Marathon

Rate of Perceived Exertion: Here’s Why RPE Is Your Most Important Running Metric

Published on February 23, 2021 By Sarah Jane Parker

Have you heard of the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) chart but not sure how it’s used or whether it is useful for your running workouts? We explain what RPE is and how to use it for creating workout routines.

Note from Thomas, founder of MarathonHandbook.com

The topic of RPE, or Rate of Perceived Exertion, has a special place in my heart – it’s one I think every runner can benefit from being familar with.

Grading the intensity of your runs on a 1-10 scale gives you a universal language that you can use for measuring your training or progress, without having to get deep into data or compensate for variables like weather, tiredness, variance in your route, your running shoes . . . the list goes on!

No matter how good your GPS device is, it can’t tell you how you’re feeling – what your level of motivation, or willpower, or fatigue is, on any given day. RPE does.

It also stops you from being too prescriptive in the pace you’re running; some days will be better or worse than others, and constantly trying to hit the same time or speed is often counterproductive.

Using RPE as your guide helps you detach the effort of your workout from the outcome – rather than getting wrapped up in your 10k time or beating a particular Strava segment, RPE has a focus on the exercise rather than the result.

So enjoy this article written by the awesome Sarah from The Fit Cookie!

If you’ve been running or involved in fitness for a while, you’re probably used to running with a GPS watch or use a heart rate monitor to keep track of your pace and heart rate.

While using a tracker during your run is helpful, it’s also a great idea to do break away from technology during workouts sometimes. Tracking devices aren’t the only tool for measuring workout intensity!

In this post, we’ll show you how to use another method of measuring workout intensity (rate of perceived exertion or RPE) and how you can use it for running and workouts.

What is Rate of Perceived Exertion (What Is RPE)?

Rate of Perceived Exertion (often shortened to RPE) is a simple tool that can help you tune into your body more and still reach your fitness and running goals.

At its simplest, RPE is a scale of 1 to 10, measuring the intensity of your effort – 1 being extremely light activity like a slow stroll, 10 being an all-out sprint which you can only maintain for a few seconds.

(There are a variety of scales and ways to measure RPE, which we’ll get into – but generally these days a scale of 1-10 is regarded as the simplest and also the most widely used.)

Depending on which scale you use, you can even use it to estimate your heart rate during exercise without the need for a heart rate monitor.

Here’s our RPE chart, feel free to grab it, print it, pin it, refer to it wherever you need to:

rate of perceived exertion — Rate of Perceived Exertion Chart, showing the widely used 1-10 Rate of Perceived Exertion scale

The Benefits of Using RPE

Using RPE is a great way to keep tabs on the intensity of your workouts and stay in tune with your body without relying on technology or tracking your metrics too closely.

Perhaps the most compelling argument for adopting RPE is recognizing that no two runs are identical: a myriad of factors affect the amount of effort required for a workout. These can include:

Weather (especially wind and temperature),

The terrain (a 9 minute mile on trails takes more effort than the same distance on road),

The Running Shoes (springy vs minimal support)

Level of tiredness (more tired = harder effort),

Whether you’ve eaten recently (fuel vs running on empty),

Willpower / motivation (recent studies have shown this can significantly affect your performance).

When you begin to consider all the varying factors, it makes less and less sense to compare your performance based purely on speed, distance, or time.

Rate of Perceived Exertion: Here's Why RPE Is Your Most Important Running Metric 1

For example: if you are scheduled for a 4 mile moderate run, and you had a stressful week and lack of sleep, your moderate-intensity run might be at a slower pace than during a previous week where you’re feeling better.

Your intensity level feels the same, but your pace might be slower, which is perfectly okay! If your body is feeling run down and in need of rest, it is important to listen to your body.

That’s why RPE is such a powerful tool: it prioritizes how you feel, your effort, and doing the workout over the result.

Running based on RPE is an excellent tool for beginner and experienced runners alike, although beginners should spend some time familiarizing themselves with the scale and practicing their runs at different efforts in order to get used to the feel of RPE.

