From overtraining to misunderstood nutrition trends, here’s the reigning champion’s advice for nailing your next race.
Expert Hyrox tips
How important is kit and what sort of difference in time could small upgrades make?
Wenisch: You need the perfect set-up to get the most of it. Training, sleep and recovery are always the most important things, but the shoes and electrolytes also matter. I would say that you can increase between one and five percent of your performance with [better] shoes.
How do you fuel for race day?
Wenisch: If I’m racing in the evening, I just have a normal breakfast. For lunch I have pasta. Then later I have a gel and two or three pieces of white bread with a lot of honey. I have another gel about 20 minutes before the start, and another during the race. Less protein, less fat – but lots of carbohydrates.
Most elite races are in the evening – do you prefer that schedule?
Wenisch: I like it because it’s a more relaxed start to the day and you’re not stressed about timing. You can just sleep as long as you want, wake up and start race day. The only problem is you can’t sleep after an evening race because of all the adrenaline!
What does a typical race day look like for you?
Wenisch: After breakfast I go for a short shakeout run – around 5K with some hard strides at the end. Then I have lunch. After lunch we normally have briefings and media things. Then I take a nap, maybe 30 minutes to one hour. After that I have my honey pieces, a double espresso, and then we go to the warm-up.
Do you train in the same footwear that you compete in?
Wenisch: Yeah, that’s super important. You need to feel comfortable and confident in the shoe. You need to train with them so you feel comfortable in the stations and also on the runs.
What’s the most underrated training or nutritional change for Hyrox performance?
Wenisch: The most underrated thing in training is recovery, because lots of athletes recover too little. Another thing is doing the really hard stuff. A lot of athletes train almost always around an RPE of seven out of 10. But it’s super important to sometimes get out of that comfort zone and go to the personal limit to create a new stimulus.
Nutrition-wise, I would say people just don’t drink enough. Water, hydration and electrolytes are important. People are always searching for small details but forget the bigger picture. So recovery, drinking enough water and eating enough carbs. Carbs are really important for hybrid athletes. A lot of people think they need a lot of protein, but at the end carbs create power, not protein.
What about the most overrated training or nutritional trends?
Wenisch: The most overrated training is zone 2. A lot of people are doing that like crazy. You don’t need to sit three hours on a bike or two hours on a bike to prep for Hyrox.
How do you ensure that you’re hitting those higher intensities in your training?
Wenisch: When I want to reach that high intensity, I use my chest strap and monitor my heart rate. Sometimes when I do a simulation workout, I try to reach almost my maximum heart rate. Once I reach it, I try to hold it as long as possible so I know how that feels in a race. In a race I don’t see my heart rate – I just go by feeling. So I want to know how long I can hold it. If I can hold that heart rate in a race, no one can catch me.
If you could make any changes to Hyrox, what would they be?
Wenisch: I would put the wall balls first – it would be much easier for me. I would love to end the race with a run to make it more exciting. Because after wall balls everyone goes straight into the finish line. It would give a nice spice if we had to run something like 500 metres at the end, so you have the chance to catch other athletes.
This article first appeared in Men’s Health UK.