Hi Betta-

I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond to your post until now. I've had a hard week at work, and I just don't think it's getting better in the rat race.

Anyway, for the easy one, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is a term used by fitness professionals to describe how you're feeling as you're working out. It's a way to subjectively quantify the intensity at which you are working out. RPE is a scale, usually from 1- 10, with one being easiest, 5 being hard, but can maintain the intensity of exercise, and 10 being hardest. Sometimes scales are 1- 20 too, but I've mostly seen 1- 10. So, for a test like the one I described, I'd ask for about an 8 on the scale. For me, I'd define 8 as vigorous exercise, difficult to maintain the intensity, very sore leg muscles. Once you're feeling that level of exertion, I'd ask you to look at your heart rate monitor and then maintain that number on your heart rate monitor for the 20 minutes, then the second 20 minutes, I'd have you aim for that number right away and repeat the test. From there, you have your numbers for your anaerobic threshold, and you can calculate out the rest of your numbers from that one number for the rest of your heart rates. If you need some more clarification on this, send me a PM so we can hook up.

Ok, so leading into the second part of your question. You said that you'd work out at such a high intensity that you couldn't maintain your workout. Well then, you are working beyond your anaerobic threshold. In fact, you are working WAY beyond your anaerobic threshold. What you want is the highest intensity you can possibly maintain without having to slow down. If you are slowing down, you are over the desired intensity. So if you were working with me, what I would do would be to immediately come up to you and modify your workout as quickly as possible to get you to the desired intensity. It is a good idea to get someone to work with you so that you don't overdo it or underdo it either.

So this leads to the question, what do you do with the numbers once you've gotten what you think is your anaerobic threshold? Well, typically, at that intensity, anaerobic threshold for the fit individual is ABOUT 85%. If someone is more deconditioned, they could hit anaerobic threshold as soon as 70% max heart rate. But as the unfit individual gets more conditioned, they will find that they are able to work out at a higher heart rate, and their anaerobic threshold increases. And as individuals working on getting fitter, we want to train our bodies to increase our anaerobic threshold. Someone like Lance Armstrong may do his time trials at 85- 90& heart rate max, but he spends days, months, and years working to push his anaerobic threshold closer to his maximum heart rate. I get a lot of people that tell me they worked out at 85- 90% max heart rate for the whole class, or for my entire session, and I just have to wave them away. Because truly, if they were at 85- 90% max heart rate for the ENTIRE class, they would have had heart attacks for real. Most likely, they were anywhere between 75- 85%, and sometimes might have peeked a little close to 90% for a few seconds every now and then. The truth is, we are not athletes. or not professional athletes. We don't spend 3 hours in the morning, then go off and do more time for 4- 5 hours in the later day every day on a bike. Professionals do. And that's why they're professional and we're recreational. I don't ever let anyone I work with forget that. And I am always more than happy to charge them for me to come out and train them every day for 8 hours a day. I'd also give them about a week before they'd break too.

Be realistic when you do your test. And be honest with yourself, and don't push yourself beyond what I would call an 8 on the scale. Because you will bonk just how you described when you posted your last reply, and you'll never get your numbers, which means you won't be able to train properly. If you're working at the wrong numbers all the time, you'll never see the improvement you want to see.

Good luck with your training.

Koffee