Saturday, September 15, 2007

Friday's Workout

I'm really liking the new gym. The weather was kind of chilly on Friday, but I got there. I'm still working on developing the routine, but I will do that, too. Here's the recap.

  • 37 minutes of roadwork
  • 6 rounds of shadowboxing
  • 2 rounds on double-end bag
  • 2 rounds of stretching

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Steve,

I'm curious about your roadwork. How far do you run? Do you time the miles, and if so what do you shoot for?

Early on I tried 40 minute roadwork sessions, but I wasn't happy with my sparring endurance. Recently I've fallen into shorter more intense runs.

-Nerd of Steel

Steven Imparl said...

Hey Nerd of Steel,

My roadwork varies a lot; that's how I keep interesting. I vary the duration of the roadwork sessions. I also vary the speed.

I don't really time the miles these days because I do the training somewhat unconventionally. For example, I will go fast for a while, then slow, then fast, then medium... Sometimes, I will stop and do some shadowboxing for a minute or two, and then continue on my way.

The idea is to keep myself from getting into a rut, a mindless routine. I get bored very easily, so I find the variety helps me a great deal.

In the past, I, too, tried to do regular long runs. While I still think longer roadwork has its place, I find that shorter and varied gives me better results than longer and same.

Like you, I have noticed the biggest difference in my endurance for sparring.

It's also important to remember the value of sport-specific training. Are you training to be a long-distance runner or a boxer? Perhaps you're training for both sports. For me, I used to be a distance runner, but I figured out that really long distances (say, longer than 8 miles) are not for me. Therefore, I remind myself that I'm a boxer, and the roadwork is part of the training, but not at the center of it.