A good first Hyrox® training plan is mostly a running plan with strength and station work bolted on. The example below runs for 12 weeks with five sessions a week: two runs, two strength and station sessions, and one mixed session that becomes your race simulation. It moves through four phases (base, build, race-specific and taper) so you arrive fit and fresh rather than fit and wrecked.

Why so much running? In the first study of the format, recreational athletes spent a median 51.2 minutes of an 86.5-minute simulated race running, and a higher VO2max went with a faster finish ². The stations still matter, but the engine moves the needle most.

This is an example, not a prescription. It assumes you can already run 5 km without stopping and can get on a sled and the ergs at least every couple of weeks. Further down: a three-day version, a version for experienced athletes, and how to test whether any of it is working.

The plan at a glance

Weeks 4 and 8 are lighter weeks: cut every session to about two thirds of its usual volume and keep the intensity. The point is to let the previous three weeks sink in before you load up again.

The weekly structure

Two principles sit behind this layout. First, most of your running should be easy. Studies of competitive endurance athletes describe a typical pattern of about 80% of sessions at low intensity and about 20% dominated by hard work ³. That data comes from athletes training 10 to 13 times a week, so do not copy the ratio to the decimal, but the lesson carries: easy days easy, hard days hard.

Second, keep the heavy leg day and the hard run apart where you can. In a meta-analysis of 21 studies, combining strength training with running (though not with cycling) led to smaller gains in strength and muscle size than strength training alone, and the interference grew with the frequency and duration of the endurance work ⁴. Interference is not a reason to skip either; it is a reason not to stack your hardest run on the same morning as your heaviest squats.

Use the running pace calculator to set your easy, tempo and interval paces from a recent race or time trial.

Phase 1: base (weeks 1–4)

The goal is volume and technique, not heroics. Every session should leave you feeling you had a bit more in the tank.

• Run A: 30–40 minutes easy, at a pace where you could chat.
• Run B: 10 minutes easy, then 6–8 × 400 m at roughly 5K effort with 90 seconds of walking or jogging, then 10 minutes easy.
• Strength A: goblet or back squat 3 × 8, Romanian deadlift 3 × 8, walking lunges 3 × 12 per leg, then sled push 4 × 12.5 m at a light-to-moderate load, focusing on body angle and short steps.
• Strength B: push press 3 × 8, bent-over row 3 × 10, pull-ups or ring rows 3 sets, farmers carry 4 × 50 m, wall balls 5 × 15 at race weight.
• Mixed session: 3–4 rounds of 1 km at a comfortable pace plus one station at half volume (for example 500 m SkiErg, 25 m sled push, 40 m burpee broad jumps, 50 wall balls).

Learn the standards now, while you are fresh: the wall ball, the sandbag lunge and the burpee broad jump each have a movement standard the judges enforce. Open men throw a 6 kg ball and Open women 4 kg ¹; train with your race ball so the throw and the catch match race day.

Phase 2: build (weeks 5–8)

Now you add race pace and race weights. The easy run gets longer, the intervals get closer to what you will run on the day, and the stations go up to race loads.

• Run A: 45–60 minutes easy. This is your long run; protect it.
• Run B: 10 minutes easy, then 4–6 × 1 km at your goal race running pace with 2 minutes rest, then 10 minutes easy. Alternate weeks with a tempo session: 2 × 10 minutes at a comfortably hard pace with 3 minutes easy between.
• Strength A: back squat 4 × 5, deadlift or trap-bar deadlift 3 × 5, sled push 4 × 12.5 m and sled pull 4 × 12.5 m at Open race weight (152 kg push and 103 kg pull for men, 102 kg and 78 kg for women, sled included) ¹.
• Strength B: pull-ups 4 sets, dumbbell bench or push-ups 3 × 10, farmers carry 4 × 100 m at race weight, sandbag lunges 4 × 25 m, wall balls 4 × 25.
• Mixed session (compromised running): 4 rounds of 1 km at goal race pace straight into a station block (20 wall balls, 50 m sandbag lunges, 250 m row, 20 burpee broad jumps). The point is learning to run well on legs that have just done something rude.

