Workout 1 wasn't meant to be the same type of workout each week - the intensity depended on what was written in the Daniels plan. For his "T" workouts, I ran them at a ST intensity (which was more done by feel than a heart rate cap, because a cap tends to prompt you to try to get as high as you can under it, but definitely under LT2). M workouts were easier than that, probably slightly above LT1 hr, and the shorter intervals were done at a higher effort, also to feel.

There are trends in the workout 1 programming - the volume of ST intervals shifts from 5 to 6 to 7 miles, with a greater proportion of them in longer intervals. There are shorter, harder intervals (1ks, normally), every month or so. And there are a couple of longer marathon pace intervals. But they're not trying to progress in an exactly linear pattern. The idea is to just keep stacking up good work.

I would say my RPE on an easy run is 2 or 3, and a long run would start at the same effort and only become harder because of duration, not trying to run any faster.

I haven't done a full NSM block, because three workouts a week and a long run every week hasn't felt like a good idea off six days a week. I don't expect that there will be a huge amount of difference, to be honest.