#156: 2nd Hyrox

A weekend in Helsinki

May 15, 2026

👋 Hey, Leo here. Antifragile Intelligence is where I explore how leaders think, decide, and build in uncertain environments shaped by technology and change.

Each edition is a reflection, a principle, or a field note from the work itself.

Hey Friends,

Welcome to the 156th edition of Antifragile Intelligence.

This edition will not be about AI or anything related to business, but about my second Hyrox experience. And it will be about Antifragility.

I did my first Hyrox a couple of years ago, one year and eleven months ago, to be more precise, in Rimini, Italy, and you can read about the experience below.

#60: Hyrox

Leo Alexandru

June 7, 2024

Read full story

And a lot has happened during these two years.

After we had the baby, I couldn’t sustain going to CrossFit/Hyrox sessions where I was going to before; it took too much time, and the hours were not appropriate. So, since last August or so, I started training by myself, in a gym that’s 50 meters away from my apartment.

Now, of course, I use AI to design my own programs and I have been active this whole time, training at least 4-5 times a week. I usually follow this schedule:

Monday - lower body
Tuesday - break
Wednesday - VO2 Max training (Norwegian 4x4)
Thursday - break
Friday - Upper body
Saturday - Hyrox-specific training (usually a 40-min EMOM)
Sunday - 7km run

I put in a weightlifting session in there once in a while.

Now, the plan is solid, but there is one caveat, at least for me: I train by myself, which means I am not pushing that much. I am quite competitive so I often look up to other people who I’m training with and that motivates me to go the extra mile.

Which doesn’t really happen when you’re training by yourself.

Anyway, after my first marathon experience, I decided to compete in another Hyrox. I am part of a big group of people who train specifically for these types of events and people there were talking about several options for 2026.

Then, it was early December, I was in Vienna with my colleagues from Deloitte, on our annual international gathering, and someone put in the Hyrox group: “Helsinki in May is open for registration”.

Now, you have to understand what happens when an event like this opens. Tickets sell faster than a Metallica concert.

I had tried to get tickets to two other Hyrox events last year but was stuck in a queue untill they sold out. I was not about to let that happen again.

I excused myself from the meeting to go to the bathroom and logged really fast to the website. In 5 minutes I had bought my Hyrox ticket to Helsinki. Yey.

I was particularly excited, because it was also a new country to visit.

Fast forward almost half a year and we are in the airport. And feelings of anxiety were creeping up on me.

Now, for those who don’t know, HYROX is an indoor competition that combines 8 kilometers of running with 8 functional fitness workouts. You run 1 km and do a workout, and so on.

It looks like this:

1 km Run
1,000m SkiErg (machine targeting arms, shoulders, and core)
1 km Run
50m Sled Push (pushing a heavy weighted sled)
1 km Run
50m Sled Pull (pulling the same sled via a rope)
1 km Run
80m Burpee Broad Jumps (jumping forward while doing burpees)
1 km Run
1,000m Row (on a rowing machine)
1 km Run
200m Farmer’s Carry (carrying two heavy kettlebells)
1 km Run
100m Sandbag Lunges (lunging with a weighted sandbag on your shoulders)
1 km Run
100 Wall Balls (throwing a weighted ball against a target)

And people who compete in this type of competition are of two types:

Those who see it as a strength workout with some running
Those who see it as a running workout with some exercises

The latter tend to perform better.

Even though I considered myself to be in the other category, after analyzing it and watching things online, I realised it is a running competition. Why, because you spend more than 50% of your time running, and that’s where the differences are made, basically.

And that was an issue for me. Even though I run consistently, I am not a runner; I don’t run as much as I should, I don’t like running, and I don’t have a runner’s body at 90+ kilos.

And of course, in the days leading up to the competition, I started analyzing with AI my previous performance and my current stats to try to understand where I can improve.

My goal was to improve my last time, which was 1:31:36. Ideally, go under 1:30.

So, with this thought in mind, I was having a beer (not a great idea) with my friends in the airport. Oh, I forgot to tell you, we had a group of 25 people going there from Bucharest, and probably around 20 of them were competing.

