Road to Karlsruhe | May 2026
The Month in Context
By May, HYROX was no longer a one-off challenge. It had become a project.
The race goal required enough ambition to keep progressing and enough restraint to avoid making every workout a test. That balance became one of the central themes of our spring.
May training data show how the coaching approach evolved: running, strength, and race-specific work were becoming more deliberate, and recovery was gaining equal status with workload.
The Focus of the Month
May’s main objective was to improve repeatability.
One fast interval or one strong station tells very little about HYROX readiness. The race requires eight runs, eight stations, transitions, and continued decision-making under fatigue.
Therefore, the relevant questions became:
- Could we hold a controlled pace repeatedly?
- Could we keep movement quality when tired?
- Could we arrive at the next session recovered enough to train well?
- Could we work as a team rather than two individuals sharing equipment?
Key Training Sessions
Steady Aerobic Running
Zone 2 continued to form the foundation of the running programme.
The purpose was aerobic development, but these sessions also became exercises in self-control. When heart rate increased, pace had to decrease. When the session felt easy, the answer was not automatically to make it harder.
Longer Quality Intervals
The quality-running model favoured sustained efforts over sprinting.
The longer-term progression visible in the training record moved through repeatable blocks such as 3 × 8 minutes and later 2 × 10 minutes plus 1 × 8 minutes.
Strength Supporting the Stations
Unilateral leg strength, pressing, pulling, posterior-chain work, and core training remained central.
These movements had specific roles:
- single-leg strength for running and lunges
- posterior chain for sled and carry work
- pressing endurance for thrusters and wall balls
- pulling capacity for SkiErg, rowing, and sled pull
Shared HYROX Training
As partner sessions became more frequent, our focus increasingly shifted toward rhythm and workload allocation.
The long-term pattern began to emerge:
- Sami was often comfortable with SkiErg, rowing, and Farmer Carry.
- Katja had the stronger running engine.
- Lunges, burpees, transitions, and sustained race economy needed ongoing work.
These observations would later influence strategy in Kuopio (simulation) and Karlsruhe.
What the Data Told Us
The strongest conclusion from the available May material is qualitative rather than numerical.
Our training was becoming more HYROX-specific, but we were also learning that more specificity does not mean more exhaustion.
A useful simulation creates information:
- where pace changes
- which station raises heart rate
- where unnecessary pauses appear
- how the next run feels
That information is more valuable than simply finishing destroyed.
What Went Well
We increasingly treated training as a process of solving problems.
Instead of asking whether a workout was hard enough, we asked whether it developed the right quality.
The partnership also began to mature. Training together exposed different strengths, but it also created a shared language around pace, effort, and decision-making.
Challenges and Adjustments
The main challenge was intensity control.
The training history repeatedly shows that faster running was available, but it was not always affordable from a heart-rate or recovery perspective.
That distinction became essential:
A pace can be physically possible without being economically sustainable.
The programme therefore continued to prioritise controlled progression rather than aggressive speed increases.
The Sisu Moment
May’s Sisu Moment was not a single heroic finish. It was our willingness to keep sessions honest.
Holding back when the body is capable of going faster can feel less satisfying than pushing. Yet that discipline allowed the next session to happen and the month to remain consistent.
What We Learned
- Repeatability matters more than one fast effort.
- Possible pace and sustainable pace are different.
- Strength work needs a clear transfer to race performance.
- Partner communication is a trainable skill.
- Recovery is part of the programme, not an interruption.
Looking Ahead
June would bring the opportunity to build more volume and continue joining the individual pieces together.
The destination remained Karlsruhe. The process was teaching us that sub-70 would require not only fitness, but economy.
Final Thoughts
The most valuable sessions were not always the hardest.
They were the ones that taught us something we could use again.
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