I have signed up to compete in Hyrox. This gives me something to train for, to focus on.

Hyrox is described as:

‘A new global fitness race for every BODY! The competition starts with a 1 km run, followed by 1 functional workout repeated 8 times. This combination of functional exercises and endurance makes HYROX unique yet still attainable for people from varying athletic and fitness backgrounds’.

My ‘athletic and fitness background’ didn’t start until I was in my early 50s. Before that I was someone that regularly went to the gym but didn’t know what I was doing. No plan, no progress. This all changed when I started at the gym I’m still at. Part of my journey included qualifying as a personal trainer.

Not that the path to strength and fitness has been without its bumps.

Seven years ago I needed open heart surgery. It was a scary time. By the time I received a diagnosis my condition was ‘severe’ so I had to stop training. Although I was very scared at the prospect of the surgery I never felt unwell and I knew that as soon as I’d had the surgery I’d be on my way to being a fitter me courtesy of a titanium heart valve. I was also very aware of the high incidence of depression amongst heart patients so I did all I could to keep myself mentally healthy.

At the end of 2021 I became ill again. Initially I thought it was a return of my heart condition but it turned out to be an overactive thyroid. Unlike my previous experience this time I did feel unwell. Within weeks I lost my strength, my endurance, I became unsteady on my feet and I gained a slight tremor. The loss of muscle gave me a flat derrière. l lost the shape I’ve been cultivating for years.

It was such a relief to start treatment. To start to regain what I had lost.

But what I hadn’t accounted for was the impact it had had on my mental health. It had been a very dark period of my life that resulted in a loss of confidence in what I could do. It had been very subtle, hardly noticeable, but present all the same. Doubt started to seep in as to what I was capable of.

I didn’t acknowledge this until my personal trainer suggested that the challenge of Hyrox would play to my strengths. I’ve been training with my PT for 9 years. She probably is more aware of what I can do than I am. So when she made this suggestion I didn’t laugh it off or dismiss it.

Instead I scrutinised the Hyrox website. What was the challenge? How fast were other women of a similar age to me? Was there a cut-off time? Within 24hrs I had signed up.

The most daunting workstation is the 80 metre burpee broad jump. I hate burpees (who doesn’t) but I do them as they are a great strength and endurance exercise. Unfortunately, I’m slow, very slow. Looking at past results most competitors complete it in less than 10 minutes. The slowest time I could see was 24 minutes. So that is the one to beat.

As expected most competitors are in the younger age brackets. In the April 2022 competition there was only 1 woman in the same bracket that I’m in. But she did a very good time.

And no cut-off time:

‘When it comes to the finisher times we have a big range from some “out of this world athletes” who finished in less than an hour, to athletes who needed more than three hours, who are at least as respected from everyone, for not giving up, and fighting their way through the competition’.

The competition is in November which will mark the anniversary of my thyroid decimating my body and my confidence. It gives me five months of training to get to a fitter, stronger me. I’ll keep you posted on how I get on.