Guide

How much pace do you lose between run 1 and run 8 in HYROX?

Updated on 13 November 2026 · 8 min · By Rick van de Ven, founder of Benchmrk, Pro athlete

How much pace do PRO athletes lose between run 1 and run 8?

About 16% of their speed, or 42 seconds per kilometre, in the HYScience study by Gutiérrez-Hellín and colleagues (2026). They tested 24 PRO men in the lab within 10 days before HYROX Madrid 2025 and followed them in the real race, with an average finish of 69:58.

The calculation: 13.58 ÷ 16.13 = 0.84. So run 8 was about 16% slower than run 1 in speed. In pace: 4:25 minus 3:43, 42 seconds per kilometre.

Now run 1 against the threshold: 16.13 ÷ 16.41 = 0.98. These athletes started at 98% of their threshold speed, just below it. From there they dropped to 83% in run 8 (13.58 ÷ 16.41).

The limitation: only PRO men, in one race. VT2 is the second ventilatory threshold from a lab test. That is not quite the same as a threshold from a 30-minute time trial or your watch. We only read the abstract; the full text is paywalled.

What does that mean for a 1:15 goal time?

Take the example profile at 1:15 (Open Men, threshold pace 4:25/km, 35 km per week), a worked example, not a real athlete.

We apply the HYScience ratios to his threshold. The study was at a different level, so this is an estimate, not a measurement.

Eight runs at 5:15 is 42:00. For 1:15 that leaves 33:00 for stations and Roxzone (75:00 minus 42:00).

This is the PRO men's pattern, not a pacing plan. Our advice stands: run 1 goes at your required pace, no faster. How to work out that pace is in run pacing and predict your HYROX time.

The drop-off here is 5:19 minus 4:30, about 50 seconds per kilometre. That is more than the PRO athletes at the same percentage, because a percentage of a slower pace is more seconds. So compare your splits with faster athletes in percentages, not seconds.

When is your drop-off too big?

When run 1 was faster than your threshold pace, or your drop-off is clearly more than about 16% of speed. Not standards, just two reference points from one race with 24 PRO men.

Check three numbers from your last race or sim:

Benchmrk is stricter. In benchmark 4, the pace decay test of 8 × 1000 m with stations, run 8 can be at most 12 seconds per kilometre slower than run 1 (see run pacing). That is a training goal for a test, not a description of a typical race. Hit it and you have room. Far above it, and your drop-off is your biggest gain.

If run 1 is at or below your threshold pace and run 8 still drops a lot, the problem is more likely running after station work or a station that drains you. Then check your weakest stations, such as wall balls without stopping.

What role does your threshold play?

Your runs are below threshold, so your threshold is the reference for all eight. In HYScience the runs averaged 84% of threshold speed. In a simulated race with 11 recreational athletes who had raced before, Brandt and colleagues (2025) found the strongest relation with finish time for VO2max (ρ = −0.71) and endurance training volume (ρ = −0.68). That is correlation in a small group, not cause.

Get your threshold right first, see find your threshold pace. Then train it once or twice a week with intervals around that pace.

How do you train running after station work?

By putting stations and running in one session. That running under fatigue decides much of your finish time is our choice based on research; Brandt and colleagues did not measure it separately. In HYScience the pace dropped during the race, but the abstract does not show how much came from the stations.

Two options: a sim in race order, built as in build a HYROX simulation, or a short compromised finisher after your threshold run on a day without a sim. The idea behind it is on compromised running.

Does strength help you stay economical in run 8?

Possibly, but the evidence comes from runners. Zanini and colleagues (2025) had 28 well-trained male runners do maximal strength and jump exercises 2 times a week for 10 weeks alongside their running, 14 per group. After 90 minutes of running, the strength group had become 2.1% more economical, the control group 0.6% less. Time to exhaustion after that fatiguing run went up 35% in the strength group and down 8% in the control group.

Running economically when already tired is what runs 6 to 8 ask of you. The limitation: only men, only runners, not HYROX.

What does a session for run 8 look like?

A threshold block with a compromised finisher, here for the example profile (threshold pace 4:25/km). The paces are estimates from the HYScience ratios; adjust them to your own threshold.

Log the finisher splits. If the last kilometre is much slower than 5:19/km, the threshold block was too hard or your legs have little left after station work.

Do heavy strength and jumps, as in the Zanini study, on a different day from your threshold session.

How Benchmrk does it

The app predicts your time per run, station and Roxzone, and your chance of hitting your goal time. Your heart rate zones are a % of your threshold heart rate. Without a sim day, you get a compromised finisher after the threshold run. Strength for your weakest stations sits next to your running. The plan adapts to what you log for pace, heart rate and RPE.

Benchmrk is not affiliated with HYROX.