Credible sources re: Marciano’s training and dieting?

If you do endurance focused training, you can do way more than people realise without overtraining, but it'll make it really heard to put on weight. Paula Radcliffe ran 145 miles in a week, and I think average 120miles per week throughout the year, including a lot of intense sessions, and core workouts, and men can actually recover from more training. Or look at the insane training of Emil Zatopek.

I think it's pointless to talk about him not doing that and putting on weight, as I think it'd make him worse, he'd lose what made him so great.

 

His brother told me he would run 10-15 miles a day.

He never lifted weights because of his bad back.

He used to go in the shallow end of a swimming pool and throw punches for an hour in the water.

He used to hit a 270lb punching bag and he thought this improved his power against big men

Goldman tied a shoelace around his ankles to improve his footwork

He sparred...a lot

He did a lot of bodyweight exercises

He followed a religious diet. A lot of green vegetables, but he always ate a steak with baked potato at night


He was a maniac. He once sat in front of one of those clocks for 2 hours watching the meter move back and forth because he thought it would improve his hand to eye coordination

I have more stories of this obsessive nature

 

A 70-110 mile running week does not seem conducive to the actual preparation of a fight. It doesn't allow for a whole lot else, expenditure wise... You know, little things likes drilling, bag work, sparring. Sure, you may have enough energy to go thru the motions but would you really be able to focus? That kind of mileage is great if you are a runner but not so great for combat sports. Then again, Peter Marciano is perhaps not the greatest source for credible information on his brother.

 

No sh*t. Also for the knees of a guy who played in a catcher's squat for many a year.

Whatever, he was superhuman.

 

Peter Wilson, the British scribe recalled visiting his camp he said Rocky had a small ball suspended on a length rubber over his bed that he would swat when lying down. The guy was a nut for training its not just how much he did but the length of time he spent in training camps for fights.

 

Well there is no doubt had Marciano grew up under todays much more advanced training regimes, he would have trained completely different. A lot of the old school methods Marciano used would be denounced today.

As for 10-15 mile runs, yes it took a lot of time to do, but Marciano literally spent half his days at training camp. He would train for hours. He was typically at his training camp for half the day and would it last 4-5 months (In my opinion way too long) but he was able to fit everything in. Again, the way he trained back then would not be accepted by todays advanced fitness trainers but it worked for him at the time.

 

Rocky would be 6'4 and 230

 

It's not that someone, even at Rocky's size, couldn't run those miles. It's not that it takes too much time. I've known plenty of runners who have done over 100 miles, while I knew a guy who won the NCAA's on about 20 miles a week. The point being is that Marciano was a fighter not a runner. His focus was required on bettering his fighting technique and skill, on honing his craft not just becoming as running fit as possible. 10 to 15 miles a day does not leave anyone but the fittest of world class runners (guys who weigh 115-150) with any sharpness... and even then.

I'm sure Rocky trained hard but this sounds like a load to me.

 

He trained wrong.
He ate wrong.
He was too short.
His arms were too small.
He was too slow.
He wasn't powerful enough.
He cut too easy.
He was too sloppy.
He couldn't jab.
He wasn't skilled enough.
He slipped too much.
He wasn't balanced enough.
He had no coordination.
His back was too weak.
His opponents were too old.
His opponents were too small.


Sorry I'm not making a point, I'm just writing poetry.

 

In his camp for Charles II, he was doing 5 miles a day according to the Boston Daily Record.

In his camp for Moore, according to Pete Coutros (reprinted in the Omaha World Herald) he was doing 6 mile runs.

The Detroit Times claims he did 320 miles of roadwork in 7 weeks for Walcott I. That's right about 45 miles a week or 6.5 miles a day.

For Walcott II, the AP goes over his entire daily training routine. The only roadwork is 5 miles of combined running and walking with buddy Al Columbo.