Combating fatigue

Until I can raise my cardio aerobics to a really strong competitive level, I'm stuck with what I've got. That means I have to mentally battle fatigue and somehow not let it stop me from playing well. This is the dilemma I want to address going into my first tournament of the season.

So far as I have gathered, I fatigue in two stages. Stage one comes on shortly after warmup. This is the initial stage when the heart rate rises for the first time. When I reach this stage, I tend to feel low energy and lethargic. The arms don't want to rise, the knees are stiff, the shoulder doesn't want to turn, and the feet are flat on the ground. This is perhaps the most dangerous stage. If I don't get pass this stage, I would end up not performing at all. All of the unforced errors come out at this stage. I never get truly tired in this stage of fatigue and I up becoming frustrated with all the errors and lack of commitment. I call this the 'noncommittal stage.'

If I get pass the noncommittal stage, it means I found a way to raise my alertness and intensity. I may still be hitting bad shots poor depths and widths and all, but I move better and continue to keep my heart rate high. This tends to keep me in the game and ironically forces me to play better; longer strides, deeper lunges, and so forth. This leads to increasing my heart rate to top out around 190 bpm. This is where I play my hardest and sometimes (maybe often) my best. Practicing today I found myself playing at this level for only 1 game probably 15 minutes. That's when my lungs hit the proverbial wall. At this stage, I'm working the hardest around the court and so do my lungs and heart. I take longer between points and if I'm not paying attention, my breathing goes out of rhythm also.

I experience the same stages of fatigue on my Kezar runs. I just want to quite when I encounter the first stage. Again when I get pass it then I'm onto stage two. During the run, what keeps me going in stage two is to continue to breath. I take on a in-in, out-out breathing rhythm. It's something I'm also trying on the squash court. Curiously, the breathing is not automatic and does not come subconsciously. I actually have to mentally switch my breathing.