I found out about these races a few weeks ago and saw there's a race near me in a couple of months. I do functional training/HIIT classes routinely (2-3x) a week and recently replaced them with some hyrox specific classes. I honestly love them and the layout of the event.

Has anyone tried one of these? If so, you got any tips? Was anything specific leg more difficult than you expected?

First half of the race will suck. Zero chance to catch your breath. Back half gets slightly better.

Race is a blast. Definitely challenging. I've only done doubles so far but am thinking I may do one solo next year. My wife has done both and is hoping to nab a slot to worlds in Houston. Fingers crossed.

If you have specific questions let me know.

My coach programs training for it in Austin, and also for DEKA. She's won several races and won the world championship for her age bracket a couple years back. We do lots of training on the machines and variations of the race stage exercises plus work in a lot of "compromised running", when you are tired or have just been doing a bunch of reps of other things. Lots of training workouts are 45mins to 1.5 hours of nonstop work. Like, you never have a break or rest in it unless you stop for a couple of breaths or to shake it out.

I've done some simulated practice races and their test races by my first actual race will be the men's open in Houston on the 16th.

The sleds are pretty heavy. Work on technique on the push and pull. The burpee jumps are tiring and the wall ball shots to finish are a tough ending as well. It's about being efficient and steady.

I got a noon start time at the Houston event.

Well, I officially registered for a race in late May. My local race next month sold out a while back, so I settled for plan b. But I certainly don't mind the extra training window at all.

My husband is 12:30 for tomorrow. This will be his third HYROX. Aiming for sub 1:25! Good luck to you and hope you hit your goal.

Thanks! Good luck for him too! Glad it is indoors. Gonna be some rain

Yes thank goodness. So far the other ones we've seen (Dallas and Ft Worth) were indoors too, but the one he signed up for in NYC is gonna be outdoors.

Definitely keep up with your HYROX specific classes because just doing HIIT won't help as much. I tried a few of those classes too but I really hate running so it's not for me.

What I've heard from others is the wall balls will really get you at the end, so incorporate way more of those in your training routine.

Before the event, they will send a walk through video, so make sure you watch that so you can also mentally prepare yourself.

For the day of, husband said make sure not to go too hard at the beginning so you can pace yourself throughout. Bring gels to keep in your pocket if you think you'll need a boost.

How'd everyone do?

My wife was hoping to snag a trip to worlds, which would have required winning her AG. She had a super strong partner and was redlining to keep up with her. They were in 2nd going into lunges (7th of 8 events) when her body said "that's enough" and just shut down. Pretty scary. She's raced everything from 5k to Ironman (this was her 4th Hyrox) and never had anything remotely close to this happen. We wheeled her out in a wheelchair; took a good hour before she was fully coherent again. She didn't remember anything after the carry, including running a full 1k.

My best guess is that she was drinking water all morning and it flushed her salts out. They didn't race until almost 2:30. It was Houston so she was sweating like crazy due to the humidity + intensity. I think her salt levels just bottomed out and that was that.

If you've never seen the Johnny Brownlee implosion it reminded me a lot of that, except her partner didn't throw her over her shoulder and continue...

It was pretty hot in there. With all the people and high intensity activity, it definitely got to me after a while. I had to slow down at the end noticeably. My time was pretty bad for me, but that venue did have some longer transitions I wasn't quite factoring in, and I rested too much at a couple of stations.
That was my first actual competition so the difficulty of the sleds caught me a bit off guard. The pull took a pretty long time to gut out at my size. I'm 159# and the sled is about 335#, and their carpet is pretty high friction.
I started getting calf cramps on my last 2 runs and the wall balls took me way longer than they should have.
Still, I was just a little below the average time for my age bracket so not terrible. Now I know what to expect at an actual event.

I did discover you can trigger IBS symptoms by working out that intensely and running that much and getting that dehydrated. Also, don't chug an energy drink with a ton of caffeine for recovery. And be more carbed and hydrated well before starting.

It took a couple of hours to kick in, but my guts started cramping and I felt like I had dysentery for about a day afterwards. I'm finally getting better.

Based on the last two posts it looks like I'm in for a real treat come May 26th.

Wow wcb that is scary to hear! Hope your wife is okay now.

My husband PR'd and got a time of 1:22. We had carbs and protein for breakfast, he had electrolyte tablets in his water and a banana the hour before. The rest of the day was spent at two breweries drinking more carbs for recovery!

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Based on the last two posts it looks like I'm in for a real treat come May 26th.

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Yes, yes you are.

The obvious biggest suggestions for race prep:

• Train running 1ks faster than race pace
• Train running on compromised legs
• Train heavier than race weights (sleds, lunges, wall balls, all of it)

With proper training...it will suck less.

jograki said:

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Wow wcb that is scary to hear! Hope your wife is okay now.

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She was back to OrangeTheory on Monday. Seems to be fine.

She's going to follow up with a doc this week just to get their thoughts.

Fine tuning hydration and carb load and electrolytes and such before the race takes some effort. You want what you need to finish but no more, as it is extra weight to carry for every step and rep until you sweat or breathe it out.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Fine tuning hydration and carb load and electrolytes and such before the race takes some effort. You want what you need to finish but no more, as it is extra weight to carry for every step and rep until you sweat or breathe it out.

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Mirinda Carfrae was a 4x Kona winner in Ironman. I think I heard that she had dialed in exactly how many pounds of water weight she could lose on the course and not cross the bonking line. It was something stupid like 10lbs, keep in mind she probably weighed 110-120 max.

Bump.

Race went well back in May and I'm more or less hooked. The only thing I regret is I severely underestimated how difficult stations 2-3-4 are all in a row. Sled push to sled pull to burpees was a bit of a nightmare. I want to do another one later this year or again in early 2025.

Anyone doing Dallas in November?

There are several from my gym going to Dallas but I may be out this time. I'm training for a DEKA that my gym is doing. Similar, but about 1/2 the running.

Those sleds are no joke. The carpet they use has a fairly high amount of friction and it is difficult to get it started moving, especially if you are light weight. I'm about 156lb so inertia is not on my side. In my experience you want to try to get each 12.5 yard interval in one sustained effort if you can.

The burpees are actually easy for me, as I have a gymnast type body frame, and have done like hundreds of thousands of reps. The key is an efficient motion on the burpee and a long jump in one continuous motion to preserve your momentum..

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Bump.

Race went well back in May and I'm more or less hooked. The only thing I regret is I severely underestimated how difficult stations 2-3-4 are all in a row. Sled push to sled pull to burpees was a bit of a nightmare. I want to do another one later this year or again in early 2025.

Anyone doing Dallas in November?

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I've only done one race (and it was doubles) but yeah front half of the race totally sucks. It was station 5 before I started to catch my breath. And that was a good 40 minutes in.