Hot lava
Colin Stiefer has successfully transitioned from the world of CrossFit to the elite ranks of hybrid racing. Last season, teaming up with Taylor Haney, he won the Hyrox World Championship for Men's Doubles. This season, Colin has broken into the elite ranks as an individual, finishing in 58:14 at Chicago and qualifying for the North American Championships in DC, where he finished in 5th place.
The Hybrid Letter chatted with Colin about improving his running, how he deals with pre-race nerves, and the key to avoiding overtraining.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Hybrid Letter: How did you get into hybrid fitness?
Colin Stiefer: I own a functional fitness gym in Cookeville, Tennessee, called OSF. We’ve been open now for just over two years. Prior to that, I was the head coach at a CrossFit gym up in Davenport, Iowa. I’ve been coaching CrossFit or functional fitness for almost six years now. I studied industrial engineering in college. That’s what my degree was in and my first job. I started coaching at the same time. You coach the 5 AM class, go to work, and coach the evening. I really liked the beginning of the day and the end of the day, but this whole middle part of having a job sucks. So, I had the opportunity to start coaching full-time time. Being young and wanting to do what I wanted to do, that’s the route I went. I’ve been coaching for a while, and I absolutely love it. The days are long, but the hardest day is really not that bad.
I competed in CrossFit for a long time. I caught the bug after playing tennis in college. It was the next competitive thing to pursue. I was gung ho on Crossfit for several years. Then one of my buddies showed me Hyrox race on YouTube. At the time, it was the Elite 12. I don’t know if it was the way it looked or the race format, but I was interested. Let’s give it a try.
My first race was in Chicago in November of 2022. Before then, I just watched all the races they had on YouTube to figure it out. How do these people do the movements? What does the burpee broad jump look like? How do people push the sleds It was a ton of fun, and my mom lives near the city, so she was able to come watch. Two birds, one stone — made mom happy and got to exercise. That was the Fall of 2022, and now we are in the Spring of 2024, rocking and rolling.
THL: How did your skills transfer from CrossFit to Hyrox and Deka?
CS: Leading up to my first Hyrox race, I thought I was going to crush the runs. By CrossFit standards, I was a good runner. But it’s 400s or 800s — or a Murph that starts with a mile. It’s not that much running. You line up at the Hyrox start line and hit the first 1K, and it is no problem. Come to the SkiErg, wow, this hurts. Then you come off the sleds, and you start to doubt whether you will be able to finish the race. This is terrible. It hits so much harder.
Having too much confidence in my running ability was very humbling after that first race. The running was something I seriously had to work on in the transition from CrossFit to hybrid. The good part is, you can improve. There are people that know how to help you improve running. So if your goal is to become a better runner, there are tons of coaches out there with a blueprint. You don’t necessarily have to figure it out for yourself.
I’m stubborn, so I started off trying to figure it out myself. I thought I just needed to run more. However, if you’re running mechanics aren’t on point then your knees will bother you. Your hips will bother you. You’ll have injuries. It probably could have all been avoided if I just asked for help from the beginning. But you learn.
Some skills, like sled push and pull, are a bit different. But if you have the strength built, it’s more of a technique thing. Figuring out where to put your hands on the sled so you aren’t pushing too high and digging it into the ground. Little things like that make things easier.
THL: How has your experience changed from your first race in 2022 to your last race in Elite 15?
CS: In my first Hyrox I did, I went in without any real expectations. Which is a positive thing because you don’t put any stress on yourself. As soon as you have that baseline, now you can put expectations on yourself. In my second race, which I did in Los Angeles a month later, I lined up next to [elite competitors] Rich Ryan, Ryan Kent, and Rylan Schadegg. I thought: OK, we got to go! I came out of the start like a bat out of hell. Skied way too fast, and then I blew up. My performance was significantly worse than my first race. I learned not to do that, not to come out too hot. Most people have fallen into that trap in Hyrox because you just get excited. The more you race, the more you learn about yourself, your ability, and your mindset.
Especially in these majors, I try really hard not to think about what others are doing. If we’re racing one another, and you’re crushing it, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be able to get to your level. Whatever you do, is not going to have a positive impact on what I’m able to do that day. I trust my training, not the adrenaline I get from watching you go.
When you’re on the start line, and everybody on your left and right is really good, it's a little bit intimidating. You get that nervous feeling. I try in the starting corral to smile and put a positive spin on it. That anxiousness that you feel in your stomach at the start line, you can let it be negative and stress you out, or you view it as excitement. This is the excitement that I'm feeling right now. That's the mindset I try to take. Once you hear three-two-one-GO, it’s just another workout. We’re ready, we trained for it, and it’s supposed to be fun. I never want to lose sight of that aspect of it.
THL: What gets you back to the start line after you have had a race that didn't go your way?
CS: Lauren Weeks said on a podcast one time that she’s never run a bad race because as long as she crosses the finish line knowing that she gave it her all, it’s not a bad result. Even if you blow up or you’re doing sets of three on the wall balls, you learn something about yourself. Facing adversity, once you get to the other side of it, is always a good thing.
Even if you run what you think is a once-in-a-lifetime race and execute everything how you want to, there is still room for improvement. We’re not the best in the world, so how can you improve to get to the start line fitter and execute better next time? Maybe you overshot a little bit, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Now you know where that line is for you. You can train to where that is not the tipping point anymore. Maybe the tipping point is five minutes later or ten minutes later. And hopefully, one day, you put it all together and you run the race that you fall asleep thinking about at night.
THL: How do you approach a season of racing? When you are looking at being competitive on an elite level, how do you plan out what races to do?
