I
complete Hyrox – my A race for 2025.
Hyrox
is a success - a huge success in terms of my experience and making age group
podium. Less success regarding my time (though now I have goal for next
Hyrox).
You
can see from this chart how I did on the 8 stations and 8 runs relative to
field. As expected, I gain on field during run portion, then drop back on strength stations:
Notably –
- Sled Push is my BEST event! – I had initially thought sled push might make Hyrox impossible for me
- SkiErg –
With teammates in my face cheering me, on I feel like I am killing the
SkiErg. Then the athletes around me all finish and leave the station
before me. According to distribution chart below a shocking 99% of all
male athletes doing Hyrox all time have a better SkiErg time than mine!
- Burpees
& Lunges – Not as bad as expected. All my training helped
overcome inflexibility from years of endurance training
- Wall Balls
– Pure disaster
Wall Balls – Six months of training. And much of it I was trying to do
“stimulations” – test myself on all the precise challenges of the Hyrox
race. You may wonder how then I could have been so ignorant as to not
prepare AT ALL for the 10 foot height of the wall ball target. Well it seems
like there is a preoccupation in the Hyrox world about the “squat depth”
required for Wall Balls (see this NYT article about controversy). Second
my lack of mobility after years of running made it clear to coaches that I was
particularly likely to violate this controversial rule. So the several
coaches I asked focused strenuously on my squats and dismissed my questions
about hitting the target. In fact my desire to train under race
conditions was met with scorn. “Marathoners do not train by racing
marathons every day” the Hyrox experts would inform me. “Oh,
thank you -as if I didn’t not know that” I would think to myself as I nodded
politely. This dynamic was reminding me of my first triathlon when all
the swim advice was insistent that I keep doing various swim drills in the
pool, while I wanted to test myself in race conditions in open water
(long time readers of this blog will know how this also turned out wildly
embarrassing for me – much like my first Hyrox Wall Ball effort ).
For several minutes, I was concerned I would not be able to even accomplish ONE successful wall ball. Eventually I channeled memories of basketball jump shots enabling me to painstakingly complete the 100 wall balls over what felt like a lifetime (17:29). One would hope that the fact of being so near the end of race and having teammates cheering me on would somehow create the incentive and energy to power through at end. But NO – it took me 30 seconds to go from 99 to 100...
Did
Hyrox live up to my expectations? Would I recommend it? Absolutely
– I have become a Hyrox evangelist. The whole energy of the event, with
the loud music, the lights, the scoreboard, the compact warmup zone, the wrap
around video starting tunnel, the finish line pageantry, the proximity of
spectators – the Hyrox experience all seemed brilliantly thought out. The
challenge of doing these new events combined with clear link between particular
workout stations and overall health objectives certainly makes Hyrox compelling
to me (though like with Spartan, so far most of the running teammates
look at me dismissively when I suggest Hyrox).
I
told my run club teammates that if I can do Hyrox anyone can – I couldn’t seem
to even MOVE the sled upon my first effort six months ago. (note though
that I did experience knee soreness as I ramped up lunges and squats, and I
would advise runners to be careful about this).
Future
Hyrox ambitions – Of course I am obsessed with improving my Hyrox time and
realizing my longtime dream of breaking 90 minutes (okay not that long of
time). And now, having experienced Hyrox , for base training phase
I am desirous of doing more fundamental strength drills
