The Compound #30: Fifteen years in the gym and I'm still learning

Writing this on Sunday afternoon, heading to the gym shortly.

We're just over four weeks out from Hyrox London at Excel. I'm feeling fitter, stronger and more confident than I was heading into the same race last year.

The training is going well. A few niggling injuries are still hanging around, but nothing I'm particularly worried about. My running has come on massively over the last year, and I've learned a lot about how to approach the race itself.

Which is funny, because after roughly twenty years of taking training seriously, I'm still finding things I didn't know.

*update - had the worst training weekend in months. After a failed zone 2 run yesterday (legs refused to move after 5km in), back felt fucked after just one set of squats today.

Hoping I wake up tomorrow in better physical condition.

I started lifting weights when I was 15.

Back when Bodybuilding.com and T Nation forums were where you went to learn everything about training. I'd spend hours reading about different programmes, exercises, rep ranges and supplements.

I'd take a scoop of NO-Xplode pre-workout, turn up at the gym tingling and proceed to follow Steve Cook’s Big Man on Campus program (IYKYK).

Peak early twenties existance.

I got incredibly strong in my late teens and early twenties. And over the years, with help from some excellent coaches, I learned a lot about strength training and hypertrophy.

These days I could programme an effective strength or muscle building block in my sleep.

But when I started Hyrox a couple of years ago, I was suddenly a beginner again.

I understood how to build muscle. I understood progressive overload. I understood strength.

What I didn't understand particularly well was running.

I knew you needed to run fast to get faster. I knew long, slow runs built endurance. So I started doing intervals and zone two runs, mostly based on what I'd learned online.

Then my coach, Josie, asked me something along the lines of:

"Where are your threshold sessions?"

My what?

I'd literally never done one.

It turns out there's quite a lot more to becoming a good runner than alternating between running really fast and running really slowly.

Threshold training teaches your body to sustain a harder effort for longer without accumulating fatigue quite so quickly. Intervals help develop speed and aerobic capacity. Zone two running builds the aerobic base that allows you to sustain all of it.

And the relationship between those sessions, how often you do them, how hard you push and how you recover is where the real programming comes in.

I'm still learning.

I've always approached coaching in a particular way. I don't want somebody to just hand me a programme and tell me what to do.

I want to understand why.

Why that pace? Why that recovery? Why this session today instead of tomorrow?

Eventually, I want to be capable of doing the programming myself.

I can now put together a pretty good Hyrox training block, including strength, conditioning, running and race specific work.

But I still need to have Josie involved. There's more to learn, and the accountability is useful too.

Last year's London Hyrox was bad.

I'd trained hard. I felt strong. I was confident heading into it.

Then I suffered with a stitch and cramp that completely derailed my race.

At the time I couldn't entirely work out what had happened. But having spent a year reflecting on it, and speaking with coaches, I'm fairly confident I know where I went wrong.

The sled push.

I was doing full 12.5 metre lengths, four times in a row.

What an idiot.

Technically, I could do it. I've always been pretty strong on the sled. So I figured why waste time taking breaks?

Terrible strategy.

The sled wasn't the problem in isolation. It was what that effort did to the rest of my race.

Hyrox isn't a competition to see who can push the sled the furthest without stopping. You still have several kilometres of running and a load of stations to get through afterwards.

And if you completely destroy yourself trying to save twenty seconds on one station, you can lose minutes elsewhere.

This year we're approaching it differently.

Half lengths. Short breaks. Managing the effort rather than trying to prove how strong I am.

It's such an obvious adjustment when you look at it now.

And that’s one of the things I love about Hyrox, 5k’s and half marathons - your race strategy is just as important as your fitness and ability.

I'm feeling incredibly confident heading into London.

Not in a cocky way. I just know where my fitness is and I know my race strategy.

The target is sub 1:25 in Men's Pro Singles.

I believe that's achievable with my current fitness.

My recent threshold sessions have been encouraging. I'm running faster, sustaining harder efforts for longer and recovering better between sessions.

There are still a few things working against me.

I've got the same irritating niggles that I had heading into Excel last year. Two strains at the top of each hamstring. They occasionally make deadlifts and harder running sessions uncomfortable.

If I'm being sensible, I would probably take a couple of months away from heavy lifting and running to give everything a proper chance to settle.

But I know I’m never going to do that. And by now you probably do too.

I'm not convinced they're holding me back significantly, although I'm aware that's exactly what somebody who refuses to rest would say.

The other big positive is my race time.

In the past I've ended up racing at 8:40 or 8:50pm. By that time of night I'm usually in bed. Genuinely.

How TF do you fuel properly for a late race. Do you eat a full day's worth of calories beforehand and risk feeling sluggish? Or eat less and risk being under-fuelled?

This time we're expecting a morning start, somewhere between 9am and midday. I haven't got my exact slot yet, but that alone gives me a lot of optimism.

And although sub 1:25 is the immediate goal, it's not the end goal. Not even close.

I want sub 1:10 one day.

And I'll put another ambition out there for the first time. I'd genuinely love to podium in my age group. I believe I’ll do it.

I'm nowhere near that level yet. But I want something difficult enough to keep me working towards it for years.

The important thing is that I'm not expecting big improvements overnight.

It's about shaving two minutes off here, three minutes there. Getting a little quicker on the runs. Being more efficient on the stations. Making fewer stupid mistakes.

I don't need to suddenly become a different athlete in six months.

I just need to keep getting better.

So far so good.

That's issue 30.

Four weeks to London. Over twenty years of training behind me and still plenty I don't know.

At least I've moved on from the NO-Xplode (proceeds to check Amazon to see if it’s still in circulation).

James

Founder, Toucan Agency · Co-owner, Twenty One Beauty · UK