From a fractured back to a world championship

Morgan Schulz burst back onto the hybrid racing scene in 2023 after a three-year racing hiatus. In November, Morgan finished third at Hyrox Chicago. A month later, Morgan won the Deka Fit World Championship in Dallas. Most recently, Morgan finished second at Hyrox Fort Lauderdale with an impressive time of 1:05.40. 

The Hybrid Letter talked with Morgan about overcoming serious injuries, how she thinks her way through a race, and the value of working with a coach. 

The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

The Hybrid Letter: What got you into hybrid training and racing? 

Morgan Schulz: I ran cross country and track in college. In my college years, from 2015 to 2019, I was riddled with injuries. From high school to college, I had so many stress fractures. I was running too much for what my body could handle. I was getting injured constantly. In 2018, I had a stress fracture in my back. That was hands down the worst injury that I had gone through. During that time when I had the stress fracture, the NCAA said that I shouldn’t run anymore at that level. So I was assigned a medical hardship waiver which meant I wasn’t allowed to run anymore in the NCAA. I was on crutches. It was embarrassing going from being a really fit runner and athlete at school to someone who couldn’t even walk on their own. 

I got that injury, funny enough, on Valentine’s Day 2018. For the next eight months, I didn’t do any exercise. I could barely walk. I lost a lot of fitness, of course, and I lost the lust to try and be good at something again. It wasn’t until I started my senior year in college that I started to miss being good at something. I missed the drive and the discipline of being an athlete. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get into, but it was in the back of my mind. I was scrolling through social media one day, in early 2019, and saw a post for Spartan racing. It looked cool. The athletes had sick physiques, and they were running in mud. That looked like fun.

So, I signed up for my first Spartan race in May 2019. At that point, I was not running at all. I was still coming back from my stress fracture, but I knew this would get me back into it. I trained for it. And I flew down to Austin, Texas, and competed. I got second, and at this point, Spartan was giving out money. So I made $500 bucks, which covered the trip. I was like, sick; you can make money! 

In 2019, I just kept signing up for Spartan Races. I’m doing these events and winning money. I ended up getting 7th at the North American Championships for Spartan. So I was making a name for myself in obstacle course racing. 

I saw Hyrox take off on social media. And I decided that’s the sport I want to do. My mindset shifted from running outside in mud to let’s throw some heavy shit around and run in circles. My first Hyrox was in New York City in 2019. I got second there and $1000. I thought this was sick. I'm getting money. I'm traveling. I'm meeting new people. Later in 2020, I returned to school to get my master’s degree. From 2020 through 2022, when Covid was rampant, I wasn’t really training hard. I was focused on my academics, so I didn’t compete. 

When I graduated in 2022, I had more time and money to put towards traveling and training. It was a slow build. 2022 was still not good for me. 2023 is when I realized I needed more direction and specificity with my training. I started working with Rich Ryan, which was an absolute blessing. I feel supported and focused in my training working with him. 

THL: How has having such a serious injury impacted how you approach your training? 

MS: It’s tamed me down quite a bit in terms of intensity and duration. I only work out five days a week. So, I take two days off. And when I say off days, they are truly off days. I'm not sitting on the bike for an hour and a half.

Out of the five days I am working out, I'm only running two to three of those. The frequency and the duration that I'm running is so much lower than a lot of the highest-level athletes, but it allows me to establish consistency without risking injury. That's something I had to get comfortable with. It's easy to compare, seeing people on social media running 10 miles and doing tempo runs multiple times a week. That's something my body can’t handle, and I proved that to myself over and over again by getting stress fractures all the time.

When I had a stress fracture in my back, I also had a pubic stress fracture at the same time. That scared me because the recovery process was so daunting that I told myself I would never get to that point again. Anytime I feel something that just seems off, I stop. It’s not worth a day of good training to break my bone again and have to go through eight months of rehab. 

The intensity is still high when it needs to be. Of those five days a week I'm hitting three or four days of intensity with one or two easy days. But because I'm not training every day, I'm able to handle the high load of intensity while still preserving my system for days that I need to hit hard.

THL: Has it been a hard process to convince yourself to rest?

MS: For sure. In college, it's drilled into you that the more miles you run, the faster you're going to be. So why would I run five days a week when I can run seven and hit 70 miles instead of 50? It's something that's so ingrained into a lot of people's minds early on. I had to learn to get comfortable with training less. It wasn't easy. But over time, I started to see results. I'm going to stick with what works.

THL: What have you added to your training that has helped you compete at a high level? 

MS: The days that I am training, my volume is moderately high. Prior to training with Rich, I would do sporadic workouts where I would hit four or five 800-meter intervals at race pace, and that would be it. But now, let's hit four or five 800-meter intervals at race pace plus eight 400-meter intervals at race pace. It’s adding more volume, maintaining high-end fitness, and hitting it multiple times a week. For me that works. I average around 20 miles a week. I can’t handle high mileage, so I make up for that volume with the SkiErg or biking. 

THL: How do you mentally stay locked in when the races get tough?

MS: I'm such a competitive person. I always have something to tell myself.  I have little mantras I tell myself during each station. At Hyrox Fort Lauderdale last month, I was on the rower and struggling just like everyone else. I break up the row into 10 sections. The first 100 meters, I tell myself just to get to 100 meters. And I have that same mantra for the next nine 100-meter segments. And I do that with every station.  For the burpee broad jumps, I find a point on the ground.  And I think about how once I'm at that point, I'm almost done. I do the same thing when I’m working out. I train that mindset.

