Hi everyone, first post here, sorry it is a little bit long
I am a professional squash player, and after a 5-6 week break at the end of the squash season, I started my summer base training 7 days ago. By "break" I mean I went for distance runs 1-2 times a week and lifted 1-2 times a week during that time period...As much of a break as I could force on myself. Also got married and vacationed etc. Lots of drinking and probably the longest break I have had from squash in 6 or 7 years.
Day one of summer training I did a bike workout, on a Keiser spin bike at the gym, and I got really into it. In the past week I have done a lot of reading online and I love the fact that it can be broken down so scientifically and you can track your effort so easily.
Biking is great for me as it is obviously non-impact, I also do a lot of running, lifting, and on court work, so non-impact work is great. Last season I did a lot of swimming (which I am terrible at) and do water-running etc quite often. I think I like biking a lot more to be honest. I have done bike workouts in the past but usually more as serious interval training (30 on 30) type stuff.
SO....day one I did 2x20 min at around 250 watts, wasn't paying too much attention but for some reason I was monitoring it a little bit. Went home and started reading about watts and all the other cycling mumbo-jumbo FTP blah blah blah. It's awesome!
Day 3 of summer training I was back on the bike with a little more of a purpose, but also about a million ideas running through my head about how to use the bike to train so was bit haphazard and all over the place. Put in 2 good 15 minute sets at 300W, one steady and one where I was mixing up the RPM a 4 min 95ish 2 min 80ish.
Day 7 (today). I went into today with a more complete idea of my game plan on the bike. After a 10 min warm-up I did 5 x 5 min L5 (maybe...?) with 3 min L1 (also maybe?) between sets. The 5 min I was holding 325W and the 3 min I was holding around 160W. I was guessing my FTP is somewhere around 285-300 area. I started the first set holding 340W and quickly realized that wasn't happening.
I would say the workout today was an 8 or 8.5 out of 10 in terms of difficulty. After cooling down for 5 min on the bike, I was surprised when I got off the bike that I felt almost totally fine, I was expecting to feel some lactic in my muscles but very little. That said, it was hard to maintain 325W, I found by the 3rd set if I wasn't actively concentrating on keeping my RPM up I would naturally start falling off the pace.
I wasn't wearing a HR monitor, but would be surprised if I reached more than 170-175 at any point today (total guess). When playing squash matches I routinely reach 190 and in a max test I peak at about 196-198. I assume my body is just not able to use enough oxygen to get my HR up that much or that quickly, basically my legs are not biking fit enough to push my lungs. Gotta work on that.
Would love feedback on any/all of this. I am hooked I think, I sort of want to actually get a road-bike and start racing! Maybe in a few years when I am done with squash.
Hope I can be active on this forum.
All the best,
Julian
Here are a few videos of squash for anyone interested in seeing what I am training for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yyh0w1F1rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7hzOXawYGg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoHhXE5vI8
Cliffs Notes:
squash pro. started training again 1 week ago. 3 workouts in and loving it.
Also is there any way to save mid post or cut and paste from these forums? I was supposed to leave about 15 minutes ago but didn't want to lose all the stuff I had typed so just powered through!
I am a professional squash player, and after a 5-6 week break at the end of the squash season, I started my summer base training 7 days ago. By "break" I mean I went for distance runs 1-2 times a week and lifted 1-2 times a week during that time period...As much of a break as I could force on myself. Also got married and vacationed etc. Lots of drinking and probably the longest break I have had from squash in 6 or 7 years.
Day one of summer training I did a bike workout, on a Keiser spin bike at the gym, and I got really into it. In the past week I have done a lot of reading online and I love the fact that it can be broken down so scientifically and you can track your effort so easily.
Biking is great for me as it is obviously non-impact, I also do a lot of running, lifting, and on court work, so non-impact work is great. Last season I did a lot of swimming (which I am terrible at) and do water-running etc quite often. I think I like biking a lot more to be honest. I have done bike workouts in the past but usually more as serious interval training (30 on 30) type stuff.
SO....day one I did 2x20 min at around 250 watts, wasn't paying too much attention but for some reason I was monitoring it a little bit. Went home and started reading about watts and all the other cycling mumbo-jumbo FTP blah blah blah. It's awesome!
Day 3 of summer training I was back on the bike with a little more of a purpose, but also about a million ideas running through my head about how to use the bike to train so was bit haphazard and all over the place. Put in 2 good 15 minute sets at 300W, one steady and one where I was mixing up the RPM a 4 min 95ish 2 min 80ish.
Day 7 (today). I went into today with a more complete idea of my game plan on the bike. After a 10 min warm-up I did 5 x 5 min L5 (maybe...?) with 3 min L1 (also maybe?) between sets. The 5 min I was holding 325W and the 3 min I was holding around 160W. I was guessing my FTP is somewhere around 285-300 area. I started the first set holding 340W and quickly realized that wasn't happening.
I would say the workout today was an 8 or 8.5 out of 10 in terms of difficulty. After cooling down for 5 min on the bike, I was surprised when I got off the bike that I felt almost totally fine, I was expecting to feel some lactic in my muscles but very little. That said, it was hard to maintain 325W, I found by the 3rd set if I wasn't actively concentrating on keeping my RPM up I would naturally start falling off the pace.
I wasn't wearing a HR monitor, but would be surprised if I reached more than 170-175 at any point today (total guess). When playing squash matches I routinely reach 190 and in a max test I peak at about 196-198. I assume my body is just not able to use enough oxygen to get my HR up that much or that quickly, basically my legs are not biking fit enough to push my lungs. Gotta work on that.
Would love feedback on any/all of this. I am hooked I think, I sort of want to actually get a road-bike and start racing! Maybe in a few years when I am done with squash.
Hope I can be active on this forum.
All the best,
Julian
Here are a few videos of squash for anyone interested in seeing what I am training for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yyh0w1F1rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7hzOXawYGg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoHhXE5vI8
Cliffs Notes:
squash pro. started training again 1 week ago. 3 workouts in and loving it.
Also is there any way to save mid post or cut and paste from these forums? I was supposed to leave about 15 minutes ago but didn't want to lose all the stuff I had typed so just powered through!
