#11 HYROX DNF | What went wrong?

In episode 11 I talk about my attempt at HYROX Cardiff singles that resulted in a big fat DNF! I go through the circumstances leading up to HYROX and how my body simply gave up before my head because I wasn't fit enough. Gutted with the outcome but I know it was the right thing to do.

I also chat about last weekend's history-making London Marathon, and how Reuben can prevent his shin splint issues.

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Transcript

0:03

Hi everyone, welcome to episode 11 of the MSK Runner podcast. Um, thank you for listening to the previous two episodes that are dropped uh last week. I hope you enjoyed it. And uh yeah, if you like it, then obviously just like and subscribe, uh, share it with your mates, and uh yeah, let's just kind of like gradually grow the audience and just get more people involved, um, and then we can get some more guests on over the next few weeks and just kind of give you uh more stuff to enjoy uh listening to. Uh so yeah, as you can see, just me today. I'm gonna talk about uh Hyrocks and I'm also gonna talk about uh the London Marathon and a couple of other bits um as well. Um I'm gonna cut straight to the chase. Um so basically uh this morning um I did Hyrocks singles in Cardiff. Um my second ever HyRox, so I did my first one in Birmingham about a year and a half ago and finished that. Uh today I did Cardiff and uh to cut a long story short, I DNF'd um which is um not ideal but kind of um not unexpected either. Um yeah, difficult one really because um so I finished Rome Marathon at the end of March and prior to that I kind of a bit stupidly really decided to uh sign up uh to a HyROX singles um in Cardiff, which was five weeks after Rome. So to give myself only five weeks uh to train for a Hyrox, which is completely different type of fitness and different type of training for long distance running, um, yeah, it wasn't the smartest decision that I've ever made. Um, but nevertheless, kind of like the first sort of uh two or three weeks of the training block, it went really well. Um, you know, got some really good sessions in and kind of like got used to it again. Um but then pretty much like two weeks just under two weeks ago, I kind of got dealt a little bit of a hammer blow. So um basically like I have asthma and I've had it for as as long as I remember. And you know, 98% of the time, all year round, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't really affect me, and I can pretty much like get on with my business, you know, unscathed. Um, but for some reason, yeah, about yeah, just shy of two weeks ago, yeah, my asthma just got like really, really bad. Um to the point where even like walking from the living room to the kitchen to get a drink, I was just would cause me to like be really out of breath. And um yeah, it kind of feels like your lungs have shrank to the size of a pee, or it feels like someone's like suffocating you with a pillow, you know. That you know, it does really get that bad. Um so yeah, kind of like the last two weeks of the training block. Um yeah, I I tried to keep as active as possible, but I couldn't train anywhere near the intensity required to like prepare for a high rocks. You know, I still did like little bits, but nowhere near as um as intense as what I ideally would have wanted to do. Um you know, there was even a day where I did like a five-minute warm-up on the rower and then like five minutes on the skier, like not even pushing myself, and I was just absolutely fucked, basically. So probably uh so it's Friday as I'm recording this, probably since about sort of Tuesday afternoon onwards, like my breathing has felt like completely normal. Um but then obviously like it's less than a week to go until the high rocks itself, so it's kind of like a taper week. And I did do a couple of sessions, but there was no point in kind of like pushing really hard because I didn't want to like over exert or consume, sorry, burn too much energy and use it up before the high rocks. I wanted to conserve as much energy as possible, basically, and you know, between between Tuesday afternoon just gone and you know Friday this morning, I'm not wasn't ever gonna get any fitter, so it was kind of a case of tapering and ticking over. Um but yeah, it really did get to the point, especially on you know, like last Sunday and Monday, where I didn't even know if I was gonna even bother driving down to Cardiff, let alone finish it, because I yeah, because my breathing was like really, really bad and really struggled. Um kind of like mentally, I really, really wanted to do it and I was really determined uh to get there. But kind of like, yeah, it was just a question of like whether my body would let me or not. But anyway, like um yesterday morning, so like Thursday morning, I drove down to Cardiff, um, checked into my hotel, did a 5k like taper run around the Cardiff Bay area, which is actually really nice, and it was a really hot day as well, actually. But yeah, I felt really good to be honest with you. Um like last night basically just like