Perceived Exertion

MUSINGS FROM A COACH - 30 JULY '25

If there's one thing I want for the athletes to learn after working with me (besides joy in sport), it's a razor sharp understanding of their "perceived exertion". This refers to how hard an athlete feels they are working during physical activity, based on their own assessment of effort, fatigue, and physical sensations like breathing rate and muscle fatigue. I ask athletes to rate their sessions overall using a scale of 1-10. Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of "1" is just about sleeping, while a "10" is just about puking. Why do I have them do this? 

Training Example:

Let's say I write a track session for an athlete targeting their upper threshold zone. Something faster than a 5K pace, but not all out, or max. Let's use 10 x 400 repeats with 2 minutes of recovery between each. I give them a time to target for the 400 to be used for all of them. And I also give them an RPE of 8 for the targeted effort.

After the first 400, the athlete misses my suggested time by 10 seconds. But, they maintained their RPE of 8 effort and continued the session through completion based on that RPE of 8. Was this a successful session?YES. Why? My suggested time to compete the 400 is meant to elicit a certain effort...an effort of an RPE of 8. Maybe my time was off? Maybe the athlete was carrying fatigue on to the track for that day. Maybe they didn't sleep well, eat well or had stress outside of training. All of these could easily affect their ability to hit that time. But, if they have a great sense of their perceived effort on the track, they will still be able to accomplish the session.

Racing Example:

An athlete and I have a very specific plan for pacing on the bike during the TT portion of the triathlon race. It's all to set us up for maximizing our run. We use the power meter on the bike to pick a range of watts that we want to stick with to help achieve the perfect bike leg.

During the bike leg in the race, the athlete finds the goal watts don't seem like an RPE of "8" that we were targeting, but rather like a "6". The athlete's experience at this distance is high enough and their perceived exertion is accurate enough that they decide to disregard the watts plan and lean into the goal perceived exertion of an 8. Was it the correct decision? It can be, and it could actually lead to a breakout performance that ultimately brings home a win for that athlete. Data is incredibly valuable to help athletes pace, hit training goals and target race efforts. But, arguably, its greatest value is teaching athletes about their perceived exertion. And honing in on accurate perceived exertion is the key for continued successful training sessions, performance gains and even breakthrough races.