Rate of perceived exertion
I have a picture of my daughter Kendall when she was about five years old and she is sitting in a field completely engrossed in picking flowers. What is funny about the picture is that she is wearing a baseball uniform and she supposed to be watching for a fly ball because she is an outfielder in a live baseball game, but her focus obviously was not on the game. If we had asked her if she enjoyed the game that day she would have said yes, because she had fun picking flowers, but if we had asked her if her team had won, she would have had no idea, and if a ball had come her way it might just have plunked her on the head.
Be it flower picking or baseball throwing, what it is that makes life joyous for each of us can be completely different. What is joyous, as well as the image of my daughter being engrossed in picking flowers, was my own happy memories engaging my thought as I did my early morning workout.
Often, like my daughter when she was in the game, I would stop and take pictures with my phone of tiny flowers I would encounter instead of trying to run faster, and often I was fascinated by the way dew formed on the petals of a lime green leaf, or on the filmy pattern of a spider web. Though I was out to get a workout, I had to confess to myself that I was equally if not MORE fascinated with the things that came across my path, and the “need for speed” was there, but it was not the focus.
The workouts needed to be different though, they needed to improve and be more effective. I recognized that perhaps that lack of focus was the reason I was not making the progress I wanted to make on my workouts. I had hired an elite runner to help me organize, plan and carry out my workouts. Just thirty minutes earlier I had taken my first look at the workouts.
The day before, I had been told in a lengthy conversation, about how the workouts would not be about how fast or how far I was running but about my rate of perceived exertion or RPE…with zero being no exertion and ten being 100 percent effort. The words used to describe the levels of perceived effort made me smile…and I read them all with interest.
But when I got my workout via email, the RPE’s all blurred together. I felt my rate of perceived exertion was a ten just reading the workout and I had a moment of panic at what I had gotten myself into, but then the personal trainer in me kicked in and I realized that I could do anything I set my mind to do.
So thirty minutes later, I was out on the road, my feet pounding the pavement, my eyes riveted to the phone clock, trying to endure the pace of specific intervals as long as I could, and immediately slowing down when the time was done. I tried to remember if I had explained to the trainer that a three year old on a tricycle could probably ride a bike faster than I ran even when doing an all out sprint. For me, just running instead of walking made my rate of perceived exertion almost a ten.
I got the first interval done and I felt good. I kept on going. Each interval however was supposed to be done at a higher RPE and yet even though the RPEs were increasing because I was putting out more effort, I was going slower and slower, not faster and faster. I wondered if that was a mistake on my part? Maybe earlier I THOUGHT I was doing only a five RPE and it was really a nine? THAT'S IT. =)
I felt sweat pouring down my back and my neck. Unlike the description of a nine RPE however, I did not feel like calling anybody names, but I DID feel like running through the sprinklers in my neighbors yards and I did NOT feel like taking any photos of flowers…nope, those flowers would have to last for another day.
I had been told by the trainer that I could also do the RPE workout using my stationary bike instead of running and I thought “how nice, this can ruin not just my running workouts but my cycling workouts as well”…lol…and went on to think that it might be interesting to see if my RPE’s also increased as my speed decreased in biking as it had in running. It was at this low point in my day that I mentally came up with my own rate of perceived exertion description.
RPE zero Asleep
RPE One putting on workout clothes
RPE two reading workout schedule and drinking coffee
RPE three drinking eight ounces of water before going out the door No workouts should have any RPEs under four, and if you never do the workout that day at least you drank water.
RPE four Walking stopping to take photos of flowers, can bring kids along on scooters or their own trikes
RPE five walking fast, but still reading emails on phone, kids in jogging stroller
RPE six Walking and jogging, not taking photos of flowers and not reading email, listing to Sirius radio, kids refuse to join because I am not fun any more
RPE seven jogging to keep pace with fast songs on the radio and walking some, Hand too sweaty to do screen shots
RPE eight Jogging with no walking, and even running in place at stoplights, phone cover has sweat palm print, music is annoying
RPE nine Plastic baggie needed to cover phone to keep sweat off it, cannot read workout on phone because if I stop to read it I will never continue or finish it. Music is too slow
RPE ten I realized RPE ten looks a lot like Repentant…I AM repentant for gaining weight! I also realized that something that takes the least amount of time, (running just a minute at a RPE ten), can carry with it the biggest benefit. Realizing this, I and made a futile mental attempt to incorporate this revelation into an inspirational mantra for the day. Repent RPEten repent RPEten I said to myself with each running footstep.
I finished my workout, grateful that this first one did not have many tens for me to do, and anyway I never got to a ten in my RPE. But that is ok, there is always tomorrow for me to look forward to, and I have lost three pounds. Hooray! (will I have any friends left when this is done? I hope so)
Is the change of my focus a permanent situation? I doubt it, there will always be kids in the outfield picking flowers in my thinking. But instead of failure, when the ball comes their way, even though they may have been picking flowers, they can gain back their focus, because they are IN the right place and can be ready to catch the ball. Five years old or ten x 5RPE…just depends on what is in MY focus.