on controlling my breath and bringing my heart rate down. By mid way or a little longer, I’m starting to think I really don’t want to do another interval. But after focusing on the recovery, I’m like “ok, ok. I got another one in me”. Big, deep breaths, filling the lungs but feels good when the cadence is right.
- Max effort. Well, it’s just that. Similar to Very Hard except I’m really cursing my existence towards the last set. And I just kind of collapse when done. Might take a few minutes before I can get my legs moving again for the recovery taper to cool down. And I’m sucking in as much air as I possibly can but it ever feels like enough.
So, curious…does that sound about right? Or should I notch them up/down a bit?
