17: Your HYROX Starter Pack - Format, Tips + My Race Recaps

Four races in eleven months. One very humbling start and one finish that still doesn't feel real. In this episode I'm breaking down everything you need to know about HYROX - the format, the categories, my station-by-station tips, and a recap of every race I've competed in so far. Whether you've been HYROX-curious for a while or you're already signed up for your first race, this one's for you.

In this episode: what HYROX actually is and why I'd rename it, the race format and weight divisions explained, station tips from someone who's learned the hard way, recaps from Atlanta, Boston, and back to Atlanta, and a preview of race #4 in Houston with a partner I've never actually met!

Follow along on Instagram for race day coverage from Houston on March 27th!

LINK to the blog post for this episode

MY APP SUBSCRIPTION - for the woman who wants to both feel ✨and look✨ fit

Transcript

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I competed in my first ever Hyrux race on April 26th, 2025. And on Friday, March 27th, 2026, I will be competing in my fourth Hyrux race, which means I will have competed in four races in 11 months, three doubles races, and then one solo race. And today's episode is all about the Hyrux race, the format, what to expect, and also my personal recap of all of the races I've competed in thus far. The first half, when I talk about the Hyrux format and my advice on each of the stations, is all outlined for me. But the second half where I'm going to be recapping the races I've done so far, this is truly just going to be an off-the-cuff conversation, as if you and I were sitting down, enjoying a cup of coffee and just recapping our Hyrux races together. I'm your host, Carly Kaikendal, and this is The Daily Penny, the podcast about building sickening consistency through everyday habits. Being occasionally great does not get you very far, but being consistently good is what moves the needle forward. Every time you follow through for a workout, a meal, and motherhood in your finances, in your business or in your life, you're putting another penny in the jar of the person you want to become. One penny doesn't feel like much, but those daily deposits compound over time. This show is about fitness, nutrition, motherhood, money, business, and the systems that actually hold your life together in seasons where motivation is gone. Whether you're building habits, rebuilding confidence, or just simply trying not to quit, you're in the right place. Let's add another penny in the jar. April 2025 was my first race ever. This was a race in Atlanta, and I raced mixed doubles, which means a male partner and a female partner race together. And then in September 2025, that was my second race and my first solo race. That was the Boston race where my dad and I took a trip together. Honestly, I think that might be my most memorable moment of 2025 was going to Boston with my dad and him being there at that race. And then the very next month in October, that was my third race, and I raced doubles with my high school best friend Cruzy. And that race was also in Atlanta. And now in March 2026, I will be traveling to Houston for my fourth race. And I'm racing doubles again with another female partner. This time I'm racing with Madison, who's someone I've just gotten to know through social media. And we have never actually met in person up close. Um, we've crossed paths, Madison and I, a lot during a race. Like we've been racing at the same time, and she's like, hey, Carly. And then she's cheered me on along the sidelines of some of my other races. I think she's actually been at every single race I've competed in. She she loves high rocks and she travels around and does the races. Um, but we've never actually met close in person, face to face. But she messaged me on Instagram a while back and just asked me to race as her partner. And so I'm super pumped to be racing with her on March 27th, and I'm excited to meet her face to face. But when it comes to high rocks, there are several different categories. But regardless of the format you are doing, the exact same race format applies each time, meaning the length of the race is the same, but the way that you split up that race can vary depending on which category you race in. So here are the different categories, and I'm specifically speaking to women. You can race in women's doubles, which is two females racing together. You can race in mixed doubles, which means one female partner, one male partner, and then you can race in a solo race, meaning you're doing the whole race yourself, and then you can also do a relay. And I'm not really gonna touch on the relay format at all, but just know that a relay format does exist in Hyrux. So when you look at each of the divisions, like I said, I'm gonna start with women's doubles. This is two females racing together. So within the women's doubles option, there are two different categories or two different divisions that you can race in. There's the open division and the pro division. The open division lifts lighter weights on race day than the pro division does. And I'll get into what those weight differences are in just a second. And then the mixed doubles, meaning the one male partner, one female partner, the mixed doubles race, there's only one division that you can enter in and they lift the same weights equivalent to the women's pro division, meaning they lift the heavier version of the women's options. There's no open option when it comes to the mixed doubles race. So if one male and one female are racing together on the same team, like I said, they are lifting the heaviest weight available in the women's division, which is the women's pro weight. And when I say weights, this obviously only applies to the stations where you're actually lifting or pushing or carrying weight. So this applies to the sled stations, both push and pull, the farmers carry, the sandbag lunges, and then the wall balls. And then when it comes to women's solo race, obviously one woman racing by herself, the women's solo division has the option of both open and pro. Open being the lighter weights division, meaning the weights that you lift, and then the pro being the heavier weight division. And in my first race, since I raced with a male, we did the women's pro weights, since that is the only thing available for mixed doubles. Then for all my other races, meaning my solo race and then my doubles race in October, and now my doubles race in March, I am competing in the open division, which is the lighter weights division. So when you look at the differences between the two divisions, once again, I'm only speaking to the women's options here. For women's open in the sled push, you're pushing 225 pounds, whereas in the women's pro division for the sled push, you're pushing 335 pounds. For the sled pull in the women's open division, you're pulling 172 pounds. For the women's pro option, you are pulling 227 pounds. For farmers carry in women's open, you're carrying a total of 70 pounds, so a 35-pound kettlebell in each hand. For women's pro, you're carrying a total of 106 pounds, so a 53-pound kettlebell in each hand. For lunges, women's open is only 22 pounds. And I say only 22 pounds. Um, when you get to lunges, your legs are jello. So yeah, it's just 22 pounds, but it feels like more than 22 pounds on race day. And then the women's pro for the sandbag lunge is 44 pounds. Wall balls for women's open is nine pounds. Wall ball for women's pro is 16 pounds. So, like I said, those weight divisions only apply to the ones where you actually are lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying weight. And then the options like the ski erg station, the rower, the burpees, all of those are obviously, and then the running portion, it remains unchanged because everyone's doing the same thing. So for the solo race, you're obviously doing the entire thing by yourself, meaning you're doing the running portion and the stations. It is all up to you. You