ate a load of pasta, card loaded as you normally would, and then I just like stuck a film on my laptop, um, the hangover if you must know, which my sister won't be surprised about in the slightest. Um, yeah, just something that was like an easy watch, made me laugh, and then yeah, had a really good night's sleep. Um my wave start time was at 20 past nine this morning. I was about a 20-minute walk away from the venue. Uh so yeah, I got up early doors, like got up at about half six this morning, had some breakfast, so I had porridge and a banana, and then about 20 past seven, left my hotel, walked to the venue. So it was the uh the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, so it's like where the Welsh rugby team play. Um, it's also where Rare Parler scored the winning goal for Arsenal in the FA Cup final against Chelsea, just to throw it out there. Um, but yeah, it's um it obviously like really good venue. Um but yeah, it I'll I'll kind of get onto the race in a minute, but in terms of like the high rocks and the event itself, I'd I'll give credit where credit's due. It was really well organized. I think like prior to uh the actual event itself, I think there was a lot of confusion because normally um, you know, high rocks, for those of you who don't know, it's basically like eight lots of one kilometer runs with eight different exercise stations in between each run. Um so normally, like um at most arenas, you do like the same number of laps uh to reach a kilometer before you go into the rock zone and do whatever station you did. But because of kind of like the layout of the uh stadium itself, um, it was slightly different. Um, so it's kind of like runs one to five. Um you run until you see the insign four times, and then you go into the rock zone, and then I think it was run six, which was farmer carry. You had to like see the farmer carry sign four times, and after that, you had to see the insign three times, and then the uh wall ball uh sign four times, something like that. Anyway, it was like really confusing at first when you kind of like first looked at it, but actually, when you got to the venue, uh the staff like you know, just before you you wave started, they explained it really well. Uh, to be honest, you can even though like as you were like running doing your runs, you had a big screen. When you ran through like the timing point, it came up with your name, and then where you need whether you need to do another lap or whether you need to do uh your next station. So it you, you know, to be fair, it was like really clearly sort of laid out and yeah, really well organised, um, really good like uh vibes as well. Like I just think in general it was a really well-run event. So you know, my own like personal experience of just being inside a venue today, I can't fault it, you know, and it must be a really difficult thing uh to organise, you know, because you've obviously got like thousands of people taking part, you've obviously got to have all the staff, all the judges, you know, etc. Um, yeah, it must be difficult to put on and execute, and you know, you're always gonna get some like negativity, especially on social media. But to be honest with you, like I couldn't fault the organization of Hyrocks in Cardiff today. So yeah, thank you to them for that. Um I'll just swig this quickly, but yeah, um so yeah, when I woke up this morning, I felt really good to be fair. Like breathing was absolutely spot on. Like I say, I I slept well, I fueled up well. Um I did maybe about 45 minutes before my wave, I did like a warm-up, so I did like um I did 500 metres on the row or I did 200 on the ski erg, and then I did like 10 minutes on the bike and just took it really steady and then just did some like activation and mobility exercises. So, you know, I prepared for it like as best as I could have done. Um, and then yeah, my wave started uh 20 past nine. The first run felt really good, and then the first station was the ski erg, and uh the ski erg, I think, took me like just over five minutes to do a thousand metres, so I wasn't exactly like record-breaking pace, but um no, felt good on the ski erg, and then as I headed out the rock zone and did my second run, felt really good. And then the second station was the sled push, um and I did it, but so I'll kind I'm kind of backtracking a little bit here. So earlier on in the week, um you know, it was very like touch and go as to whether I was even gonna attempt the high rocks or whether I was gonna pull out beforehand, and I did like promise myself and I made promises to a couple of people that like if I wasn't feeling right or if it got too much for me, then yeah, I'll I'll DNF, I'll I'll not do anything stupid. Um, so yeah, fast forward again. So I did I did the sled push, um managed to do it, but it was really hard. And basically, like once you'd done the sled push, you then had to like run back through the rock zone and then resume uh your third run. But yeah, basically, as soon as I finished the sled push, like my legs just had like absolutely nothing left. The sled push alone just like