Hit the Road

Fit to fight

- By Mark Hatmaker

To the combat athlete, roadwork conjures images of pre-dawn runs, breath fogging the morning air and, to many, a drudgery that must be endured. Boxers, wrestlers and kickboxers the world over use roadwork as a wind builder, a leg conditioner and a grit tester.

From the great Joe Frazier: "You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you're down to the reflexes you developed in training. That's where roadwork shows-the training you did in the dark of the morning will show when you're under the bright lights."

Roadwork has been used as a tool since human beings began pitting themselves against others of their species in organized combat. Which brings us to the questions of the day:

Has it always been people in sweat-soaked, old-school gray sweatsuits pounding out miles on a dark road, or was it something subtler and remarkably slower in the past? If it was the latter, why did we transition to what many regard as a necessary evil?

The history of early boxing (from bare fists to the beginning of the glove era) and early wrestling (before modern pro wrestling) abounds with accounts of training regimens that include roadwork, but this roadwork takes the form of long walks, often with trainers and others side by side on rambles through the countryside.

These seemingly amiable jaunts would play poorly in a Rocky training montage-men in trousers and caps wandering the hills while engaged in conversation. And yet we find reference after reference to this manner of roadwork being undertaken.