How to measure your running intensity

Never before has there been more realtime data available to runners to help them monitor the quality of their workouts and improve performance. Smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 6 or the Suunto 7 can measure distance, pace, cadence, elevation, VO2 and heart rate, which can help runners monitor their effort.

However, establishing and maintaining ideal workout intensities for the most effective and safe workouts can be challenging for runners of all abilities.

Despite all the incredible running gadgets available today, two of the easiest ways to measure your running intensity and effort have been around for decades, and neither require any tech.

Next time you head out for a run, leave your heart rate monitor or smartwatch at home and give one of these tried and tested methods a go.

Perceived Rate of Exertion

The Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a way of measuring your physical activity intensity level. Perceived exertion is how hard you feel like your body is working. It is based on the physical sensations a runner experiences during a training session, including increased heart rate, increased respiration or breathing rate, increased sweating, and muscle fatigue.

Developed by Swedish physiologist Gunnar Borg, this method involves assigning a number from 6 to 20 to the degree of effort you’re expending. While it’s a subjective measure, it can provide a fairly good estimate of your actual heart rate during physical activity.

As you run you can rate your perceived exertion using several anchors. These include a rating of 6 perceiving “no exertion at all” to 20 perceiving a “maximal exertion” of effort. Experts generally agree that perceived exertion ratings between 12 to 14 on the Borg Scale suggests that physical activity is being performed at a moderate level of intensity.

A simplified version of Borg’s scale ranges from 0 to 10, with 0 being no effort at all and 10 being an effort too difficult to maintain for more than a few seconds. Rarely do runners need to top out at 10. An easy run might rate around a 3 or a 4, and a hard all-out 1-minute effort may rank at a 9.

Talk Test 

The Talk Test is one of the easiest ways to monitor your running intensity.  All you really need is the ability to talk and breathe. The Talk Test was developed to be an informal, subjective method of estimating appropriate cardiorespiratory exercise intensity. The method involves maintaining an intensity of exercise at which conversation is comfortable. To help increase cardiorespiratory endurance, runners should aim for an intensity at which they can just barely respond in conversation.

As a rule of thumb:

• If you can talk and sing without puffing at all, you’re exercising at a low level.
• If you can comfortably talk, but not sing, you’re doing moderate intensity activity.
• If you can’t say more than a few words without gasping for breath, you’re exercising at a vigorous intensity.