Training & Racing Metrics
As one of our coached athletes, your workouts are created using power, pace, heart rate (HR), or rate of perceived exertion (RPE), according to your preferences and equipment, and according to the type of workout which each metric works best for.
As a coach athlete, you can get in touch whenever you have questions about metrics for any of your workouts. We are always happy to help you with answers. This is just general information about why we use the metrics we do and what your options are.
Swim Metrics - Pace & RPE
For swimming, we write workouts using pace per 100 metres or yards (according to your pool size) as the metric. We determine your threshold pace at the start of your coaching using a swim test, and you will repeat that test periodically to allow us to update your threshold pace and training zones.
We use 5 training zones for swimming, which are all automatically set in your prescribed workouts using percentages of the threshold pace found in your swim test. When you follow the swim workout on your device, the pace will automatically be shown. If using a printed copy of the swim workout, the paces will be shown in the workout details.
If you are not yet ready to test, or if you prefer not to use pace as the metric, you can use RPE instead.
Zone 1 - Easy
Zone 2 - Steady
Zone 3 - Moderately Hard
Zone 4 - Hard
Zone 5 - Very Hard
RPE is also a useful metric to use in open water swimming and on race day, when the movement of the water and the lack of 'lengths' makes swimming to pace impractical.
Bike Metrics - Power, RPE, & HR
For bike workouts, if you have a power meter when training indoors and outdoors, that will always be the metric that we write workouts to.
Your threshold power and/or heart will be determined using a test at the beginning or training and updated at intervals during training.
If you don't have power, you can use RPE for your interval workouts, whether done indoors or outdoors, and heart rate or RPE for your steady-state aerobic endurance workouts. We can write your workouts to your preferred metrics once we know your training equipment and preference.
We use 5 training zones for cycling. If using power or heart rate, your zones will be automatically calculated in your prescribed workouts for you to follow on your device or preferred training platform.
If you prefer to use RPE, these are the same as the descriptions in the swim metrics column.
RPE is a useful metric to back-up other metrics, especially when not using power. RPE can be a useful metric on race day, for example when race conditions or nutrition products mean that heart rate is elevated, so paying attention and refining your awareness of RPE over time is useful.
Run Metrics - Power, Pace, RPE, & HR
For run workouts, if you use a power meter, we will write your workouts to power.
Otherwise, we most frequently use pace as the metric but may recommend cross-referencing with another metric as pace for a given effort will fluctuate according to factors such as terrain, gradients, and weather conditions.
We will often set aerobic endurance workouts to heart rate, especially during phases of training when you aerobic endurance conditioning is the primary objective.
We determine your thresholds at the beginning of training with a lactate threshold heart rate test, and repeat this test at regular intervals.
Whether using power, pace, heart rate or RPE, we use 5 training zones. Workouts written to power, pace, and heart rate will have training zones based on percentages of your threshold. These will be calculated automatically and can be exported to your device for you to follow. If using RPE, you can follow the workout description.
As with bike training, RPE is a useful metric as a back-up. For some runners, particularly those running on trail or hilly routes, RPE is the most useful metric to use, allowing your pace to change as the route demands do.