Road to HYROX | Week 3: Sick, Stubborn, and Still Showing Up

The Alarm Goes Off. Your Body Says No. You Go Anyway.

There's a very specific kind of internal argument that happens at 5:30 in the morning when you're fighting off a cold. It goes something like this:

Brain: "You're sick. Rest is productive. Recovery is training."

Also, Brain: "You skipped last week. You made a commitment. Get up."

Week 3 of this journey was that argument, on repeat, every single day. My throat was scratchy. My energy was down. My body was doing that fun thing where it runs at about 70% and makes everything feel harder than it should. And yet — every single workout this week got done. Every. Single. One.

I'm not writing this to brag. I'm writing this because I think a lot of us over 50 have been told, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, that the window for hard training has closed. That showing up sick, grinding through discomfort, pushing past what's comfortable — that's for the young guys. That's not for us anymore.

Week 3 is my answer to that. Let's get into it.

The Week in Review: Gritty, Grinding, and Absolutely Worth It

Honestly? This wasn't my best week of training. I knew by Tuesday that a cold was coming. That familiar scratchy throat, the heaviness in the chest, the fog behind the eyes. The kind of thing that, in my 30s, I would've trained straight through without a second thought — and in my 40s, I might've used as an excuse to take three days off.

At 50+, you learn something important: you listen to your body, but you don't let it run the show.

So, I modified where I needed to. I dialed back intensity on a couple of sessions. I leaned on sleep, hydration, and whole food like it was my job. But I did not miss a single scheduled workout this week. The commitment to the process has to be bigger than the comfort of the couch — and Week 3 tested that in a real way.

💡 The Mental Rep

Here's what nobody tells you about training for something like HYROX: the mental reps count just as much as the physical ones. Every time you show up when you don't want to, you are building a version of yourself who shows up on race day — no matter what. That's the work. And Week 3 was full of it.

The sessions earlier in the week were tough but manageable — some cardio base work, some strength accessory work, mobility. All done. Then came the weekend. And the weekend brought the big one.

Spotlight: "That Moment You Realize You're Getting Back in Shape"

Before I get to the main event, I have to share something that genuinely made me smile this week. I captured a short video clip of myself doing barbell burpees — and when I watched it back, something clicked. Not in a vanity way. Not in a "look how great I look" way. More like... I caught myself moving. Really moving. With intention, with effort, with actual athleticism. And for a 50-something guy who's been on a fitness comeback journey, that moment matters more than any PR or race time ever could.

"That moment you realize… you're getting back in shape."

That's the caption on the clip. And it's honest. Because the path back to fitness after 50 isn't linear. There are weeks you feel strong, weeks you feel ancient, weeks your body stages a small rebellion (hi, Week 3). But then there are these moments — where the camera doesn't lie, and you can see the work paying off in real time.

Barbell burpees aren't pretty. They're not supposed to be. But they are an absolute workhorse movement — they build power, explosiveness, and cardiovascular conditioning all at once. For Hyrox training specifically, the hip hinge and explosive push-press component translates directly to the race's functional demands.

If you're over 50 and you're watching that clip thinking "I want to feel that again" — then come along for the ride. That's exactly what this series is about.

The Main Event: 4-Station HYROX Race Simulation

Before I break down the simulation, let me give you the quick recap context if HYROX is a new word in your vocabulary — because it won't be for long.

HYROX is a global indoor fitness race that has exploded in popularity over the last several years, now drawing hundreds of thousands of competitors worldwide each season. The format is elegantly brutal in its simplicity: 8 x 1km runs, each followed by one functional fitness station. That's 8km of running plus 8 back-to-back workout stations, all in one continuous event.

This week, I ran a 4-station simulation — a condensed version of the race format that still captures the alternating run/station structure. It was designed to build race-specific conditioning and expose the weak links before race day does it for you. Here's exactly how it went down.

The Simulation Breakdown

The treadmill becomes both your warm-up and your punishment in HYROX training — you will come to have a complicated relationship with it.

Station 1 — 1000m Treadmill Run: The Opener

The first kilometer is always a liar. Your legs feel fine. Your lungs are open. You feel like maybe today won't be so bad. Set your pace, control your breathing, stay disciplined. This is just the beginning. Don't let your ego run this one.

