Hyrox Glasgow - You Get What You Train For

Hyrox Glasgow - You Get What You Train For

I crossed the line after completing Hyrox Glasgow in just over 1 hour 22 minutes. You can see on my face that I'm not exactly elated. The reality is, at this point, my instant reaction was one of disappointment, I felt like I had let myself down.

The dust has settled and the reality is you get what you train for in this game. It's why we love the sport of fitness, because when it comes to game day there's nowhere to hide. It's why people avoid it.

Let's look at the reality I have never pushed a sled in my life, so when I got to the sled and it barely moved the first time I went to push it, it wasn't really a surprise! My instant reaction was 'wow this is heavy'. That was the first punch that landed! I actually recovered pretty well running wise from that experience and a lap later my legs felt fresh again. Surprisingly the sled pull went better than could have been expected.

Have I done lot's of burpees? Yes. Have I done any burpee broad jumps? No. So a movement I thought I would be good at, I sucked at! Unsurprisingly everything else went ok and the compromised running wasn't too bad. Yes it would have been cool to go unbroken on the farmers carry but a couple of quick breaks before getting to failure isn't anything to be upset about, again given I hadn't practiced them it was a surprisingly ok result.

That's when it all fell apart....

I went into the Wall Ball area feeling fatigued but not wiped out, I had paced that last 100m or so of the run to make sure my breathing was under control. I have done plenty of Wall Balls but never in my life have I done it to a target (only ever to a line above a wall). I missed the first one, then the second one, the third one came down on top of the target and the ball fell the other side of it. I was in trouble! Tired, panicked and with 99 more to go in front of a crowd. The first 60 or so I struggled through trying to workout how to actually do this and string a decent amount together. By the time I got to the last 20 I had recovered enough and failed enough times to work it out and get through it and then get over the line. I'm sure a part of it was fatigue but I wasn't struggling with squatting to full depth or get the ball to the height it needed to be. One of the 10 areas of Fitness defined by CrossFit had let me down, the one that always comes into sharp focus during competition... Accuracy.

I'm not a 'strong' athlete, it's something that after the CrossFit Open I need to address. I know it's going to be a slow grind. But the accuracy part I'm really disappointed about because that should have been an easier thing to figure out and at least practice more on a regular basis. That’s the difference between good and very good. Ultimately that was the difference between going under 1:20 or even under 1:15.

So it's actually pretty simple, you get what you train for, I did well in the areas I had trained for, badly in the areas I hadn't.

On a lighter note, this was a fantastically well organised event. There was a great atmosphere, great systems, easy access and easy for friends and family to enjoy as well. I would 100% recommend giving it a go!

Andy