HYROX race nutrition by finish time

Your expected finish time decides how much carbohydrate a HYROX needs, and most athletes import a plan built for a different clock. The CrossFit plan is too small. Martinho's 2025 scoping review found little support for carbohydrate taken around 8 to 20 minute WODs and more consistent support for caffeine.³ Carry that plan into an 86 minute race and you reach the last kilometers and the wall balls running low. The endurance plan is too big. The 90 to 120 g/h carbohydrate protocols come from Jeukendrup's tier for events longer than 2.5 hours, fed with multiple carbohydrate transporters.⁴

The right amount sits between them. The ACSM joint position puts 45 to 75 minute efforts at small amounts or a mouth rinse and 1 to 2.5 hour efforts at 30 to 60 g/h.⁵ HYROX finishes straddle that line. Brandt and colleagues timed 11 athletes through a simulated Open race and recorded a median finish of 86.5 minutes.¹ A third-party aggregator of 224,008 results puts unofficial Open medians at 1:23:04 for men and 1:30:39 for women.² No published trial has tested race-day carbohydrate or fluid protocols in HYROX itself. This guide maps general duration bands onto finish time and uses the 26/27 rulebook only for what you can carry and where you can drink.⁶

01Finish time decides the carbohydrate plan

Pick your row from a recent simulation or a previous HYROX. Your goal time is the wrong input, because the plan has to cover the minutes you will actually spend on course. Gut training tells you which gel and which sip you can swallow at HYROX heart rate.

Two sources set the bands. ACSM puts 1 to 2.5 hours at 30 to 60 g/h, and an 86 minute race sits near the start of that band.⁵ Jeukendrup's 2014 review supports a mouth rinse or small amounts around 1 hour, up to about 60 g/h across 2 to 3 hours, and about 90 g/h for ultra-endurance efforts.⁴ Neither source reaches 90 g/h for a race this short. Pre-race carbohydrate stays at ACSM's 1 to 4 g/kg in the 1 to 4 hours before the start, as a race morning fueling dose you have already rehearsed.⁵

The table turns those bands into four decisions for each finish time. Read across your own row. Most fueling mistakes in HYROX come from borrowing a neighboring row's plan.

Under 70 minutes. Pro and fast Open athletes sit in ACSM's 45 to 75 minute band. The pre-race meal does most of the work, and a few swallowed sips cover the rest. The unofficial Open medians land 8 to 16 minutes past the top of that band, so most Open athletes do not belong here.

70 to 90 minutes. Open men at 1:23:04 sit in this row, as does Brandt's simulated median of 86.5 minutes. One or two gels plus Roxzone water covers it.

90 to 120 minutes. Open women at 1:30:39 sit on the line between this row and the one above. First-timers who expect 100 to 120 minutes should plan for 30 to 60 g/h before they enter the building.

Over 120 minutes. Stay at 30 to 60 g/h. The 90 g/h protocols belong to longer events and a gut trained to handle them.

A 65 minute athlete who copies the 2 hour row will swallow more carbohydrate than ACSM budgets for that clock. A 2 hour athlete who copies the WOD row will reach the wall balls with little carbohydrate left.

02Eight kilometers of running plus eight stations

Season 26/27 is 8 x 1 km runs with 8 stations in order. SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, wall balls. Wall balls are 100 reps for every singles division. Women Open was 75 in 25/26.⁶

Pro uses heavier sleds, farmers carry weights, sandbag, and wall ball than Open. The doubles rulebook puts Mixed Doubles in the middle load tier, which uses the same weights as Men Open and Women Pro in singles. Sled masses include the sled.⁶ Every division still runs 8 km. Heavier implements raise the strength cost, and the carbohydrate row still comes from your finish time.

You cannot chew on a sled or open a gel during lunges. Plan food for the minutes when your hands are free, and front-load it. The last two kilometers and 100 wall balls are a bad time to open a packet you have been saving.

03Most of the clock is at 90 percent of max heart rate

Brandt's 11 athletes spent 51.2 minutes running and 32.8 minutes on stations, and sat at or above 90 percent of max heart rate for 79.5 percent of the total time.¹ Heart rate stays high through the stations, so the race works like one long hard effort with no easy stretch to eat in. Finish time correlated with VO2max at -0.71, which links aerobic fitness with finish time. Fitter athletes finish in or near ACSM's 45 to 75 minute band. Slower athletes spend the whole race in the 1 to 2.5 hour band. Eleven athletes in one simulation is a small sample, so treat these numbers as a picture of the race and fuel the finish you will actually run.

The last station is 100 wall balls after more than an hour in that zone. That is where a plan that started empty shows up.

I found no published HYROX study with muscle biopsies. The closest data come from soccer, another mixed high-intensity event of similar length. Krustrup's biopsies fell from 449 to 255 mmol/kg dry weight across a match, with 47 percent of fibers empty or almost empty by full time.⁷ Soccer is only an analog, and the practical point carries over. Start with full glycogen, take a Roxzone sip, and borrow from team-sport and short-event fueling before you borrow from a marathon plan.

