Resources

How to run a HYROX Sim

A practical guide for gyms and Training Clubs, from the date in the diary to the result that sets the next goal. A Sim works best as a checkpoint at the end of a training block, and the kit you have decides how many athletes can start at once.

Everything is worked through on the example every Team Aretas resource uses: 120 athletes, 8 lanes, one day.

The short answer

• Put the Sim at the end of a training block, and announce the date when the block starts, so members have something to train towards.
• Let your scarcest kit set your lanes, and start a new wave no sooner than the slowest athlete can clear the slowest station. With 8 lanes that is every 15 minutes.
• Give every member a result to beat, and put the next Sim in the diary before this one is forgotten.

The worked example

The field is split across solo, doubles and relay. A doubles pair or a relay team takes one starting place, so the athletes and the entries are different numbers:

A wave is the group that starts together: here, up to 8 starting places. The interval is the gap between one wave's start and the next. Waves go every 15 minutes from 08:30, so solo runs 08:30 to 09:45, doubles 10:00 to 10:30 and relay 10:45. The slowest finishers take about 90 minutes, so the last one is home at 12:15.

Where a Sim fits in your programme

A Sim is a checkpoint, not a one-off party. Put it at the end of a training block, with enough time before members race for them to act on what it shows, and announce the date when the block starts. A fixed date is what turns a programme into something members train towards.

A HYROX Sim follows the HYROX race: eight 1 km runs, each followed by one workout station, in the same order every time. That is what makes one Sim comparable with the next, and with race day. The stations, in order:

1. SkiErg, 1,000 m
2. Sled push, 50 m
3. Sled pull, 50 m
4. Burpee broad jumps, 80 m
5. Row, 1,000 m
6. Farmers carry, 200 m
7. Sandbag lunges, 100 m
8. Wall balls, 100 reps

Change the distances, the stations or the order and it is a hybrid race of your own, which is a good event too, but not a Sim. HYROX is a registered trademark of HYROX World GmbH. Either way, an event you organise is independent, so say in your listing that it is not an official HYROX race.

Set the objectives

Decide what a good Sim looks like before you plan one. Two or three measures are enough, and you can check them all afterwards:

• Turnout. How many members take part, and how many of them are racing for the first time.
• Return. How many enter the next Sim, which tells you whether the first one did its job.
• Progress. How many members finish faster at the next Sim than at this one.

Watch entries by division as they come in, so you can see early whether a division needs a push.

Plan the equipment and the space

A wave reaches the first station together, so every station needs enough kit for one full wave. Your number of lanes, the athletes who start at once, is set by your scarcest piece of kit: eight lanes means eight ski ergs, eight sleds, eight rowers and eight of everything else.

• The run loop. Few gyms have 1 km of space, so most Sims run laps of a shorter loop. Measure it with a measuring wheel along the line athletes will actually run, keep it one way, and mark one entry and one exit to the stations.
• Laps. Count them with something athletes carry, such as a band handed in at the end of each run, never from memory. On a 500 m loop that is 2 laps a run and 16 a race: 1,248 laps to count across 78 entries.
• Loads. They differ by division, and divisions overlap on the course, so keep kit at each load clearly marked rather than changing one set over.
• Timing. A start clock and a way to record every finish, with a backup for both.

Choose your divisions and capacity

Offer the divisions your members recognise: solo, doubles and relay, each split men's, women's and mixed, with a Pro option for solo and doubles if you have athletes who want the heavier loads. Only offer what your kit and your floor can run.

A doubles pair or a relay team takes one starting place, so the more of your field races in pairs and teams, the fewer waves you need. In the worked example 120 athletes need 10 waves; the same 120 racing solo would need 15. Set a capacity for every division and a total for the day, and stop selling a division once it is full.

Open registration

Put the Sim on sale as early as you can, with the date, venue, divisions, prices and what is included in one listing. Members commit to a date they can see.

Let doubles and relay captains enter and then invite their partners, so one person can secure the place and the rest of the team can follow.

Plan the starts and waves

Start a new wave no sooner than the slowest athlete in the one before can clear the slowest station, or the waves catch each other and queue for kit. With eight lanes and the slowest finishers taking about 90 minutes, a 15-minute interval is a safe start: up to six waves are on the course at once, and every station has to cope with that. Here is what the interval does to the worked example's 10 waves:

• Give each division its own waves, so loads never get mixed up mid-wave.
• Call each wave to the holding pen 15 minutes before it goes.
• Let athletes book their own wave, so friends can start together and people travelling far can take a later one.

Staff and judge it

You need a judge at every station, lap counters on the run loop, someone starting each wave and recording each finish, a head judge to settle disputes, and people on check-in, kit and first aid. For a field of 120 athletes that is about 27 people, for a day that is over by lunchtime:

Brief your judges on the movement standards before the first wave goes, and give each volunteer only the job they are there to do.

Score it

Every athlete in a wave starts at the wave's start time, so the result is the finish time minus the start time. Rank each division on its own.

Record a split at every run and station if you can. It settles disputes about a missed lap, and it gives members far more to learn from than a single time. Check every result before anyone sees it.

Keep athletes informed

Tell every athlete their wave, holding pen time and start time well before the day, and again on the morning. Send a change once, to everyone it affects, and keep the rest of the schedule where it is.

Publish the results and follow up

Publish the results once they are checked, then give members something to do with them: share the leaderboard, celebrate first-timers and the biggest improvements, and thank your judges.

Set the next milestone

A Sim is only useful if it changes the next block. Look at where members lost time, whether that was the runs, the sleds or the wall balls, and build it into the programme.

Then put the date of the next Sim in the diary before this one is forgotten, so every member leaves with a time to beat and a date to beat it by.

Run it on Team Aretas

On Team Aretas you choose Hybrid Simulation when you create the competition, add solo, doubles and relay divisions with their own prices and capacities, and every division stops selling when it is full. Athletes enter and pay on the web or in the app, captains invite their partners, and entry fees go to your connected Stripe account with no Team Aretas fee per athlete. Every wave has its own capacity, holding pen time and start time, and athletes are reminded before it starts and told the moment you save a change. Judges enter start and finish times and the Score Calculator works out the elapsed time, or they record splits and the total is added up; you check everything on the master leaderboard before you publish, and every result stays on the athlete's profile for the next Sim.

• HYROX Sim software for Training Clubs
• HYROX Sims and hybrid races on Team Aretas
• Start waves athletes book themselves
• Scoring, the master leaderboard and live results

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