Station 2 — 1000m Row: Lungs Burning, Legs Already Working

Off the treadmill and straight onto the rower. Your heart rate is already elevated, and now you're asking your whole body to engage — legs driving, core bracing, arms pulling. One thousand meters on the Concept2 rower after a run is a very different animal than a fresh rower session. The lungs were burning. The legs were already talking back. But you keep the pace honest and you finish it.

Station 3 — 1000m Treadmill Run: Back on the Belt

Back on the treadmill. Two kilometers of running done, one thousand meters of rowing done. This is where the simulation starts to reveal itself. The legs are heavier. The breathing requires more conscious management. You're not struggling yet — but you can feel where struggling lives. Stay on pace. One foot in front of the other. The next station is where things get real.

🔥 Station 4 — Burpee Broad Jumps (80 Meters): BRUTAL.

Let me tell you about broad jump burpees, because if you haven't done them, nothing prepares you for what they actually feel like in a fatigued state. A burpee broad jump is not your standard burpee. Instead of jumping straight up at the end, you explode forward — covering as much horizontal distance as possible with each jump. The movement is: drop to the ground, chest to floor, push up, stand, then launch forward with a two-foot explosive broad jump. Then repeat. For 80 meters.

Fresh, this movement is challenging. Each rep requires you to generate explosive power from legs that have already been working hard. The cardio demand spikes. Your hips burn. Your shoulders are burning from breaking the fall on each rep. And you still have ground to cover.

Station 5 — 1000m Treadmill Run: The Grind Continues

Back on the treadmill. This is where character gets tested. After the broad jump burpees, your legs are screaming, your cardiovascular system is redlining, and you now have to run another kilometer. There is no coasting here. Every step is a conscious choice. I focused on keeping my form together — upright posture, relaxed shoulders, steady cadence — and I let the pace be whatever the pace needed to be. The ego checked out here. The commitment stayed on.

Station 6 — Farmer's Carry (200 Meters): Grip, Shoulders, Posture — Everything on Fire

Two hundred meters of farmer's carry sounds simple until you're doing it on a body that's already deep into a simulation. Grip the handles, stand tall, keep the shoulders back, walk — and don't drop the weights. The farmer's carry is deceptively demanding. It attacks your grip strength, challenges your shoulder stability, and exposes any weakness in your core bracing under load. The 200-meter distance gives fatigue plenty of time to find every weakness. This one is a slow burn — not a shock to the system like the burpees, but a relentless grind that leaves nothing untouched.

Station 7 — 1000m Treadmill Run: Every Step Is a Win

At this point, every step on that treadmill belt is a small victory. You are not running pretty. You are running purposefully. The pace is honest. The lungs are working. And somewhere deep in the back of your mind, you know what's coming next — and you know it's going to be the hardest thing you've done all day.

🔥 Station 8 — 100 Wall Balls: The Brutal Finisher

One hundred wall balls. After everything that came before.

If you're not familiar: a wall ball is a movement where you hold a weighted medicine ball, squat down, and then explosively stand and throw the ball up to a target on the wall (typically 10 feet), catch it, squat again, and repeat. It demands full-body coordination, quad strength, shoulder endurance, core stability, and cardiovascular output — all simultaneously.

One hundred of them, after 4km of running, 1000m of rowing, 80m of broad jump burpees, and 200m of farmer's carry, is not just physically demanding. It is a full-on conversation with your limits.

What This Week Taught Me

"Very humbling." I keep coming back to those two words.

When you're over 50 and you've been athletic your whole life, there's a part of you that still carries the ghost of your younger self — the version that bounced back from everything, that could gut through any workout, that didn't need to account for a developing cold when planning training sessions. That version is still in there. But he's evolved. And this week made that crystal clear.

Humbling doesn't mean defeated. Let me be really clear about that. I finished every session. I completed every station. I showed up every single day. But I did all of it at honest effort — not manufactured bravado. And there is a huge difference between those two things. Manufactured bravado gets you injured. Honest effort gets you to the start line.

There's something uniquely powerful about doing a race simulation like this week’s out from an event. You don't just train fitness — you train reality. You find out what stations cost you more than expected. You discover where your pacing strategy needs adjustment. You learn which muscle groups are lagging behind. The simulation is honest feedback delivered in the form of sweat and suffering, and I am here for every bit of it.

The broad jump burpees and wall balls in particular sent a clear message: there is work to do. Message received. Loud and clear.