Beginning the journey to a sub 1-hour Hyrox - Doc the Journey Ep 89

Here for my next 3k test in the dog pound, as it's called, as you'll see four dogs on the sign. I did a 10 15, which is my benchmark before Christmas on what definitely felt like a better treadmill. This is with a 1 inch. Sorry, 1 inch, 1% incline. 10 15, 3K is my first attempt. My legs are fucked today after a big week of training, back on it. Body battery saying like 20 training redness, 20 on my watch, 52 body battery. So definitely not optimum. But there's no excuse not to give it another round. I need to be 1015 today. So that was my time a few weeks ago, but I've only had one week of proper training and no real recovery. So let's fucking see how it goes. Very humbling. Reminds me that I'm nowhere near what I used to be in terms of fitness, but also reminds me that when you're over trained and you haven't recovered, you're never going to get pb. So very, very tough. That deep in the pain cave. 1k run 100 warble setting the foundational fleshy physique times, Yo. So I'm back in Dubai for a few days, a short one on a bit of a training camp. Training and working basically, which is what I do like every quarter. We're in this mad Airbnb flat, there's four of us just basically working and living here for a week. Reminds me of my old view back in the London penthouse days, but actually much bigger flat and much crazier view in many ways, but kind of looks less crazy because there's less around it. But some of you might recognize this view from. There's a big podcast on YouTube I think records from this building. But yeah, it's pretty, pretty cozy. Yeah. I like, like coming to places to live and work. Just change of scene with other founders, which is what I often do. That's what I've always done basically the past seven or so years to some extent. But yeah, this place is really fucking big. Don't know what I'm doing here. It's got like the world's longest corridor. Basically just bedrooms. Other than that, not really much to say. Been here a few days, like I said, back in London at the weekend. Yeah, Filmed a few times in Dubai recently. Just feels a convenient place to come and lock in. Often feel like I'm actually doing more work and more inspired when I'm somewhere like this. Meeting cool people, hanging around with people that I know that live here, etc. Etc. Than when I'm just in London, which is basically by myself. So yeah, the business is based in London, the teams in London. We have a small office in London. That's where I officially live right now. But I genuinely find it more productive. Genuinely find it more productive in many ways not being there, especially during the winter months, doesn't. Doesn't get the best out of me. I find I can actually do more work here, less distractions, feel better about life. So for me it's pretty good. So, yeah, I don't know how many vlog this week. We've been doing a bit of Hyrux training camp. Trying to go very, very quick. In a few weeks time probably not going to happen but in a few months time it probably will. But yeah, in a few weeks time setting the benchmark and yeah, really my life is just work and training. That's kind of all there is to life right now and lots going on in both areas, especially the business. And yeah, I don't really have much else to say. I'll just walk down the corridor and I'll catch you in a bit anyway. A load of blows in towels working on camera. Why don't you get some filler with your filler concept now. In. In the flesh. Oh yeah, true. But yeah, maybe I can interview you guys. I need to actually film some. Good. Bad. Come on boys, we're film. Come on. Nice. 8 by 1K. One minute rest in the sun, building the engine. Pretty brutal. Can't lie, I think I averaged about 345. Not my best, not my worst. Terrible new shoes. Very nice sub. 45 minute. Hi rocks club. We're at Hyrox, Hyrux, Valencia. I don't know if you can hear me. James is racing tonight. I'm racing tomorrow morning. Setting a benchmark since last year. Goal is to beat Glasgow 111 bubble C. He's doing pro, I'm doing open. So feeling a bit unfit but we'll see how we go. Let's go, Let's go. Yo. I'm in Valencia for literally like 23 hours for a Hyrox. Weather's horrible. My mate went did pro, dropped out because it was so hot and he kind of it. I've tried to get room service. I'm in Spain. It's never that efficient. Probably the most expensive 70 minutes of pain I've ever paid for because it's cost me like 600 quid to come for one day and just subject myself to pain. But anyway, gonna set a benchmark, see where I'm