Using RPE is also great for tuning in and listening to your body better. Using RPE to set your workout intensity can be friendlier to your body instead of adhering to specified heart rate zones or paces.

Your workouts should be flexible to your body’s needs. During your run, you can stick to your desired RPE intensity instead of pushing for certain times or paces.

RPE vs. HRZ Training (the differences between RPE and HRZ)

Rate of Perceived Exertion: Here's Why RPE Is Your Most Important Running Metric 2

RPE and HRZ (Heart Rate Zone) training both take the approach of defining your workout based on effort; while RPE relies on you gauging your effort level, HRZ training is based on monitoring your heart rate as you run with a GPS watch and keeping your pulse within a certain range, which matches the intended intensity of your workout.

Here are the differences between HRZ training and RPE:

1. RPE Is Subjective

Running by rate of perceived exertion includes a certain amount of estimation, which will vary from runner to runner. Not only that, but some runners have a higher pain tolerance and may underestimate how hard they’re pushing.

Using RPE also needs a bit of awareness of the RPE scale to ensure you’re truly hitting the right effort level.

HRZ training doesn’t have this subjectivity; once you’ve set up your zones, you just let your pulse guide you.

2. HRZ Training requires some calibration

Everyone’s heart rate zones are different; genetics, age, aerobic health, and athletic history all play a part. Before you can reliably be guided by your HRZs, you need to ensure the device you are using has properly defined your personal zones.

3. HRZ Requires a Gadget

Training to heart rate zones requires a GPS watch with a HR monitor, simple as.

One of the benefits of running by RPE is that you don’t even need to use a GPS watch (although I still recommend running with one in order to log your actual performance); but you don’t need to rely on the output of a device (which can often be a bit wonky, especially ones with wrist-based HR monitors).

4. HRZ Doesn’t Recognise Cardiac Drift

Cardiac drift is a phenomenon in which your heart rate gradually increases during exercise, even when the intensity remains constant. The heart rate tends to drift upwards over time, thought to be due to increasing core temperature and losing body water.

Cardiac drift tends kick in after 25-30 minutes of exercise, and is a slow builder – so it won’t necessarily affect your shorter runs. But as a runner gets into marathon training and ultramarathons, cardiac drift affects the reliability of HRZ training – as your heart rate drifts upwards, your GPS device might advise you to slow down in order to stay in the perscribed zone.

5. Your Heart Rate Is Affected By External Factors Too

Did you know that your heart rate is elevated by lack of sleep, stress, caffeine, warm temperatures, and dehydration?

In that way, HR is similar to RPE – factors that wear you out will make your running tougher.

Your HR can also be affected by medication.

Rate of Perceived Exertion scales are also excellent tools for people using beta-blocker medications. Certain beta-blockers reduce the heart rate response to exercise, so rather than relying on measuring heart rate, people on certain beta blockers are encouraged to measure their exercise with an RPE scale.

Types of RPE scales

There are 2 standardized RPE scales: the classic 15-point Borg RPE scale (6-20 scale) and the revised Borg scale (or Category Ratio Scale, 1-10 scale).

We favor the 1-10 scale, but first lets discuss the original RPE scale : the Borg RPE scale.

The original Borg 15-point scale is a bit more difficult to use than the classic ratio 0-10 scale. The original Borg scale starts at 6, where 6 is no activity or complete rest (like sitting on the couch).

The original Borg RPE scale begins at a 6 since it was designed to correspond with average heart rates.

For example:

Borg score 6 corresponds to a heart rate (HR) of 60 beats per minute (BPM).

Borg score 12 corresponds to a HR of 120 BPM

Borg score 20 corresponds to a HR of 200 BPM

So whatever your RPE number is on the classic Borg scale, add a 0 to the end of that number and you have an estimate of your heart rate during that activity.

Since these are estimates, you can create your own heart rate notes on the RPE chart or scale by measuring your RPE while wearing a heart rate monitor.

The other popular RPE Scale, the classic ratio 1-10 scale, detaches RPE from Heart Rate altogether.

