Join Me as I Train for My First HYROX at 50+
- Dr. Eric Davis
- 18 minutes ago
- 6 min read
I pressed "Register" and just sat there. My finger hovered over the trackpad for a solid thirty seconds before I clicked. I wish I could tell you there was some triumphant moment — fist pump, eye of the tiger, the whole thing. There wasn't. There was just my heart rate spiking and a very honest voice in my head saying, "What the heck did you just do?"
I signed up for HYROX. My first one. At 50-plus years old. Not because I have anything to prove to social media. Not because some brand is paying me to document it. I signed up because I've spent years — decades, really — standing on the sideline of other people's transformations. I've coached them. I've written about them. I've taught them. And at some point, probably around 3 a.m. on a Tuesday when the house was quiet and I was being way too honest with myself, I realized I'd been talking about transformation for a long time without truly putting myself on the line for one.
That ends now.
This is the first post in a weekly blog series that will document every single step of my HYROX training journey — from April 19, all the way through race day in September 2026. The good days. The brutal days. The days I don't want to get out of bed. Every weigh-in. Every rep. Every honest thought I have along the way.
You're not getting a highlight reel. You're getting the whole thing.
What Is HYROX?
If you haven't heard of HYROX yet, you will soon. It's been called the World Series of Fitness Racing, and it's growing at a pace that's hard to ignore — from 650 participants at its first race in Hamburg in 2018 to hundreds of thousands of athletes competing in dozens of cities across the globe today. Events are now routinely selling out with 8,000+ competitors and 10,000+ spectators in a single weekend.
The format is beautifully simple and brutally hard: you run 1 kilometer, then complete a functional workout station. Then you run another kilometer, then another station. You do this eight times. That's 8 kilometers of running interspersed with 8 different workout stations — SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jumps, Rowing, Farmers Carry, Sandbag Lunges, and Wall Balls. Every race, every city, same format. Your time in Virginia or Maryland can be compared directly to someone's time in Berlin or Singapore.
What makes HYROX different from something like a marathon or a CrossFit competition is that it tests everything. You can't just be a good runner. You can't just be strong. You need endurance, raw strength, grip that won't quit, lungs that keep working when your legs are screaming, and — maybe most of all — the mental toughness to keep moving through station after station when every part of you wants to stop. It's roughly 20 weeks away, and the clock is ticking.
Why I'm Doing This
Here's the truth: I'm tired of being the guy who knows the playbook but hasn't run the play.
I've spent my career in public education, in coaching, in writing about what it takes to transform your life. And I believe every word I've ever written. But there's a difference between believing something and living it — publicly, with nowhere to hide. I decided it was time to close that gap.
I'm over 50. I know what the cultural script says about that. Slow down. Be careful. Take it easy. Maybe pick up golf. And look — there's nothing wrong with golf. But I'm not wired for "take it easy." I never have been. And I refuse to accept the idea that age is a ceiling. It might be a factor. It might mean I recover differently, plan smarter, listen to my body more carefully. But a ceiling? No!
I want to be in the best shape of my life. Not the best shape "for my age" — the best shape of my life. And I want to do it in front of everyone, with full transparency, because I think that's what real accountability looks like.
This blog is my accountability partner. Every week, I'm going to show up here and tell you exactly where I stand — what's working, what's not, what hurts, what's improving. No filters. No excuses. No editing out the hard parts.
And here's the invitation: come with me. Whether you're training for HYROX yourself, whether you're 50+ and wondering if you still have something left in the tank, whether you're 25 and curious what this looks like — pull up a chair. This is going to be a ride.
Week 1: Where I Stand — The Baseline
If I'm going to ask you to follow this journey, I owe you the starting point. No cherry-picked angles. No "good lighting" numbers. Just the raw data.
On April 19, 2026, I did a full body scan. Here's what came back:
Body Scan Results — April 19, 2026 (Day 1)
Weight 232.0 lbs
Body Fat 20.0%
Fat-Free Body Weight 185.6 lbs
Muscle Mass 176.1 lbs
Skeletal Muscles 51.6%
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) 2,058 kcal
Resting Heart Rate 70 bpm
BMI 32.5
Metabolic Age 63
Visceral Fat 14
Subcutaneous Fat 16.1%
Body Water 57.7%
Bone Mass 9.3 lbs
Protein 18.2%
Let me be straight with you about what I see in those numbers.
There's a solid foundation here. At 176.1 pounds of muscle mass and 51.6% skeletal muscle, I'm not starting from scratch. I've been in the gym. I've been putting in work. That muscle base is real, and it's an asset I plan to build on.
But there's also work to do — and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. A metabolic age of 63 when my actual age is 57 tells me my body's internal engine needs tuning. A BMI of 32.5 and visceral fat of 14 are numbers I want to bring down significantly. Not for vanity — for performance. Every pound I'm carrying that isn't helping me push a sled or run a kilometer is a pound I'm carrying against myself.
The reason I'm posting these numbers publicly is simple: I believe transformation starts with honesty. I've written books and told thousands of people that over the years. Now I'm living it. These numbers are my starting line, not my identity. Watch them change.
What Training Looks Like Right Now
I'm not waiting for a perfect plan to start moving. I'm moving now and refining as I go. Here's what a typical training session looks like for me at this point:
● 30 minutes on the Peloton bike — This is my engine builder.
● 100 push-ups (total across sets)
● Wall balls: 3–4 sets of 15–20 reps — This is station 8 in HYROX.
● SkiErg: 5 × 500m intervals — Station 1 in HYROX.
● Rower pyramid: 200m – 400m – 600m – 400m – 200m
● 3-mile run — Building the running base. It's not 8 kilometers yet, but it will be.
● Crunch machine: 5 × 20 reps — Core work.
● Sled push work at the gym — Because the sled push in HYROX is legendary.
This routine will evolve. As September gets closer, I'll be shifting into race-specific simulation days, structured blocks, and targeted work on my weakest stations. Right now, the goal is to build the base — the aerobic engine, the strength foundation, and the movement patterns. The fine-tuning comes later. For now, it's about showing up and putting in the work.
What's Coming: The Weekly Blog Series
This isn't a one-and-done article. This is the opening chapter of a story that won't be finished until I cross that finish line in September. Every single week between now and race day, I'll be publishing a new post.
The Difference Between Knowing and Doing
I've been an educator for a long time. I've stood in front of rooms full of people and talked about growth, about resilience, about the power of committing to something bigger than your comfort zone. I've written books about it. I've coached people through it. And I meant every word.
But there's something I've learned that I couldn't have learned from a podium or a manuscript: knowing the path and walking the path are two completely different things.
Knowing that transformation is possible. It's comfortable. It lives in the safe territory of ideas and intentions. Walking it — putting your body scan numbers on the internet, lacing up shoes when your knees are reminding you they've been around for five decades, pushing a sled until your vision narrows — that's where the real teaching happens. That's where you find out what you actually believe. I'm done coaching from the sideline. I'm stepping onto the field.
See you next week.