Are you intense enough? - Page 2

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Wednesday, 21 April 2010 00:00

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Starting at the beginning

Let’s start with the old-fashioned methods of measuring intensity. Speed is easily assessed by knowing the distance of your route and dividing that by the time spent exercising. Distance on land can be measured with a cycle speedo or by using a pre-set loop such as a running or cycle track. Distance in the water might need a GPS system or a friendly boat-driver to measure your route. Keeping track of your time (and therefore speed) for set routes is a very useful way of assessing progress throughout a training programme.

The limitation for speed as a measure of intensity is that unless you are exercising flat-out, you can’t assess the amount of effort that was required to create the speed. The majority of your training is sub-maximal, so it is also helpful to know how hard your body is working. For example, last month you did a hard 10km run in a time of 40 minutes. This month you ran 30 seconds faster. Can you say that you have actually become fitter? Your intensity was higher this time, but your effort might also have been more.

The next step

Enter the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) – whether they knew it or not, this was the method that all athletes used to assess their effort prior to the invention of heart rate monitors. The art of ‘feeling’ your intensity forms the basis of pace-making and helps you to understand your body’s responses to exercise no matter how many electrical gadgets you use! The table shown above uses a scale of 6-20, which is thought to roughly follow your heart rate (multiplied by 10). There is also a 1-10 scale in use. If both times that you ran the 10km, your average RPE was around 16, you can probably say that you have become fitter from one month to the next. Another use for RPE is to check if you are having an off-day or are possibly overtraining. If you are normally able to do a set of 10 x 400m track reps in 70 seconds each at an average RPE of 18 and one particular evening you are doing 71-72 second reps with an average RPE of 19, then it might be time for a rest.