don't have anyone there to relieve you. You are just going until you, you know, cross that finish line. But for women's doubles and mixed doubles, you still have to do all of the running portion together. You cannot split that up. You have to run together. The high ROC rules actually say you have to be an arm's distance, like arm length away from your partner during the runs. Obviously, it's hard for them to regulate all of that, but you do have to stay right there with your partner. Like you cannot run ahead of them. You have to stay together during the runs. But when it comes to the stations, you can split that up however you want. So you can split it up 50-50, meaning you do half and then you switch with your partner and they do the other half of a station. If you're stronger at a station, you can split it up 75-25. You can split it up every few reps. Like it just doesn't matter how you split up the stations. You can even take 100% of a station. Like that's what I did for my doubles race in October. I did 100% of the lunges so that my partner could recover for our next kilometer run. It does not matter how you split up the stations, but you have to do all of the running together. If I had to give just one piece of advice, if you want to compete in a high ROX race, if I had to all boil it down to just one thing, that would be to start running. Like start running right now, start running today, start running. And I can say this with 100% confidence that a strong runner who's not quite as physically strong is still going to outperform someone who's physically strong, but not as strong of a runner. Because you cannot make up the same time at the exercise stations as you can on the runs. Because if you're not a strong runner, your cardiovascular system just cannot recover enough on the run portion to be able to just like power through a station with intensity. There is no powering through in a high rocks race. But like a runner, they're going to be able to keep up a dis a decent pace. Like they're used to running on tired legs. Their heart rate can recover faster. So even if they can't complete a station as fast as someone who's physically stronger than they are, they still have the upper hand because on the runs, they can recover and run faster than you can, trust me. And then they can go into that next station with more stamina, more gas in the tank, a more recovered heart rate, whereas you are gassed from the running portion and you just cannot give as much energy at that next station. The running will absolutely humble you. You need to prioritize that more than anything. And HyROX is called a fitness race, but if I could personally rebrand it, it would be called a running race with exercise stations sprinkled in. And just to give you some insight on the format, it's eight rounds of a one-kilometer run followed by a workout station. So it's eight rounds of that. And the workout stations are focused on more functional fitness. And here are those stations in order ski erg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, row machine, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, and then you end with wall balls. The race always begins inside the Red Bull start tunnel. And depending on the venue, sometimes the first lap of the race is a different length than all of the other laps. So like lap one might be a little bit longer than laps two through eight, depending on the venue. I've actually raced at one of I cannot remember which one it was, but the first lap was longer than all of the other laps. And it's up to you to keep track of all of that. And yes, they really do try to make this very clear when you're in the Red Bull start tunnel before the race, but it's hard to focus because you just have race day jitters. So some Hyrux venues are indoors and some are outdoors, but the one kilometer run is always going to circle the outside parameter of the venue, not meaning like physically outside the venue, but just the outside round of the venue. And then all of the workout stations are located inside that one kilometer circle. And there's also this transition area between where you complete your one kilometer run and you are headed towards your next exercise station. And that transition area is known as the ROC zone, R O X zone. And the ROC zone does not count as part of your one kilometer run. It's in addition to your one kilometer run. And so it actually adds a little bit more running than just the one kilometer lap that you're doing around the track. And there are also certain in and out tunnels for every high rocks race. And the format is the same at every venue. But when you complete your one kilometer run, you have to enter the rocks in zone. It's going to be like a white tunnel that says rocks in. But then whenever you complete your station and you're running to start your next kilometer, you have to run to the rocks out zone and run through that tunnel to begin your next one kilometer run. If you run in or out of the wrong tunnel, meaning let's say you're finished with your one kilometer and you miss the in tunnel, but you're like, oh, I'm just gonna run down here and run in the out tunnel, you get penalized. Same if you finish your station and you're starting on your next kilometer, you have to run in the rocks out zone. So pay attention to where the in and out zones are because if you wrong, if you run the wrong direction through a tunnel, you get a two-minute penalty added on to your final time. So before we dive into station specifics, I'm gonna talk you through the race format again because honestly, it was confusing to me as a new Hyrux participant. Instead of repeating the word kilometer over and over, just know that every time I say go on your next run, just know that I'm talking about the one kilometer run. It's just a long word I don't have to repeat eight times, but I will repeat it the first time. So here's the format with specific links. You start with your first one kilometer run, and then you do 1,000 meters on the ski erg, next run, and then 50 meter sled push, next run, 50 meter sled pull, next run, 80 meter burpee broad jumps, next run 1,000 meter on the row machine, next run 200 meter farmers carry, next run 100 meter sandbag lunge, and then your final run, and then you end with 100 wall balls, and then you run across the finish line. So that's the entire race from start to finish. And I'm going to give some station specific tips that I've gathered just from the races that I have done so far. But please keep in mind high rox is not all that I do. It's actually a very small portion of my training. I primarily strength train and I do one high rox workout and one longer run each week. So while I do show up ready to compete at each race, I'm like well conditioned. I have not, you know, hired a high ROX coach and my weekly training does not look drastically different whether I'm headed into a HIROX race or just going about my normal weekly workouts. So for these tips, I'm mostly going to focus on my solo race in September and my doubles race in October because I felt actually prepared for those races. Whereas my race in April 2025, I was four months postpartum and I was not even running. So that race was a mess. And it was honestly just for fun and it was a huge learning experience. And I found out about the race four weeks prior to even doing it. So it really was just like, hey, let me go through this and learn the format and then decide if this is something that I want to do. And of course, as soon as I finished, I was beat to a pulp, but I was like, when can I sign up again? So it obviously got me hooked. And then I was actually prepared for my next race because I made running and training for it a, you know, more of a priority in the months after that. But when it comes to station-specific tips, here's my advice. The first one kilometer run, I see so many people start out way too fast right out of the gate, and then they slow down significantly by the time they get to the row machine. It's almost like clockwork at my past two