Race weight for the farmers carry is 2 × 24 kg for Open men and 2 × 16 kg for Open women ¹. A pair at your race weight covers carries, swings, goblet squats and lunges, which is most of a strength week.

Phase 3: race-specific (weeks 9–10)

These two weeks are a dress rehearsal. Practise everything you will do on the day: the shoes, the breakfast, the warm-up, the pacing and any gel you plan to carry.

• Week 9, Saturday: full simulation. All eight runs and all eight stations in race order, at about the effort you plan to race. If you cannot get a sled for the whole session, swap it for heavy sled-style work and keep everything else. Write down every split.
• Week 10, Saturday: back-half simulation. Four runs with stations 5 to 8 (row, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, wall balls) at race pace. This is where races are lost, so it gets the most rehearsal.
• Run B: 5 × 1 km at race pace with 1 minute rest. Shorter rest than in the build phase, same pace.
• Run A: 40–50 minutes easy.
• Strength A and B: keep the main lifts but drop to 3 sets of 5 at moderate loads. Keep 2–3 station sets at race weight per session.

The sandbag lunges are station seven, 100 m with 20 kg for Open men and 10 kg for Open women ¹. If your gym only has a barbell for lunges, a race-shaped bag lets you practise the exact shoulder position and the setup from the floor.

Phase 4: taper (weeks 11–12)

The most efficient taper in a meta-analysis of 27 studies lasted two weeks, cut training volume by 41–60% in a progressive, roughly exponential way, and kept both intensity and session frequency unchanged ⁵. Those were competitive athletes in established sports rather than Hyrox racers, but the principle travels well.

• Week 11: keep all five sessions, but trim each to about 70% of its usual volume. Keep a short race-pace hit, for example 3 × 1 km at race pace plus two stations at race weight.
• Week 12 (race week): about half of normal volume, short sessions, a few race-pace efforts early in the week, and nothing hard in the last two days.

Our Hyrox race-week taper guide has a day-by-day example for the final week, including what to eat in the last days.

Scaling the plan

Three days a week

Add easy walking or cycling on other days if you can. You will improve more slowly than on five days, but you will improve, and three sessions you actually do beat five you skip.

Experienced athletes

If you have raced before or come from a running or CrossFit background, add before you intensify:

• A sixth session: a second easy run, or a second mixed session in the build phase.
• A longer long run (60–80 minutes) and more intervals per session.
• Pro loads at the stations if you plan to race Pro; the full table is on our Hyrox hub.
• Target your weakest station: put last race's splits into our split analyzer and give the station that cost the most an extra slot each week.

Absolute beginners

If 5 km of running is not yet comfortable, spend four weeks on run-walk intervals and the two strength sessions before starting week 1. If you train mostly at home, read how to train for Hyrox at home for station swaps, and our beginner's guide for picking a division.

How to test your progress

Test in week 1 and again in week 10, fresh, after an easy day. Use the same course and the same erg each time.

The pacing calculator turns a 10K time into a realistic finish target and a lap-by-lap plan, so a faster time trial in week 10 gives you an updated race plan for free.

A watch with a lap button makes all of this easier: press it at every run and station in your simulations and you have the splits for the analyzer without scribbling on a whiteboard. Wrist heart rate is fine for easy running; pair a chest strap if heart rate matters for your intervals.

If the week-10 numbers have not moved, look at sleep and consistency before you add more training. Missed weeks explain most stalled progress.

Bottom line

Run twice a week from the start, lift twice, and use the fifth day to practise running on tired legs. Build for eight weeks, rehearse for two, and taper for two. Keep most running easy, test at the start and near the end, and scale down to three days rather than give up when life gets busy. The plan is an example; the consistency is the bit that actually works.