Roadwork
Why boxers run, what they get from it, and why steady miles are only half of it.
Roadwork
Video · 7:00 · coming soon
In this lesson
- Separate aerobic base work from interval work
- Set the right effort for an easy run
- Fit running around skill sessions rather than on top of them
Coaching cue — Easy runs should be genuinely easy. That is what makes the hard ones possible.
What running actually gives you
A round is a series of hard bursts separated by seconds of near-recovery. Your ability to recover between those bursts — and between rounds — is aerobic. That is what steady running builds, and there is no technical drill that replaces it.
What it does not build is the ability to produce those bursts. That comes from intervals and from the rounds themselves.
Two kinds of running
Easy runs. Thirty to fifty minutes at a pace where you could hold a conversation. Most people run these too fast, which makes them too tired to do the hard sessions properly, which is how you end up training in a permanent grey zone that improves nothing.
Intervals. Repeated efforts of thirty seconds to three minutes, hard, with short recoveries. Three-minute efforts with one minute of walking is the most boxing-specific version there is, for obvious reasons.
A sane week
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Mon | Skill work (technique, pads) |
| Tue | Easy run, 40 minutes |
| Wed | Skill work + rounds |
| Thu | Intervals: 6 × 3 min hard / 1 min walk |
| Fri | Easy run, 30 minutes |
| Sat | Skill work + rounds |
| Sun | Off, or a walk |
Two hard days, three easy, one off. If everything feels hard, the easy days were not easy.
Run after skill work, not before. Technique learned on tired legs is technique learned wrong.
Drill it
This week, run all your easy runs with your mouth closed and breathing only through your nose. If you cannot, you are running too fast. That is the entire prescription and it will slow most people down by a minute a mile.