races that people who have led the pack are people that I then end up passing by the time we get to the row machine station. So it's going to be really hard to do, but I want to really encourage you to try and pace yourself on those first few kilometer runs and then push yourself in the back half of the race if you feel like you can pick up that pace. So that's the first tip for the one kilometer runs at the beginning of the race. And then your very first exercise station is ski ergs. I want you to try your best to at least touch a ski erg at least once before your first race and find a steady pace that you can keep up for a full 1,000 meters if you're racing solo. And I knew going into my solo race that I could complete the 1,000 meters in less than five minutes. And I think on race day, I completed it in like 451. And then for a doubles race, decide in advance how you and your partner want to split up the station. So for my doubles race back in October with my friend Cruzy, we decided to each take 500 meters and then switch. But for this doubles race that I have coming up on March 27th, our approach is to alternate every 250 meters until we reach 1,000 meters. And there's a setting on the ski erg. It's called a damper setting. And this is where you can increase or decrease the resistance that you are pulling on the ski erg. It's like if you look down at the machine, it's like the little thing that you can turn left and right and you can increase or decrease the resistance based on the number. I generally have mine set up between seven to eight on the damper, but once again, this is just a personal preference and something that you want to try and test out before race day if you can. Full transparency. I had never touched a ski erg before my very first race in April 2025. And I had only used a ski erg twice before my solo race in September. So it's not something that I would like prioritize above everything. I would prioritize running for sure, but try to at least touch a ski erg and like get the feel for how it feels prior to your race day. Okay, moving on to sled push. Honestly, the sled stations absolutely take me out every single time. Your quads just sit so gassed on the sled push. And it's important to have shoes with really good grip on the bottom. And speaking of shoes, only wear running shoes. Do not try to show up to this race with anything but a running shoe. Okay. Something that really helped me on the sled is to press my shoulders into the bars on each side. But if you have more narrow shoulders like I do, maybe try and even press your shoulder into the center of the bar on the sled that's kind of in the middle. Do not put your arms out forward and try to lock them. You want to use your entire body to push the sled. And for my doubles race in October, we each did half the distance of a push. At most venues, you push the sled down and back two times to reach the full 50 meters. I'm not sure if that varies at each location. That might be the same, regardless of where you are racing, but it's 50 meters total, regardless. But at all the locations I have done, it's been down and back two times. So we did half a distance. So my friend Cruzie and I each pushed halfway down the lane and then we would switch. This was a really great approach, and it allowed us to fend off that burning sensation from lactic acid buildup in our quads. And the partner who is not pushing stands behind the partner who is pushing the sled. And this approach was great. And it's actually what Madison and I plan to do whenever we race on March 27th as well, is just to push half the distance of the lane and then swap out. And then for sled pulls, this is going to tire out your lats, your forearms, and your hamstrings from pulling. And as you are running through the rock zone, once again, that's the transition zone from when you finish your one kilometer run and you are going to your station or you are leaving your station, that transition area is called the rock zone. As you are running through the rock zone to your sled pulls, you're going to see buckets of chalk. And I cannot recommend this enough. Put some chalk on your hands because your hands are gonna be really sweaty, and the chalk is just gonna help you get a better grip on the rope. And another thing is do not think that you can just plant your feet and pull that sled in by the rope like hand over hand, because I promise, no matter how strong you are, that sled is not going to move if you take that approach. So instead, you want to try and walk the sled back. So grab the rope, make sure there's no slack in the rope before you pull. Otherwise, you're gonna exert a ton of energy on that first pull, and all you're gonna be doing is pulling out the slack. So make sure you get all the slack pulled out and instead of pulling with your arms, walk the sled back and power through your legs. This is why I said it can really gas out your hamstrings, also your quads. I mean, honestly, your whole body. But you cannot cross the white line in the back of the box where you're standing. Otherwise, you might get a penalty if a judge sees you do that. Normally they'll give you a warning, but then after that, they could add penalty points, meaning adding time onto your final time if they see you do that again. And then when it comes to the sled pull and push, all these stations, you can break this up however you want between you and your partner. Me and Cruzy did about half a length each, and then we switched. Madison and I, we're we don't really necessarily have an approach, but I could see us doing something similar, maybe half a length each. And another key here for the sled pull is to try and throw the rope off to the side as much as possible without throwing it into the lane of the people next to you. Because if you throw the rope behind you as you're pulling it back, you're gonna end up backing up and then you're gonna step on it and trip on it. That happened to me in my very first race. It almost happened to me in my solo race. So some people back up with the rope like between their legs and kind of just pull it back using their lower body. But I have found that it's more helpful to have the rope to my right side, which is my strong side, and to walk it back like that and just keep the rope on my right side the whole time and kind of just let it snake up into a little pile there. So that is sled pulls. Now we're transitioning into burpee bra jumps. The biggest piece of advice here is to walk your feet back up one at a time into that half standing position versus trying to jump both of your feet back up. So I personally jump both of my feet back and then I step them forward one at a time, and then I go into my broad jump. Some people even just step their feet back one at a time, drop into the burpee, and then step their feet back forward one at a time. And for my very first mixed doubles race last April, you might have seen a video if you were following me on Instagram back then. I was jumping forward and back. I was like an energizer bunny, but I did not last long at all. And there was no way that I could take that approach and actually sustain it. So some people also take a huge broad jump forward, and it's just really like whatever feels best for you. But I personally find it easier to do quicker burpees with not as much of a powerful broad jump. And like I said, this is really a personal preference and like what your heart rate can handle. My heart rate operates really well in zone four, which is why I think the shorter but quicker broad jumps work well for me. Plus, like the up and down portion is meaning like I don't struggle with that because my heart rate it spikes, but it just feels like maintainable, kind of, if that makes sense. Plus, I have really short legs. And so even my best broad jump at my best effort is not a long broad jump. So I took like a quick jump back and then not a broad jump forward, but the transition time between my jumps was very quick. And Chris and I we just did as many burpees as possible before we