HYROX lands at the NEC on 27 October. If you're racing, you've got about 18 days. A few more if you're on at the weekend.
Bad news first. You are not getting fitter between now and then. Not in any way you'd notice on the day. That work's done or it isn't.
Good news. You can still get a lot better at the race. And you can definitely still mess it up.
So think of this as the last timeout before the buzzer. Nobody learns a new play in a timeout. You just make sure everyone knows the ones you've already got.
What the next 18 days are for
Three things. Practise. Freshen up. Don't do anything daft.
That's the whole plan. I could stop here, but I've got four minutes to fill.
This week and next
Last proper work. Keep running. It's eight kilometres of running with some furniture removal in between, so the running matters more than people want it to.
Once a week, do a session where you run, hit a station, then run again. Running fresh and running straight off a sled are two different sports. Your legs need to have met that feeling before the NEC. Ideally more than once.
Then touch the stuff that costs you time. Sleds at race weight. Wall balls to proper depth and proper height, because a no rep when you're already hanging will ruin your day. Burpee broad jumps at a pace you can actually hold, not the pace you start at.
Your last properly hard session wants to be a week to ten days out. After that you're just keeping the engine warm.
Do you need a run through?
Depends what you mean.
A full one? All eight runs, all eight stations, flat out? No. Not now. That's a race, and a race takes days to get over. If you were going to do one, the time was three or four weeks ago. Do it next weekend and you turn up to Birmingham having already done Birmingham.
A half one? Yes. Go and do that.
Four runs, four stations, race weights, the pace you actually plan to hold. Sometime in the next week. Pick the stations that scare you, not the ones you like.
You're not doing it for fitness. You're doing it to find stuff out. Is your pace a real pace or a fantasy? What do your legs do on the run after the sled? How long do you spend faffing between a run and a station? Where does it start going wrong?
Much better to learn all that on a Tuesday night in a quiet gym than in front of a few thousand people and a judge with a clipboard.
Never done a HYROX before? Then this goes double.
Race week
Cut everything roughly in half. Shorter sessions, fewer of them. Keep a little bit of speed in so your legs remember what it's for. Nothing that leaves you sore.
No heavy legs in the last four or five days. You will feel like you're losing fitness. You aren't. That twitchy, restless, should I just do a quick 10k feeling is the taper working. Sit on your hands.
Nothing new. No new shoes. No new gels. No new pre workout your mate swears by. The NEC is a bad place to find out what something does to your stomach.
Sleep. Eat. More carbs than usual in the last couple of days. Boring. Works.
On the day
The first run is where most people lose it. Crowd, music, adrenaline, somebody in a headband going off like it's a 5k. Let them go. You'll see them again at the sled pull.
Go out slower than feels right. If the first kilometre feels too easy, it's probably about right.
And don't dawdle in the bits between. The clock doesn't stop while you're walking to a station and having a think.
Doing doubles? Agree who's doing what before you start. Not halfway down the lunges.
What won't help
Cramming. A panic long run. Testing your deadlift max just to see. A full sim because someone at your gym did one. Reading every HYROX thread on the internet at 1am.
Timeout over
Eighteen days isn't enough to build anything. It's plenty to sharpen what you've got and turn up fresh.
One half run through this week. Last hard session a week or so out. Then back off, properly, and trust it.
Not racing? Same rules for anything with a date on it. A 10k, a tournament, a cup final. The work gets done early. The last fortnight is for not ruining it.
And if you want someone stood there with a stopwatch, running you through a half sim and telling you where you're leaking time, I can do that. Message me.
See you at the NEC. Go out slow.
