Community Spotlight: Alex Rodriguez (Dreamland Boxing)

Hey everyone, I’ll be putting out a weekly series to highlight some of the trainers, boxers, runners, and other members of our community. This week’s feature is on Dreamland Boxing‘s own Alex Rodriguez!

This week’s Community Spotlight feature is on Alex Rodriguez, a former boxer at Dreamland Boxing (and others). I really enjoy bridging the intersection between running and boxing, so I had fun talking with him about how he’s transitioned from boxing to run long distances.

In this interview, we talk about his time in boxing and placing at the Golden Gloves, fighting undefeated pro Tony Munoz, the mental side of boxing, the books “Top Dog” and “Born to Run”, his journey into trail racing, the Big SURreal Virtual Marathon, and more!

00 – Introduction- Alex Rodriguez
01 – What Got Alex Into Boxing
02 – What Alex learned training for his first fight
03 – Alex’s subsequent fights and what he learned from his first loss
04 – Alex Placing Second at the Golden Gloves
05 – What Alex (and Ian) learned from his losses
06 – The Importance of the mental game in boxing
07 – How the book “Top Dog” inspired his return to boxing
08 – Edgar Ramirez and Alex return to boxing at Dreamland
09 – Return fight against now-undefeated pro Tony Munoz
10 – Coach Ian on the Mental Aspect of Boxing and Andre Ward’s Mental Reps
11 – Alex on how your coach can help develop mental toughness/awareness early into training
12 – Alex on how a simple action calmed his nerves before his fight
13 – “Getting into the Zone”
14 – Ian taking Alex to run his first half-marathon
15 – The book “Born to Run“
16 – What got Alex to keep running half-marathons
17 – Ian on Yasso 800 repeats
18 – Alex on how intertwined running and boxing are
19 – Alex’s running career after boxing
20 – Coach Ian on the Big SURreal Virtual Challenge (September 2020)
21 – Alex asking Ian about the transition to the Full Marathon
22 – Ian’s experience running his first marathon – the SF Marathon
23 – Ian on how many miles he put in per week
24 – Alex on his mileage per week for half-marathons
25 – How to Peak and Taper for your first marathon
26 – What to Peak at for a half-marathon and for a marathon
27 – The difference between the half and the full marathon
28 – Trying to convince Alex to run the full
29 – Alex on the Trail Races that he’s run
30 – Comparing a 6 minute fight to a 2 hour race