completely took it out of me. And I go back to earlier when I said that like um that like you know, obviously, like it was a five-week block. The first three weeks felt really good. The last two weeks my asthma, you know, threw a spanner of in the works and said hold my beer, and basically like it felt like I had zero fitness um in the context of high rox training and the high-rox event itself. Um yeah, like I just felt like my leg, my legs were gone to the point that I was like struggling to walk. I mean, I could walk, but I just couldn't physically bring myself to run. And then like my heart rate was just far too high as well. And um, you know, my breathing was fine, you know, not in like an in in in an asthma way. I felt absolutely fine, but in terms of like my heart rate and my legs, yeah, I was just like completely gone. And yeah, it's hard really. Like, I mentally I still wanted to carry on, but my body was just like completely obliterated, and um wanna say thank you to um to one of the high rock staff members uh called Lindsay. Um I'm like 97% sure she's Scottish, but I don't want to say all this Scottish last because I don't want to offend her just in case on the off chance she wasn't. But yeah, she kind of like went over to me and asked me if I was okay and asked me a few questions and stuff, and she even sort of like tried to sort of gently persuade me to sort of continue, but without like putting any pressure on me or holding a gun to my head or anything like that. But yeah, she was just really nice to me and really helpful, and I've I kind of like reluctantly said, like, look, I'm I'm done here, I'm I'm gonna have to DNF. And yeah, she she was a massive help, but uh so yeah, thank you to her. But yeah, just um had to kind of just like hold my hands up and accept defeat on this occasion. It's not an easy thing to do because when I start something, I I want to like do everything in my power to like get the job done, but um, yeah, it just today just wasn't my day, and um it's my fault for only starting training for it five weeks ago. Um, in terms of my asthma, not really anything I could have done about it. It's just one of them things that it's a bit shit timing, really. But at the end of the day, like I've got to look at myself really. Um yeah, I'm a bit gutted to be fair, but then at the same time, like I'd rather have attempted it and DNF'd rather than pulled out there earlier in the week and not attempted at all. Like I say, like I said earlier, like earlier in the week, I genuinely did not know if I was even going to drive down to Cardiff. Um, you know, if if Hyrocks had taken place this time last week, for example, there's absolutely no way I would have even attempted it. Um, but yeah, I just um yeah, look, I I tried it and I failed, but at least I tried it. That's kind of like what I'm taking from it. I'd rather try something and fail at it than not try something and wonder what if. Uh so yeah, I've got no regrets. I tried it. And yeah, it's just one of them things. Um, yeah, I am a bit, I am a bit gutted, but like, you know, it is what it is. It's not going to affect me in six months' time, and I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. And um yeah, that that's kind of it, really, in terms of high rocks. Um whether I whether I do it again or not, who knows? Um I might do, I might not. I really don't know. It's not in the pipeline because I've got a few uh different things planned. Um between now and like the end of June, beginning of July, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I'm obviously going to carry on training, but I'm not necessarily gonna enter an event in that period of time. Like I say, I might do, but I don't know really. But obviously, like, you know, looking at the bigger picture, um, you know, I've got Chicago Marathon in October, and I've got Valencia half marathon two weeks later. So I'll start that training block in July, and yeah, that's kind of like what my main focus um is gonna be on. Um, speaking of which, uh, for Valencia Marathon, I booked my flights the other day, and they're really like weird flights because um actual like direct return flights from the UK to Valencia are very few and far between and really awkward times. So, what I'm basically gonna do is like fly from Manchester to Valencia on the Thursday night, have all day Friday, all day Saturday in Valencia. Um, Julia went to Valencia last year on a holiday and she absolutely loved it. She said it was really good and said she preferred it to Barcelona. So I'm gonna pick her brains in terms of like what to do there while I'm there. But yeah, really looking forward to that. So I've got all day Friday, all day Saturday in Valencia. The Valencia half marathon itself is on the Sunday morning, and then I'm gonna fly home from Alicante on the Monday night. So after Valencia half marathon on the Sunday morning, um, in the afternoon, I'm gonna go to uh Benedome and spend the night there because Benedome is halfway between Valencia and Alicante, so I'll spend the uh Sunday night in Benedome and then I'll head up head