each burned out, but we would say, like, I have about two more. So then the other person could have a heads up as to when we wanted to switch out. And Madison and I are gonna keep this same approach on our March race. And another thing about burpees is they're very, like the judges are very strict about your first burpee has to be behind the white line before you begin that station. So like if your fingertip, I'm not even kidding you, if your fingertips are on the white line when you start that first burpee, they're probably gonna make you back up and do it again. And then your very last burpee, you have to have both feet, like meaning your entire foot across the final white line at the end. Trust me, I've been forced to do another burpee at two of my three races so far because of this. And also when you switch with your partner on the burpees, your hands for the next burpee has to start exactly where their feet landed on their last broad jump. They're super strict on that too. So now we're moving out of burpees into the row machine. Like I mentioned before, the row machine is where most people go to die. This is where people start to fall off. This is where the pack leaders start to separate themselves, and it's where those who started out too hot right out of the gate start to dwindle and they really get exposed. So for my solo race, I believe this is where I entered first place in my heat, and I pretty much maintain that first place spot to the end. I ended up being first out of 30 people in my heat for my solo race in Boston. And just like with the ski erg, the row machine has that same damper setting where you can adjust the number on the far right of the machine. So I keep this between seven to nine, which is basically the same setting where I keep my ski erg, which was the first station that you do. And the row machine, it's where you might need to make some adjustments based on the last person who used the machine before you. So I have really small feet. And generally I have my rower on the smallest foot adjustment, which is level one. But if I show up to the rower and it's on level two foot setting, I don't adjust it. But if it's three or more, I have to adjust it. Unfortunately, because my feet just start kind of falling out of it. But my friend Cruzie and I, we just kept the same setting whenever we raced together, even though she had a bigger foot than mine. So for the foot straps, they felt a little bit big, but in my opinion, we just decided this in advance. It would have taken more time to adjust the foot setting down. It would have taken more time to do that than the time I would have potentially made up with having like the optimal foot adjustment on the rower. And so I just went with it and left. Um, but Cruzy and I, we split up the row machine 50-50. So 500 meters for me, 500 meters for her. We switched in between that. Madison and I, we actually are gonna take a slightly different approach. We're gonna swap out every 250 meters. And yes, this is going to add a little bit of transition time that we wouldn't have if we each did 500, but we're just really going to increase the intensity in those 250 meters and hopefully make up more time. It's just something that we're gonna test. So we're gonna split it up 250 meters, so we'll each do that two times to reach the 1000 total meters. So next is farmers carry. And like I said, for women's open, you're carrying two 35-pound kettlebells, so 70 pounds total. And just like with the sled pull, you're also gonna see buckets of chalk when you head into your farmers carry station. And these buckets are generally right beside where you pick up the kettlebells. And it's so funny because in my first two high rocks races I did, it didn't even occur to me to take off running when I pick up the kettlebells in the farmer's carry. And I will say that, like with my solo race, this is where I lost time. Farmers carry was actually my slowest station of all of my stations when it comes to like total rankings. I was the slowest in my farmer's carry. And it's the easiest station of the entire race. Like, I think back and I'm like, how much time could I have saved at my farmer's carry if I had taken off running? I don't know. But in my doubles race with my friend Cruzie, I took off running because I'm like, now I know. And she and I each split up the farmer's station carries 50-50, and Madison and I plan to do the same for our station as well. After the farmers carry is the sandbag lunge, and sandbag lunges has actually been my strongest station in almost every race that I've done. So, like I said, the women's open weight is only 22 pounds in the sandbag lunge. And I train with a minimum of 40 pounds when I'm doing like my mini high rock simulations. So on race day, the 22 pounds does feel light as a feather, yet your legs are so gassed. So instead of the weight feeling heavy, you just feel your legs like burning. They get wobbly, they feel like jello, and you can just sense that lactic acid buildup. So it doesn't feel heavy, but you feel weak. I don't know if that makes sense, but if you do a race, like if you know, you know. And I generally do a few unbroken lunges before I have to add kind of like what I would call like a stutter step between each lunge just because of fatigue. And a key piece of advice here that the judges do monitor pretty closely is that your back knee has to touch the ground between each lunge. And you can get penalized and they can add time if they have to tell you more than once to tap your knee to the floor. In my solo race, this was my fastest station. This was my highest ranking station of all eight stations. So once Cruzie and I went into our doubles race in October, I told her, I was like, hey, I do not mind taking the entire lunges station so that she could then recover for the next kilometer run. So that's what we did. And one important thing to know if you do end up splitting up the lunges with your partner, is that the sandbag cannot touch the ground. Otherwise, you get penalized. And I recommend that you and your partner practice the sandbag handoff at the warm-up stations prior to racing so that you can just make sure it's as quick and seamless as possible versus potentially wasting time during the race trying to figure out how you're gonna hand it off. Some people like to lift it up over their shoulders and put it on their partner. Some people like to get back to back and transition that way, but just practice at the station and decide what feels the most comfortable to you and your partner. And the thing about finishing the lunge station is that your legs are absolutely gassed, but you also only have one more run left in the race. And then you're entering your final station of wall balls. And this station, this station absolutely takes my soul every single time. And I don't care how many wall balls I do during training, you can only simulate race day fatigue so much, and the wall balls kill me every single time. I will say that I train with a 12-pound wall ball, and on race day for the women's open division, the wall ball is only nine pounds. Once again, I say only. By the time you get there, you have run over five miles and you've done seven stations. So even though it's nine pounds, it feels like an absolute boulder. But once again, training with heavier weights than you race with makes the stations feel so much easier on race day. So for my solo race, I'm not even lying, I think I blacked out during the wall balls because I have no recollection of how I split them up. I mean, it was just, I need to go back and watch my dad's videos because it was just survival mode at that point. But Cruzy and I, we basically each went until we almost gassed out. So then we would just let each other know, like, you know, I have five more left. And then we would know that the other person needs to get ready to switch. And then after you complete the wall balls, you just run to the finish line and you run up onto the stage. And what I love is that as soon as you cross the finish line, your time