So, why do we favor the 1-10 scale?

Borg RPE Scale vs. Classic Ratio 1-10 RPE Scale

The Borg scale is the original Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale, and was developed to allow athletes to grade their PE from a scale of 6-20. While this scale helps peg effort to heart rate, there are a couple of reasons it’s not so widely used these days:

i) Asking an athlete to grade their effort on a 15-point scale is probably too many data points. While you’re running, how do you discern between running at a 14 or a 15 out of 20?

ii) The 15-point scale is tied to heart rates; as we’ve seen, heart rate zones vary widely from runner to runner depending on a multitude of factors, and we’re often drawn to RPE in order to not be reliant on HR data.

For these reasons, many coaches and runners now use a modified RPE scale of 1-10 over the Borg scale.

It’s much easier to ask someone “on a scale of 1 to 10, how hard are you pushing right now?“.

Less data points and a more intuitive range (1 to 10, not 6 to 20) make it an easier system for athletes to become conversant in.

How to use a Rate of Perceived Exertion chart

We created an RPE chart you can use that combines the Borg 15-point scale, the category ratio scale, and examples of activities for

Have you heard of the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) chart but not sure how it's used or whether it is useful for your running workouts? We explain what RPE is and how to use it for creating workout routines. | MarathonHandbook.com #running #fitness

**Activity examples on our chart were inspired by Healthline, Trainer Road, and Runner’s World.

The activity examples in this chart are just estimates and examples and may not be reflective of every person’s training or activities with respect to their RPE. Especially depending on a person’s level of conditioning (which we explain a bit further down in the post).

Using RPE for running and fitness and setting RPE targets

When creating your workout or training plans using the rate of perceived exertion, you’ll need to establish a few things:

Your fitness level: beginning exercisers will want to start at lower RPEs during workouts than conditioned exercisers. Stick with lower RPE workouts at first as you build your endurance/cardiovascular base.

Your goals: if you are building endurance for long-distance runs, more of your workouts will be spent in the lower RPE ranges (easier endurance runs). If you’re training for speed or short-distance sprinting, you’ll likely have a few more high RPE sessions in your schedule.

Good running plans already have RPE built into them alongside paces/times that are designed for the runner and based on their recent running times.

For example, long runs are should feel pretty easy on the RPE scale, tempo runs should feel moderate to hard, sprints should feel very hard, etc. So if a runner doesn’t want to worry about trying to track their pace, they can still stick to an effective running plan by paying attention to their RPE.

Here is an example of a weekly routine based on RPE:

Sunday: rest day or yoga, RPE 0-2

Monday: 4 mile tempo run, RPE 6

Tuesday: cross training/strength training, RPE 4-5

Wednesday: 5 mile easy run, RPE 4, last mile strides, RPE 9

Thursday: cross training/strength training, RPE 4-5

Friday: yoga, RPE 3

Saturday: 10 mile easy long run, RPE 3-4

How To Use RPE For Marathon Training

We’re often asked how to incorporate Rate of Perceived Exertion into a half marathon training plan or a marathon training plan , here is how to approach each workout:

Regular training runs should be done at 4-5 RPE

Long runs should be done at 2-3 RPE

Any speed work (like interval training) should be done at 8-10 RPE (fast intervals), then 1-2 RPE (recovery)

Cross-training activities will vary depending on their nature: make sure you don’t do any high RPE activities following a high RPE running workout. Allow for peaks and troughs, and listen to your body.

Drawbacks to RPE

There aren’t that many drawbacks to using RPE for workouts and they are great for most people to help them gauge the intensity of their own workouts without monitoring equipment.

However, there are a few things to consider when using an RPE scale and when using RPE might not be effective:

Very deconditioned and sedentary people may not be able to use an RPE chart very well initially since even very light activity can feel difficult. Once they begin to improve their exercise tolerance over time, they can use an RPE chart more effectively.

RPE is subjective, so it can be swayed by mood, perceptions about exercise, etc. In general, men tend to underestimate their exertion and women tend to overestimate their exertion.

