25 weeks until my next Hyrox competition. I’ve now competed in two Hyrox competitions – as an individual and in a double with my daughter. And I’m doing it again in November with a goal to complete it in under two hours. My individual time in November last year was 2:26 so there is a lot of work to be done.

As soon as you step/run/collapse over the Hyrox finish line your times come flooding in for every run, workstation and transition between each. This makes it very easy to analyse where improvements can be made. Disappointingly my run times were very similar for my individual and doubles events even though there was 5 months of training between them. I’m only now appreciating that I didn’t train appropriately. I should have done far more running with more focus on improving my aerobic capacity. 

I’ve also given some consideration in a previous blog about how I needed to modify my training to accommodate what my cardiologist describes as ‘a not a completely normal heart’.

I’ve just read a fascinating book entitled ‘Outlive’ by Peter Attica. The premise of the book is to identify what you want to be doing at 80, 90, 100 years of age, then put in place a strategy to achieve this. I’d compare it to financial retirement planning. How much money will you need at retirement to do all those thing you want to do? How much money do you need to save to achieve this? In Attica’s strategy planning it focuses on the body you need to have

He suggests listing the 10 most important physical tasks you will want to be able to do for the rest of your life – a centenarian decathlon. These may include actual athletic events but also include leisure and daily living activities. For example, hiking up a mountain, up a lifting up your grandchild, putting  a cabin bag into the overhead bin. This list will determine what you need to do now taking into consideration the inevitable decline in strength and aerobic capacity.

For me I want to get in and out of a sports car, elegantly and without showing off my knickers. 

I particularly love how he talks about older people ‘training’. So many commentartors refer to ‘activity’ including the now defunct Public Health England (PHE) who claimed that referring to ‘exercise’ would scare people off. The nanny state at its best.

According to Peter Attia I’m doing a lot of things right particularly where my strength training is concerned. But I’m falling short in the aerobic capacity department. 

He recommends doing 3 hours of zone 2 training per week. Zone 2 is working at an intensity where you can hold a conversation. I wasn’t doing anything near that even when I was training for Hyrox. It is not surprising that I was so slow.

So I’ve started doing more zone 2 running. I’m aiming for 3 hours per week with the aim of increasing it when I’m a few weeks out from Hyrox.

Unfortunately it is quite boring so I’m looking into listening to podcasts as the minutes pass me by.

The other area where I’m doing more training is my mobility. It is currently fairly poor. Whilst I can do burpees they aren’t particularly graceful and I can’t get up from a crossed leg position without using my hands and even a knee.

You may be familiar with the crossed leg sit to stand test where you lower yourself into a crossed leg position and get up again without using your hands. Allegedly, if you are unable to do this you are twice as likely to die within the next six years, compared with people who can. If this is correct I should be dead by Christmas.

So I need to do the work. And I need to make it a habit.

I’ve dug deep. What has worked for me in the past? Accountability has to be top of my list. I use to believe that my need for accountability was a weakness until I read The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8AM by Hal Elrod. He stated: 

“The link between success and accountability is irrefutable. Virtually all highly successful people–from CEOs to professional athletes to the President of the United States–embrace a high degree of accountability. It gives them the leverage they need to take action and create results, even when they don’t feel like it.”

It was a revelation to me. I remember putting the book down and going for a walk just to digest what I’d read. Since then I’ve embraced my need for accountability. So I asked my PT to video me doing a range of mobility exercises with a view to retesting it in a few weeks time. Plus I videoed myself doing the crossed leg sit to stand test. It was a car crash but the only way is up. 

I’ve got 25 weeks to get a more Hyrox ready body.