Hyrox burst onto our shores last year, and it took Australia by storm! I was newly postpartum at the time, so it was not the year for me.. but I watched social media closely and knew straight away this was going to be something I took on in 2024.

If you don’t know about HYROX yet, here’s a little breakdown:
Hyrox is a hybrid fitness race, combining functional stations and running.
The race structure for the open females is as follows:

1km run
1000m ski erg
1km run
2 x 25m sled push (102kg incl sled)
1 km run
2 x 25m sled pull (78kg incl sled)
1km run
80m burpee broad jumps
1km run
1000m rowing
1km run
200m kettlebell farmers carry 16kg each
1km run
100m lunges knee to floor with 10kg sandbag
1km run
75 wall balls 4kg

It’s the ultimate test of my fitness and the journey I’ve been on for the last few years, regaining my strength and confidence. It’s a race for everyone – whether you are new to running and fitness or are a seasoned athlete – there’s space here for you. You can compete at different levels starting with the relay (4 team members – each member does all of the running but the functional stations can be broken up between each member), doubles (same sex or mixed – same thing, both team mates run but the functional stations can be broken up), individual open and Pro level. (Then of course there’s the Elite 15, which is fun to watch if you look for it on YouTube!)

The 2024 Melbourne event kicks off on the 29th of June, with my event (individual women’s open) on Sunday 30th. I’m getting so excited now and feel like my training has reached a point where I’m the fittest I’ve been in a long time.
My training has consisted of 6x F45 classes a week (combination of cardio days, strength days and hybrid days). Focussing on lifting heavy to be strong in my posterior chain and legs for all of the heavy work my body will be doing, lots of running and especially endurance and compromised running, and incorporating all of the hyrox movements into my classes to make sure my body is familiar with all of the movements.

RUNNING! 80% of this race is running! I’ve always like running, but have never been *amazing* at it. I get decent times over 5km and 10km but actually going out and TRAINING running is a completely different ball game. Despite having good cardio fitness, I’ve discovered my heart rate maxes out fairly quickly and stays there – ie I needed to work on my endurance. I also had a bad overstride and low cadence, and in doing so tweaked my knee. To fix this, I’ve had to completely retrain HOW I run, focussing on shorter strides, landing my foot in line with my body instead of in front.

To increase my endurance (keep my heart rate down) I’ve been training my heart rate zones. This involves running at a very slow pace, keeping my heart rate within zone 2 for a long period of time (1 hour or more). To start out with, the running was incredibly frustrating, running at a pace of 8km/h or slower, however fairly quickly I’ve found myself being able to increase the speed while remaining in my heart rate zone, where I can now sustain a pace of 7min/km and remain in zone 2.
This isn’t to say I’ll be running slowly at hyrox! It just means I can push myself a bit harder while keeping my heart rate in a lower range for longer.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever had to run on compromised legs before, but having just lunged 100m with a 10km sandbag, and going straight into a 1km run is going to be very hard work. So in order to get my body used to shaking off the wobbles, moving out the lactic acid and getting moving again, I’ve been incorporating compromised running into my routine. All this involves is finishing a hard workout, or a heavy set on the legs and going straight out into a short run!

I’ve also included some practice ‘run throughs’ at the athletics track, doing all of the functional movements with the 1km runs (burpees, lunges, farmers carries, and wall balls) as a ‘mini’ hyrox session. This was an eye opener to really see what 100m of lunges looks and feels like…or 80m of burpee broad jumps! It’s further than you think!
Practicing the movements themselves has been really important, developing my technique and making sure I do things in the most energy efficient way possible. For me, this means practicing walking my legs in from the bottom of a burpee, taking out some of the explosive action so I can have all of that power saved for the broad jump. It’s been doing countless walking lunges with a 10kg or heavier weight on my back so I can train those muscles to be well adapted to the burn that they’ll be put under. It’s been doing the rower and ski erg at a lower damper setting for longer and slowing down my movements, getting the most out of every pull instead of slamming it out for the same result. It’s a game plan and it’s been fun to learn and develop through the process!

Hyrox is now only 3 weeks away. In the few days lead up to the event I’ll be tapering off my training, focussing on carb loading (eating more of my daily calories from carbs as opposed to protein and fat), and making sure to drink lots of water and electrolytes so my body is in peak physical condition for the day!

I’m by no means an athlete or expecting an amazing time – I’m heading into this year’s event with the goal of finishing, and secondary to that within 1.5 hours. But it’s my first ever Hyrox event and I’ll have a lot of lessons to learn I’m sure!

Excited is an understatement!