The eight stations of a Hyrox race are standard. The seven 1-km runs between them are standard. The race weights are standard. The thing that isn't standard is how you distribute your effort across the ninety-odd minutes.
Pacing is the difference between a finish you're proud of and a finish you barely scrape across the line for. This is the pacing plan that gets most first-timers to a 90-105 minute finish without the wheels coming off, and gets sub-90 athletes to actually break the line they trained for.
The pre-race window. 90 minutes out
The warm-up matters more than people give it credit for. Underdone, you're cold for the first kilometre and lose time. Overdone, you're tired before you start.
90 minutes out: finish breakfast. Last big sip of water. Quick check that your kit, race number, and timing belt are sorted.
60 minutes out: arrive at venue. Find your wave-start area. Use the bathroom. Sip water + electrolyte mix.
30 minutes out: start the active warm-up. 8-10 minutes of easy jogging at a conversational pace. You should feel slightly warm but not breathing hard.
20 minutes out: dynamic stretches. Lunges, leg swings, arm circles, hip openers. 5 minutes total. Keep moving.
12 minutes out: if there's a warm-up area, do one practice sled push at roughly half race weight, 5 metres. One. The point is to remind your body of the movement pattern, not to fatigue your legs.
5 minutes out: stand in the starting pen. Sip water. Two slow, deep breaths in through the nose, slow out through the mouth. This isn't yoga, it's slowing the pre-race heart rate so the first kilometre doesn't pull you into 4-minute pace before you've registered what's happening.
Run 1, the most important kilometre of your race
The opening 1-km lays the foundation for everything that follows. Get it wrong here and the rest of the race punishes you.
Target pace: 30 seconds per kilometre slower than your steady comfortable pace. If you usually run 5:00/km easy, the opening 1 km of a Hyrox should be 5:30. If you usually run 5:30, target 6:00.
Why so conservative: the crowd, the music, and the adrenaline of the start will pull your heart rate 15-20 beats higher than the effort warrants. Running at "what feels comfortable" in the first kilometre is actually running at 85% effort, which torches your legs before you've even reached station one.
How to enforce it: the first three other racers you see in front of you, let them go. There are 90 minutes ahead. They'll come back to you.
Stations 1-4, settled, not stoppy
The first four stations are about not making mistakes. Station 1 is ski erg; station 2 is sled push; station 3 is sled pull; station 4 is burpee broad jumps.
Effort target: 80-85% of maximum sustainable. Each station should leave you breathing hard but composed at the end. You should be jogging, not walking, not sprinting, to the running gate after each.
Specific cues per station:
- Ski erg: big, controlled pulls. Don't accelerate at the start; you'll over-shoot and burn the lats early. Pace by stroke count for the first 30 seconds.
- Sled push: stay low, short strides, breath every two strides. The first three metres are 85% effort to overcome inertia; the rest is rhythmic at 80%. (Full sled-push breakdown.)
- Sled pull: hand-over-hand if you trained it; arm-pull if you didn't. Either way, sit your hips back and use your legs for the heavy bit.
- Burpee broad jumps: strict standard. Chest to floor, jump to standing, broad jump forward. Two breaths between reps if you need them; don't rush.
If you're breathing through your teeth at the end of station 4, you went too hard. Slow down.
Runs 2-4, find rhythm
By the middle three runs the race settles. Your breathing should be controlled enough to do nasal breathing for at least 30 seconds at a time between stations. Pace settles into something 10-15 seconds per kilometre slower than your training easy pace, which is where it should be.
The transitions matter:
- Out of the station, jog 15 metres at recovery pace. Let breathing catch up.
- Then settle into rhythm. Same cadence as your training easy runs.
- At 800 metres into the run, pick up the pace slightly to arrive at the next station with momentum. Don't slow into the station; arrive into it.
Stations 5-7, the discipline window
Station 5 is rowing; station 6 is farmers carry; station 7 is sandbag lunges. This is where the race is won or lost. The first-timers who blow up here all share the same two errors:
- They went too hard in stations 1-4. The legs and lungs haven't recovered enough to push into station 5 at race pace.
