How to Use RPE in Your Swim Workouts
Written by Todd Walbert, Triatlon and Swim Coach at Grit Endurance. Learn more about Coach Todd here!
The typical triathlete is extremely connected to external data throughout the training and racing process- Time…Speed…Pace…BPM…RPM…Watts—the amount of data available to us is mind-boggling and almost infinitely variable. For example, I personally track my run distance in kilometers, while tracking pace in minutes per mile. Weird, right?
What happens when you do not have access to externally available metrics? Everyone has heard the phrase “listen to your body” a million times but somehow misses what the body is saying. Enter Relative Perceived Exertion, or RPE. RPE provides a scale with which to judge how hard an athlete is working using only internal cues. Ranging from 1 – 10, the scale encourages an athlete to reflect on their own effort level. You are probably used to your Garmin watch or Training Peaks app prompting you to provide an overall RPE score when you upload each workout. It can also be used more granularly within a workout to ensure you are hitting the prescribed effort levels.
Let’s break down how RPE works in practice:
RELATIVE- indicates that the current state is being measured not against an absolute metric (like pace) but against other efforts by the same athlete at another time or even within another interval within the same workout.
PERCEIVED- defines that the metric is based on the athlete’s own judgement and that the results will be variable and dependent on the conditions during the moment of judgement.
EXERTION- tells the athlete what is being measured.
In summary, if you ask yourself, “How hard do I feel I am working right now?” and put it on a scale of 1-10, you are measuring RPE.
Grit Endurance swim workouts, whether individual for coached athletes or in our group swims, typically rely on an assigned RPE level. This allows each athlete, regardless of experience or fitness level, to experience the same workout. In essence, the workout meets each athlete where they are.
I frequently hear from athletes that they do not know how to judge their RPE in the pool or (especially) in the open water- “it all feels hard.” While there are numerous physiological and technique driven reasons this may be so (like not blowing out the CO2 between breaths) the primary issue is lack of exposure to how swimming should feel. Many swimmers swim too hard all the time; in a way they would not do on a run or bike ride.
So, how should an athlete apply RPE to swim workouts? Here are a few guidelines:
RPE 0-4- Warmup/Cooldown pace- Start each workout swimming as slowly as you can, ensuring that all your air is expelled between breaths. You should never be gasping or breathing hard at the end of a warmup. Use the kick set to slowly build your effort and bring your heart rate up.
RPE 5- “ALL DAY PACE”- Just above your warmup and kick set effort. It should feel like you could swim all day at this effort. You can easily keep your stroke pristine and not have to anticipate your next breath. Some athletes consider this effort level their Ironman pace. This is the pace you use for recovery intervals after higher intensity work.
RPE 6-Longer effort pace- At this level, you can still hold your stroke together, but you may begin holding on to your breath rather than expelling your CO2. Refocus on your rhythmic breathing and keep your kick steady. Half-Ironman pace.
RPE 7- Olympic and Sprint Tri pace/Time trial pace- Think of a seven as your sweet-spot, just below threshold, where everything becomes just a bit harder to maintain. Reset your stroke here by focusing on your catch and pull through. You may need to force your exhales to keep the CO2 from building up. This is the effort to employ for your time trials and OLY tri races.
RPE 8- Threshold/Sprint Tri pace- You will be feeling the burn at this effort level. Keeping your stroke clean becomes a challenge and you may have difficulty sighting due to needing to breathe rather than look ahead. The advice here is to hold on and focus on the moment- not your next breath- it’s only a second and a half away! In workouts, you will rarely do more than 100m at a time at this effort level.
RPE 9-FIRE pace- When you must do fast 25’s at the end of a workout, this is the pace. It represents the maximum effort you can produce without your stroke completely falling apart. Don’t forget to exhale!
RPE10-ALL OUT/Ludicrous speed- Rarely invoked, but always fun, an all-out swim is reserved for special moments during training or possibly the first 20m of a race when you want to get clear of the scrum. You will definitely want to do some recovery swimming afterwards.
The next time you are in the pool or lake and cannot check your watch for the data you crave or want to understand how the next interval should feel, take a minute to assess what your body is telling you and measure it with Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE) using these cues. Taking the time to translate how you feel into actionable data will improve both your execution and enjoyment of the swim.
If you'd like to learn more about applying these principles, contact us about our group swims or our personal coaching!