down to Alicante like on the Monday afternoon. Um so yeah, after previously saying I'll never go to Benedome ever again, here I am, I'm off to Benedome, and yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Um nice nice quiet evening as you do in Benedome. Um right, enough about that. What we'll what I want to chat about actually is the London Marathon from last weekend. So uh I watched quite a bit of it on the TV, and there's so many like really good stories from it. Um obviously goes without saying that like you've unless you've lived in a cave, you'll have heard that the uh first ever sub 2 hour marathon um got achieved not once but but twice, you know, and really extraordinary because lots of like experts have like gone on record to say like all the sub two hour marathon it's impossible, it's never gonna happen, it's physically impossible. But a guy called Sebastian Saw um ran it in one hour 5930 seconds, and then the guy who came second, um Yomith Kajelcher, I think is how you pronounce it, I'm probably not, but anyway, he came second, he also ran a sub two hour marathon, and what's even more impressive is that that was his first ever marathon, so yeah, absolutely incredible, and fair play to both of them when it kind of became apparent that the sub two hour marathon was possible. Like I was sat where I'm sat now in the living room, just like shouting at the TV, like, go on, oh come on, like proper, like urging him on, and yeah, absolutely buzzing when they both crossed the finish line and to break that sub two hour. It's just incredible to like witness that bit of history, and um, yeah, it it was it was so good, so inspiring, and yeah, just like a massive like buzz from it, just to like see somebody achieve like an unprecedented achievement that will go down in history and be remembered forever. So everyone remembers like Roger Bannister running um running the fastest ever mile, uh, the first sub-three-minute mile, and yeah, everyone's gonna remember that sub-two hour marathon as well. So, yeah, really cool. Uh, but there's like obviously like um I'd entered the ballot for this year's Lunza Marathon, didn't get in. 1.1 million people entered the ballot, and 59,000 people had the privilege of doing it. So, like, yeah, well done to everyone uh who did it because it's an incredible achievement running a marathon. A couple of like really good stories that I want to point out. So there's a guy called uh Sylvan Gintoli who is the guy who I have a massive amount of respect for. So anyone who knows me knows that I'm like massively into my motorbike racing, and Sylvan Gintoli is like uh has been hugely successful in racing motorbikes. He's a former world superbike champion, he's a world endurance champion, he's raced in motor GP as well. So, yeah, like big hero of mine. Um, but yeah, I know like 98% of people listening to us have zero interest in motorbikes, so we'll carry on talking about motorbikes. But basically, um yeah, Sylvan, like him and his family, you know, have been through a lot recently. So, you know, last year, like sadly, Sylvan's uh son Luca like tragically passed away um at the age of six um, you know, due to cancer. Um and I can't even like fathom or even begin to imagine like what Sylvan and his family have gone through. Um but Sylvan and his uh two daughters uh both ran the London Marathon last week, so they did it for a charity called PASIC, uh, which is basically like a cancer support charity. And um so Sylvan Guintoli, he he ran the London Marathon wearing a full set of motorbike levers, um, and he had like um Masonic the Hedgehog uh printed on the back of his levers because that was like Luca's favourite cartoon character. Um so yeah, running a marathon kind of in normal clothing is hard enough, but to do it in a set of motorbike leathers, it's obviously means you're gonna be like even hotter inside and it carries a bit of weight as well, is like obviously like even more difficult. But Sylvan actually ran the London marathon in three hours 47 minutes. So to do like a well, to finish a marathon in motorbike levers is a brilliant achievement in itself, but to do it in a sub four hour as well is just incredibly impressive. Um, I think it's like an unofficial at this stage uh Guinness World Record for the fastest ever marathon ran in a set of motorbike leathers, and he raised over £140,000 for the Pasic Council Support Charity. So massive uh well done to Sylvan and his daughters, and yeah, like I've got a tremendous amount of respect for him, and I would argue that that is probably like his greatest achievement, like, probably better than you know, considering he's had a massively successful motorbike racing career. I think that's kind of outweighs that uh to a certain extent. Um, there's another guy called uh Jordan Adams. Uh you might have seen it, he ran the London marathon with a fridge attached to his back, and uh this was like a really um really inspiring story. So basically, like um you know, Jordan's mum sadly passed away with um FTD, which is like a form of dementia, and it's like passed on uh genetically, and