Anyway, the first issue I saw was that I was due to compete the next morning at 10 and our flight was set to land around midnight. Getting to the hotel, checking in and all, I managed to go to sleep around 2 AM. And of course, sleeping with a baby is not the best way to relax (especially since Zeno was very tired from the trip and even got a little fever). I was up at 8, looked at my recovery and sleep scores and got dressed to go to the event venue.

Because I just lost the tram while going for a coffee I got to the venue only 35 minutes before my heat started. Now, ideally, you should start warming up one hour before or so and have 10-15 minutes to rest before starting.

I ran around for 15 minutes, pushed a sled for 20 meters (not more because I felt it was very heavy) and got to rest for 5 minutes before my start.

I was getting pretty anxious, but I didn’t have too much time to get more anxious because I was already in the tunnel, music pumping in my ears. So, before I knew it, I was already running my first lap.

Things were smooth, I knew that one of my mistakes from the first round was going too fast on the first laps only to get wasted on the last ones. And going too hard on the ski and row (these are stations with very little time differences).

I also knew from my last round that I had 3 stations where I lost a lot of time: the sled pull, the burpee broad jumps, and the final station.

The sled pull was the 3rd station and I got there feeling confident. In my mind, I did it faster than last time (this was true, one minute faster than the first time) and went on the run and the burpee jumps.

Now, for a heavy person like me, you need to understand that the burpees are quite difficult. It’s a complex movement that spikes the heart rate. Combine it with a distance jump, and you’re cooked.

And of course, I struggled a lot during these jumps, and I bitched and moaned, but finished it faster than last time also (5:54 vs 7:23). Only it took its toll. I had to spend a few tens of seconds before getting into the next run to lower my heart rate and catch my breath.

I got into my fifth run, which meant the second part of the race. Which is also supposed to be easier than the first.

43 mins and 18 seconds. I was all set for a great time. Things were looking good.

Until they started looking bad. Really bad.

On that fifth run, I started getting cramps in my calves. First, it was in my left calf, then in the right one. The muscles were pulsating; I could see them getting close to my bone and creating a groove in my foot. It was actually scary to see.

I started asking around for some magnesium. The pain was getting more intense, but I was still running.

Going into the next station, the row, I was happy because I don’t use those muscles that much and I finished it and got into the next run. A friend gave me a gel with electrolytes and another one some salt.

The pain was starting to get unbearable. I was stopping and limping, then running than limping. And these were my last 3 rounds of running.

I was doing OK on my stations but worse than in Rimini, still, manageable. But the runs were getting more and more painful.

On the 7th run, I was about to quit. I thought about it many times. What’s there to prove? Why not stop then and there? I can’t go on.

And then I saw my wife cheering me on, and I saw my baby boy, and that gave me a boost.

"Pain is temporary, glory is forever"
Muhammad Ali

Ok, I’ll go on. My goal changed to “I want to finish. I have to finish!”

I got to the wallballs, my last station. It killed me the last time, as it’s a complex movement involving leg power, legs that have just been through almost an hour and a half of intensity.

I saw the clock on the wall: “11:25:00”. I was still under my goal. But the last time, the wallballs took me 7 minutes.

So I had to push, one last push.

I did sets of 20, 15, something like that, it’s a bit of a blur.

But I finished them, ran to the podium, and collapsed.

I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. I was too tired. I felt no pain.

I was happy.

The kind of happiness that is unique, that comes only after a big struggle.

Afterthoughts

I’ve been thinking about why this one mattered more than the first.

The first time, in Rimini, I was testing whether I could do it.

This time, I was testing what I’d do when it stopped going to plan.

Those are different questions, and only one of them tells you anything useful about yourself.

You can study the optimal path. You can plan the splits. You can use the best tools to model the perfect strategy.

And then reality shows up, and your job isn’t to execute the plan. Your job is to keep moving when the plan is in pieces.

"I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent. No one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you."

Seneca

That quote sounds nice on a notebook page.

It hits differently somewhere around the seventh run, calves seizing, asking people for magnesium.

My time improved by less than two minutes.

That’s not the story.

The story is that the gap between the first Hyrox and this one wasn’t physical. I’m not stronger. I might actually be a little weaker, a little older. The gap was in how I handled the moment when the plan stopped working.

That’s the part you can’t program.

That’s the part AI can’t optimize.

You have to walk into it underprepared and find out who you are when the cramps start.

This part isn’t built in the gym.

Turns out, this time, I was someone who finishes.