How I took 25 minutes off my Hyrox time

Morning all,

I thought I'd throw in my experience so hopefully people can learn from it.

I did my first Hyrox in October 2023 in Dublin and got 1:54 as my time and did London Olympia this a few months later in May 2024 and did it in 1:29 resulting in a 25 minute improvement.

Here's what I did:

1. Focused my training on running

   
   

I'm not a runner, more of a strength person so was humbled in my first hyrox when I cramped up in the run and was very fatigued early in the race after the sleds.

I started a 12 week focused plan (12 weeks out) back in February and did 1 longer run (10-12km) per week at a slow Zone 2 pace focusing on nasal only breathing and holding myself back from getting into a higher zone and running faster for the sake of ego. Improved my 10k time from 62mins down to 53mins over the 12 week training period.

I also did a shorter run weekly, usually about 5-7km. This was often a trail run with some hills again, focused on staying slow and in Z2.

I did a focused speed / interval session weekly. Either on a track or on a curved manual treadmill. (all running that I did do indoors was in fact on a curved manual treadmill, i found it's harder than both a standard treadmill and running outdoors, it's always free and is great for hyrox simulations where you need to do an interval after doing sled or rowing or burpees and don't want to wait for the treadmill to speed up)

The interval sessions started with 400m repeats and increased by 200m weekly until it got to 1200m where I did 1x 1200m followed by 4x 400m and repeated that 3 times. This is where i focused on running faster and understanding my pacing.

2. Kept strength training to a minimum

As I mentioned, I've historically been a strength athlete. Squat, Bench and Deadlift kinda guy with some conditioning thrown in for good measure.

For this training block I wanted to maintain or only slightly increase strength and it was secondary to building up my aerobic base.

So I did 2x full body workouts per week. Minimalist training doing Front Squat and Overheard Press with barbell and then full Pull-ups as my pulling exercise. 5 sets of 5 reps in Weeks 1 and 2 and then 5 sets of 3 reps in week 3. This would repeat in a 3 week cycle at 75, 80 and 85% of 1RM. Pull ups I just did as many reps as possible in good form. Chest to bar.

Depending on how much time I had left in my allotted 1 hour training slot, I'd do a quick circuit after my full body session. Usually a medley of KB swings, Dips, Box jumps, Push ups, walking lunges, wall balls, etc.

This would be something like 3 rounds of 15 reps each on 3-4 exercises. Nothing complicated.

I always rowed 1km as my warm up before the strength workout as well.

I chose Front Squat and Overheard Press over my usual Back Squat and Bench Press to keep the overall load and stress on my body lower to allow for better recovery for the running.

3. I built a race strategy

This likely had the biggest impact on the improved time. You can only get so much fitter in 6 months.

First Hyrox, I did quite a few things wrong. I did an extra lap on the first run. I tried to carry the rope back on the sled pull. I pulled the sled with my arms on the sled pull. I ran the wrong way once when leaving a station. I stopped for water. I walked in the roxzone.

I analysed my performance from the first Hyrox and set myself the target of 1:30 believing I could get close to that just by being more efficient.

Here's my strategy on a page:

• Pace your first and second runs so you can come into the sled push as fresh as possible.

I made sure to stand at the back of the start tunnel to allow everyone else to bolt out and just jog out and not get pulled into running too fast.

Nice and easy long pulls on the ergs. You won't make up much time on ergs. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Know what pace is comfortable for you. I did about 2:15 odd on the Ski and 2:08ish on the Row. For context, I'd usually row at about 1:53 in my 1k warm ups.

• I stopped and took a short break at the mid point of each sled push.

  I read this a few times online and decided I'd try it out. I could of gone the whole length but I think this made it ultimately faster.

  
  

First Hyrox I sled pushed it until i fatigued and rested as long as I thought necessary.

This time, a short breath and break at the mid point meant my breaks were shorter. Did 4:17 first time and did 3:28 the second time.

• Learnt how to do the sled pull with the walking back technique and rope management.

First hyrox I pulled the sled with just my arms. It blew up my arms and was super hard (albeit I got some great pictures out of it). This time I did the pulling and walking back technique. And had practiced managing the rope.

First hyrox: 7.12 -> 4.52. Big improvement and was much much less fatigued.

• Did the stepping up one leg followed by the second leg on the burpees.

I only came across this a week before the race so had only practiced it once but again trusted that it was a better way then jumping up, I implemented it and overtook quite a few people on the burpees.

First hyrox 6:56 -> 4.28.

• Did not walk at all

First hyrox I had a Rox time total of 9:16. I'm not sure what it was this time as the stats aren't there but I'm sure it's half that.

I made sure to run all the way up to my station, so run right through to you get to your erg or sled or wall ball and ran between the sled pulls back and forth and immediately started running when finishing the exercise, out through the exercise zone and running through the rox zone. I didn't stop for any water at all (make sure you hydrate well before).

Even after the sled, where the run was a slow slow jog after I'd just pushed it across the line, it's faster than a walk.

• Had a wall ball strategy

I'd decided I had to do the wall balls in 6 minutes. I think I'd worked out the math or something so that was the number in my head. I'd calculated that would be a EMOM of 16 reps. So to hit 6 mins you'd need to do 16 reps every minute on the minute.

I ultimately decided to start strong with 20 reps and then drop to 15 reps for 4 sets and then finish with a strong push of 20 reps again. And starting each set at the top of the minute.

In the race I ended up starting on 20 and then doing sets of 16 as I was feeling good and that allowed my final set to be a few less reps.

I'd timed everything on my watch so I knew running into the wall balls that I had about 6:30 to hit my goal and honestly, I was dreading the wall balls the whole run up to them and tried to speed up a fraction to give myself a bit more time.

First Hyrox 8:36 -> 5:51 so a big improvement.

4. Final way I trained was I did a weekly Hyrox simulation

So every saturday for me I did some form of Hyrox sim. Either the first half or the second half. Or a focused session on my weaknesses. Basically this was to get used to running after the exercise (aka compromised running) and used to the distance or race weights and the movements.

I did a full hyrox sim in week 10 of my plan as well.

I did a full taper in the week before hyrox.

I also ended up only sleeping 4 hours the night before hyrox due to my cat going missing and my wife being super stressed (he came back next day) so wasn't anticipating a great time due to fatigue but it all worked out.

Hopefully this post helps.

My running was still slow by many standards. I'd actually hoped to get closer to 5:30 per km but ended up on about 6:15ish.

So if I wanted to get an even better time, running is still what needs to be improved.

If I could ultimately get it to 5:30 I'd shave off an additional 6 minutes excluding any savings in the roxzone.

Hopefully this helps someone.

S