HYROX Training Zones

Your flat 5k pace lies to you on race day. In HYROX you run eight 1km legs with a sled, burpees, or carries in your legs each time, so every km comes out slower than the same distance fresh. This tool takes your current 5k time, finds your critical run speed, then slows it by about 8% to give the pace you can hold off the floor. Drop in a 5-minute SkiErg or RowErg test and it adds your erg zones too.

How the run pace is built

Enter a 5km time and the calculator reads it as your critical run speed: distance over time, in metres per second. From there it sets your fresh pace per km, then your compromised race pace by slowing that fresh number around 8%. A 25:00 5k means a 5:00/km fresh pace and a race pace near 5:26/km. No 5k handy? A 1km time trial works as the input instead, though a full 5k tracks your aerobic floor better.

The three run zones read straight off that fresh pace. Easy sits about 20% slower for long aerobic base. Threshold sits a touch faster than fresh for the hard 1km repeats that build your engine. Race is the compromised pace you rehearse coming off a station. Train all three, because HYROX rewards the runner who barely fades over the back half.

Adding the erg zones

The SkiErg and RowErg fields want a 5-minute all-out test in metres. The calculator converts that distance to average watts with the Concept2 power formula, treats it as your erg critical power, then hands back /500m splits for easy and race intensity. Easy is a controlled aerobic effort you can repeat; race is the pace to practice at the exact point you transfer to running.

Test the ski and the row on separate days so neither feeds the other tired. Re-test every four to six weeks. If your splits drop while your run pace holds, your engine is widening, which is the whole point of erg work for this format. Compare your erg target against a full session plan with the erg calculator.

Putting the zones to work

Most weeks lean on easy running and steady erg, with one or two sessions at threshold and short blocks at race pace off a station. The race-pace work matters most: it teaches your legs to find rhythm in the first 100m after a sled push, which is where most finish times leak. Log the splits you hit against the targets here and adjust as your fitness moves.

To map a longer aerobic ceiling onto these zones, run a critical power test and check your projected finish with the HYROX finish time tool. For the weekly structure that ties running, erg, and strength into one block, read the Hybrid Athlete Training guide.