Signature Workouts: Compromised Running with James Kelly

Welcome to the signature workout series!

Each week, we will be publishing a workout by an elite Hyrox athlete or coach.

These workouts will not be the ‘sexy’ or ‘brutal’ workouts you often see on social media, but instead they’ll be designed to give you a deeper insight and understanding of a certain style of workout these athletes and coaches run regularly as part of their training.

We will then sit down with the coach and discuss why they program this type of workout, what the aim of it is, what sort of scores athletes should be looking for, and more… I’ve even committed to doing the workouts, so you’ll get to hear my experiences of doing them (as a not-so-elite athlete) too!

The goal for this series is for you, as someone training for Hyrox events, to be able to take away the principles behind these workouts and apply them to your own training.

Athlete: James Kelly

James arrived on the Hyrox scene with a bang at the start of the 2022/2023 season.

James runs a Hybrid Training business in Australia that he wanted to make a name for… So, he signed up to the largest ever Hyrox event, hopped on a plane to the UK where it was taking place, and ended up taking first in the Pro division of his first Hyrox with a sub-60 time!

Sounds like a good Netflix documentary, right?

I’ve been following James since this win and what’s clear to me is how smart and focused he is when it comes to training. In addition to his own training, the athletes he coaches through JK Hybrid Training seem to be increasingly competitive at Hyrox events and look incredibly comfortable when racing.

I asked James if he could provide the community with a workout that is a staple of his training and the athletes he coaches…

The Workout: Compromised Running

Every 3 minutes on the minute for 24 minutes (8 rounds):

• 400m Run (Road or Assault Runner)
• In the remaining time: Max Burpees

Your score is the total number of burpees in the 24 minutes.

Purpose of this workout

The purpose of this workout is to improve your ability to run under fatigue.

This workout is brutal, both physically and mentally. The run makes you tired for the burpees and the burpees make you tired for the run. There’s no where to hide, which is what makes this workout so powerful and helpful for training that feeling of fatigue you will inevitably experience during a Hyrox.

James says that comprised running is a key skill for anyone training for a race such as Hyrox or Déka. In fact, he takes it a step further, saying that, in his experience, “the athlete who wins any particular race, is the athlete who is the best at running under fatigue [and] the Hyrox race is all about it.”

Asking James to give an example of how training compromised running can make the difference come race day, he explains: “There are 15 transitions in a Hyrox race, going from station to running, running to station. The athlete who can recover the quickest to deliver the best 1000m splits will win. My athletes know that it’s so important to attack the first 20 seconds of each run, after finishing a station. This is were you can make up so much ground! Comprised running is Hyrox and Deka. The athlete who can recover from work the quickest will win.”

Goals for this workout

Beginner: 120 Burpees
Intermediate: 180 Burpees
Elite: 200+ Burpees
Note: James has a PB of 247 Burpees!

How often should you do it?

James has his athletes do this workout around once every 3 weeks.

This is a staple of his training program and it allows him to regularly measure where his athletes are in terms of their ability to run compromised.

My Experience

On paper, this workout didn’t look that bad. It’s only 24 minutes… I’m pretty good at burpees and my running isn’t terrible.

I measured out 200m from the gym door (so I could run there and back to make the 400m) and would do burpees just inside of this door to keep the transition time basically zero. I used SmartWOD, which is an App that allows you to set an EMOM clock, and I set it to beep every 3 minutes for 24 minutes.

My goal was to start out steady and pick things up as the rounds progressed.

Here’s a short video highlight of my attempt with a voice over too:

Round one felt pretty good. I did the 400m in around 90 seconds and comfortably hit 22 burpees in the remaining 90 seconds. Round two I lost around 8 seconds on the run, so ended up with 20 burpees.

It was round three where the workout really hit me and I realised I wasn’t going to be able to pick up my pace. In fact, I couldn’t believe that just 7-8 minutes into a workout I was feeling as bad as I did. My legs were heavy, my breathing was erratic and I began questioning my life choices… it was a very similar feeling to that which you get around the first third of a Hyrox.

I should explain that I regularly do longer conditioning pieces of 60-90 minutes and higher-paced running intervals too. It was the blend of two unskilled movements back-to-back that was hurting me.

By round four my runs were down to just under 2 minutes per 400m and that was becoming hard to maintain. I was down to 16 burpees.

Round five I hit that point where you are able to maintain, but it hurts and it isn’t impressive to watch. I held the run at around 2 minutes and got 14 burpees for the remaining 4 rounds. My score was 132 burpees – just managing to pass the ‘beginner’ threshold of the goals James sets out above.

Takeaways

This is a powerful workout that I’d recommend to anyone who isn’t sure how compromised running will affect them come race day. I’d then recommend doing this workout or something very similar regularly, especially as your race approaches.

I’ve put a lot of time into running over the past 6 months or so and my splits across all distances have really come down. I have a pretty extensive CrossFit background and so my functional movements are pretty good too. However, my Hyrox results to date haven’t been where I’d like them to be…

This workout showed me a significant reason why.

If, as James says, compromised running IS Hyrox then I’m not very good at Hyrox yet. I might be OK at running and good at functional movements, but once you put them together to create a new sport I’m just not able to perform.

So, for me, this workout was a huge lesson in what Hyrox actually is and showed the importance of getting comfortable and conditioned to run under fatigue, especially as the race gets nearer.

A huge thank you to James for the lesson and if you do try this workout, be sure to tag me and James on Instagram – letting us know how it went!

Want more?

If you enjoyed this workout, James Kelly offers individual Hyrox training where he works on a one-to-one basis with athletes to develop their mindset and performance. James has the goal of ensuring each athlete goes into a race feeling confident they will do well because they have confidence in how they have trained. If you’re looking for a Hyrox coach, drop James a DM on Instagram or set up a 30 minute call to discuss your Hyrox training.