Hyrox Perth Is This Weekend — and Six of Ours Are Racing

This weekend, Hyrox arrives in Perth. From 21 to 23 August, the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre becomes a racecourse — eight 1km runs, eight workout stations, thousands of people finding out what their training is worth. Somewhere in that field will be six people from our gym in Balcatta.

Who's racing

Rory Deacon, Tess Raven, Mark Kepplinger, Lewis Grigg and Stephanie Bailey are all on the start line. So is Matt Austin — one of our coaches, out there doing the thing he spends his weeks preparing other people for. If you're at PCEC over the weekend, cheer loudly. They'll have earned it.

They didn't follow a Hyrox program

Here's the part worth noticing. Nobody in this group spent the last six months on a specialised race plan. Their base is the same training every TandEm member does: classes with barbells, wall balls, sleds, carries, rowing and a coach watching how they move. We wrote recently about why CrossFit maps so well onto Hyrox — the engine, the strength endurance, the familiarity with working hard while tired. This weekend, six of ours get to test that in public.

What race day actually asks of them

A Hyrox race takes most people somewhere between 60 and 100 minutes. The format never changes: run a kilometre, do a station, repeat eight times. SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, and — at the end, when the legs are gone — wall balls. No technique tricks, no shortcuts. Just fitness, measured honestly.

If you're going to watch

Spectating is free entertainment and quietly instructive. Ignore the elite waves for a minute and watch the open field. It is not a parade of professional athletes. It's nurses, tradies, office workers and parents — ordinary people who trained consistently and turned up. Most of them started exactly where you are now. That's the real story of events like this, and it's the same story inside every CrossFit gym in Perth: consistency beats talent, given enough weeks.

If watching makes you want to be in it

Next year's Hyrox will come around faster than you think, and a year is plenty of time to build the fitness for it — or simply to become someone who could. Here's how starting at TandEm works:

• Everyone starts with Fundamentals — three one-hour sessions, one-on-one with a coach, booked at times that suit you. $220. You learn to move properly before you ever join a class.
• Then you train with the group — classes run at 5am and 6am weekdays, 9:30am Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 5pm Monday to Friday, 6pm Monday to Wednesday, and 7:30am Saturday.
• Plan on a minimum of three sessions a week. That's the point where your body adapts, the soreness settles and progress becomes visible. Less than that and you stay perpetually sore and perpetually starting over.

Good luck to our six

To Rory, Tess, Mark, Lewis, Stephanie and Matt: race well, pace the first runs, and enjoy the wall balls. The whole gym is behind you.

And if the weekend leaves you wanting a start line of your own — or just wanting to feel fitter by spring — book your free fitness consultation and come talk to us. You'll find us at 2/76 Erindale Rd, Balcatta, next door to The Wooden Spoon café, or call 0402 324 368.