At I've got room service coming. Probably too late to eat now, but they're taking fucking ages and whatever. I'm not jet lagged. It's one hour but it's only eight o' clock for me, nine o' clock here and we'll see how we go. But the goal is to beat my Glasgow time from last year, which was 111 open. I'm really not that fit but I want to use this as an excuse to get back on the track. Like when I, when I did the, the marathon three years ago, two and a half years ago, when I started training three years ago now crazily so, yeah, March 2025, put a benchmark down, see where we're at. I'm gonna do Malaga in two weeks, Berlin in May. And yeah, it need to get back on it because I'm getting fleshy. I'm like 96 kilos right now. Not, not unfit. Like I did a 19 minute 5k in the sun in Dubai the other week, which isn't terrible, it's obviously not my 17 minute self, but I'm 10 kilos heavier. So for my weight it's actually quite good. So yeah, goal is beat Glasgow to ideally 110 or below, but ideally sub 110 to 109 and we'll see how we go. Catch you in a bit. Boom. Right, it's race day. Hyrox Valencia hours, 15 minutes out. I'm feeling a bit nervous, to be honest. I haven't done a full Hyrox in a year. Since Glasgow 2024. I ran a 111 then. I actually don't know if I'm fair now or not. My training's been kind of flat for like the last two and a bit years, ever since I did the marathon when I was in actually good shape. I'm 96 kilos right now. I've been training, but I don't think I've been training that hard for long enough to. It's kind of. I feel like I've been maintaining probably. But yeah, I have been focused on Hierarch stuff recently. I just. My head's not been fully in it, so I wanted to do this as a benchmark. And I've got Malaga in two weeks time, which is annoying to come back to Spain and then potentially Barcelona at the end of April and then Berlin, which is meant to be the big one. I was trying to go for sub 1 hour then, but we'll see. I think I'm probably off the pace for that this year. So, yeah, I'm just gonna go send it, basically. Try not to overdo the runs. I went off way too hard last year and I paid the price. I'd never done a Hyrux then. I've still only done one now, but I understand Hyrux more now. I didn't have a fucking clue what I was doing back then. It was very to me. So, yeah, my mate did it yesterday. He had a hard time. Said it was really hot. The course isn't particularly fast because it's like a really short. It's like 330 meter laps times three or, you know, give or take roughly. So, yeah, gonna crack on, see how we go. I'll update you once I've finished and hopefully goes well. Boom. Yeah, I'm in Malaga. I actually never spoke about two weeks ago, the time I got, I did a 10820 in Hyrox Open, which was three minutes quicker than my one a year ago in Glasgow, which, to be fair, I thought I'd be a lot slower. I wasn't feeling fit, feeling heavy at 96 kilos. 97 on race day, I think with water in me. So, yeah, didn't really know what to expect. Went out, did a 108 20. Not bad. I think it's top. Top 5%. I think it was. Was it top 5%? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was on the high result page, which tracks all the time. So not bad. Obviously. Nowhere near comparable to like my 252 marathon, which I'm still creaming. But I've got Malaga tomorrow morning. So obviously the plan is just to beat that. Feels a bit more nervy because. Well, because the first time I didn't have any expectations and obviously got pb, which was good. Whereas this time, if I don't get pb, I'll be fucking annoyed. I do think that I've been training very hard. My legs are sore, probably haven't tapered as well. I often think, like, is it better to keep training in terms of like, net results or to taper and race like every month or every few weeks? Definitely feels too soon. Two weeks. It's not like I've made loads of gains in two weeks. So I've been sore for the basic last week after the race. Trained while sore as well, but then got back to not being sore and then tapered for like two days. And now I'm racing and then traveling on the day. Well, traveling the day before, racing in the morning, then traveling home, which I did last time as well. So, yeah, we'll see how we go. Definitely got more context to go off in terms of where I was quicker, where I was slower, etc, so we'll see how I feel. I think I've probably not fueled correctly. Just had a massive pizza. It's probably these hotels. I got like the last hotel that was available to book that's nearby to the racecourse and I left it super last minute. And