HEY! I wanted to follow up about this after getting some clarification from the team.
While both RPE and Intensity are graded on a scale of 1-10, it’s important to realize that they’re different (i.e. there’s not parity between them).During the workout, RPE levels from this scale should be used to guide your effort level for any particular interval.
When estimating TSS, we use a different scale.
This scale describes the Intensity of the entire workout. In other words, how difficult did the workout feel overall. For this, you should use the descriptions provided in the TSS estimator.
The RPE levels from the workout description aren’t meant to be copied over directly to the TSS estimator. In the case of Pettit, it’s a relatively short endurance ride. Even though the RPE target for the workout was 6, the overall intensity of the ride should feel more like a 2 or 3.Using a 2 or 3 as the Intensity value in the TSS estimator will result in a much closer result to what is intended.I know this can be confusing!
I’ve passed this along to the team to see if it’s something we can add more clarification surrounding this topic. Cheers!