A hundred meters of walking lunges with everything you have left, and the one station where a shortcut gets you a no-rep: trailing knee clearly on the floor, then fully tall, every single step.
Typical splits: men about 5:13 at 20 kg, women about 5:07 at 10 kg (HYROX Data Lab medians). Elite is around 3:00.
A knee that does not clearly touch, or a stand that is not fully tall, does not count. Repeating a rep on tired legs costs time and morale.
Fix: knee kisses the floor, hips and knees lock out, every step.The athletes who start strong stop by 50 m. Rhythm has to be set before 20 m and held.
Fix: a pace you could hold for the whole 100 m.Overstriding unbalances you, makes the knee touch harder and wastes energy on stability.
Fix: a medium step, about 90 degrees at both knees.A bag low on the back shifts the weight behind you, loads the lower back and makes you want to stop.
Fix: high on the traps, pulled tight, elbows down.Mass high and close to your centre keeps your chest up and your balance forward. Centre handles for a tighter hold; the outer handles if your shoulders are stiff. The bag must stay fully supported by you the whole time; resting it on anything is 15 seconds.
A controlled touch is faster to recover from and kinder to the knee over 100 reps. Elite athlete Rich Ryan: approach the floor quickly but stable. The judge needs to see the touch clearly; a hover is a no-rep.
The rule is explicit: each repetition ends standing tall. Stopping short to save effort gets the rep thrown out, and the next lunge starts from a worse position anyway.
Elite athlete Meg Jacoby: stepping through is the fastest way to go, and a small pause at the top is the best way to conserve energy. Start with the first, switch to the second when the step shortens around 60 m. No shuffles or extra steps between reps.
Coaches split on long versus short; everyone agrees on consistent. Long steps load the glutes and spare the quads for wall balls; short steps keep balance under fatigue. Pick the length you can hold the knee touch with for 100 reps.
Looking down folds the torso and drops the bag. The turnarounds are free time: two feet behind the line, one deep breath, re-seat the bag, lunge across.
Racing doubles? Split by length or by a rep count agreed before Run 7. The handoff is a controlled transfer of the bag, shoulders to shoulders, with the bag never touching the ground. The resting partner stays on their feet.
Lunge the full 100 m (109 yd) with no bag and time it. Then two lengths of 20 m (22 yd) at race weight, filmed from the side. Check two things on the film: does the trailing knee clearly touch, and do you stand fully tall before the next step. Fix those before adding anything.
Rear-foot-elevated split squats, four sets of five per leg, four-second lowering, fast stand, two minutes rest. Then three lengths of 20 m (22 yd) at race weight with the step length you chose. Cap the volume so tomorrow's run is not wrecked.
Four rounds: 400 m (437 yd) at race pace straight into 25 m (27 yd) of lunges at race weight, then 90 seconds easy. Practice the pause: stand tall, bag on, three breaths. Count how many you needed; that is your race plan.
1,000 m (0.62 mi) at race pace, 50 m (55 yd) of lunges at race weight unbroken if you can, straight into 20 wall balls. The point is to feel what the lunges leave in your legs for station eight, and to pace accordingly.
Every coach lands on the same thing: unilateral strength with eccentric control. Split squats, step-downs, tempo lunges, cyclist squats. An elite doubles medallist with some of the fastest lunges in the sport rarely trains lunges at all; years of heavy split squats did it.
Train at race weight or a little above for rhythm, lighter for speed work. Build distance gradually. Do not jump to 100 m sets in week one.
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