HYROX training in Horley: how to actually prep for race day with a coach who races
HYROX has gone from a niche European race in 2017 to selling out arenas across the UK in a few short years. If you've signed up for your first one — or you've done one and want a faster second — most of the advice you'll find online is generic. It's written by people who've never lined up at the start.
I race. I coach. I'm Tracey O'Brien, the HYROX and sports nutrition coach at Austin Personal Training in Horley, Surrey. I compete at HYROX events across Europe and I've spent the last few years figuring out — through my own racing and my clients' results — what actually moves the needle in the twelve weeks before a race.
Here's what works.
The thing nobody tells you about HYROX
HYROX is not eight strength stations with a bit of running thrown in. It's eight 1km runs with strength work jammed in between to compromise every single one of them.
If you train the stations clean and the runs clean — never in the same session — you will feel fine in training and dreadful on race day. The whole sport sits in the gap between the two. Your sled push at minute 32, with a heart rate of 180, after just hammering a 1km run, has nothing in common with a fresh sled push in the gym. That's the thing to train.
Where most first-timers go wrong
- Running too clean. You don't need to be a 4-minute kilometre runner. You need to be able to run an OK kilometre with your legs already wrecked, eight times in a row.
- Maxing out the strength. A heavier sled in the gym doesn't help if you can't keep moving. HYROX rewards repeatable pace over peak strength.
- No transitions. The 10–20 seconds between a station and the next run is where races are won. Untrained, you'll stand around catching your breath. Trained, you're moving.
- Skipping the wall balls until the last week. Wall balls are the leg-burner that ruins the finish for almost everyone. Practise them under fatigue. A lot.
- Eating nothing on race morning. A 60–90 minute race on an empty stomach is not heroic. It's slow. More on this below.
A simple twelve-week structure
I write programmes individually — there's no single plan that fits everyone — but the bones look broadly like this:
- Weeks 1–4 (base): Three or four sessions a week. Two are strength-focused (squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows, pull-ups, sled work). One or two are running — easy mileage to build aerobic base, plus some interval work.
- Weeks 5–8 (specific): The HYROX-specific block. Compromised running starts here — short run, station, short run, station. I program two of these "race-shape" sessions per week alongside one heavier strength day and one easy run.
- Weeks 9–11 (peak): Full-distance simulations — half-HYROX one week, three-quarter the next. This is where you discover what hurts, where your pacing is wrong, and what you need to fix.
- Week 12 (taper): Volume comes way down. Two short sessions, lots of mobility and sleep. You don't get fitter in the last week — you only get tired.
The race is won in weeks 5 to 11. Most people skip the compromised running and skip the simulations. They are the work.
Why train in Horley?
The private gym in Horley is set up well for HYROX prep. There's a sled, free weights and dumbbells for the lunges, kit for the burpees and a Versaclimber for upper-body conditioning. We're not a 200-station fitness park, but for HYROX-specific work it's everything you need — and the studio is yours for the hour. No queues for the rower, no waiting on the sled.
Sessions run 1-2-1, so the programme is built around your race date, your current fitness, and where your weak link is. If your runs are fine but your wall balls fall apart at 80 reps, that's what we train. If your sled push is the problem, we drill that. There's no one-size-fits-all plan, because there's no one-size-fits-all athlete.
For clients outside Horley, the same programmes run online — written week by week, video form checks, and structured progressions. You can train in your own gym, at home or wherever your travel takes you.
The nutrition piece nobody talks about
I'm also a qualified Sports Nutrition Coach, and HYROX prep is where nutrition stops being optional. A few of the things I work on with clients in the build-up:
- Carbs go up in the specific block. Weeks 5–11 are too taxing to do under-fuelled. We dial up carbohydrates around training to support the load.
- Protein, not by feel. Most people under-eat protein. We work out a number for your body weight and your training volume and hit it consistently, not on average.
- Race-week carb load. Three days out, carbs come up further. Not the whole week, not pasta party clichés — three days, measured.
- Race morning. 2–3 hours before the gun, a familiar meal — porridge, banana, honey, a coffee. Nothing you've never eaten before. Top up with a gel 15 minutes before you start.
- Mid-race fuel. If you're racing over 70 minutes, a single gel around station 4 can buy you minutes at the back end. Most amateurs don't take one. Most pros do.
None of this is glamorous. All of it works.
The mental side
HYROX is mostly aerobic — but the suffering is concentrated in three places: the back half of the burpee broad jumps, the lunges, and the wall balls at the end. If you've trained those exact situations and you've felt that exact level of suck before, race day is just another rep.
If you haven't, race day is a new kind of bad and your brain finds a thousand reasons to slow down. That's why simulations matter more than fresh PBs. Practise the awful bit. Get used to it. Make it boring.
What a first session looks like with me
If you're thinking about your first HYROX, or you want a faster second, the starting point is a 30-minute chat — free, no obligation. Either in person at the Horley studio or over the phone. We'll talk through your race date, your current training, what you've raced before, and any niggles. By the end I'll have a clear sense of what your prep needs and what it'll cost.
If you'd rather skip the call, drop me a line via the contact page and I'll come back the same day.
HYROX rewards the boring stuff — the consistent training, the eaten meals, the simulations you didn't want to do. None of it is complicated. It just needs doing.
See you on the floor.
— Tracey