is immediately posted on the leaderboard, which is super rewarding. And it doesn't matter what your time is, you freaking finish the race. Okay. So I just want to say that like my first high rocks race, I had nothing to compare it to. And looking back, I'm like, oh my gosh, I was the biggest weak link I've ever seen in my entire life, but I didn't know any different. And so when I crossed the finish line, I was so happy. It was so rewarding because I had done something so hard at four months postpartum. I was so proud of myself. So just know that whenever you cross the finish line, be proud. Okay, because I promise you, there is no greater feeling than competing in something like a high Rux race that challenges you so much, and then you cross that finish line. It's just hard to describe until you've done it. So that is the entire race, start to finish with my station specific tips. And now I'm gonna do a short recap of each of my races so far and the takeaways from those. But once again, this isn't planned. So from here on out, I'm just gonna be talking off the cuff. I have my Alani in my hand. I'm just kicked back in my office slash podcast studio, and now I'm gonna dive into each of my races. As I mentioned, my first Hyrux ever was in April 2025. It was mixed doubles, and the whole reason I ended up doing this race is because I got an Instagram message from a girl. Her name's Kylie. I went to high school with Kylie, and you know how you just kind of keep up with people on social media. So I guess Kylie had seen that I had kind of gotten into fitness, and she and her husband Jake were registered for the Atlanta High Rocks mixed doubles, but she got a knee injury whenever they were training for the race. And so she messaged me on Instagram, I think five weeks prior to the race. So it was like the end of March. She messaged me and she said, Would you be interested in racing in the Atlanta High Rocks in at the end of May? I've hurt my knee. I'm supposed to be racing with my husband Jake, and now he needs a partner. And at first I said, you know, like, give me the weekend to think about it. And I kid you not, I could not stop thinking about it. I'm like, I gotta do it. And like at this point, I have not, I had not gone on a single run. Now keep in mind, before I got pregnant with Vance, I was not running. And then all during my pregnancy, I did not run. And at this point, I was three months postpartum. You know, I had only been back to exercise for like maybe five weeks, and even then I was like transitioning back into things, but I could not stop thinking about this Hyrax race because in my mind, I'm like, I literally have nothing to lose. Like, why would I not do it? Yes, it's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be so fun. And so what the funny part is is that I always take Sunday off social media, and I was so worried that they were gonna find another partner for him to race with, since I said, Hey, give me time to think about it. So I literally got Kylie's email and I emailed her on a Sunday, and I was like, Hey, I'm interested in doing the high rocks race with Jake. And that's how bad I could not stop thinking about it and I wanted to do it. So then they're like, Okay, awesome. Like, y'all are gonna race together. And so then I was like, um, crap. Okay, so now I need to start running. And so that next Monday I started very, very small. I think I started with like just a run followed by a short high rock station. And I think I was doing like 0.4 mile run at a very slow pace, like maybe six miles per hour or six point something, something slower, significantly slower than I do now. And then I was doing like a few reps of a station just to get in the swing of things. And even that, because I had not been running, it left me so sore. And so I knew going into the race, I was not in shape to do it, but I still showed up for four weeks, and within four weeks, I established a tidbit of running base or everything, anything that you can accomplish in four weeks, which is not much. And I showed up on race day. And the funny thing is, is that Jake, Kylie's husband, is an insane runner. Like he can hold up like a 630 mile pace for a half marathon, maybe a marathon. I don't know. He is insanely fast. He is a runner through and through, but he's also really strong. And so he's like, I can, you know, do as much as the of the stations as you need me to. And looking back, like I didn't realize this at the time, okay? I didn't realize how out of shape I was and how in shape Jake was. But now looking back, I'm like, oh my gosh, Carly, that's embarrassing. Like I did not realize how much of a weak link I was, and I think that's a blessing. Like looking back, that was a blessing in disguise because I would it's embarrassing, honestly, how much of a weak link I was. Because the only reason that Jake even had me do part of the stations was for me to feel included in the race. And I slowed us down significantly on the runs. I'm talking, like, I don't even think that Jake was breathing hard. I don't even know if he sweat that entire race. Whenever we went to the farmer's carry, he was running with the kettlebells and doing bicep curls with them. Like that's how much, that's how recovered he was. And after the race was over, I mean, I was dead. I was gassed. We finished in like an hour, 23 minutes, and then some odd seconds. I don't know. But I, if I I told him, like I had no idea, no reference point. And so I was told, like, if you finish under 90 minutes, like you should be proud of that. And so the fact that we finished in 123 when I was not a runner and I was four months postpartum, I was so happy with that. And I even, I think I even said on social media, I was like, Jake could have done this whole race by himself. Y'all, Jake could have done this whole race by himself and probably finished in like 50 minutes. I'm not even kidding, because the weights that you lift in a mixed doubles race, meaning a male and a female partner, the weights that you lift is equivalent to women's pro weights. Okay, just to put this in perspective, Jake did a mix, or sorry, not mixed doubles, he did a doubles race with another one of his guy friends and they finished in under an hour. And that's with the men's weights, which is heavier than what he and I did. So I have no doubt he could have finished so fast if it weren't for me. And he would have never admitted that. And he's super humble about it, and he was super encouraging the whole time. He was an excellent partner and he just let me participate to feel included. And I did not realize until several months after the race how much I slowed us down. But like I said, I think that was a blessing in disguise. But it was so fun, it was so hard. I was sore for like four days after the race, but it lit a fire in me because it exposed my weakness, which was running. And here's one thing about me. I am uber competitive. And if I find something that I'm like really bad at that I'm like, okay, I could, if I just applied myself, be so much better in this area. Now, here's the thing: you can't choose everything, right? Like you can't be like, oh, I'm gonna get better at 20 things. No. But I was like, you know what? If I just put a little more attention into running, I can really improve. Like I have so much room for improvement. And so it lit a fire in me. And that was on April, what was it? Like it was either April 25th, it was April 26th. So on April 26th, after that race, I was like, you know what? This is it. I'm going to become a runner. And so I still remember to this day, May 4th was the very first day that I said, I'm going to become a runner. And I went on my very first run. And I think I ran, it was like four miles at a 913 pace. Okay, this past Sunday I ran 6.75 miles at a faster than eight minute pace. And that is after 10 and a half months of running. And I have applied myself, I have not missed a single week. Well, I take that back. I've missed one week because I had a knee injury. But even then, I attempted to go on a run and I