A Good Performance Isn’t Always Perfect

Over the Christmas break, ReformPhysio & Pilates Physiotherapist Tamara completed her first solo HYROX race in her hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Below, she shares her top tips for race-week preparation and reflects on the experience as a whole, including setbacks and frustrations, lessons learned for future races, and some unexpected parallels with the rehabilitation journey. Over to Tamara…..

If you’ve read my earlier blog post on preparing for the demands of a HYROX race, you’ll already have an understanding of what a hyrox event involves and how I approached my training. If not, you can check it out here for my top training tips (link). In this post, I’ll focus on race-week preparation and share some hard-earned lessons from race day itself.

Race Week Considerations

Test Everything

If you’ve ever run a race, you’ve probably heard the phrase “nothing new on race day” — and the same applies here. Think through every detail: your outfit, shoes, how you’ll wear your hair. Trial these in a race simulation or a workout of similar length and structure.

These details may seem minor, but discovering on race day that your shorts won’t stay put, a sleeve rubs your inner arm, or your ponytail keeps flopping into your face on the SkiErg is not ideal!

Tapering

During race week, the goal is to maintain momentum while reducing overall intensity. We want to keep practising key skills and movement patterns, but with lighter loads, easier paces, and lower overall fatigue.

For my Sunday race, this looked like:

• Monday: an easy-paced 10km run
   
• Tuesday–Thursday: my usual CrossFit classes with intensity significantly reduced (lighter weights and easy efforts)
   
• Friday: complete rest
   
• Saturday: a very slow 4km jog to flush out my legs and stay mobile
   

On race morning, I went for an early walk to get the body moving before heading to the venue.

Fuelling

Carb-loading doesn’t mean a single massive pasta dinner the night before. Instead, aim for a modest increase in both hydration and carbohydrate intake over the few days leading up to race day. One to two days out, it can also be helpful to reduce fibre and fat intake, as both may contribute to gastrointestinal discomfort.

Your pre-race meal should be eaten 2–3 hours before your start time and focus on easily digestible carbohydrates, some protein, and minimal fat and fibre. Popular options include oatmeal with fruit and honey, a bagel with a small amount of nut butter and banana, or eggs and toast.

Finally, consider whether you’ll need fuel during the race. This depends on your experience and expected finish time. If you anticipate finishing in around 60–90 minutes and typically don’t fuel during long runs, you may be fine without. If you expect to be closer to (or beyond) two hours, carbohydrates during the race; gels, chews, or dates may be beneficial. As always, trial this during training rather than experimenting on race day.

Recovery and Mental Preparation

Make sleep a priority. Good sleep hygiene; consistent bedtimes, limiting late-night screen use, and keeping the room cool and dark can make a meaningful difference to how you feel on race day.

Equally important was arriving at the venue feeling calm and prepared. HYROX setups vary between venues, and detailed maps and logistics are usually released in the days leading up to the race. Understanding the running laps, Roxzone flow, check-in process, wave start times, and movement standards ahead of time helps avoid unnecessary stress or penalties.

I’d strongly recommend reviewing the rules and movement standards one final time, or even better, rope a support person into watching with you for some added reassurance!

Reflections on My Race

On race day, I felt ready. I had a goal time I’d shared openly and a second, more ambitious goal I’d mostly kept to myself. Based on my training and simulation, I knew it was achievable. My prep had gone well, my taper felt right, even my Garmin was telling me I was ready (and if you have a Garmin, you’ll know that’s no small feat, those things are never happy!).

Despite all of this, I didn’t have the race I’d hoped for.

Nerves hit hard when I arrived at the venue, but they settled as soon as I ran out for my first lap. I stuck to my plan of conservative pacing and moved comfortably through the first two runs and the SkiErg. Then, at the sled push, typically one of my stronger stations, I leaned into the sled and was hit with an intense wave of nausea.

This was not even 15 minutes into the race. My heart rate and effort were controlled, and the sensation was completely new. I panicked briefly, wondering how I’d possibly make it through the rest of the race feeling this way.

Unfortunately, the nausea never resolved, and the remainder of the race became an exercise in managing it. I crossed the finish line well under my publicly stated goal time, but almost 10 minutes slower than what I had truly been aiming for.

In the days that followed, I felt deeply disappointed. I replayed the race repeatedly, questioning my training, fuelling, and preparation, searching for where I might have gone wrong.

Lessons Learned (On the Course and in Rehab)

With some distance from the event, the disappointment softened, making space for reflection and some valuable parallels with what we aim to teach our patients as physiotherapists;

Adaptability Is a Key Performance Skill

Whether the nausea was due to a lingering stomach bug, pre-race anxiety, or a combination of factors, it was there to stay. What helped was the adaptability I’d built through years of training, the ability to make decisions and adjust on the fly and the physical and mental capability to keep going when your body isn’t feeling its best. 

In rehabilitation, we aim to help our patients develop these same skills: building a foundation that allows them to continue doing what they enjoy, even when conditions aren’t perfect.

Learning to Listen to Your Body

This is a cornerstone of good physiotherapy. Learning how to monitor your symptoms, and interpret them, rather than fearing or ignoring them, and knowing how and when to adjust.

During my race, my body was telling me clearly what it needed: slower runs that truly functioned as recovery, breaks during sled work rather than pushing through unbroken, and staying low during burpee broad jumps to manage symptoms. These learned skills of listening and knowing how to adapt were what allowed me to finish.

Acknowledging the Positives and Giving Ourselves Grace

In both rehab and fitness, it’s easy to fixate on setbacks and disappointments. Progress is rarely linear and acknowledging what did go well is vital for mental wellbeing, confidence, and long-term adherence.

With hindsight, I’m proud that I finished strong despite challenging circumstances. I adapted under pressure, listened to my body, and drew on the physical and psychological resilience built through years of training, a journey that has included more than its fair share of speedbumps.

If you’re preparing for a HYROX event, or thinking about signing up, we’d love to hear from you. Our physiotherapy teams at our clinics on Albyn Terrace and In Cults Business park are always happy to chat about training, performance optimisation, injury prevention, or managing any niggles or injuries along the way to race day.

Book your Physiotherapy appointment here.