THL: You separate yourself from the field by weaponizing your running. Can you explain your approach?

MS: I weaponize it in a race by practicing it. It’s utilizing the race of Hyrox, mimicking it, and training consistently. A lot of my workouts are very Hyrox-focused. And then when I'm racing, it's just letting myself hurt and being OK with it.

I know everyone's hurting during this race. It’s telling myself it's okay to hurt, let's keep running faster. A lot of it is mental because I know my running should be a strength of mine. Say I miss 5-10 seconds on the burpee broad jumps, I have confidence I can make that time up on the run. Leaning into the mental side of Hyrox is also something I'm working on.

THL: What are some mistakes you made in races that you learned from?

MS: A big one for me, early on, was not bringing nutrition to a Hyrox race. I didn't learn until this year that I needed to fuel during these races. Why am I bonking at the 30-minute mark of a Hyrox? Maybe I should try consuming carbs? In Chicago, I brought a 200-calorie gel. And then in Fort Lauderdale, I had a belt with watermelon sour patch kids. So I just would pull them out and sporadically eat them. I feel like I need that to sustain myself for an hour plus. 

Another big mistake is just going out too hard. It is fun in the moment to start fast and lead the pack. But it is not fun to peter out the last two-thirds of the race. So now I’m utilizing a better pacing strategy. 

THL: How has working with a coach helped you? 

MS: For me, the biggest thing is my coach keeps me in check a little bit. If I were to program for myself, I would train seven days a week, and I would try to run 50 miles a week. I know that's not good for me, but I can't help it because I'm so competitive. 

The other thing is, as people, we want to do things that we do well. If it were up to me, I would probably do more training on ergs. But what I need to do is practice things I’m not as good at. A coach sees that and focuses on the things you need to work on. Because of Rich Ryan and others, I have not been injured as much in the last few years, knock on wood.

With Rich, I never know what’s next. I have about a week of programming and I won’t know what next week brings. Generally, we change it up. That’s so much fun for me. I can get bored of doing the same thing all the time, so I love the diversity of the training. It's also fun to have someone hold you accountable and have someone to check in on you.

THL: What’s next for you? 

MS: I would really like to defend my Deka Fit World title and break the world record. I think I am about eight seconds off. I am also doing a big training block leading into Hyrox Anaheim. We’ll see how that goes. 

To see more of Morgan’s training, follow her on Instagram.

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App of the week: RoxFit

RoxFit is a free app that allows you to look up any Hyrox race result and compare it against any previous race (by any person) or the race median. It breaks down the comparison by each race segment, so you can see where to improve. And the data is displayed in slick graphs. 

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A special note from Judd

Alex does not know I’m adding this, but I wanted to make sure readers know that my co-author absolutely crushed it last weekend at the Hyrox North American Championships. Alex finished second out of a field of nearly 300 women with a blazing time of 1:03:51. The race was an epic battle between her and Sarah Keshishian, with both women completing 75 wall balls unbroken as the crowd erupted. In the end, Sarah edged Alex by just four seconds!

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Hybrid Athlete of the Week: Gabriela Olivier

Name: Gabriela Olivier, Instructor at The Training Lab NYC 
Age: 33
Hometown: Boston, MA

How did you start getting involved with hybrid racing and training? Before moving to NYC about 6 years ago, I was in a long-distance relationship with my now husband, Gerrel Olivier. Long distance meant lots of phone time, and a topic of conversation was a place called The Training Lab (TTL). Gerrel would tell me about these crazy 5 AM workouts. I remember thinking to myself, I will NEVER be joining Gerrel for what sounds like torture.

But I fell in love with the classes that had us hiking up and down flights of stairs, running around NYC blocks carrying water jugs, pushing each other on sleds, rowing team 10ks, and more. Each year, hybrid training made me faster and stronger, and it made me confident enough to start my Hyrox journey at the 2022 NYC race. I haven't looked back. 

Favorite race to date? My favorite race to date is Hyrox Ft Lauderdale 2024. The Hyrox LA race in December was my first time competing solo, and I made the mistake of running an extra lap on my second run. I knew the only option was to shake it off and makeup ground wherever possible. While this mistake ended up costing me third place in my age group, it lit a fire under my ass.

Following the LA race, I let the sting of that loss fuel my training. I grinded alongside the TTL HYROX team, and all the work I put in yielded the outcome I was hoping for, a podium finish (third place in my age group) in Ft. Lauderdale. 

Do you have a race goal? For the rest of this season, Gerrel and I are teaming up and competing in the Mixed Doubles division. We'll be gunning to finish as close to an hour as possible! 

Favorite station? Wall balls! I am exhausted by the time I get there, but it is exhilarating to be so the finish line. The energy of everyone screaming seems to drown out negative thoughts. There is really no greater feeling for me than that point of the race. It is a reminder that I am strong, capable and fierce! 

Least favorite station? Row — not even a question. Having to sit on the rower and feel like you are working so hard, but not really moving forward or toward something at this point of the race hurts! 

Things you wish you knew when you started training/racing? I wish I knew that this race is for everyone. I did not sign up for the first NYC HYROX because I didn't think I could do it; boy, was I wrong. While it is fascinating to watch the top athletes compete at HYROX, it is inspiring to watch your everyday gym-goer out there ogetting it done.