What is RPE in running?
RPE, rate of perceived exertion, is a runner's own subjective rating of how hard an effort feels, given as a number. Exercise researcher Gunnar Borg published the two scales still used today, a 6-to-20 category scale and a 0-to-10 category-ratio scale (CR10), in a 1982 paper in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Coaches use RPE to sort easy runs from hard ones: low numbers for recovery and easy running, high numbers for tempo work, intervals and races. The talk test, how much you can say out loud at a given effort, is a practical stand-in for the number itself.
A pace target changes with heat, hills and how tired your legs already are; an RPE number is built to stay put across all of that, since it rates the effort itself rather than the speed producing it. Below is the scale Borg published, what it was built to measure, and a table mapping it to common run types.
The Borg RPE scale mapped to run types
The table below is Runked's own mapping of common run types onto Borg's 0-to-10 CR10 numeric range. The descriptor words in the table (light, moderate, very hard, and so on) come from Cleveland Clinic's Modified Borg CR10 scale reference, an adaptation of Borg's original category-ratio scale; the talk-test column adapts the four-level aerobic/anaerobic criteria Jeff Galloway published on his coaching site; the run-type column is Runked's own illustrative pairing of the two; neither source publishes that pairing directly.
| RPE (Borg CR10) | CR10 descriptor (Cleveland Clinic) | Talk test | Example run type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | No exertion (rest) | Talking freely, no effort | Rest day |
| 1 | Very light | Full conversation, minimal huffing and puffing | Warm-up or cool-down jog |
| 2-3 | Light | Full sentences, easy breathing | Recovery run |
| 4-5 | Moderate (somewhat hard) | Full sentences, more breath needed | Easy or aerobic base run |
| 6-7 | High (vigorous) | Short phrases, then huffing and puffing | Tempo or threshold run |
| 8-9 | Very hard | A few words at a time | Interval or hard hill repeat |
| 10 | Maximum effort | Can't talk | All-out finish |
Sources: Cleveland Clinic, "Rated Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale"; Jeff Galloway's talk test page
Where the RPE scale comes from
Gunnar Borg was a Swedish researcher who worked on perceived exertion from the 1960s through the 1980s. His 1982 paper, "Psychophysical Bases of Perceived Exertion," published both scales still in use: the original 6-to-20 category scale and the 0-to-10 category-ratio (CR10) scale. According to the American College of Sports Medicine's own profile of Borg, the 6-to-20 scale's numbers were designed so that multiplying a rating by 10 gives a rough estimate of heart rate in beats per minute for a young adult, and ACSM first recommended RPE for monitoring exercise intensity in the third edition of its Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription in 1986, a recommendation the organization says has carried through its current edition.
The 0-to-10 CR10 scale drops the heart-rate correspondence and simply asks for a rating from no exertion to maximum effort. Cleveland Clinic's reference lists the CR10 descriptors as: 0 "no exertion (at rest)," 1 "very light," 2-3 "light," 4-5 "moderate (somewhat hard)," 6-7 "high (vigorous)," 8-9 "very hard," and 10 "maximum effort (highest possible)."
How to use RPE when you run
- Rate how the effort feels, separately from pace. An RPE number describes how hard a run feels right now, so the same number can correspond to a slower pace on a hot day or an uphill stretch, and a faster one on a cool, flat one.
- Check it against the talk test. If a run is supposed to sit at RPE 2-5, full sentences should still be comfortable. If a workout calls for RPE 6-7, expect short phrases before needing to catch your breath, per the descriptions above.
- Use it where a pace target breaks down. Trail runs with hills, treadmill inclines and hot-weather runs are all cases where a fixed pace stops describing effort accurately; an RPE target still applies.
- Rate effort while it's happening. A 2018 review by Foster, Porcari and colleagues in the journal Kinesiology summarized studies showing the talk test identifies exercise intensities closely associated with the ventilatory and respiratory compensation thresholds measured in a lab.
Common mistakes with RPE
- Rating a warm-up mile at the RPE of the workout ahead. Adrenaline before a hard session can inflate an early rating that settles once the legs are actually moving.
- Treating RPE as fixed across a run. The same pace can climb from RPE 4 to RPE 7 over a hot, humid run without the runner's fitness changing, because RPE rates that specific moment's effort rather than the pace number itself.
- Skipping the talk test as a check. A number written on a plan is easy to round down. Checking breath against the talk-test column catches a run that has quietly drifted harder than the plan intended.
What to do next
RPE and the talk test are ways of rating effort without a watch. Zone 2 running covers the heart-rate and lactate-based version of the same idea, and beginner running pace and recovery run pace translate the low end of the RPE scale into actual minutes per mile. Training load, fitness and fatigue covers how a week of these efforts adds up over time.
Compare to yourself, not to others. In Runked, the rank starts everyone at Bronze and moves only on your own runs. See how the running rank works.
See how running leagues work for Runked's own effort score, and the FAQ below for how it compares to RPE.
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Download on App StoreFrequently asked questions
What does RPE mean in running?
RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion, a runner's own subjective rating of how hard an effort feels while running. Swedish researcher Gunnar Borg published the two rating scales still in use today, a 6-to-20 category scale and a 0-to-10 category-ratio scale (CR10), in a 1982 paper in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Both scales ask a runner to rate effort itself rather than pace, heart rate or distance.
How does the talk test relate to RPE?
The talk test is a spoken stand-in for an RPE number: how much you can say out loud tracks with how hard an effort feels. Jeff Galloway, the 1972 U.S. Olympian who built the run-walk-run method, published a four-level talk test on his coaching site, ranging from talking freely with minimal huffing and puffing at an aerobic effort down to only a few words at an anaerobic one. A 2018 review by Carl Foster, John Porcari and colleagues, of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, published in the journal Kinesiology, summarized studies showing the talk test identifies exercise intensities closely associated with the ventilatory and respiratory compensation thresholds measured in a lab.
What RPE should an easy run feel like?
On Borg's 0-to-10 CR10 scale, Cleveland Clinic lists 2 to 3 as "light" and 4 to 5 as "moderate (somewhat hard)," the band the recovery and easy run rows in the table above use: breathing is up but full sentences are still comfortable. Tempo and threshold work moves into the 6-to-7 "high (vigorous)" band, and hard intervals or a race finish push into 8 and above.
Does Runked track RPE?
Runked does not ask for an RPE entry. Its weekly leagues score effort as training load adjusted for personal fitness, calculated from pace, distance and training history. Runked PRO's personalized training plans use that same calculated effort data to build weekly targets.