04Feed in the Roxzone

The 26/27 rulebook sets the logistics. You can carry nutrition from the start, and hydration packs are allowed. Water is available at least once per Roxzone pass. Sports drink depends on the venue.⁶ Everything else in this section is practical advice built around those rules.

The table shows where a swallow fits. Only the wrapper penalty comes from the rulebook. The rest follows from where your hands are.

Kerksick's ISSN nutrient-timing stand supports carbohydrate during prolonged high-intensity exercise.⁸ One sports gel typically holds 20 to 30 g. Two gels put an 80 to 90 minute athlete near 30 g/h. A 2 hour athlete needs at least three, spread across Roxzone passes. Treat intra-workout fueling at HYROX heart rate as a skill you rehearse. Gels stacked just before wall balls arrive too late to help.

Littering a gel wrapper is a 2-minute penalty. Pouring water over yourself to cool is a 2-minute penalty.⁶ Put the empty packet in a pocket or the pack, and drink the water. If you did not carry carbohydrate in, you depend on whatever drink the venue provides.

Carter, Jeukendrup, and Jones found that a carbohydrate mouth rinse cut a 1-hour cycling time trial from 61.37 to 59.57 minutes.⁹ That small laboratory trial supports small amounts for the fastest HYROX athletes. A spit rinse is impractical in a crowded indoor lane, so a swallowed Roxzone sip is the realistic version.

05Indoor fluid without a marathon drinking schedule

The rulebook does not specify venue temperature, and I found no published HYROX study measuring sweat rates. ACSM's fluid position gives 0.5 to 2.0 L/h as a common sweat range, which is the best available analog.¹⁰ Drink in the Roxzone to thirst and to the sweat rate you know from training. A hydration pack is legal if you want fluid on the runs without depending on the Roxzone table.⁶

Exercise-associated hyponatremia comes from drinking beyond sweat losses, and slower finishers have more time and more drink stops to do it.¹¹ A 70 minute finisher sipping in the Roxzone is at low risk. If you walk stations and take every cup, you fit the risk profile.

06Caffeine, creatine, and race-day extras

ISSN's caffeine position stand supports 3 to 6 mg/kg.¹² Take it 45 to 60 minutes before the start, at a dose you have already used on a hard training session. The modality split and the sleep cost sit in caffeine for performance.

The same CrossFit review that found little support for carbohydrate around short WODs found more consistent support for caffeine.³ Keep that part of the CrossFit plan.

Creatine at 3 to 5 g/day is a training supplement, and ISSN's position stand sets the dose.¹³ Keep taking it through race week. Loading it the night before does nothing for the race.

Beta-alanine needs weeks of daily dosing to raise muscle carnosine. ISSN supports it for high-intensity efforts lasting 1 to 4 minutes.¹⁴ Several stations fall in that window. Treat it as a training decision, since a race-morning scoop does nothing.

Sodium bicarbonate has its own ISSN position stand and a known gut cost.¹⁵ Burpees, a sled, and 100 wall balls are a bad place to test an alkaline drink you have not rehearsed. Leave it at home on race day.

07The last 48 hours

Keep the carbohydrate floor from hybrid athlete weekly fueling and the hybrid carb floor through race week, so lifting and running do not compete for the same glycogen. The extra work is the last 36 to 48 hours, when you raise starch and drop fiber so muscle glycogen is full on the start line.

ACSM reserves 10 to 12 g/kg/day supercompensation for events of 90 minutes and longer.⁵ Burke's competition guidance matches carbohydrate intake to the work.¹⁶ Use the full load if you will be on course past 90 minutes and can accept the water mass. Skip it if you will finish under 90 minutes.

Olsson and Saltin measured a 2.4 kg gain after a full supercompensation protocol.¹⁷ Fernández-Elías found at least 3 g of water stored with each gram of glycogen.¹⁸ A modest HYROX top-up stores less, so a gain of roughly 0.5 to 2 kg is a reasonable estimate. You carry that mass through 8 km of running and every burpee broad jump.

Slot the meals into the race-week nutrition plan. Drop fiber, keep protein, raise starch. Weigh yourself so the bump does not panic you into a cut.

08Doubles still run the full 8 km

Both partners run the full 8 km and split the station work. Use a doubles result or a doubles simulation to choose your carbohydrate row.

Split stations give each partner standing time while the other works. If the doubles rules let you eat in the station area, use that time for the gel you would have missed in a crowded Roxzone. Check the 26/27 rulebook before you build the plan around it.

Relay splits the race into short legs. Fuel it like team-sport and short-event fueling. Start full. A leg that short does not need an hourly carbohydrate plan.

Write your expected finish time on the first gel. At 85 minutes, the plan is two gels and Roxzone water. Past 2 hours, you are in the 30 to 60 g/h row, and the 90 g/h plan stays home.