Sometimes conditioned or fit people underestimate their perceived exertion if they are focusing on the workload of the muscles rather than on cardiovascular effort.

Take Your Running Further With Our Resources...

Here’s Why You Should Run a Tune-up Race During Race Training + How-To Guide

Published on February 16, 2021 By Thomas Watson

A practice race, or tune-up race, is essentially a dress rehearsal for your race – whether that’s a 10k, half marathon, marathon or ultra.

A tune-up race is an opportunity to test out all your race day strategies and experience a little of what your actual race day will feel like.

This means your morning routine, your start-line warm-up, as well as your fueling, hydration, and pacing strategies can all be road-tested with a practice race. Before you show up to your practice race, think through each of these elements and how you can test them.

A tune-up race also allows you to experience the nerves, anxiety, and adrenaline of race day, so you’re better prepared when it’s time for the main event.

In this post, we’re going to get into:

Deciding on a suitable tune-up race distance and pace

When you should schedule your tune-up race in relation to your main race

How to approach and plan your tune-up race

Things to bear in mind for your tune-up race

Mapping a tune-up race into your training plan.

Ready?

Let’s jump in!

Does a Tune-up Race Need To Be An Actual Organised Race Event?

No, it doesn’t. A tune-up race can be done on your own, either as a virtual race or as just a solo run.

However, I recommend that runners use an actual race as their tune-up race – so if you’ve got a marathon coming up, try to find a local half marathon as your tune-up race.

Why?

Running an actual race event means you’re mimicking the environment of your target race. Therefore, it helps a lot to have things like:

Looking at race day logistics, getting to the start line, planning your schedule

Experiencing start line nerves

Sticking to your own pace strategy when in an actual race

Planning around fuelling stations, how to carry your own fuel, hydration strategies, etc.

So ideally, a tune-up race should be a real race!

How Long Should My Tune-Up Race Distance Be?

In terms of length, a good benchmark is that your practice race should be 50% of your actual race length, or a little more – but shouldn’t near your longest long run length.

So for running a half marathon, you could complete a 10-15k practice race.

For a full marathon, a half marathon or 30k race would be suitable.

What Pace Should I Run My Tune-Up Race?

It’s typical to run your practice race at your actual target race pace, or close to it.

If you’re aiming for a new PB or ambitious finishing time, running the practice race at your target race pace can serve as a bellwether and give you an indication of how achievable your goals are.

If your goal is simply to finish your race without any specific time-based goal (such as a sub 2-hour half marathon), try and run the practice race at roughly the same pace you’ll run on race day, so you get an idea how it feels.

Normally, in training, your long runs should be done at a slow, comfortable pace – but the practice race gives you the opportunity to see how it feels to run at a higher rate of exertion for a longer distance.

How Long Before My Actual Race Should I Run My Tune-Up Race?

Your practice race should ideally take place in the last few weeks of ramping up your training – a week or two before your longest long run and starting your taper.

So for a half marathon, you’d typically look to do a practice race 3-5 weeks before your event.

For a marathon, you’d want to schedule your practice race 4 -7 weeks before the event.

3 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Tune-up Race

1. Treat the Practice Race as a Dress Rehearsal

A practice race is a great opportunity to do a ‘dress rehearsal’ – this means running your practice race in exactly the same gear as you plan to run your main event.

Same running shoes, shirt, vest, socks . . . sometimes, chafing or discomfort only manifests after running hard for a long time. So use your practice race to uncover any snags with your gear before race day.

Same goes for the use of lubricants such as Bodyglide, or sticking Elastoplast on your nipples – try it out on your practice race first.

2. Mimic Actual Race Day Conditions

If at all possible, you want to pick a practice race that mimics the conditions of your actual race as closely as possible. This means the start time, gradients, the underfoot terrain, as well as the temperature and weather conditions . . . all of these play a part in both your approach and your performance, so being able to mimic race day conditions will go a long way in helping you prepare!

3. Allow Time For Recovery

Finally, if you’re planning to run your practice race at your target race pace, it’s worth highlighting that this is probably the most challenging run in all your training – so allow yourself the necessary time to recover before resuming your training plan.