it's close. It's like some decent hotel but there's no restaurant. So they were serving pizza downstairs. The only thing they had something a bit bloated and I've had that too. Soon before bed. My race is in literally 12 hours time. Kind of nervous to be fair. So I'm gonna go to bed in a while. I'm gonna probably like an hour get up like three hours before eight hours sleep. Ish. And then just fucking send it tomorrow. So we'll see how it goes. But this seems to be becoming like the next sub three hour marathon documentary. Not for this race but I'm kind of just documenting it as I go. And sub one hour is the goal. Berlin feels a bit too close but maybe by maybe later in the season like Cardiff or something. So yeah, see how it goes and catch you tomorrow. Right. One hour ten minutes out from Malaga. Need to leave the hotel now. Go and register and then, yeah, settle down. These pre race nerves. Target is obviously beat Valencia. So really sub 108. I'd like to go sub 107. So in the 106 region it's gonna need a good race to do that. I think I paced it very well last time. I felt I had a bit more in the tank because I didn't know what I was capable of. So yeah, more context to go off this time. Course looks similar. Kind of muggy and humid in there. Short like 330 meter laps. It's three laps per K. Unlike Glasgow where it's at two laps. So yeah, 105, 106 would be really nice. But I don't know, we'll see how we go. I'm gonna wind up more in the second half probably first half go off similar to what I did in Valencia. Then we'll see. But yeah, feel a bit nervous and I'll update you when we're finished. Bosh. That was the big shift. New PB106.07. So 2 minutes and 13 seconds quicker than Valencia two weeks ago, which is I think pretty good for two weeks. You could argue that most of the gains came from just knowing where to push rather than probably wasn't two minutes fitter in two weeks. But yeah, it was a hot room. I felt like my heart rate was higher than last time. So I felt like I was kind of went off a bit hard sled push. I think I was the quickest. I think a 150 sled push which is ridiculous should be like 2:30. So I thought I'd kind of it got to burpees which is at the halfway point and thought Jesus Christ, I'm really, really hurting here. And then you get start getting the thoughts in your mind of like quitting. I thought I'm not doing that because I never do that. But yeah, start to have doubts. And then my mate who was watching said I was on for 106. I thought geez, okay, that's pretty good. That would have been. I was thinking 107 but 106 pretty good. And then I thought well I'm kind of for the war balls. But then war balls I did 4:10. I think it was like 20 seconds quicker than last time. So all in all decent race. I'm still too heavy. Didn't think it was the quickest course. Rock Zone was very long, 3 laps per K as well, which was same as Valencia to be fair. But this one felt more turns and more Rock zone and stuff even though my rock zone was quicker. So maybe I'm just talking shit but it felt harder. And yeah I got a 10 second penalty on Burpees because I started with like my finger one second over and then seven no reps on war balls when there wasn't the screen. So I kind of didn't agree with the no rep. So yeah, I probably could have been in. Probably could have been 20 seconds quicker and he shouldn't say that but like I could have been in the 105s which would have been more a. More of a flawless race. But maybe there's never going to be a flawless race. So yeah, all in all106.072 minutes 13 quicker than two weeks ago. So pretty happy with that and shuts up a lot of people in the group chat. I mean so that's a good start. The road to 59 minutes. It's probably unrealistic for the next two races but I think we can get close by Cardiff which is in June, which is about maybe, maybe not. It's only two and a half months away. I definitely think by the end of the year if I keep winding it up marathon style then this could be the start of a new, a new challenge and chat. GPT seems to think a sub 1 hour Hyrox open is harder than a sub 3 marathon. I'd probably agree, to be honest. I think Hyrox, like the event, feels hard, just mentally because of the length. You feel like you're pretty much at 3. You are at threshold for like, over an hour. Like 171. Average heart rate, I could probably push that up a little bit, but I was kind of holding it back on the runs. Max heart rate 190 on the war boards? I think so, yeah. All in all, happy with that. I'm going to get back to training, see what we can do. Bosch.