How I Ended Up in the Pro Division (and What This Week Looked Like)

May 22

The morning HYROX Toronto tickets went live was pure chaos.

Sales opened at 10 a.m. on a Thursday. I cleared my schedule, logged into the waiting room by 9:30, and stared at the message: “You’ll be randomly placed in the queue.” Cool. Fair. Terrifying.

I had a Pilates class at 11 and needed to leave my house by 10:30. If you’ve ever taken a pilates class, you know those late-cancellation fees aren’t messing around. I was fully prepared to be in the queue on my phone while driving (no one said this was a responsible driving blog).

At 10 a.m., I was placed behind over five thousand people. I started Googling how many athletes usually register. I checked the clock, panicked a little. I really, really didn’t want to register from the car.

By 10:30, I was down to double digits—78 people ahead of me. I started driving.

Not two blocks later, my turn came. I pulled over (I did pull over, I swear) and frantically started clicking through ticket categories.
Sold out.
Sold out.
Sold out.
I almost cried. I actually almost cried. Didn’t I just write in my last post about how badly I needed something like this?

I started to drive home, thinking maybe it was just a glitch on my phone. I figured I’d try again on my computer once I got back. Then I remembered the Pilates cancellation fee. U-turned and headed to class, still refreshing the registration page at every red light (again—not a responsible driving blog).

I walked into the studio, sat on a reformer next to my sister-in-law, and kept staring at the screen like sheer willpower might magically unlock a last minute spot. The instructor started cueing breath-work, but I barely heard her. I was still caught in that weird mix of frustration and hope.

For some reason, I tried again. No queue this time. I clicked on every women’s category that wasn’t grayed out.

One went through.

Saturday 10/4 – Pro Women’s Division.

Wait… what?

I had ten minutes to complete the purchase. I still wasn’t sure I was even allowed to sign up for that category. Surely “Pro” meant something. A qualifying time? A waiver? A warning label?

I didn’t know. But I clicked through the registration pages, filled out my info, and hit purchase before I could overthink it.

And that’s how I—barely into the warm-up, hearing the Pilates instructor cue breathwork—somehow signed up for HYROX as a Pro Women’s racer. No idea what that really meant. Just ten minutes, one bold click, and five months to figure it out.

So… what does training actually look like right now? Spoiler: it’s not exactly Pro status yet. But here’s where I’m starting from.

What This Week Looks Like

Right now, my training is loosely built around five days a week—two strength days (upper and lower), one threshold run, one long run, and a wildcard day that usually ends up being something like tennis or yoga.

One thing I already know I’ll have to be mindful of in this journey (and something I’ll dig into more in a future post) is not overtraining. Or more specifically: not mistaking “doing more” for “doing better.” My tendency is to fill in every possible space with something—and I know I’ll need to be intentional about recovery. Active recovery is fine. But also... rest days. Like, actual ones. I’m working on it.

And this week? Already a test.

We’re heading to Pigeon Forge for Memorial Day weekend, which means Friday through Tuesday will be a mix of travel, family time, and trying not to overthink missed sessions. I’ve been asking myself how I can carve out small pockets of time without centering the whole trip around me needing to train. Because while I could try to build my mornings around a run or find a gym nearby, that starts to feel like dragging my race prep into a weekend that’s meant to feel lighter.

So I’m shifting to a quality over quantity mindset. If I can get in 30 focused minutes—great. If it’s a quick run while the kids are at the pool, or bodyweight work in the driveway before breakfast, I’ll take it. The goal isn’t to be perfect. It’s to stay connected to the rhythm, even when it gets messy.

Monday : Lower Body Strength

Lower body work is usually where I feel the strongest. Maybe it’s a women-in-general thing, or maybe it’s from years of playing competitive soccer, but I tend to see progress here the fastest.

Monday’s workout included front squats, walking lunges, and lateral lunges—all of which felt solid and totally in my wheelhouse. That said, front squats still felt like more of a wrist workout than anything else. Getting the grip right is weirdly technical—I wanted to grip the bar more than I was supposed to (and my trainer was great at pointing this out). Tightening up too much just throws all the stress into your wrists, which I felt immediately.

One of my supersets included a foam roller iso-hold. And listen: for someone who just claimed to “thrive” on lower body days, let me admit this—my hamstrings do not get enough love. Anything hamstring-focused is a struggle, and I was only holding that position for ten seconds at a time. Ten seconds! My legs were shaking like I’d been stuck there for an hour.

Threshold Tuesday : A Humid Reality Check

Late May in Georgia can already feel like the dead of summer, and Tuesday was exactly that. I tried to get the kids out the door early so I could pick up a grocery order from Kroger at 8:30, unload it, and then head out for my threshold run.

Well…that didn’t happen.

