This page answers one question: what do the sessions actually contain? Below are two complete HYROX training weeks written out session by session, with the sets, the reps, the loads at your division’s race weight, and a substitute movement for every piece of kit your gym does not have. One week is for a first race. One is for an athlete who already has a finish time and wants a better one.
It is deliberately not a 12-week block. The block, the four phases and the week transition work begins are set out in the 12-week HYROX training plan , and these two weeks are what you drop into weeks five to eight of it.
Most sample weeks you find online give you a grid of session names. Monday: run. Wednesday: strength. Saturday: long session. The entire difficulty of HYROX training sits inside the session, in how heavy, how many and what order.
So every session below is written out in full.
Key Takeaways
- Two full weeks are written out here: a beginner week at 3 to 4 sessions and an intermediate week at 4 to 5.
- Every station movement carries a load for Women’s Open and Men’s Open, plus a substitute for gyms without the kit.
- The beginner week runs 45 to 60 minutes a session. The intermediate week runs 50 to 75.
- Train at least half your station sets at your actual race weight. Training light and racing heavy is the most common and most avoidable mistake in the set.
- Use the free HYROX finish time predictor and HYROX pace calculator to set the pace targets these sessions are written against.
How to Read These Two Weeks
Both weeks are built from the same three kinds of session, and every HYROX week needs all three of them present.
Running sessions carry the largest share, because running is the largest single block of the race clock. A 2025 study in Frontiers in Physiology that timed 11 recreational athletes through a simulated competition found a median 86.5 minutes split 51.2 running against 32.8 across all eight stations, and in real races running is about 47% of the finish, still the largest block.
Station sessions load the eight movements at or near your division’s weight. Each station has its own strength and technique demand, and the gym work that builds each of them is covered in training each station in an ordinary gym .
Compromised sessions put a station immediately after a run with no rest between them. That handover is the skill the race actually tests, and the reasoning behind it belongs to the 12-week plan . Here it is simply a session with a table, and you will find it on Thursday of the intermediate week.
Pick your week by how many days you can genuinely give it, and by how much you are already running.
| Experience Level | Days Per Week | Weekly Running Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner (first HYROX) | 3 to 4 | 15 to 20km |
| Intermediate (1+ races, sub-90 target) | 4 to 5 | 20 to 30km |
| Advanced (chasing top 10%) | 5 to 6 | 30km+ |
That table is in kilometres rather than hours on purpose, because volume is what you programme and time is what it costs you. For the cost in minutes, how long a HYROX training session takes budgets each session type and gives the weekly total at three, four and five days.
Before your first session, set your heart rate targets with the training zone calculator . Knowing your Zone 2 ceiling stops easy runs becoming junk miles, and junk miles are the fastest way to accumulate fatigue without building fitness.
Sample HYROX Workout Week: Beginner (3 to 4 Days)
Take Amy, who signs up for her first HYROX in Manchester after watching a friend cross the line. She has a reasonable gym base but has never run more than 5km at a stretch. Her first training week looks roughly like the one below: plain, and built to lay the foundation.
This week suits athletes 8 to 12 weeks out from a first race, training 3 to 4 days. Sessions run 45 to 60 minutes. The priority is aerobic base and station technique at light loads.
Beginner Sample Week
Monday: Zone 2 Run (Aerobic Base)
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Duration | 35 to 45 minutes |
| Goal | Build aerobic capacity; stay conversational the entire run |
| Heart Rate | Zone 2 (roughly 60 to 70% max HR, use the training zone calculator ) |
| Kracey Tip | If you cannot hold a full sentence, slow down. Zone 2 feels too easy at first. That is correct. |
Wednesday: Station Skills + Strength
| Station Movement | Sets x Reps / Distance | Load (Women’s Open / Men’s Open) | No Equipment Substitute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall Balls | 4 x 10 | 4kg / 6kg | Goblet squat with dumbbell |
| Sled Push (if available) | 4 x 20m | 102kg / 152kg | Prowler or heavy sled march with resistance band |
| Farmers Carry | 3 x 30m | 2 x 16kg / 2 x 24kg | Loaded shopping bags or heavy dumbbells |
| SkiErg | 3 x 250m | Bodyweight | Lat pulldown 3 x 15 at moderate load |
| Sandbag Lunges | 3 x 10/side | 10kg / 20kg | Dumbbell or barbell lunges |
Rest 90 seconds between sets. Focus on form over load, because these are technique sessions.
