I’m a Weightlifter, and This Is How I’m Training for a Hyrox Race

Remember that Hyrox fitness race trend I’ve written about? Welp, looks like I’m going to be doing a race. I’m teaming up with Meredith Dietz, our resident marathon runner, to tackle Hyrox NYC in the women’s doubles division. You can read here about how she’s training and what she sees as her strengths and weaknesses. As a weightlifter, I’ll explain my approach.

I could honestly distill the question of “how should I train” down to one word: running. Everybody tells me that running is the most important skill of a Hyrox race, it’s the thing you’ll spend the most time doing on race day, and it should make up most of your training, especially if you’re someone like me who has a good strength base but lacks in endurance. 

What I need to be prepared for

As I’ve written, Hyrox is a structured fitness race. We’ll run eight kilometers (about five miles), one kilometer at a time. Meredith and I will have to do the runs together, but we can share the work when we get to the stations that fall in between the running segments: there’s a ski erg machine, a sled push, a sled pull, burpee broad jumps, a rowing machine, a farmer’s carry, lunges, and wall balls. 

My biggest disappointment, on researching the race format, is that none of this really plays to a weightlifter’s strengths. Being strong will certainly help, but it’s not like there’s a max deadlift in the mix. I need to get good at strength endurance—the 100 wall balls are essentially 100 very light squats.

My strengths

I’m examining the race rules for things I might be good at and I’m coming up short. I know from strongman competitions that I’m really good at seated sled pulls, but the sled pull in the Hyrox race is done while standing, and I don’t feel particularly confident about it. Still, it’s possible that I’ll find some of the heavier stations a bit easier than Meredith does. 

There are a few small things that work in my favor. I can easily squat “ass to grass,” meaning I won’t be one of the people who gets no-reps on the wall balls (your hips have to sink below your knees every time). I’ve got reasonably good grip strength, so the farmer’s carry doesn’t scare me. I have better upper body strength than the average woman, so anywhere I can use it, that’s a little bonus.

Aside from physical strengths, I do have a mental strength. I love taking on competitions where I get to perfect my technique and my strategy. I’ve beaten people who are stronger than me in strongman and odd-lift competitions by simply knowing the exercises better and making better decisions on race day. I also get a nerdy thrill by carefully studying things that other people will meathead their way through. How much will this actually help me on race day? Maybe not at all, but it’s the only source of hope I’ve got.

My weaknesses

As we’ve already discussed, my weakness is: running. I’m not starting from scratch, fortunately. I already own running shoes and I know the principles of training for running. But I didn’t run at all this past winter, so I need to build up my mileage from nearly zero at the same time I need to be building cardio fitness. If I’m not careful, that’s a recipe for disaster, so I need to make sure I don’t increase my mileage too much too soon. We don’t have a lot of time to train, so this is a bit of a balancing act. 

How I’m training for the Hyrox

I identified three priorities at the start of training, and now that I’ve been trying different workouts and learning more about the sport, I’m all the more committed to these. In order:

1. Get used to running. 

2. Build my endurance so I can keep working for the 90+ minutes the race will take.

3. Learn the movements and techniques I’ll need for the stations. 

Note that there’s nothing about strength in my priorities. I figure that’s the least of my worries. That said, my training always includes strength work, so it’s staying in the rotation. As I explained in this Instagram video, I’m paying attention to my heart rate to pace myself in workouts. One or two workouts each week might be a hard one, like a Hyrox class or a tempo run. The rest of my work consists of easier cardio, like zone 2 and 3 runs. 

To avoid overuse injuries, I’m making sure not to run too much. Hiking and indoor cycling are both in the mix so that I can keep working on my endurance even when I feel I’ve done as much running mileage as I safely can in a given week. 

The bottom line

Meredith put it best: on paper, a runner and a weightlifter seem like they should combine to make one complete Hyrox athlete. In reality, the race format favors endurance athletes. I expect Meredith will be jogging the runs at an easy pace while I struggle to keep up. When we get to the strength stations, I might be able to pick up some slack, but honestly that will depend on how tired I am from the run. 

One wild card is learning to work together as a team. Meredith and I live in different cities and we won’t get to meet in person until I arrive in New York for the race. If we want to practice skills like handing off sandbags, we’ll have to do those independently with whatever gym buddies we happen to meet at our home gyms. On race day, everything will need to come together—or maybe fall apart. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a learning experience for both of us, no matter the result.