6 Questions To Ask Yourself After Your Practice Race

Some questions to reflect on after your practice race:-

Did you give yourself enough time to get ready on the morning of the run?
How did you feel at the start line? Were you cold, would it be worth taking an extra layer to stay warm on race day?
How long before the race start did you need the bathroom?
Did the adrenaline at the start line cause you to go out too fast?
How did those energy gels (or other race nutrition) sit in your stomach?
How did your shoes and gear feel towards the end of the race, any issues?

Take Your Running Further With Our Resources...

Half Marathon Resources

How To Train For a Half Marathon (Article)
Best Half Marathon Running Shoes
Half Marathon Training Plans
Free 5-day Half Marathon Bootcamp
The Half Marathon Masterclass

Marathon Training Resources

How To Train For a Marathon
Best Marathon Running Shoes
Marathon Training Plans
Free Marathon Meal Plans
Free 5-day Marathon Training Bootcamp
The Marathon Training Masterclass

Ultramarathon Training Resources

How To Train For an Ultramarathon
Best GPS Watches for Ultrarunners
Ultramarathon Training Plans
Free 5-day Ultra Runner’s Bootcamp
The Ultra Runner’s Playbook

5 Valuable Life Lessons You Learn From Marathon Running

Published on January 27, 2021 By Thomas Watson

Training for a marathon, and then running 26.2 miles, is as much a mental journey as it is a physical one.

It can be gruelling and unrewarding, then euphoric and life-affirming all within the same single run.

In many ways, marathons are a great metaphor for life: it’s long, there’s often discomfort, but perseverance and your mindset make all the difference.

Here are our 5 life lessons you learn from running a marathon!

1. Re-frame Discomfort As Delayed Gratification

Mentally, marathon training is all about delayed gratification.

It’s about suffering a little in training every day and getting used to being uncomfortable, in order to work towards a distant goal – the marathon.

It’s definitely similar to the conditions we find ourselves in these days – when we are often unable to go about our lives as we’d like to.

By being disciplined and working towards a future goal – be it physical, work-related, or otherwise – we can tap into that ‘delayed gratification’ idea and give meaning to our current situation.

2. Focus On The Self, Every Day

A huge part of marathon training is looking after yourself; taking steps to protect your immune system, and prioritizing downtime. During marathon training, a cold or infection can derail all your efforts.

Sometimes, a recovery run is more appropriate than an interval run.

In these uncertain times, it’s particularly important that we all continue to look after ourselves. That includes considerations about diet, exercise, and mental health – all of which affect and can help boost the immune system, and keep us strong in these uncertain times.

3. Structure and Routine Create Balance

The best marathon runners-in-training use a structured marathon training plan, and stick to it.

They adopt the plan in their daily routine and show up every day. Sticking to this structure gives them a roadmap throughout their training, and means their lives are more balanced than someone just winging it.

This concept applies well to life in a time of crisis; when our lives have been upended, following a set daily routine can give our lives structure, calm us, and keep us focused on what’s truly important!

4. Know When To Rest

An important part of marathon training is recognizing when you’ve been pushing yourself too hard, and when you need to take an unscheduled pause for some RnR.

In other words, it’s paramount that we all know our physical limits.

And while it’s important to maintain good exercise habits, pushing too hard can compromise our immune system, or leave us weakened and demoralized.

Maintaining balance is key.

Related articles:

How To Rest Like An Elite Athlete

The Key Brain Chemical For Run Recovery

5. Community = Strength

It’s been shown that marathon runners who train with friends or running groups are more likely to follow through on their training schedule, and complete their race.

Other people provide us with all kinds of encouragement and emotional support – something we all need to bear in mind during times of crisis.

While social distancing might change the way we interact, we each have the opportunity to contribute to our friends, family, or neighbors and help each other get through this together!

Your Life Lessons From Marathon Running!

Marathon training and running is a personal experience – everyone takes their own lessons from it!

What have you learned from marathon running?

Share below!