Friday: Longer Run + Strides
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Duration | 45 to 55 minutes total |
| Structure | 35 to 40 min easy Zone 2, then 4 x 100m strides at 5K effort with full recovery |
| Goal | Extend aerobic run time; introduce brief speed to develop running economy |
| Kracey Tip | Strides are not sprints. Think smooth, controlled accelerations at 85% effort. |
Saturday (Optional): Full Body Strength Circuit
| Movement | Sets x Reps |
|---|---|
| Goblet Squat | 3 x 12 |
| Bent-Over Row | 3 x 10/side |
| Push-Up | 3 x 15 |
| Kettlebell Swing | 3 x 15 |
| Plank Hold | 3 x 45 seconds |
Keep this under 45 minutes and treat it as active recovery. If your legs feel beaten up from Friday, skip it without guilt.
Sample HYROX Workout Week: Intermediate (4 to 5 Days)
This week is for athletes with at least one HYROX finish behind them, running 20km or more per week comfortably, and targeting sub-90 or sub-75. Sessions run 50 to 75 minutes.
The one structural difference from the beginner week is Thursday. Almost every athlete who improves substantially between a first and a second race has added compromised work, and almost every athlete who does not improve has skipped it.
Intermediate Sample Week
Monday: Tempo Run
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Duration | 50 minutes total |
| Structure | 10 min warm-up (Zone 2), 25 to 30 min at Zone 3 to 4 (comfortably hard, controlled breathing), 10 min cool-down |
| Goal | Build lactate threshold; prepare for sustained intensity at race-pace running |
| Kracey Tip | Use the HYROX pace calculator to dial in your 1km split target and run your tempo reps at exactly that pace. |
Tuesday: Station-Specific Strength
| Station Movement | Sets x Reps / Distance | Load | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sled Push | 6 x 20m | Race weight + 10% | Power out of the turn |
| Sled Pull | 5 x 20m | Race weight | Keep hips low |
| Burpee Broad Jumps | 4 x 10 | Bodyweight | Race-pace rhythm |
| Wall Balls | 5 x 15 | Race weight | Depth and catch consistency |
| Rowing | 4 x 250m | Bodyweight | Aim for a sub-1:55 split per 500m |
| Sandbag Lunges | 4 x 20m | Race weight | Upright torso throughout |
Rest 2 minutes between sets. Match your race division weights for at least half the sets. Training light and racing heavy is a common and entirely avoidable mistake.
Thursday: Compromised Workout
| Round | Run | Immediately Into… |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | 1km at easy to moderate pace | 10 x Wall Balls, 50m Farmers Carry |
| Round 2 | 1km at moderate pace | 10 x Burpee Broad Jumps, 200m Row |
| Round 3 | 1km at moderate pace | 20m Sled Push, 10 x Sandbag Lunges |
| Round 4 (if energy allows) | 1km at race-target pace | 10 x Wall Balls, SkiErg 250m |
Zero rest between run and station. That is the point. Rest 2 to 3 minutes between rounds.
The first time you do this, it will feel brutally hard. That is your body learning the race.
Friday: Easy Recovery Run
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Duration | 30 to 40 minutes |
| Heart Rate | Zone 1 to low Zone 2 (genuinely easy) |
| Goal | Flush legs, maintain volume, do not accumulate more fatigue |
| Kracey Tip | If your legs are still heavy from Thursday, shorten to 25 minutes. Pushing through fatigue here defeats the purpose entirely. |
Saturday: Race Simulation (Every 2 to 3 Weeks)
Once per fortnight, replace the Saturday strength session with a partial or full race simulation:
- Partial sim (early phase): 4 x [1km run + 1 station], race loads
- Full sim (peak phase): 8 x [1km run + 1 station], full race weight, in official station order
Time the full simulation. Compare against your predicted finish time from the HYROX finish time predictor and adjust your pacing strategy accordingly.