- They sprint the transitions. Walking would be slow but recoverable; sprinting puts heart rate above threshold and stops you from working efficiently for the next two minutes.
The fix is single-track: stay at the same effort cap. 80-85% sustainable. Don't try to bank time. Bank composure.
- Rowing: strong pull, controlled return. Aim for stroke rate 24-28. Stroke length matters more than rate.
- Farmers carry: grip the handles low, walk tall, breathe regularly. If your grip starts going, lean slightly forward to take some weight onto your back without dropping the handles.
- Sandbag lunges: strict standard. Knee touches floor at the back of the lunge. Don't rush, a failed rep is a guaranteed delay.
Wall balls and the final 1 km
This is the moment you've been pacing for. From wall balls onwards, you go.
Wall balls, break them deliberately into sets you can recover from. The classic pattern: 20-15-15-15-10-10-10-5 for the men's 100, with 10-15 seconds between sets. The clock-watch is real but a 4-minute structured wall ball block beats a 6-minute one with five no-reps. (Full wall ball breakdown.)
Final kilometre, if you've paced the first seven stations, you arrive at the final 1 km with legs that have something left. Don't sprint the first 200 metres of the final run. Build into it gradually. By 600 metres in, settle to threshold pace. The last 200 metres are an all-out empty-the-tank effort.
The athletes who finish smiling at minute 92 are the ones who looked relaxed at minute 12. The race is a discipline test, not a pain test.
Diagnosing it afterwards: your split spread
The cleanest test of whether you paced a race well takes thirty seconds with your results.
Take your eight kilometre splits, find the fastest and the slowest, and look at the gap.
| Spread between fastest and slowest km | What it means | |---|---| | Under 30 seconds | You paced it well | | 30 to 60 seconds | Slightly hot at the start, recoverable next time | | Over 60 seconds | You went out too hard. This is the most common first-race finding |
If your spread is over 60 seconds, your next race plan is pacing and nothing else. Fitness is not your problem yet, and no amount of station work will fix a race you have already spent by kilometre three.
Where the bill actually arrives
The reason pacing errors are hard to spot is that nothing is paid where it is spent.
| Overspent at | Bill arrives at | |---|---| | Run 1 | Runs 4, 5 and 6 | | SkiErg (station 1) | The sled push, two minutes later | | Sled push (station 2) | Runs 4, 5 and 6 | | Burpee broad jumps (4) | The row, and everything after it |
This is why athletes finish convinced their sled was fine and their running "just fell apart". The sled split looked normal because the cost was deferred.
The mental model
Treat the race as eight short races linked by seven short runs. Don't think about minute 90 when you're at minute 12. Think about getting to the next station composed.
Pre-race, write three words on your hand: STAY · COMPOSED · RUN. Look at them in the start pen. Look at them after station 4. Look at them after wall balls.
The race is decided not by what you can do at full sprint, but by what you can do twenty times in a row without form breaking. Treat every station as an opportunity to stay composed, not an opportunity to prove something. The proving happens between station 8 and the finish line.
That's where the watch you trained for actually lives.
Related
[ FAQ ]
Frequently asked
What pace should I run the opening kilometre at?
Thirty seconds per kilometre slower than your steady comfortable pace. Slower than that if you're nervous. The single biggest pacing mistake first-timers make is starting the first run too fast, it makes every subsequent station harder and you save nothing.
Should I sprint or walk to the next station?
Jog. Sprinting puts your heart rate where you don't want it for the next station; walking wastes time you can't recoup. A controlled jog that recovers your breathing in 30 seconds is the right speed.
When should I empty the tank?
From wall balls onwards. If you've paced the first seven stations right, you'll have enough left for an honest final kilometre run. Most first-timers find they can pick up the pace in the last 500 metres, they just didn't expect to.
Written by
The Suth Performance teamCoaches and editors
The Suth Performance programming team, led by HYROX Elite 15 athlete Ben Sutherland. They write the training, technique and race-day guides on this site, and Ben reviews every one before it is published.
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