In HYROX, just like in life, reflection is a powerful tool. The end of a HYROX season isn't just a finish line š; it's a checkpoint. A time to look back, learn, and prepare for the next season.
Reflection helps athletes understand their strengths, their weaknesses, and ultimately form new goals that will help them to achieve more in the future. But most people donāt reflect properly! Therefore, to give you a helping hand, these are the reflections of a U24 HYROX World Championships Athlete and HYROX World Record Holder.
Introducing Travis 'The Burpee King' Owles
Travis was the fastest U24 Englishmen at the 2024 HYROX World Championships. He holds the World Record for the most amount of HYROXās completed in a 24hr period (12!). He is the Snowdon24 3-man race champ (3yrs running!). He is the living embodiment of a āFitness Beastā!
Like most, Travis didn't start his HYROX journey with direct training. Having trained and competed as a gymnast, footballer, boxer, and ultra-runner, to name just a few! HYROX presented itself as the next challenge on his list. Taking a casual approach to the start of the season, Travis didnāt expect much. However, following the Milan HYROX in October 2023, he qualified for Worldsā¦
ā¦Crazy!
Fast forward to the present day, he has a HYROX World Record and English Title to his name and is now an inspiring ambassador for many within this rapidly growing sport.
These are his reflections from this whirlwind of a HYROX season. So, open your notebook or notes app (whichever is your preference) and get ready to extract some pearls of HYROX wisdom from one of the best athletes in this sport.
Reflection 1: Success Requires Context
We all strive to run faster, lift heavier, and ultimately finish our HYROX in a personal best time. The time that flashes up on that board will determine how positively we reflect on our race. Travis advocates that the time on the board alone is not enough to effectively reflect on your race.
Travis's third race of the season was in Manchester. A race he describes as the most mentally challenging to date. A mixture of chaos and resilience, HYROX Manchester gave him his first learning. He signed up a week before, had zero preparation, and endured a six-hour car journey starting at 3 AM. The circumstances were less than ideal, and the outcome seemed an inevitable disaster. This didnāt change during the race. Suffering with a constant pain in his obliques from early in the race, he pushed through and crossed the finish line. The result. Not a PB.
This is where most would spiral into a negative reflection, as the race hinged on nothing, but the time displayed on the board at the end. Instead, Travis saw his time, considered the race context, and came away from it with a positive reflection. His race context was:
Late sign-up
Zero preparation
Little Sleep
Lots of Travelling
Pain all race
These were not the perfect conditions required to achieve a PB. If I were to tell you these would be the conditions under which you raced, would you have even turned up? Probably not! So, when Travis looked at his time, he looked through the lens of context. Instead of wallowing in pity, at the fact he hadnāt PBād. He celebrated that he had triumphed despite the odds. He had fallen a few seconds short of his ALL-TIME PERSONAL BEST under these awful conditions. His reflection:
āIf I can run that time under these conditions, then imagine what I could do in good conditions!ā
Therefore, reflect on your races this season through the lens of context. How does your perception of your performance change? And what can you learn from this new perspective?
Reflection 2: The Effort Equation
When you finish a HYROX in an underwhelming time your brain will begin to negatively summarise your race:
āI didnāt execute that rep properlyā
āI shouldāve done more sled trainingā
āI slacked off on that kilometreā
As you sit there with a water bottle in hand, your heart rate finally falling to within normal ranges, ruminating about what went wrong, itās easy to criticise the amount of effort you put in. āI took that kilometre way too easy if only Iād had pushed onā.
Post-race, you, berates intra-race, you, with the power of hindsight. As post-race you, sits on their high horse negatively reviewing your race and judging the effort you put in, it fails to consider the race in its entirety.
Travis reflected that throughout the HYROX season, he would use the rowing station to ease off and conserve energy for his weaker station, the farmers carry. However, after the race, he wouldnāt allow himself to become frustrated or angry at this drop in effort on the rower, because this was strategic.
