Hi all, apologies in advance for the length of this post!
I come to TrainerRoad not as a cyclist, but as a recreational ice hockey player looking to improve his overall fitness and be more competitive with the other members of my league. After reading a lot of the materials here (and other sites more devoted to ice hockey training), and listening to all of the podcasts on YouTube, I’ve come to appreciate the scientific approach to training espoused here, as well as the clear explanations of the various energy systems and how they are trained, which I think should apply equally across all sports/fitness activities. I feel like there’s a lot of synergy between cycling and ice hockey, being that in order to be successful, one has to be able to maximize the amount of watts placed into the ice over the timeframe of the 1 hour game.
I am a 6’5” 49 yo male (117kg), and have played ice hockey for over 25 years recreationally. I’ve always felt my main limitation has been my conditioning, as I’ve never embarked on a sports-specific training regimen. Given I’m almost 50, I figure it’s now or never, being at the point where I have more games behind me than I do in front.
Here are the details of what I am trying to do: as of right now, I am not conditioned to be effective in the game outside of the first 5-10 minutes, after which I find myself sucking wind, and with legs that have gone to jelly. In order to be effective and safe, one has to be able to maintain balance while skating, going through turns, fending off other players, starting and stopping. If the legs are useless and flooded with lactate, none of those things are possible to do either effectively or safely. I find myself coasting a lot which means I’m not in the play or helping the team.
A typical game breaks down like this: there are three, 15 minute stopped-time periods, lasting roughly 25 minutes each (accounting for stops). Hence a complete game lasts roughly 1 hour. Unlike cycling, there are no efforts lasting longer than this (like 3-7 hour rides). Game time is broken up into shifts, where players skate for roughly 1-2 minutes, followed by 1-2 minutes of sitting on the bench. Here is the other marked difference with cycling: recovery times are completely static, where you sit on the bench until the next shift, not moving at all.
I’ve worn a heart rate monitor to my last half dozen games, and they show, on average, roughly 20-30 shifts total (for about 30-40 minutes of active time), with another 30-40 minutes of recovery time. Shifts are further broken down into roughly 30 seconds of “Zone 6”/maximum effort, and about 30 seconds of zone 4-ish effort. For me, this means an average heart rate of 160-165 BPM for the zone 5 parts of a shift (going at maximum effort), and about 135-140 BPM for the remainder. Like I said above, after the first 30 seconds, I find myself coasting a lot in the last half of a shift having no more energy to sustain the effort.
I’m unsure if this structure has a cycling analog, however it might be similar to having a series of 1-2 minute max-effort steep climbs/sprints, followed by 1-2 minutes of coasting downhill without minimal pedaling, lasting roughly 1 hour total.
My wife got me a very nice air bike for my birthday (from Cascade) that revealed my first weakness: I tried to measure my FTP through a series of 1 hour efforts, and found that I could sustain roughly 100-120 watts for 1 hour, while breathing easily and steadily, and maintaining a heart rate of about 130-135 BPM (pedaling RPM about 60). Any higher wattage for more than a few minutes and my breathing gets heavy and I need to slow down. This puts me at about 1 W/kg which is essentially equivalent to an untrained person. I’ve also never had any lab testing done, so I don’t know any other metrics like VO2(max).
Over the past 6 weeks or so, I’ve added 3 hours of Zone 2 training, which is similar to above: about 120 watts sustained for 1 hour, done three times per week, maintaining a heart rate of 130-135 BPM. At the end of each hour, I sprint once to see how much power I can generate, and on average, I can push to about 1000W for about 30 seconds before stopping (this is whole body, legs and arms working together). I’ve already noticed an improvement in that I can skate in the “middle” efforts for much longer (not all out, but not simply coasting), while keeping my heart rate lower and not feeling so tired.
In an ideal world, I think that if I could get my FTP up to near 3 W/kg (meaning I can sustain 250-300W for 1 hour), and if I could perform 30 sets of 1 minute max effort (1000W), 1 min rest intervals, I would have everything I need to maximize what I can do in my sport. However here’s where I’m stuck, as I don’t know how to chart from where I am to get there.
I understand improving FTP is “time under stress”, and that hopefully with my three hours per week of Zone 2-ish training, I can gradually increase the intensity while keeping the 1 hour duration. I’m not sure if I can add more time at this point (my work schedule is hectic), however I feel like I’m far from being limited by 3 hours per week at my current 1W/kg. Is it reasonable to expect a 5-10W improvement per week every 3 hours?
The max effort intervals I can’t grok how to train effectively, as there are so many variables. One approach might be: I know I can do 1000W for 30 seconds, maybe start there, with 1 minute rest intervals, for 30 sets, adding a few seconds or work time every workout/week. After 6 months I should be up to 1 minute work and 1 minute rest at 100%. I’m not sure if this is a reasonable approach, given the different energy systems at play.
Does TrainerRoad offer a plan to achieve goals similar to what I’ve outlined above? Any advice is appreciated!
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. And you have come at a good time. We have just improved the customisability of Training Plans! 
( I still play once a week thought )