Boxing and cycling – prepping for the London to Manchester ride

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I will be riding the Rapha London to Manchester thing this year, and I’m starting to get a bit serious about the training – which is great.

There is an old school boxing gym near me, and I’m wondering if boxing would be a good complement to the riding (not fighting, just getting beasted). My thinking being it’s good for core, upper strength and general fitness – and the battle in the L2M will be keeping myself together on the bike. My legs and cardio should be fine, it’s my ability to support my own weight that worries me.

Does anyone combine boxing training and training – am I thinking about this the right way? Anything I need to be wary of?

It is generally good to train the top end, but it doesn’t sound all that complimentary to me unless you’re aiming to beast the ride itself, or it’s a particularly hard parcours. It’s 200 + miles at Z2, afterall. But if you think you’d enjoy it and it keeps things fresh, then why not? Only thing I’d be wary of is that it might end up as basically boxercise. You see professional fighters, MW and above, gassing out in fights – i.e. cumulative 3min rounds of boxing are absolutely devestating and far beyond what the enthusiast is capable of, so how serious can the training be just dipping your toe in?

What does this mean – My legs and cardio should be fine, it’s my ability to support my own weight that worries me.
So your engine’s fine, your legs are conditioned such that you’re not going to cramp in the first 100 miles or have some sort of muscle problem, but you’re worried about supporting your own weight??? You’re sitting on your aris – the bike’s got you taken care of here.

I’ve heard of ultra long distance cyclists having issues with just keeping their head up to look down the road, as their shoulders and neck are hammered. But that is orders of magnitude beyond what you’re talking about here – 200 mile ride won’t put you in that sort of distress.

It’s purely a mental thing.

Personally I doubt boxercise / boxing will make the blindest bit of difference. You need to be comfortable on the bike and be able to deal with crushing mental boredom and moments of doubt. Some of it will be ace. Some of it will be soul-destroyingly dull. Enjoy the former. Deal with the latter.

I’ve done it twice before (once officially, once just as a very long ride with a mate) and I’ve done a lot of long rides, 24hr races etc previously so I know how I handle that sort of thing. Note as well that this year’s ride starts at midnight so you’ll probably have a degree of sleep deprivation to contend with too at some point. It’s just a mental thing.

Do the Dunwich Dynamo ride in July. That’ll be good training – far more appropriate than getting punched in the head repeatedly.

Have done rides to Paris and then Amsterdam lately, try to do 200 miles a week, but the best thing was a comfortable saddle and creame.