had to stop because I was so injured. But since then, I have applied myself every single week. And I'm like, I am going to become a better runner. And I can say with a smile on my face, I have become a much better runner. And that race is what absolutely sparked my desire and my passion for running. And now I haven't missed a week since. So that was my April race. And it also lit a fire into me to do another high rocks race. And I initially wanted to first do a women's doubles race as more of a transition, but it just didn't work out for me to do a women's doubles race first because of my husband's football schedule and I didn't want to miss any games. And so I decided to, for my next race, to be a women's solo race. And so that's what I did. That's when I registered for my Boston race, which was the end of September of 2025. I will never forget signing up for that solo race. I think I was like on this adrenaline high of, oh my gosh, I have access to tickets because tickets are really hard to come by for high rex races. Now that they're releasing a lot more race dates, they're probably going to be easier to get. But at the time, they only had a few high rex races in the US each year. And so it was really hard to get tickets. And I went In to buy tickets, and then the doubles you know dates didn't match up to when I could do it, and so I was like, I have access to tickets, I'm just gonna buy solo tickets. So I bought myself a solo ticket to race in Boston on a Sunday, and I swear to you, within 30 seconds after me completing that purchase, I had this sinking feeling in my stomach, like, what have I done? And honestly, it's not that deep. Like looking back, it's laughable for me to have gotten so worried and sick over this race. But I think I hold myself to such a high standard and I put so much pressure on myself, but I'm like, okay, now this is public. Now I'm registered for this race. And then, of course, what do I do? I set a goal time and I make the goal time public. And I'm like, you know what? For my doubles race with Jake back in April, we did it in 123 and then some odd seconds. I'm gonna try to do that, but all by myself for my solo race. Okay, so think about the distance between April and September, April, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Okay, five months. I had five months to complete the same race all by myself in that same time or faster. And I made that a public goal. And then I'm like, Carly, why don't you keep doing this to yourself? One, you made it public that you're doing a solo race. Two, you made it public that you have this, you know, time that you're trying to hit. And then I made myself sick again. But I think that I there's something about me, if there's something sick about me where I'm like, if I make it public, I will not let myself fail. And so I put, you know, I had 10 weeks. By the time I signed up, it was like the end of uh it was like mid-July or something like that when I got the tickets. So then I had 10 weeks until my race in September. And whenever I was training for that solo race, I actually joined, I got a second gym membership because the current gym that I go to didn't have a sled, they didn't have turf, they just didn't have what I needed to train properly. And I definitely knew that the sleds absolutely cooked me in my race with Jake. And so I was like, no, this is gonna be something I want to prioritize. So I joined a gym where I had access to sleds and I went and I worked out there twice a week for 10 weeks. So I would work out, I would do um glutes and hamstrings from my app workouts on Monday. I would do uh upper body push and pull merged into one workout on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, I would go to that second gym where I had access to a sled and I would do like a mini high RUX simulation or like, you know, interval training with high rock stations worked in at that gym. And then on Thursday, I would do my second leg day in the app workouts. And then on Friday, I would do another high Rux workout at that gym where I had access to a sled. And so for 10 weeks, that's what I did. I did high Rux workouts twice a week, and then I would run on um Saturday or Sunday. And looking back, yeah, it's a ton of volume. But I never even got injured. You know, my injury, my knee injury didn't even come until after all these high rux races were over. So I never got injured. My body, your body just adapts. Like if you are sleeping well, you are fueling well, you're recovering well, your body really can't adapt to a capacity that at once felt insurmountable. And so my body just adapted and I never got injured. I never felt super fatigued. If anything, I was just mentally fatigued from doing the same or similar workouts on a very regular basis. But it got me ready for that race. And then once race day came, I felt pretty confident because I did a high rock simulation with a friend like three weeks prior to my race. And I've never made this public, but I actually completed that high rock simulation in like an hour, 12 minutes. But at the time, now I know this, but I didn't know this at the time. I didn't realize that the HIROC rock zones, meaning the transition between when you complete your one kilometer run and then you're going to your station and then you're leaving your station to start your next run. I didn't realize those rock zone transition areas did not count towards your one kilometer. They were in addition to. So I actually went into my Boston race thinking, okay, I set a public goal out there of completing this in 123 or less, and I still am sticking by that. But I was like, I just did a high rock simulation in an hour 12. Like, is that actually a possibility? So that's why I went into the race super confident I could hit my goal time, but I didn't realize the rock stations were additional running. So I ended up completing my solo race in 116 and then some change. I don't remember the total seconds at the end, but 116. And when I tell you, I cannot describe the feeling of crossing the finish line. I mean, I think that's the most proud I've ever been of like a physical feat, a physical accomplishment because I was September, October, November, December. I was a little over nine months postpartum, and I had never really been a runner since college. So it had been a really long time. I mean, it's been over a decade since I've even been what we would call a runner, run to any, any degree, you know? And so just to cross that finish line, I it's hard to describe that feeling. And then, like I said, it was my honestly one of my best moments of 2025, if not my best moment having my dad there. Like it when I go back and watch the videos of my dad cheering me on, it it literally puts a lump in my throat. It brings tears to my eyes because it was just such an incredible moment with him, and I will never forget that trip. But when it comes to the actual race day, um, there were some things that went well and some things that didn't went what did did not go well leading into that race. One thing was the fueling piece, meaning the food and leading up to the race. That is one area where it could have like all like burned me to the ground, to be honest. So we went out to um an Italian dinner the night before my race, and I felt like Michael Scott, like carbloading, eating his chicken Alfredo before the 5K. But I ate a huge dinner the night before. One, just because I was hungry, I had gotten a ton of steps that day. And two, I was like, you know what, you need carbs on race day. So I ate a huge dinner. Well, I eat a I ate a larger dinner than I normally would have. So then when I woke up the next morning, I had an earlier start time for my high rocks race. Like I had a morning start time. Well, I woke up and I just was not hungry like I normally am at breakfast. And so when I went, like we got a breakfast buffet at our hotel we were staying at, but when I went into that breakfast, I was like, I can't, like I'm gonna be forcing myself to eat. And looking back, I should have forced myself