Road to Karlsruhe | June 2026
The Month in Context
By early summer, the project had a recognisable weekly rhythm.
Sunday became the main HYROX session. Monday followed with lighter strength or activation. Tuesday and Wednesday were used for aerobic and quality running. Thursday held the main strength session. Friday provided another running opportunity. Saturday was reserved for rest, golf, or low-intensity movement.
This structure was not followed perfectly every week. That was never the point. It created a framework that could be adjusted around work, family, recovery, and available equipment.
Based on several reported sessions (training data) from this period illustrate how the programme was working.
The Focus of the Month
The primary aim was to build an engine that could support HYROX running without sacrificing station capacity.
Three types of work mattered:
- Genuine Zone 2 running.
- Controlled threshold-style intervals.
- HYROX simulations under fatigue.
Strength remained in the programme, but its role was supportive.
Key Training Sessions
The 50-Minute Zone 2 Run
One shared run in Palokka became a useful reference session.
The structure was:
- 7 minutes of brisk walking and activation
- 50 minutes of continuous Zone 2 running
- approximately 6 minutes of walking to cool down
The reported average Sami´s heart rate was 132 bpm, with a maximum of 146 bpm. Conversation remained comfortable throughout the run.
This was the type of session we wanted from Zone 2: long enough to matter, easy enough to recover from, and controlled through pace adjustment rather than ego.
The First Strong Quality Session
A key shared quality run contained:
- 10-minute warm-up
- 2 × 8 minutes in Zone 3
- 2-minute walking recoveries
- 1 × 10 minutes near the upper end of Zone 3
- 10-minute cool-down
Training paces were approximately:
- 6:15/km
- 6:17/km
- 6:28/km for the longer final interval
Sami’s average heart rate for the full session was reported as 141 bpm, with a maximum of 165 bpm.
The session demonstrated that roughly 9.3–9.6 km/h was becoming usable quality-training speed, but it also confirmed the need to limit uncontrolled progression.
The 30-Minute Recovery Run
After a quality run and a main strength session, a 30-minute Zone 2 run was deliberately kept light.
Reported data included:
- approximately 4.02 km
- average pace around 7:28/km
- average heart rate 132 bpm
- maximum heart rate 147 bpm
The value was not the speed. It was the decision to protect the Sunday simulation.
Solo HYROX Simulation (Sami)
A significant solo simulation used three rounds of:
- 1 km run
- 10 burpees
- 20 lunges
- 10 thrusters
- 1 minute Farmer Carry
- 400 m row
- 300 m SkiErg
The run splits improved across the three rounds: approximately 7:04, 6:59, and 6:50.
The broader heart-rate data showed this was a hard session:
- average heart rate 156 bpm
- maximum heart rate 186 bpm
- aerobic training effect 4.6
- anaerobic training effect 2.9
The decision to stop after three rounds was important. The session had already delivered a major race-specific stimulus.
What the Data Told Us
June’s data suggested several changes:
- Continuous easy running was becoming more stable.
- Quality pace had moved into the 9.3–9.6 km/h range.
- Running did not automatically collapse during solo simulations.
- The most expensive sequence was often lunges, thrusters, and Farmer Carry rather than running alone.
- Solo simulations created much higher physiological cost than partner simulations because there were no work-sharing recoveries.
The available data suggests that the aerobic base was improving, but station economy still determined how expensive each round became.
What Went Well
The weekly rhythm created useful separation between hard, medium, and easy days.
The shared running also worked well because Katja’s stronger engine allowed the sessions to be guided by Sami’s heart rate without placing excessive strain on Katja.
The most encouraging development was that running under fatigue no longer always meant slowing down.
Challenges and Adjustments
The biggest adjustment was learning not to convert every good session into a harder session.
When planned speeds felt comfortable, the temptation was to accelerate. Sometimes that produced useful information, but it also showed how quickly heart rate could rise above the intended training zone.
Calf tightness also began appearing as a recurring issue. At this stage it was a load-management signal rather than the major limiting factor it later became.
The Sisu Moment
The month’s clearest Sisu Moment came in the solo simulation.
Three rounds felt hard enough that a fourth would have been forced. Stopping after three was not giving up. It was recognising that the purpose had already been achieved.
That decision protected the next week and made the session useful rather than merely punishing.
What We Learned
- Zone 2 works best when pace is allowed to change.
- Solo and partner simulations are physiologically different.
- Running was improving, but station economy remained decisive.
- A good session can end before complete exhaustion.
- The long-term target required discipline as much as intensity.
Looking Ahead
July would bring more golf, travel, holidays, and summer life.
The challenge would be maintaining training quality when total activity came from far more than the formal programme.
Final Thoughts
June was the month when the engine began to feel trainable rather than mysterious.
We were no longer simply hoping running would improve. We were building it session by session.
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