PODCAST - 12 Weeks to Hyrox - How I'm Cutting 10 Minutes
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[00:00:00] Welcome to The Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host, Johnny Havey, an ultra runner, endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone 100K ultra, I proved them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned, from breathing techniques to mindset shifts, to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals despite limitations, let's get started.
If you're training for HYROX, really any sort of race, I highly recommend that you do some sort of a simulation. Now, when we're talking about ultra-running, I don't necessarily think that if you're training for a 100-mile race that you need to simulate a 100-mile race. [00:01:00] What I do mean is that in that case, if you're running a 100-mile race, you should run parts of the track, if not the whole track, over a number of weeks.
'Cause what you're doing is you're simulating how you feel at different parts of the race, at different parts of the track, different parts of the course. For HYROX, which is really a 60- to a 120-minute hybrid fitness race, we can do simulations that aren't gonna completely break down our body before race day.
Well, I'm currently 12 weeks out from my next HYROX, and I wanna cut 10 minutes. The only reason why I know that I wanna cut 10 minutes, though, is because I did a simulation. So I invite you to do a simulation so you know where you're at, you have a foundation, and you can figure out what you need to work on.
That's why we simulate things. In ultra, we simulate the course 'cause we know different parts of the course may be more difficult for us, so we work on that type of running. [00:02:00] For HYROX, you have nine different events that you're doing. We have running and eight different fitness stations. Well, when you do your simulation, you're gonna be able to figure out which of these you need to focus on.
And keep in mind, the running becomes different the later in the race that you get. So running at the beginning is very different from running on tired legs with a tired and beat-up body. So that's why you wanna do a simulation. Well, in my last simulation, I finished in 69 minutes, and I felt very good about that.
But I also wanna cut up to 10 minutes off of my time. Now, I know I can do that before my next race, whenever that is. But here is what I've learned by working with my HYROX coach, Scott, over at Endorphin South Broadway in Denver, Colorado. And really thinking through and doing a couple simulations now.
Here are the five ways that I personally am gonna be able to cut time. Some of these ways may be applicable to you as well. [00:03:00] Number one, transition times. Now, this is really interesting because this isn't just a HYROX hack. This is an ultramarathon hack. The first 50-mile race that I ever ran, I did it in 13 hours, and I spent one to two, maybe even more, during transitions, during refuels.
So I knew that if I wanted to cut my time, this would be the first place to start, was really looking at cutting my transition time, which is why when I went out and won my 100-kilometer race a year later, I had the support crew to help me cut that time. And I was able to cut probably an hour, if not more, just on transition times by doing that.
So this is a huge thing for HYROX. What I've learned is that you can't be complacent when training because you can't be complacent during the race. When you're not running and you're not doing a workout station, guess what? You're still running. [00:04:00] And that's what I've really learned, is that the time in between running, the time in between workout stations, needs to continue to be running.
You can waste five, six, seven minutes at a time by not doing this. You could probably, depending on what your transition times are, cut even more time by just getting up and jogging once you've finished your exercise. Now, this may sound simple, but when we really look at this in practice, this takes even more heart rate management and more training.
This means that when you're training, you need to also look at your transition times. This is what I'm really starting to focus on now. Instead of taking a bunch of time between exercises at the gym, at the rec center, at Endorphin, doing group fitness classes, doing HYROX training classes, I am keeping myself moving 'cause this is gonna cut at least a couple of minutes off my time at HYROX.
Next Running on tired legs. [00:05:00] And this is something that I didn't even think about until after I did my solo SIM. Now, a few months back, I did a double SIM, and it was amazing. I had so much fun, and my partner was a Hyrox fiend. He is so good. While my running was stronger than him, he is an animal on all the Hyrox events.
And I didn't really realize how important running on tired legs was doing doubles. Doing doubles, this is still gonna help you cut your time 'cause those later race... I mean, when you're doing doubles, you still have to do all the running. So if you get comfortable running on tired legs, you're gonna be faster later in the race on tired legs.
Well, for solo, I hadn't trained this at all. Well, not totally true, because obviously in Ultra, you're gonna have tired legs, and I still run 25 to 30 miles per week. But when I say tired legs, I'm talking about tired legs after lifting, after putting out a ton of energy doing these strength exercises. So this is what I'm doing now, [00:06:00] is I'm doing a lot more Hyrox-specific training, running exercise, running exercise, running exercise, and feeling my legs after the exercise.
This is the key to keeping your running times low later on in the race. I think I can probably gain a minute to 90 seconds, maybe two minutes here, depending on how fast my legs adapt. Next, doing the hard exercises, so burpees, lunges, and wall balls gassed This is something that I also took for granted doing doubles versus solo, is you don't really get gassed doing burpees, lunges, or wall balls when you're doing doubles, and it's really because you can switch off.
The second you start getting gassed, you switch out, and then you can show out the next time you jump into burpees, lunges, or wall balls. With solo, these become brutal events, and they become [00:07:00] even more brutal when you have to run before them, and they become even more brutal when lunges and wall balls are the last two events and you've already ran seven, eight kilometers and done all the other events before.
I also did really poorly with wall balls during my simulation, so I think I can gain a lot on wall balls, but I think I can gain a little bit on doing burpees and lunges gassed. This is probably because I did so poorly on wall balls, where I can gain the biggest amount of time for me if I get wall balls down to a science, which is my goal.
Next, form, but not just form making sure you're doing it right. You gotta make sure that you have form for speed and energy conservation. Now, this I'm still working on, because I do burpees a very aggressive way, that if you're doing doubles is probably the right [00:08:00] way to do burpees, where you go, you do the burpee, and you jump up and you do the broad jump.
Go down, do the burpee, jump up, do the broad jump. In a perfect world, if our hearts didn't peak so much while doing this, you would probably wanna do that throughout the race. But now I'm learning that there are more energy efficient ways. They still keep speed up but conserve energy to do this even better.
So form, looking at form. Where can you cut maybe 30 seconds to a minute by getting your form right or trying something that is still speedy, maybe not as speedy, but it conserves a lot more energy that you can then spend getting your run times down? And number five, get a coach Get a coach or go to a gym like Endorphin where there's a community working towards a similar goal, HYROX.
Or join a run club where there's a community of people working towards being ultra-athletes, and a run [00:09:00] club where people are actually supportive of one another and actually interact with one another and talk to one another. And really, just in general, that's what you need, is a community that for whatever you're doing, that supports what you're doing.
When you find that community, you all elevate each other. Well, this is what I've been able to do at Endorphin, and this is really why I even got into HYROX, was because of the community at Endorphin, and the owners of Endorphin South Broadway, Gina and Scott, uh, 'cause they've really cultivated this community that supports each other and that really pushes each other to be better and compete at HYROX.
Now, I wanna hear from you. What are your tips in getting faster? How can you cut time quickly for HYROX? And I'm not saying over time, over years, 'cause I know that putting the time in, doing the things, our bodies develop over time. They adapt over time. I'm talking about if you needed to cut 5 to 10 minutes in the next 12 weeks, what would you do?
What have you done? I invite you to drop a [00:10:00] comment, or if you're listening to this as a podcast, send me an email, [email protected], and I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to The Athlete With Asthma show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection, it's about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals. And if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible
