A way to track the effort of your runs
As many runners know, there are countless statistics and ways to measure performance. Whether that’s pace, distance, time, frequency, volume, etc. While all these measures are important and can be tracked with an app or fitness device one thing often forgotten is how you feel. By this, I mean how much effort did that run just take?
The same run on a different day may not feel the exact same as the time before. This could be easier or harder even with the same route. What gives? How we feel day by day is complex and can be influenced by life (stress, work, diet, sleep, etc.). Because of this, it’s important to have a way to measure how you are feeling so that those recovery runs are actually recovery runs rather than pushing through on a day that you’re not having it.
From a training management perspective, we don’t want to always be running at max effort, we need days for recovery or easy run days mixed in with the high effort days. It’s important to have a way to track this. One way being: the RPE scale or the Rating of Perceived Exertion. Below is an example of one specific to running.
RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) Scale for Running
| 1-2 | VERY EASY | WARM UP |
| 3-4 | EASY | EASY RUN |
| 5-6 | MODERATE | TEMPO |
| 7-8 | HARD | SPEED |
| 9 | VERY HARD | SPRINT |
| 10 | HARDEST | 100% |
We would expect a speed or tempo run to be a lot more effortful, say 6-8, than that of a long easy run, a 3-4, even though the latter is usually longer in duration. This is because we are measuring the amount of effort you are giving throughout the run.
Having a consistent way to measure your effort can be a great way to catch overtraining. For example, a couple of weeks of all 7/8 effort even on the recovery days or shorter runs… maybe you need to consider some factors outside of the runs themselves (nutrition, sleep, stress management) that may be affecting how effortful those runs are.
On the other hand, this is also a way to also track improvement over time. For example, that 5k run at a 5:55 pace 2 months ago felt like an 8 and now it’s a 4. Same distance and pace, but now much less effort to complete, that would be a huge improvement.
If you are interested in learning more about the RPE scale for training, want to have your gait analyzed, have a running-related injury, or just have a bunch of questions related to training, I am always happy to help.
Cheers,
Bryan Hague
Physiotherapy Resident, Running Consultant