HCP #95 - Fitness for HYROX, Cold HYROX courses, Listener Questions

**Anthony** (0:29)
This is episode 95 of the Hybrid Coaching Podcast. In this episode, we talk about what is fitness in the context of HYROX. We talk about cold weather venues for HYROX racing, and we answer some listener questions. Let's make HYROX work for you.
How's it going today, JK?

**JK** (0:51)
I'm well, thank you, Anthony. What's going on, mate? Are you fighting fit at the moment? I'm telling that to you. I reckon it's been a year since I've said that to you. But last time I said that to you, fighting fit, you're confused.
Fighting fit, it's pretty much just, yeah, you're in good fighting shape.

**Anthony** (1:17)
No.
Not compared to where I've been before in fighting shape, no. But I would fight. But that's just because I have years of fighting experience behind me.

**JK** (1:28)
Exactly. So you're always fighting fit.

**Anthony** (1:31)
Always. Always.

**JK** (1:35)
That's good, man.

**Anthony** (1:37)
So how you feeling after watching the Warsaw race and not getting to be there?

**JK** (1:45)
Yeah, it was a great two races or four races to watch. I thought I was going to have a bit more FOMO than I actually did.
I was actually okay.

**Anthony** (1:59)
Did you wake up to watch them live or did you catch them post?

**JK** (2:04)
No, I caught them post, but I did not know the results. So we woke up, chucked the women's on first and then immediately went to the men's. I didn't check my phone or anything. So, yeah, obviously great, you know, fast races and there was a part of me that of course like was like, oh, I wonder what I would have done over there. And that's just the competitiveness in me.
But yeah, that was great races and kudos to all the athletes over there that absolutely smashed it. I don't know who, oh, like I saw a post yesterday, I think, did all, did everyone, did all the 30 athletes PR?

**Anthony** (2:58)
No, not all 30 did. I think, I think it was like, yeah, maybe like 10 to 12 of them in each race.

**JK** (3:05)
In each race, yeah.

**Anthony** (3:07)
Yeah.

**JK** (3:10)
Which is...

**Anthony** (3:11)
Do you want to talk about that first? Cause I, we did get a little question on that. Like, what do you think contributes to it? People, I know people speculating, oh, it's measured short. I've talked to people at HYROX that do the measuring or have the measuring done. And it is, they have racing lines, when they create the scope of it, like, it was not a short course as far as it goes. And if anybody's like, well, it's the same as the pro course and everybody's PR. Well, it was the most idyllic conditions you could possibly have in a race. And just as an example, I even pulled up here, so a couple different articles, research articles on, this one's the effective ambient temperature marathon pacing is dependent on the runner's ability. And how much does it matter? How much does ambient temperature affect pacing in elite runners and other articles to that same effect? So how much does it really affect you during your runs? Did you know that for the Boston Marathon, I think I was reading this, let's see if I can find the article again, I might have backed out of it.
The two-thirds of the records set there are always when the temperatures are low and humidity is low. There are so many factors that affect this race that cold temperatures, which we all know it was cold temperatures there, is between 11 to 13 degrees Celsius between all these races.
One thing that I saw, I said that for every one degree Celsius above 10 degrees Celsius or something, see if I can find this one again, like every one degree Celsius above 10 degrees Celsius, you start to get diminishing, like slower returns. And it's more prominent in faster runners than it is in slower runners. So like PRing our run times. Well, temperature is more affecting the faster people than the slower people. But what contributes to that is humidity. And we all know that the humidity across different venues is different. That plays a role on it. Skin exposure, how much skin you're exposing, and how much surface area of skin you have to expose and get rid of ambient heat, also plays a factor, as well as on the sleds, the humidity and temperature play a huge part in how the sleds move.

**JK** (5:48)
Right?

**Anthony** (5:49)
These are all contributing factors. In addition, this course we know was like, I think it was in on the third, so it's two plus a little bit of lapse. Not as many turns, not as very few 180s. This was almost like you go in and ride to the station. It was not like Phoenix or some of these others where you go in and 180 back around. So, you're talking about almost every single optimized contributing factor to a fast race in here. It doesn't have to be short, right? Like it's not a short course. It's literally just you're optimizing everything about the race. And performance wise, you're optimizing everything. You're not going to get better than that.