How to train for Hyrox: a complete 15-week plan

Hyrox is not a strength sport with some running bolted on. It is not a running race with some gym work at the end. It is eight 1km runs, each immediately followed by a functional fitness station, done back to back without stopping. The format rewards exactly one thing: the ability to keep working when your legs have already been emptied by running.

Most first-time Hyrox athletes train running and lifting in separate sessions and discover, somewhere around Station 5, that training the two separately does not prepare you for doing them together. This guide explains how to build a training block that addresses the actual demands of the event.

What Hyrox actually tests

The 8km of total running is roughly split into 8 × 1km efforts at a pace you can sustain for the full race. The stations are:

• SkiErg (1,000m)
• Sled push
• Sled pull
• Burpee broad jumps (80m)
• Rowing (1,000m)
• Farmers carry (200m)
• Sandbag lunges (100m)
• Wall balls (100 reps)

Each station comes directly after a 1km run. Your legs are already fatigued when you reach each one. The weights are fixed by division (Open, Pro, Mixed, Doubles), so there is no scaling on race day.

The 15-week structure

A well-structured Hyrox block has three phases:

Phase 1: Base (weeks 1–5)

Build the aerobic engine and station technique without any race-specific fatigue. Run 3 days per week at Zone 2 pace (conversational effort). Strength sessions focus on posterior chain, shoulder stability, and lunge mechanics at low to moderate loads. This is not exciting training. It is the training that makes weeks 10 to 15 possible.

Phase 2: Build (weeks 6–11)

Introduce race-specific conditioning: station-to-run combinations, increasing load, tempo running. Add one race-simulation session per week where you perform 2 to 3 station-run pairings at race pace. Run volume stays moderate but intensity increases.

Phase 3: Peak and taper (weeks 12–15)

Weeks 12 to 13 are your highest intensity. Week 14 reduces volume by 30 to 40% while keeping intensity. Week 15 (race week) is light movement, mobility, and race-morning preparation only.

The three biggest training mistakes

Training running and lifting on separate days, never together

If you only run on running days and only lift on lifting days, your body never learns to perform strength work under cardiovascular fatigue. From week 6 onwards, your sessions should regularly end with station work immediately after a run, or vice versa.

Using weights that are too heavy in training

The wall balls in Open Women are 4kg. In Open Men they are 6kg. These are not heavy weights. If you are practising wall balls with 10kg in training because you want a challenge, you are training the wrong thing. You need to be able to do 100 of them when you are already exhausted. Train the right weight, at race volume.

Ignoring the sled

The sled push and pull are the most commonly undertrained stations, because they require either a specific sled and turf surface, or a machine approximation. Athletes who have never pushed a loaded sled before race day almost always lose significant time at these stations. Find a gym with a sled at least once per week during the build phase.

Week-by-week training example (Open division)

The following is a representative week from the build phase (week 8):

• Monday: 5km Zone 2 run, followed by 3 sets of sandbag lunges (race weight) + 20 wall balls
• Tuesday: Strength session: deadlift, farmer carries, shoulder press
• Wednesday: Rest or light mobility
• Thursday: 6km tempo run (75% effort). Followed by 1,000m SkiErg + 1,000m row at race pace
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: Race simulation: 1km run + sled push + 1km run + burpee broad jumps + 1km run + farmers carry
• Sunday: Easy 4km recovery run or rest

Race-day targets

Your race plan should include a target run pace for each 1km effort and an expected time at each station. Without these targets, most athletes start too fast on runs 1 and 2 and have nothing left for stations 5 to 8.

A reasonable target for a first-timer in Open Men (without sled or specialist equipment access) is 90 to 105 minutes total. For Open Women: 95 to 110 minutes. Pro division athletes typically complete the course in under 70 minutes.

Build your personalised plan

The variables that matter for your specific plan are: your race date, your division, your current running base, and your access to equipment. A plan built for a runner doing Open Mixed in 12 weeks looks very different from a plan for a strength-first athlete doing Open Men in 20 weeks.