What Each Session Is Buying You
A sample week is only useful if you know which session to defend when the week goes wrong. Here is what each one is actually for.
| Session | What It Builds | What Happens If You Drop It for a Month |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 2 or easy run | Aerobic base, capillary density, fat oxidation | Your last three runs slow badly, and your station splits look fine while your finish time drifts |
| Tempo or interval run | Lactate threshold at 1km race pace | You can hold your goal pace for two runs out of eight |
| Station strength | Force at race load, grip endurance, technique under load | The sled and the sandbag start costing you minutes rather than seconds |
| Compromised session | The handover from running into loaded work | Nothing looks wrong in training and everything falls apart at Station 5 |
| Race simulation | Pacing information and a weak-station list | You arrive without knowing which station is your problem |
Two things follow from that table. The compromised session is the one to protect, because nothing else in the week substitutes for it. And the second easy run is the one to give back first, because it is the cheapest to lose for one week and the most expensive to lose for a month.
Scaling a Session Up or Down
Neither week is a fixed prescription. These are the three levers, in the order to pull them.
Load first. If a station weight breaks your technique before the last set, drop 10 to 20% and keep the sets. A clean set at 80% of race weight builds more than a broken set at 100%.
Sets second. Cutting a station session from four sets to three costs you roughly 15 minutes and very little adaptation. Cutting from three to two costs you the session.
Reps last, and never on the wall balls. They are the one movement where the race asks for 100 unbroken-ish reps at the end of everything else, so the volume itself is the point.
Going the other way, add rounds to the compromised session before you add anything else. Four rounds is a complete session and five is a hard one. Adding a sixth is how athletes turn a Thursday into a race simulation they had not planned and cannot recover from.
Where These Weeks Sit in a Block
These two weeks describe the middle of a training block rather than the whole of it. In the four-phase structure, they belong in Build: the beginner week suits weeks five to eight of a first block, and the intermediate week suits the same weeks for someone on a second or third race.
Before them come four weeks of Foundation, where the running and the station work stay separate on purpose. After them come Peak and Taper. All four phases, and the deload weeks between them, are in the 12-week HYROX training plan . How many weeks you need before your race in the first place depends on where you are starting from, and how long to train for HYROX counts them from four different starting points.
The sample weeks stay a starting point unless something adjusts them when your week does not go to plan. That is what Kracey is: an AI HYROX coach in Telegram that reads the sessions you actually complete and changes what comes next.
Get coached in Telegram, 14 days free
FAQ
How many days a week should I train for HYROX? Beginners should train 3 to 4 days per week. Intermediate athletes targeting sub-90 should aim for 4 to 5 days. Training more days than your recovery allows does not accelerate progress; it accumulates fatigue and raises injury risk. Three quality sessions, consistently executed, will outperform five poorly structured ones every time.
What does a beginner HYROX session actually look like? Three to four sessions a week: one Zone 2 aerobic run of 35 to 45 minutes, one station skills session of five movements at three to four sets each, and one longer run with strides. The beginner week above gives the sets, reps and loads for every one of them, including a substitute movement where your gym has no sled or SkiErg.
Should I train stations at race weight from the start? No, and then yes. Spend the first four weeks on technique at sub-race loads, then move to race weight for at least half your sets from week five onwards. Underloading in training and then meeting 20kg sandbag lunges on race day is how the final two stations turn into a survival exercise.
How do I structure a HYROX deload week? Reduce total training volume by 35 to 40% while maintaining session intensity. You still run; you run less. You still train the stations; you use lighter loads for fewer sets. In a 12-week block, deload at the end of week four and week eight. Do not deload inside the final fortnight, because the taper handles that.
Can I swap the days around? Yes, with one rule: leave at least 48 hours between the station strength session and the compromised session, because both of them tax the same legs. Everything else moves freely. If you only have three days, run the tempo session, the station session and the compromised session, and let the easy runs go.
Conclusion
Two complete weeks, written out session by session, is what this page is for. The beginner week builds an aerobic base and station technique at loads you can hold form on. The intermediate week adds a compromised session and race-pace tempo work, which is where most second-race improvements actually come from.
Run whichever week matches your starting point, scale the load before you scale the sets, protect the compromised session, and check every station set against your division’s real race weight.
Then set the targets they are written against. The HYROX finish time predictor gives you a goal, the HYROX pace calculator turns it into 1km splits, and the training zone calculator tells you which heart rate each run is meant to sit at.