The Greatest Training Tool
If I could recommend only ONE training tool as a coach, it wouldn’t be a heart rate monitor, GPS watch, or even a regular watch.
It would be RPE: Rating of Perceived Exertion (or effort). Perceived effort basically means you understand how hard you are working and can rate the level of intensity. Many runners do not understand perceived effort because they rely heavily on data to guide their pace, and because they do not practice running at a variety of effort levels and speeds.
By using perceived effort to guide your training you will learn:
How to measure your effort so you can finish a given distance without needing to stop or walk
How to adjust a generic training plan workout to suit your individual needs
What it feels like to blow past people at the end of a race, because you didn’t start out too fast
How to trust your body and take advantage of those days where you feel awesome, and nail a massive PR (instead of worrying about your pacing when you see really fast splits).
How to trust your body and slow down when you know you’re working too hard (even if you’re hitting splits that generally are manageable).
When designing workouts for my clients I include the intended RPE so they understand how hard it should be, and so they can adjust any assigned paces if necessary. Paces can should be adjusted to suit the effort level, not the other way around.
LEARN BY DOING The Cycle Run
The best way to learn perceived effort is by doing! The Cycle Run is a simple speed workout I designed specifically for my clients to help them learn and practice this concept. It is appropriate for runners of all levels. Anyone can get a great workout with the Cycle Run by dialing in the appropriate level of intensity.
The challenge of The Cycle Run is to demonstrate 3 VERY DISTINCT paces. You will cycle through these 3 different paces for 1 minute at a time, and repeat as many times as desired.
Pace 1
Perceived Effort of 3: “Very Easy”. I recommend that pace 1 would be a WALK!
Pace 2
Perceived Effort of 4-5: “Easy to Moderate.” This would probably be a jog, but not your slowest jog. Nowhere near your max of 10.
Pace 3
Perceived Effort of 7: “Hard” this is still not a maximum all-out pace. (Very few people can run at a maximum all out pace for an entire minute.) The goal is to run at a fast speed that you can maintain for 1 minute without stopping to slow down or rest during that 1 minute. It will not feel comfortable, it should feel HARD. At the end of the 1minute you should be very glad to stop running.
To Summarize: you will WALK for 1minute, JOG for 1minute, and then RUN for 1minute, and then immediately start the cycle again with a 1minute walk. During the 1minute walk you’ll have some time to recover from the “hard” Pace 3 you just did, and prepare for the next 1minute segment at “moderate” Pace 2.
I recommend starting with 4-5 cycles of the Cycle Run, which would be a total of 12-15minutes. Add a warmup and cooldown walk or jog on either end.
NO DATA ALLOWED (until you’re done!)
It is very important that you do not look at your pace during this workout. The purpose is to pay attention to your perception of how hard your are working, and knowing your pace will be a distraction. Put all your focus into measuring your effort appropriately.
If you have a GPS watch, after the workout you can check out the paces you hit. A successful workout is one that shows a distinct difference in paces from 1-2-3. It doesn’t matter if you overall get slower toward the end of the workout, but if you do, all three paces should be getting slower. For example, on the final cycle, your pace 3, effort 7 “hard” might not be as fast as pace 3 in the first cycle. It should however still be significantly faster than pace 2, effort 5 “moderate” in the final cycle.
The Cycle Run is the very first step in learning how to use perceived effort to guide a workout. To become the best runner you can be, it is absolutely paramount to learn this skill.
Pro Tip:
Take a few minutes before the workout to program repeating 1 minute intervals into your watch.
Ideally, you won’t have to look down at your watch during this workout and can fully focus on dialing in the appropriate effort.
Read how: Custom Interval Workouts with Garmin
Do you want to learn how to build this workout into your training schedule? Do you need a knowledgeable coach to help you reach your potential? Contact Nicole or schedule a free phone consultation.