In a world obsessed with watts, heart rate and data dashboards, the most powerful training tool you own doesn’t sit on your handlebars or wrist; it’s your ability to feel how hard you’re really working. This piece shows why elite riders are quietly coming back to RPE and how training by feel can make you faster, more consistent and less dependent on chasing numbers.
Feel Is Real
By Joe Beer
Meet Mr Borg — and Why “Feel” Still Matters
Long before smart watches and power graphs, Swedish researcher Gunnar Borg gave athletes a simple yet powerful tool: the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE).
Originally, Borg’s scale ran from 6 to 20, where 6 felt like an easy walking pace and 20 represented an all-out maximal effort. Long before power meters or heart rate monitors, it gave athletes a shared language for how hard something feels.
Fast-forward to the modern era where data-driven athletes have more training metrics than ever before and you might be asking: Why talk about RPE now? Isn’t that a bit old school? Maybe not.
The Modern Professional
There’s a growing trend in elite cycling where professionals and coaches use multiple FTP values to fine-tune training zones — indoors, outdoors and even adjusted for heat, altitude or recovery status.
If the pros adapt their numbers day to day, should we be doing the same?
That’s where RPE comes in. Training by feel allows you to adapt to how your body is performing — not just what your power meter or heart-rate monitor says. It’s the same philosophy that underpins how we design race wear at Nopinz — performance first, always.
We’ve all been there: chasing power numbers that just aren’t happening. The legs feel heavy, heart rate is high or conditions are stacked against you. Instead of scrapping the session, use your internal power meter — RPE — to keep the effort right.
Chances are, if you go by feel, your body will still land in the correct training zone for the desired effect.
Why RPE Can Beat Chasing Numbers
Data is brilliant — until it isn’t.
Power, heart rate and pace are useful metrics, but they all assume you’re the same athlete every day. Life often proves otherwise.
Sleep, stress, temperature, recovery, even a strong coffee can all shift your physiology. When you rely only on numbers, you risk ignoring what your body is telling you.
Training by RPE refocuses the session on purpose:
- Easy days stay truly easy, protecting recovery
- Hard sessions hit the right intensity without panic if numbers wobble
- You learn pacing, arguably the most important performance skill there is
When training indoors or layering winter miles, consistency matters more than peak numbers. Eliminating distraction — from kit, fit or movement — lets you focus on effort, not adjustment.
The Simple 1–10 RPE Scale
Most athletes now use a simpler 1–10 RPE scale, making it easier to apply in training:
- 1–2 — Very easy (gentle spin or recovery pace)
- 3–4 — Easy (conversation pace, relaxed breathing)
- 5–6 — Steady (“comfortably hard”, focused but controlled)
- 7–8 — Hard (breathing heavy, challenging but sustainable)
- 9–10 — Very hard (full effort, race or test level)
Think of RPE as your training gearbox. You don’t need to stare at a screen to know when to shift — you just need to listen.
On easy days, you should be able to chat freely. On hard days, you’re breathing hard, concentrating, but still in control.
How to Blend RPE with Your Metrics
RPE isn’t about ditching tech — it’s about using it intelligently.
RPE + Heart Rate: Heart rate often drifts upward with heat or fatigue. If you’re holding a steady RPE 5–6 but HR creeps higher, don’t stress. That’s cardiac drift. Stick to the feel of the effort.
RPE + Power or Pace: Terrain, wind or group dynamics can disrupt fixed targets. Use RPE like gears — choose the feel that matches the session goal and don’t obsess if watts or speed fluctuate.
Five Practical Ways to Use RPE This Winter
- Find Your “Feel Anchors”: Do a short ramp test indoors or on a calm road, increasing intensity every 2–3 minutes. Notice what RPE 3, 6 and 8 feel like. Compare this with FTP or HR data.
- Cruise, Don’t Prove: On endurance days, cap effort at RPE 3–4 and let numbers float. You’re training your engine, not your ego.
- Do Quality by Feel: When wind or terrain make pacing tricky, aim for RPE 6–7 for tempo or RPE 8 for threshold efforts.
- Learn to Listen: Feeling unusually heavy, sore or stressed? Drop the intensity. Not every day is a race.
- Build Consistency: Winter is about layering aerobic work and resilience. Using RPE keeps sessions productive without chasing peak-season numbers — exactly the mindset behind our training essentials.
The Takeaway
Technology is useful — but sometimes your body is smarter.
RPE puts feel back at the centre of training, helping you balance load, recovery and consistency across changing conditions.
When spring arrives, you won’t just be fitter — you’ll understand yourself better as an athlete.
Because the best effort meter you’ll ever own isn’t a power meter or smart watch. It’s built in. You just need to tune in and listen.