that means that like unfortunately, um he's gonna. Probably gonna get it as well, like whenever he's in his 40s. Um so yeah, he ran the London Marathon with a fridge on his back, and he's now running at the minute like 32 marathons in 32 days across every single county in Ireland where his family's originally from. So, again, like just like a really inspiring story, and there's so so many. But yeah, I just think like um it doesn't matter like what level you're at with running, it doesn't matter whether you're an elite athlete or you've what got a certain time goal that you want to achieve, or if you want to raise money for charity, whatever it is, there's just so many, like everybody has their own story basically, and it's really inspiring. And yeah, I think long may it continue. Um, there are rumors that next year's 2027 London Marathon could potentially be held across two days. Obviously, that would be really good. It means like more money for charity um from London's point of view, it's more money for the local economy, um, but also it just like increases um the likelihood of people getting in as well. Um, so yeah, the the ballot for next year's London Marathon um opened uh last week, and I think it closed this morning actually. But yeah, I've entered it for next year and I'll find out in July um whether I get in. So yeah, fingers crossed uh that I do. I've entered for like the last few years in a row, and I've just not got in so far. So yeah, I'm really hoping so because like um yeah, London marathon is definitely something that I really, really want to do. So yeah, fingers crossed uh for that. Um what I'm gonna do now is end this episode with a question from one of my colleagues uh called Ruben, who's a big Leeds fan. Um so other other nights at work he kept asking me, well, he kept telling me that like he's got shin splints from running, basically, and he was basically like, you know, how do I how do I do what do I do about it? Um now as like an educated guest when people have shin splints for me it's likely because they've got really weak glutes. Um so the longer shot of it is like strengthen your glutes because um the stronger your glutes are, then basically like that reduces um the force that's put through your through your lower legs. Um and it also like reduces like excessive rotation as well, like of your knees. So that's what like weak glutes can cause. Um so that excessive force as well, that you know, that can like cause your shin splints as well, like obviously in your lower legs. So I just think like um, you know, strengthening your glutes um is a massive, massive um component in terms of like uh preventing getting shin splints. So, what sort of exercises can you do uh to strengthen your glutes? You've got like your barbell hip thrusts, you've got, or you can start off doing glute bridges, you've also got kickbacks and hip abductors on the cable machine, you've got the actual uh hip abductor machine itself, um, where you sat with your legs together and then you like push them out to the side and and bring them back in. Um, you can also do like a Bulgarian split squat. Um, if you do it um if you do it kind of sort of like upright, then you'll feel it more in your quads, but if you do it sort of like leaning forwards a little bit at your hips, then there will be like more emphasis on your glutes. And what you can do as well is you can create a deficit. So if you put like a plate um in front of the bench and you put your resting foot on the plates, then you'd create in a deficit, and then you can just like increase the range of motion and yeah, go further down basically on the rep. Um so yeah, in a nutshell, that's what I would do if I had shin splints. Um, so hope that answers your question, Ruben, if you're even listening. Um, so yeah, that's kind of it for today. Um, thank you for listening to all the previous episodes. Cheers for listening to this one. Um yeah, at the end of the day, I came to Cardiff, turned up, and yeah, unfortunately it didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out, but at the end of the day, I'm still here. I've got no regrets because like I'd much rather like um try something and fail at it than not try at all and wonder what if. So yeah, I'm I'm that piece of it, and uh yeah, it is what it is. Uh well done to Will, who did HyRox doubles um a couple of hours after me. Um him and his mate did it in a really good time as well. One hour eighteen, I think, or something like that. Um and then like as this episode gets published um at 6 pm on Sunday, Julia and her friend Holly are currently, as you all listen to this, doing HyROX uh pro doubles, um, which is basically like heavier weights in a nutshell. So it's a bit harder, but they've both done high rocks doubles together before, and I know like they're both gonna smash it. So yeah, um, congratulations, Julia and Holly, in advance because I know you're gonna do it. Um, right, um, like and subscribe, uh set your notifications, share it with your friends, and I will be back with you next Sunday at 6 pm. Thanks a lot, take care, up the kosh.