Cori's Epic Post About Zones

Since the original location of this post was in a closed forum for our athletes, I am pasting it here so that the world can appreciate the spicy, sarcastic wisdom wrapped in a warm, fuzzy tortilla of love that is a post by Cori Moore.  Enjoy!

I've had one of my athletes ask me this question... and one of Lora Popolizio's athletes ask ME this question...

"What is RPE?"

Imma try to be nice about this because I KNOW for a fact that most of you have been given a set that has had specific RPE instructions. Which makes me wonder if or how you got some of those workouts done without asking.

RPE = Rate of Perceived Exertion

Always used on a scale of 1-10...1 being next to NO EFFORT and 10 being near death.

So let's line up some lingo that might help.

Aerobic < 4 in RPE
Tempo 4-5
Threshold 6-7
VO2 - 8-9
Anaerobic - death...how you feel at the END of a threshold test or a long VO2 interval.. this is an ALL OUT SPRINT

Aerobic - you should be able to maintain a full out conversation while in this mode. This is a pace you can maintain for hours on end.

Tempo - Steady effort. You'd rather not talk to anyone but you could if you had to. You couldn't hold it for hours but you could definitely hang out in this zone without burning any major matches.

Threshold - this is the max effort you could sustain for one hour, though it's measured in 20-30 minutes tests (95% of threshold). You do NOT want to talk to anyone at all in this zone. Leave me the 'f' alone is what this is. You are focused and you know that it's gonna hurt but it doesn't completely kill you. Time trials are typically performed at threshold.

VO2 - this is the mofo RED ZONE. You CANNOT sustain VO2 for more than 10 minutes (and that's an elite athlete). Most of you are getting 3-4 minute VO2 intervals. If you have been assigned VO2 intervals and you aren't burning from the inside out (lactid acid) or conjuring up mental cuss words for us coaches... then you're not doing it right.

So... aside from making your lives completely miserable... we actually do want to see you succeed. ;) See me being nice there? Sooooo, if you've got gibberish on your TP, please ask. I'd much rather pull a Gibbs from NCIS and pop you on the head for making me repeat myself than you not doing that set and making the gains that I KNOW you're capable of.

(all said with love and complete adoration for all of you)

<3 <3 xoxoxoxoxo <3 <3