If he had expended more effort on the rower, then he wouldāve really struggled on the farmer's carry, which may have led to a slower time overall. Travisā best performance isnāt racing whilst his heart is at 120 bpm the entire time. His best performance is seeing the bigger picture and strategically controlling energy expenditure to give him the best overall race.
This can be best depicted as a graph. Along the X-axis we have time broken down by each station. And on the Y-axis, we have effort or energy expenditure. There are many ways this graph can look and yet still end in the same race time. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, so the distribution of effort on one graph may be more favourable for you compared to others.
See the graphs below that depict this:
Rather than reflecting negatively on the parts of your HYROX where your effort dipped and you slowed down on a kilometre, consider the race as a whole. If you hadnāt exerted less effort at that station, would you have been able to run the rest of the race at the pace you did? Or even worse, finish the race?
Travis highlights the need for strategic energy expenditure. Each race stage should be planned according to your strengths and the race's demands.
Reflection 3: The Rule of Thirds
Popularised by Olympian Alexi Pappas, the rule of thirds posits that:
āWhen you're chasing a big goal, you're supposed to feel good a third of the time, okay a third of the time, and crappy a third of the time...and if the ratio is roughly in that range, then you're doing fine.ā
As he reflects, Travis applies this rule to his HYROX season. When we are experiencing the ācrappy thirdā, it can be challenging to see anything but negativity. These moments are when our confidence and motivation are most compromised. However, Travis acknowledges that keeping this rule in the forefront of his mind allowed him to navigate the highs and lows that naturally occur in a HYROX season.
Following a bad week of training or a bad race, Travis would bring this diagram to mind:
This would serve as a reminder that he is still on the journey towards his goal. āOkayā and ācrappyā days are still steps in the right direction, even though they may not fill you with the elation that comes with every step you take on the āgoodā days.
The rule of thirds does two powerful things:
1. It gives you permission to feel crap
During the hard weeks of prep, we can become consumed with negativity on the down days. We can begin to question why we feel this way and it can cause some people to feel anxious. By accepting that your prep will abide by the rule of thirds, you can gain some comfort in knowing youāre on the right path, and that better days are around the corner.
2. It allows you to reflect more positively
Instead of becoming overwhelmed by a ācrappyā training week or race, we know that was just one-third of our performance. It gives you license to start exploring the āokayā and āgoodā thirds for more positive reflections.
So, here is a little cue for you to use when you start your HYROX reflection, or have a crappy day of training: āIām working in the rule of thirdsā.
Conclusion
Travis' reflections from his HYROX season provide a roadmap for success:
Reflect on your HYROX through the lens of race context to determine success
Strategise your energy expenditure throughout the race, you do not need to be at max output the whole time
Your HYROX season will abide by the rule of thirds, use this to your advantage
His season shows that not every race will be perfect, and that's okay. The goal is continuous improvement, learning from each race, and staying motivated.
As you prepare for your next HYROX season, take a page from Travis's book. Reflect on your past performances and learn what is required to improve. Remember, it's not just about reaching the next peak but enjoying and learning from every step of the journey. Start your reflection today and set yourself up for a successful 24/25 HYROX season.
Bonus: Reflection Workout
Now itās your turn! Grab a notebook and pen, and letās start your HYROX 23/24 season reflection. Below are some prompts to inspire this exercise:
What were the wins from the past HYROX season?
What were the challenges from the past HYROX season?
What surprised you this season?
What was the most important thing you learned? And how can you use it next season?
Recall your best race. What was the recipe for success? Why did this race go so well and how can you replicate it?
What support did you receive from your network that helped the most?
If you could, what advice would you give yourself before starting the 23/24 HYROX season?
How will you make the 24/25 HYROX season better?
You can even reflect and recharge for your next HYROX season on the Getahead app. Download Getahead today and start training with the Official Mental Training Partners of HYROX UK.
Robin Hughes, Head of Mental Fitness
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