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News // Archive: March 2003

  • Clive Asplen - First Brit home in Iron Man NZ.
    Matt Hart
    (13/03/2003)

    Clive Asplen, former Mountain Biker and Rodie from ‘Beautiful Britain’ now lives and trains in New Zeeland and it looks like he’s doing rather well at this triathlon lark! I previously coached Clive and we made a few inroads into Triathlon before he left the country for good. With 61st place in Iron Man New Zeeland and the first British athlete home, it looks like he’s really getting the hang of it. Here’s what he had to say:

    "It’s funny how the mind only remembers the good bits of a race. You hear once again the crowd cheering, the feeling of elation when crossing the finish line, the ecstasy of achieving a goal and the luxurious two weeks of down time after the race. Whilst at the same time you forget the hard bits - the painful bits. Take Ironman for example. If everyone just remembered the hard parts, the sport would not be celebrating 25 years in Kona this year. It would have been lucky to reach 2. It would not be one of the fastest growing sports in the world as it is at the moment with new events springing up every year and nearly always selling out. If only you could remember how much you deeply hate the run and in particular between 20-30km?

    Race Report
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  • Borg Scale gets ‘thumbs up’.
    Matt Hart
    (13/03/2003)

    For the unaware, the Borg Scale has been used in exercise physiology laboratories and by coaches for years to assess an athlete’s level of exertion whilst they’re exercising. The Borg Scale is often referred to as RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) and is entirely subjective. Quite simply, when an athlete is being tested in a laboratory setting, they are asked to pinpoint how hard they feel they are working by giving the examiner a rating from a chart that is presented before them. The original Borg Scale has 21 points of exertion ranging from 0 (at rest) to 21 (maximal). These were adapted later on to produce a 15-point scale called the ‘category scale’, strangely ranging from 6 to 20 and the ‘category-ratio scale’ ranging from 0-10. The later scale has a point beyond 10, which is deemed ‘maximal’, really giving it 11 points (see picture below).

    Performance
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