I’m a Weightlifter and I Admit: Runners Do Better With Hyrox.
When Meredith and I started training for Hyrox in April, we had one main question: whose strengths would help us more in the race, hers as runners or mine as weightlifters ? Last weekend, we ran the 2026 Hyrox in New York City, and we definitely have an answer. You can watch some videos and some of my thoughts in this recap I posted on Instagram , but for the detailed analysis, read on. Incidentally, our finish time was 1:36:48.
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As a reminder, Hyrox is a fitness race where you complete eight short runs, each followed by a different strength workout. ( A detailed explanation can be found here .) It’s like asking runners to rework Crossfit, which might spoil our results a bit. Meredith and I ran the race in pairs, meaning we ran together but were free to split the workload on the strength stations as we pleased.
What impressions did each of us have from participating in the Hyrox race?
Before the race, Meredith told me she was afraid she’d have to leave all the heavy lifting (literally) to me. I was afraid I’d be too tired from running to help with the weights. Unfortunately, I was right.
The first few runs and legs went well for me; I warmed up and tried not to go too fast. But about halfway through the sled push (the second leg), I realized I was too exhausted to be a hero. From that point until the finish, I just held on for dear life. I kept telling Meredith that we needed to slow down during the runs; I cherished every short minute of rest I got during the legs when it was her turn.
Meredith had a completely different experience. Because we had to run together, and she’s a stronger runner, my “oh my god, this is the best I can do” pace felt like a relaxed run to her. She says, “I was actually able to recover during the runs, so at each station I was able to run much faster and with more energy than I initially thought.”
Initially, I wanted to do more strength training and expected to split the cardio equally. Instead, we split the strength training equally. Some cardio was also equal (we each ran 500 meters on the rowing machine), but at other stations, like the burpees, Meredith had more energy for it.
What does heart rate data from a Hyrox run show?
Meredith and I wore heart rate monitors to get a more objective measure of our exertion levels. She used a Garmin HRM 600 paired with a Forerunner 970 ; I had my trusty Coospo paired with a Coros Pace 4. Conveniently, even though I’m about 16 years older than her, we have similar maximum heart rates, so the graphs matched up well. (Maximum heart rate doesn’t correlate with age as much as you’ve probably been taught —more on that here. )
In this graph, Meredith is the darker purple line, and I am the lighter blue line. Both lines rise sharply at the stations, but the running segments show why she had an easier time completing this run: whenever we left the station and started running, Meredith’s heart rate dropped.
In other words, for her, the runs were a time of recovery. But for me, the run after each station was as challenging as the station itself. I gave it my all throughout the entire distance, while for her, the intensity varied, like interval or fartleks .
Why Runners Perform Better on Hyrox
Hyrox is ultimately an endurance race. The average finish time is around 90 minutes (we finished a bit slower than average), meaning it’s a long aerobic workout no matter what.
In sports science terms, the primary energy system utilized during a Hyrox run is the aerobic system, just like in long-distance running events like a marathon. Strength training in the gym with heavy weights and complete rest between sets is a completely different story. But strength training in a Hyrox run uses light weights and includes virtually no rest, making it essentially endurance training in disguise.
Let’s look at this from a different perspective by examining the strategy and timing of the race. The most difficult stage was the sled push, which took us 1:55—just under two minutes. If we had pushed the sled a little faster, it wouldn’t have affected our time much. According to Hyresult , the fastest women’s doubles teams complete this event in about 1:00. If we had aimed to be one of the best sled push teams in the world, we would have shaved only 55 seconds off our overall race time.
Compare this to the results you can get from running well. Each of our runs lasted an average of 7.5 minutes, and we ran for a full hour over the entire race. Runners in the top 10% of our division typically run each distance in just four minutes . If we could run as fast as these girls, we would have finished in about 1:09 instead of 1:36. That’s a huge difference.
So, to summarize: runners perform better than weightlifters on the Hyrox because (1) running takes up most of the race time, (2) the body’s stress is focused on endurance, and (3) the weights aren’t so heavy that they become a significant obstacle for runners. A heavy sled may slow you down, but it won’t significantly impact your race time.
What would I (the weightlifter) do differently next time?
I’m already thinking about how to improve my results for the next Hyrox race. I’m not saying I want to participate in another one, but I can’t help but think of it as a problem that needs to be solved. And the answer is crystal clear: more running. I need really good endurance—which I can develop through any exercise, like running, but also cycling—and ideally, good running economy . In other words, I need to turn myself into a runner.
What would Meredith (the runner) do differently next time?
I asked Meredith about her best practices for improving her times, but before we get to that, there’s a very simple way Meredith could improve her time: team up with someone who runs as fast as she does! She wouldn’t have to drag her tired butt around the track, and that would allow her to achieve a much better result, no matter how the stages go.
But she kindly didn’t say it to my face, at least. Instead, she says, “I tried to focus on strategy, finding as many simulations as possible, because I think my main problem was my lack of experience. I think I wasted a lot of mental resources trying to tap into muscle memory [on weight machines] that simply wasn’t there.”
My advice to anyone thinking of trying their hand at paddling a Hyrox jet ski for the first time.
So what does all this mean for you, dear reader, if you’re thinking about trying Hyrox and assessing your strengths and weaknesses?
First of all, I think you should know that you need to work on your running, or at least your endurance, no matter how fit you are. Being a good runner means that at any point in the race, you can choose whether to push the pace and finish faster, or relax and recover while continuing to move forward. For us out-of-shape runners, the only options are to suffer or stop.
But that doesn’t mean a Hyrox race is equivalent to, say, a half marathon. (Meredith has some more thoughts on that topic here .) Strength training is quite challenging if you’ve never done it before, and a Hyrox-themed class in the gym isn’t the same as full-fledged race preparation. For example, Meredith’s classes never got to the actual wall ball throws (the final and arguably most challenging exercise of the race), so I gave her a crash course in the warm-up room before the race.
We also discovered that a strategy that came easy to me as a professional weightlifter was a completely new idea for Meredith, who trains solely for strength development (not for show). The idea is that during competitions, you should expend as little energy as possible on exercises, even if the opposite is true in training. So we stand up after burpees instead of jumping, run and carry weights to avoid straining our grip strength, and walk the sled instead of trying to work our biceps by pulling the sled.
It’s also worth taking the time to study the race route: you need to know the order of the stations and study the course map to understand where each one is. In addition to station times and running times, your results also include your time in the “roxzone,” the transition zone between segments. Although we performed slightly below average in training and significantly below average in running, our time in the roxzone was better than average. This means our preparation helped us shave some time off our pace—and every minute counts.