to eat more because we got up earlier and I like my race didn't start for like another two and a half or three hours, but I was not hungry at all. So I didn't eat enough at breakfast, but I did grab a banana and I was like, I'll take this to the race venue with me. Let's go. So then we went back to the room, I got ready, I had my banana, we go to the race, and I kid you not, I'm blaming the devil because as soon as we get to that race venue, I'm like, I'm kind of hungry. And I still had like 90 minutes until my race started, and I was kind of starting to feel this like, oh crap, like what have I done? Like I didn't eat enough at breakfast, and all I have is this freaking banana. So then, like 45 minutes leading up to my race, me and my dad start looking around the venue, like, okay, is there somewhere I can get a protein bar? Is there somewhere I can buy some type of carb source? Is there something here? There was nothing at the venue. And this is a huge miss on higher ups. Like they could make so much money if they had a vendor there selling protein bars, protein shakes, something along those lines. There was nothing at this Boston venue. And I was like, are you kidding me? Like, what is going on here? Y'all, you guys have Red Bull samples, but you don't have a protein bar or a protein shake. It blew my mind. So then I start panicking because now it's like between 30 to 45 minutes before my race, and I'm like, I'm hungry. I'm not just like, oh, you know, like I probably could eat something. No, I'm hungry. And I don't know what it was, but I just passed this guy. It's like almost time for me to walk into my warm-up area at this point, and I'm starting to kind of panic. And I just passed this guy, and he's eating a cliff bar. And I said, Where did you get that? And he said, I brought it with me. And then I just like looked at him and I think he probably saw how bug-eyed I was, like looking ravenous. And he was like, Do you want one? And I was like, Yes, please, do you have one to give me? And he gave me a cliff bar, which as we know is basically all carbs and some fats. Um, so he gave me that cliff bar, and if it were not for that sweet angel boy of a man, I kid you not, I would have tanked because that cliff bar, it truly gave me the energy I needed to go into the race, but not so much that I was doing my race on a full stomach. So that is like one huge piece of advice. Bring your own fuel, bring your own carb sources to have before the race, bring your own, you know, post-HyRox fuel. There is nothing at the venue, or there wasn't at that Boston venue. And I will never make that mistake again. So, anyway, that gave me what I needed to go into the race. I will say that when the race actually started, I started out at a really conservative pace. So conservative that I like when I finished, I was like, I could have given more. Like when I crossed the finish line at my solo race, I was like, I could have gone harder in my one kilometer runs for those first few laps, but I was so scared of gassing out because I was doing this solo that I kind of held back, but I think I held back a little bit too much. Um, I will say that I set a great pace at the ski ergs. I felt super strong on the runs. I felt super strong on the lunges. The sleds still cooked me. Um, I felt stronger on the sled push than I did the sled pull. I think the sled pull is my weakest station. It's my slowest station or one of my slowest stations. And then I already told you about um the farmer's carry. I'm kind of going out of order when I talk about these stations, but the farmer's carry, I was just lollygagging around because I actually lost my dad. Like he was still looking for me on the one kilometer run, but I was already at the farmer's carry station. And so I was like carrying the kettlebells and I was walking, and like I said, it didn't even occur to me to take off and run with kettlebells. So I'm just like walking and I can see my dad like 50 yards away, and I'm like screaming his name because he doesn't see me. He's still looking for me on the one kilometer run. And I'm like, if he doesn't see me here, he he could lose me for like the let the rest of the race, you know? And so, and as you all know, like we gotta have that content, right? But I also just wanted him there when I crossed the finish line. And I'm like, if he loses me here, he might not find me again. And so I was like screaming for him, screaming for him. And then finally, as I'm setting the kettlebells down after I finish the farmer's carry, he finally sees me and I like wave at him, and then I take off on my next run. So the farmer's carry for me was super, super slow. Like I said, I'm kind of going out of order. Um, the burpee broad jumps, it they humbled me, but I did take a much more conservative approach than I did at my mixed doubles race. Like I said, I would jump back in the burpee, but then I would step one foot forward at a time, do a quick broad jump, not a powerful broad jump, just a quick broad jump, and then drop back down into the burpee again. Um, I will say I felt most conditioned or more conditioned for this race than any of the other races that I've done. Like my legs just felt springy. I felt light on my feet. And like I said, after I crossed the finish line, I felt like I could have done more. Um, but when I came to the wall balls, everyone hits a wall, figuratively speaking, um, whenever you get to the wall balls, they will absolutely humble you. I kind of blacked out, I don't remember anything about the wall balls, but then when I crossed the finish line and I saw that time on the leaderboard, I was just like, I did it. I freaking did it, you know, like I did under 123 like I had hoped and planned to do. And when I tell you, like my training for that race was so dialed in. It was so dialed in, and it was so fun. It was the most fun physical feat I've ever done. And I probably will not forget it anytime soon. So that was my first solo race. And then one month later, like one month and one week later, my friend and I raced in the doubles race in Atlanta. So we did women's doubles, we did the open division, which is the lighter weights, and I was so burnt out from high rocks training leading up to my solo race that I still kept doing like mini high-rock simulations once or twice a week, but I stopped going to that gym where I had access to the sleds, and I was like, you know what? I know what a sled feels like. I feel confident in my training leading up to it. I'm just gonna keep myself conditioned. I'm gonna keep running, I'm gonna keep doing mini simulations with, you know, lunges and wall balls and row machine because that's what my other gym had equipment wise, and I'm gonna stop going to this gym with the sleds. I just didn't want to keep, you know, training at that gym. So I went into the race with my friend once again, feeling super conditioned, and I felt so much less pressure for that race because I was like, I have my friend to rely on um to split up the stations with me. Like, this is gonna be so fun. And not that my solo race wasn't fun, it was the most fun ever. But this doubles race was just less pressure, and so I think that I had zero anxiety going into it. It like I had race day jitters, but it was like excitement jitters instead of worry jitters. And my friend, she did incredible, so she did not have like a running background either. And she started running nine weeks, nine weeks prior to our race. And the progress that she made in nine weeks, I'm still dumbfounded by. I'm not kidding. She, so she is a CrossFit um train, she trains CrossFit. She also, I believe, is certified to some level of CrossFit coaching. And so that's her background. And so to think of the progress she made in nine weeks to run, it was incredible. But what we did, and this is what I highly recommend, is she admittedly, like she would tell you this if she was on the podcast today, she was the weaker runner of the two of us because by that point I had been running since May of that year. It was the end of October. So