Rate of Perceived Exertion

What is it?

The theory is pretty simple. Exertion is scaled from 1-10. One is resting, five is gentle ambling down a country lane, 7-8 and you’re chewing the handlebars a bit whilst 10 is so mind explodingly hard that you can’t even think about what it means to chew the handlebars.

Generally, you’d ride intervals of 10-20 minutes around 7/10, 3-5 minute intervals about 8/10, minute intervals 9/10 and anything measured in seconds at 10/10.

Pros: 

• It’s pretty cost effective! This method is free.
• Takes very little research, thought or technological know-how
• Un-limiting. Methods that are more scientific can become limiting in that you might find yourself aiming for a certain heart rate or power, and not exceeding it when perhaps you could
• Subjective. You have good days, and bad days. Sometimes when work has been hard or you’ve had no sleep you might not be able to hit a data point, but you can hit your 10/10 that day – and some training is (usually) better than none

Cons: 

• Subjective – will be influenced by your mood. That’s fine on some occassions (eg above) but you can’t slip into a habit of letting your 10/10 drift to a 6/10 too regularly
• This method tracks and informs training – but not improvement. You’ll need to measure yourself over a set course or distance to see if you’re improving

Talk Test

The alternative to RPE is the ‘talk test’ – but it’s similar. At 10/10 or 9/10 you won’t be able to talk, 8/10 you can perhaps say the odd word, 7/10 you can talk in broken sentences. This is a tiny bit less subjective than RPE but similar in every other way.

Power Meter

The power meter (more info here) is the big gun in tracking cycling efforts. Unlike all the other methods, which assess the effort your body is putting out to achieve a given speed, a power meter tells you how much force you’re actually generating for that effort.

Power meters come in various forms. They all give readings in ‘watts’ but those watts can be measured from the pedal, crank or rear wheel hub. Prices start at around £500 for a crank arm that will measure power on one leg and use an algorithm (double it) to get overall power.

Zones are established in the same way as described when training with heart rate – but the names are slightly different as your ‘threshold’ becomes ‘functional threshold power’ – there’s more info here. 

Pros: 

• Measures training effort – accurately and immediately. As soon as you increase effort on the pedals, power will go up (and vice versa)
• Your body might struggle as weather conditions change or you fatigue, but power is not influenced by that. The number just tells you what you’re achieving regardless if your heart rate is through the roof and you feel like you’re dying
• Used in conjunction with heart rate you can learn more about your body – when you’re fatigued, on great form, or getting ill
• Power meters in both pedals or both cranks show your left/right balance at various intensities so you can work on your weaker side
• You can see how environmental factors – eg wind – affect speed. A tool that shows your effort just tells you you’re going slower when you seem to be working harder, a power meter confirms you that you’re producing more power even though you’re going slower – handy in a time trial where you might otherwise ‘give up’ only to find out later everyone else also went slower
• You get lots of other metrics – like TSS (training stress score) to show you how much you’ve stressed your body after a session and therefore determine length of recovery required

Cons:

• Prices go over £1k, though cheaper alternatives are always coming onto the scene
• Most require a change to your bike. Pedals are quite transferable, but cranks can’t be easily swapped between bikes and you might want racing and training wheels – it’s a shame to train with data and not have it when racing and vice versa
• There’s A LOT to learn. It’s not rocket science, but there’s no point having a power meter if you aren’t going to take some time to read up to understand how it works

Any of the methods above can help you reach your goals when used correctly. There’s a tendency in the modern world to proclaim ‘power is the only way!’ but those making such statements forget that our heroes of the past got on better than most of us using RPE and determination.

Whatever you opt to use, remember that your training is only as good as your plan. Check out this guide on how to draw up your own schedule for some useful advice from a qualified cycling coach. 

You might also like… 

Everything You Need to Know About Training With a Heart Rate Monitor

Powermeters: Everything You Need to Know

Great One Hour Sessions for Sportive Riders