Getting out the door took longer than expected (as it always does), so I pushed the grocery pickup to later and decided to just run first. The morning was already off-script, but I got to the running loop—a 1.79-ish mile paved path about 10 minutes from our house—around 9:00. And by then, it was already hot. And humid. Georgia doing what Georgia does.

I loosely based my threshold targets off a recent 3-mile run and input from my trainer, who’s programming intervals for me based on pacing a certain number of seconds slower than my 5K pace. Here's what I mapped out:

8 minutes @ 7:48–7:58/mile
3 min recovery @ ~9:30/mile
7 minutes @ 7:46–7:54/mile
3 min recovery
6 minutes @ 7:43–7:48/mile
3 min recovery
8 minutes @ 7:48–7:58/mile

My recovery pace ended up closer to 9:45/mile—which, honestly, felt generous in that heat—but otherwise I hit all the intervals.

Except the last one.

I started strong on that final 8-minute stretch, but about three minutes in, my legs just... stopped cooperating. I kept watching the pace on my phone creep up: 8:00... 8:10... and by the end of the interval, I was averaging 8:20/mile. Not a disaster, but not what I had planned.

Naturally, I started spiraling a little.
Maybe my legs were still shot from Monday’s leg day.
Maybe it was the heat.
Maybe it was the sleep (or lack of it).
Maybe all of the above?

But I eventually landed on this: not every missed mark needs a tidy reason. Some days just don’t click—and that’s part of it too.

Not every day is your best. You won’t hit every target. And while it’s useful to reflect on what went sideways, I’m learning to give myself a time limit for how long I dwell.

There’s a concept from Roger Federer I love called the 15-second rule—and as a casual tennis player, I’ve borrowed it both on and off the court. Here’s the idea:

5 seconds: Feel your reaction. Be honest about it. Don’t shove it down.
5 seconds: Breathe. Relax your body. Detach.
5 seconds: Reset and refocus. Visualize the next point.

Sure, he’s talking about tennis. But I try to carry a slower, more human version of that into other parts of life—especially training. I can’t change the last interval. But I can decide how I respond to it. And what I do next.

And what I did next was go to hot yoga.
Even though I was already so hot.

But my body needed it—mobility, breath, that kind of stillness I usually talk myself out of. My yoga practice has taken a back seat lately, and I’m excited to start threading it back into my week. (Also, if you're wondering: yes, Bikram is intense—but for recovery and mental reset, I swear by it.)

Wednesday : Easy Run + Upper Body

I usually head to the gym around 9:30, and today started with a 20-minute easy run before my scheduled upper body lift. After Tuesday’s threshold run and then hot yoga, I definitely woke up feeling it—sore, but in a satisfying kind of way. The kind where you know you trained, not the kind where you dread stairs.

I got up, drank some electrolyte water, put collagen in my coffee, and had chia seed overnight oats. Honestly, I used to skip breakfast altogether—not intentionally, just because mornings are chaos. If anything, I might’ve shoved a banana in my mouth while yelling up the stairs for everyone to get in the car. But since starting HYROX training, I’ve realized: running on empty isn’t a flex. And we’ll dig into that more soon—I’ve got a blog post in the works with insight from a few sports dietitians about what fueling for this kind of training actually looks like.

Anyway, back to the run. It wasn’t supposed to be fast, just comfortable. I ended up averaging around 8:22 min/mile, which isn’t anything wild—but what stood out was how strong it felt. Like I could’ve just kept going forever. I’m amazed (even though I really shouldn’t be) at how different running feels now that I’ve been strength training consistently. It’s not that I’m dramatically faster—it’s that my stride feels efficient. Solid. Like my body knows what it’s doing.

After the run, I walked into the blissfully air conditioned gym, stretched out, and started upper body. I’m so grateful to be training at a HYROX-affiliated gym, where the coaches know the race structure and can build strength sessions that translate. Every lift, every superset—it’s designed with intention. I’m not just getting stronger; I’m training for something specific, and that makes a big difference.

That said… upper body still makes me work for it. Lower body? I can usually tack on weight without too much drama. But today I did 5 reps of barbell overhead press at 40 pounds and felt like I could go heavier. I bumped up to 50 pounds and… yeah. Somehow 10 more pounds felt like I’d doubled the weight.

That said, my win for the day was single-arm lat pulldowns. Which usually humble me. I was supposed to do 20 reps at 25 pounds, and honestly? I didn’t really slow down until rep 17. The last three probably weren’t pretty—no idea what my face looked like—but I finished them. Small wins.

Thursday : Long run (90 minutes)

Pro Division Energy... Kinda

I’m hitting publish on this right before I start getting ready for my niece’s graduation. Nothing’s packed for our trip yet—unless you count the workout gear I already snuck into the car. A kettlebell, some dumbbells, a resistance band... priorities.

So, Pro Women’s Division? Sure. Let me just switch the laundry to the dryer real quick.

Cristina Carrigan