I had been running for several months. She had been running for nine weeks. She's like, hey, I'm the weaker runner. So what we did is we let her set the pace for all of the runs. This is also what Jake and I did back in April at my very first race. He let me lead the pace, which was basically a snail compared to him. But um, so Cruzy led the pace for our runs for like 90% of the time. And then she let me lead, I think, two of our runs, and then I would just, you know, slow down if needed. Um, but she led the pace for our runs. So she was slightly out front. And then when it comes to the stations, I kind of already talked about how we split that up. So we split up the ski erg 50-50. Um, whenever you're doing the ski erg, whoever's doing it, the other person has to stand behind them, and then you cannot hand off the handles of the ski erg to the next person. You have to fully let go of the handles, let them rise to the top of the machine, and then the next person has to grab the handles on their own and then start pulling on the ski erg. So we split that up 50-50, and then we each did half a push on the sled push, and then the sled pulls, it was kind of just like pull until you gas out. We we did about half a pull um each. But Cruzy and I, like I said, we would kind of just let each other know, like for the burpee broad jumps, um, we would just say, hey, I got about X more left in me, and then we would know when to transition. And then same with the wall balls. We would just say, Hey, I have about five more, and then we would know when to transition that as well. And then I kind of already talked about how we split up the row and things like that. But it was so fun. Like racing with a partner is so fun because you're encouraging each other, you're in the thick of it with each other. It's a true bonding moment. And like just to give you some background on Cruzie and I, like, we grew up playing softball together. We met in eighth grade, we played middle school basketball together, we played softball all throughout high school together. We've she was a bridesmaid in my wedding, I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. We've, you know, we've just remained friends our whole lives. And it was just so fun, like reconnecting and doing that together. And Cruzie is going to laugh out loud if I don't even know if she listens to my podcast. Uh, Cruzie, maybe you're listening. But she had so her husband competed in Hyrux in Atlanta back in April, which was my very first Hyrux, and he did a double uh race with his friend, and they completed the race in 113.32, and Cruzy and I finished in 113.33. So her husband beat us by one second. And when we crossed that finish line and she saw our finishing time, she was so pissed because she was like, All I wanted to do was beat my husband's time. So, like her husband's in the army, and he's like super fit. She's like, All I wanted to do was beat his time, and they freaking beat us by one second. And so it ate her alive. And what kills us is that when we came, I forgot to mention this on our sled, I can't remember if it was sled push or sled pull. We did not keep up with where we were. Like we you go down and back two times for sled push and sled pull. We did not keep up with where we were, and that's another thing. Like, it's up to you to keep up with how many rounds you've completed. And we lost track of where we were. And so we actually started another round of one of those, which cost us a few seconds because then people in the crowd, like our friends were like, no, no, no, like y'all are done. Go, go, go. So that cost us a few seconds. And then also on our wall balls, we had like one or two reps that didn't get counted because we threw the ball too high, and so it didn't hit the target. And you have to hit the target because that's what auto counts your reps for you. And so there's like so many like little things here and there that could have saved us a few seconds in the long run. And so it didn't really eat me alive because I was truly there to like have fun, and but it ate Chris Lee alive because she was like, Are you kidding me? But we went in into the race and I don't think we ever made this public, but we were like, we know we can do faster than 115 as um a doubles team, and we did. We did it in 113.33, and I'm so proud of that. I'm so proud of us. But that is the Total High Rocks recap for all three of my races that I have done. Like I said, my fourth race is Friday, March 27th, and I will be doing a race recap after that race, but I'm so excited. I have already put it out there publicly, but I kind of just like slid it in there. I haven't made it like this big grand announcement. I haven't talked about it any more than just this one little excerpt in a post that I recently did. But I really think that Madison and I can do 110 or faster. I think if we both show up and are like primed and ready and well rested and adequately fueled and feeling amazing and feeling springy and light on our feet, I really think we can do 108. I really do. I think we're capable of that. But I would be happy with 110 or quicker. And if we don't finish in 110 or quicker, obviously high rocks is just a hobby. Like it is not that deep, like I keep saying. But the competitor in me is like, I know we can do 110. So, like, if we don't finish in 110 or quicker, I will say, like, I'm gonna be disappointed, but I will still show up. I will make whatever our finishing time is public. You will see it. If we fail, guess what? We have more opportunities. Guess what? Failure is never final. And I know that is so cheesy. Like, yeah, you learn. You don't just fail. You don't miss, you miss the mark, but then you learn, you know, like we're gonna leave this race regardless with takeaways of things that we could have done better. And so it's still gonna be a learning experience. And I know that I'm talking about this like I'm some paid elite athlete. And I'm not, it's not that serious. It's just a hobby, but it has brought something out of me that I haven't felt since like high school when I played softball and basketball. And so if you take anything away from this, hopefully you took a ton of takeaways on tips and just the high rocks format. But if you take anything away from it, like go sign up for a race. Literally, what do you have to lose? It is not that deep. No, you're not some elite athlete. No one is holding you to a certain standard, no one expecting you to hit a certain time other than yourself. Here I am talking to me, and I'm saying, like, if I don't finish in 110 or quicker, then I'm gonna be disappointed. But no one's holding you to that standard except yourself. I cannot describe the feeling of crossing that finish line. I swear to you, there's nothing like it. You need to sign up for a race. They just announced so many more races in the United States at the back half of this year. I'm talking like, I think there's gonna be some more New York races. I'm pretty sure I saw a Nashville race. There are just so many opportunities to join a Hyrux race later this year. So I have no affiliation with Hyrux whatsoever, other than it has lit a fire and competitive edge in me that I have not experienced in a long time. And I love it, and I will be doing more races. I think this might be my only race that I do this year, but I will do more in the future. That's all for today. I know this was a longer episode, but hopefully you really enjoyed it. It was nice to just talk the back half of this. Um, but if you are listening to this on March 30th, we started a brand new strength cycle in the app. That is my ongoing monthly app membership. Those are the workouts that I follow week in, week out. That's what you see me posting on store. That's what you see me linking to each morning. Those workouts are focused on helping you both look and feel fit. They are for the woman who wants to have both. And both is possible. So join me in the app workouts. We start that brand new strength cycle on March 30th. And until then, keep adding another penny in the jar.