what hyrox birmingham 2023 taught me // hyrox uk birmingham nec workout
Credit: / mrqtime for start line and sled pull videography clips. He is the best in the game, book him for your sports video work via his instagram profile bio link
Approaching the hyrox race start pen, we can feel many different emotions, questions flicker through our minds - has the training been enough? Will it all pay off. Will we go faster than last time?
Sometimes HYROX races don’t go as planned, but what matters is what we learn from it. This is the story of my 2nd hyrox, how it compared to my first, the lessons it taught me for next time and about how about we define success.
Heading out pretty hot from the start line, whilst the first one 1km was slightly shorter than the other runs at 1.75 vs 2 and a bit-laps (for the remain 7km splits) I was pleased with the strong start, the 3:16 split for the run was 180th fasting lap time of the day and I was heading into the ski erg feeling fresh, and up nearly 2 minutes from my first race.
I knew I’d taken the ski erg abit to conservatively last time so was keen to improve on my time and managed to do that, shaving on 22 seconds, but importantly still feeling fresh.
Back out in the 2nd 1km run, i intentionally eased up on the 2nd lap lower my heart rate going onto sled push, at 6 seconds slower than last time, I pretty happy with the pacing on this.
Not the greatest of starts on the sled push, where I’d gripped it slightly too low, I’d found this technique worked well in first hyrox, but I soon switched up my technique going for a higher grip on the bars, which seemed to work better at Birmingham, at 5:18 this was over 1 minute 15 slower than my previous race. My legs were pretty shot up and felt like jelly for 30 to 45 second post sled push, meaning my next 1km split run was over 1 minute slower at 6:29, so defiantly more compromised running needed in my training for next time.
The sled pull felt ok, I intentionally swapped up my technique using the slightly slower lean back, pull and drag technique, rather than the faster hand over hand technique I’d used last time, at 7:17 and just over 1 minute slower than last time, next time I plan to go for a 50 /50 split with hand over hand technique to shave of some time.
Run 4 was down around 30 seconds, ahead of heading into the burpee broad jumps. This was my weakest station last time, so I was pleased to see my practice had paid off as I did this in 1 minute 20 second faster than last time.
Into run 5 my legs were feeling recovered and I was starting to gain ground again, and was up 17 seconds. A steady performance on the row, up 4 seconds from last time. Into the 6th km run, up 38 second from last time I was really starting to make up some of the ground I’d lost early on in the race.
Farmers carry timings were identical to last time, I was pleased to see that grip strength is holding up well. Run 7 was 21 second faster than last time at 4:56.
Into the sandbag lunes, the biggest lesson I’d taken from last time was the importance of ensuring adequate electrolytes and nutrients in the body to avoid cramping. Over all I was up 28 second faster this time round.
Into the final run I dug deep and came in 40 seconds faster on this final run split than last time, that did however have a knock effect at the wall balls which in total took me 20 second longer.
Crossing that finish line in just over 1hr, 30 minutes was 18 second slower than last time, and I could have been disappointed with that, but I was absolutely buzzing what made that day so special and memorable had nothing to do with split timings and everything to do with taking in the amazing atmosphere, connecting with the hyrox volunteers who give their time to make the day what it is, seeing other athletes from the hyrox community and sharing in that day with friends and family and knowing in myself, that I’d given it by best shot.
Hyrox Birmingham taught me a lesson on how I define success, will I be back for more and aiming to go faster next time? You betta ya and if that’s you to checkout this video next.
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