CS: I don’t race a ton. You need the time to be able to put in the training. If you’re constantly racing, there isn’t a ton of time to put in the dedicated training to make improvements to your last results. For me, when it comes to running, I can’t make that significant of improvements in two weeks or even a month. I need time. After the Worlds in Manchester in May 2023, the next race I did was in November 2023 in Chicago. That gave me a good five-month block to really hunker down and drill running. When I lined up in Chicago, my running was significantly better.
THL: Do you find any benefit in competing in other races like Deka alongside Hyrox?
CS: I enjoy doing Deka. I like the variance. It keeps things fresh. Deka is a lot sharper than Hyrox. Training for Hyrox is pretty grindy, but you have to be quick in Deka. The runs are only 500 meters. You have ten stations in Deka that are snappy. You’re in and out of zones in 30-45 seconds. You have to be able to turn over faster and have fast-twitch muscle fibers. If you’re constantly training long and grindy, you’re not going to be ready when it comes time to turn it up.
THL: How do you balance intensity and volume in your training?
CS: I’m still figuring that out. The further out I am from a race, the more base-building I include, which is longer and slower. I have 90-minute aerobic pieces where I could have a conversation. The closer you get to race day, you need to sharpen up a little bit. You need to get used to hurting for the race duration. As you bring in intensity, doing more station work and compromised running workouts, then the duration goes down. If you take that time domain of base building and just throw more intensity into it, you’re going to get hurt. Or you’re going to feel like garbage because you beat yourself up a lot. When you bring in that intensity, you have to bring the duration down. Eventually, you can bring both of those things up together.
With any sport, the biggest component of improving is staying healthy. The longer you can go without injury, the more consistently you train without having setbacks, and the better you will be in the long run. Being a little conservative with your typically seems to pay off. I try to think more long-term and think about what I can do today to set me up for success when I race in Anaheim in May.
THL: What is something you wish someone had told you when you lined up at your first race or as you started to get into Hyrox?
CS: I think I would have liked to know it was going to be harder than I thought it would be. Training before my first Hyrox, I thought it wouldn't be that bad. A 60-minute workout. It’s fine. My heart rate will stay nice and low, it’ll be great. And then I got out there and thought: I'm going to die. It’s terrifying. It is hard to be feeling like that for 20, 30, or even 40 minutes. I wish I had known that because my mindset would have been a bit different.
THL: What is your plan for the rest of the season and next season?
CS: The immediate future is Anaheim in May, with hopes of taking first or second to get into the Elite 15. For the World Championships, hopefully, I will be in the Elite race, and if not, I’ll be in the age group. I’ve got doubles with my partner Taylor Haney. We won last year’s men's doubles, so we’re trying to repeat. The competition is going to be a little stiffer this year.
A year from now, I hope that instead of breaking into the Elite 15, I am more solidly in the mix. I don’t want to be right on the fringes, where I am unsure of if I’m going to be invited to a major. I want to be more solid in the competition. So I can line up next to Dylan [Scott] every race and give him shit. A year from now, I am confident that I’ll be able to do that. You just have to keep training, keep working, and keep improving one day at a time. Expect wins, and we will get there.
You can follow Colin or his gym on Instagram. You can also listen to him talk more about his Hyrox performance over the last year on Hybrid Fitness Media.
Workout of the Week with Dylan Scott and Markus Frison
Each edition of The Hybrid Letter features a workout from Dylan Scott, the Hyrox North American Champion, and Markus Frison, the original Hyrox VCF champion and head coach of The Frision Method. They both have competed as top athletes in the sport, and we are excited to share some of their training methods with you.
If you are interested in training with The Frision Method, you can find out more information here. If you have any questions about this workout, let us know in the comments.
Hybrid Athlete of The Week: Pamela Fox
Name: Pamela Fox
Age: 39
Hometown: Madison, WI
Why did you start Hybrid racing? My first Hyrox race was in January 2022 in Chicago at the US Championships. I finished 4th in my AG with a time of 1:27:39 including a 5-minute penalty for skipping a lap. I also ended up running an extra lap thinking that would make up for it? Too bad that’s not how it works. I was so clueless. I didn’t get much specific Hyrox training before that race.
That 4th-place finish was enough to qualify for the World Championships in Las Vegas in May. But when I received my email letting me know I qualified, I didn’t respond. I told my trainer, Ellie Ruefer, I wasn’t good enough to go to Worlds.
I will forever be grateful to Ellie for believing in me even when I didn't believe in myself. Luckily, Hyrox let me still register about two months after receiving the email. That was a very special race for me. It was the biggest fitness thing I had ever done. It really sold me on Hyrox. Not just the sport but the Community.
Favorite race to date and why: My favorite race was in LA in December 2022. I finished 1st in my AG with a time of 1:14:52. That was my 6th race, 5th solo race, and 1st time on the podium. One year later, I raced again in LA and got my fastest time to date of 1:08:24. That placed third in my age group. Not only am I getting faster, but so is the whole Hyrox community. This keeps me motivated to push myself in ways I never thought possible.
Race goal? My new goal is 1:05 by the end of 2024. I also want to qualify for another World Championship race. I missed it by 8 seconds in New York and 46 seconds in DC. So close!
Favorite station? Farmers Carry because it’s the fastest station and I’m good at it.
Currently the fastest this season in the open 35-39 AG with a time of 1:17!
Least favorite station? Burpee Broad Jumps because the up-and-down of it gets so exhausting. The run after it is killer.
What do you wish you knew when you started racing? If you want a good time you must run more, especially getting that one longer run in a week. For the Farmer's Carry, run with the kettlebells! One last tip, when in the Rox Zone, think of it as hot lava, get in and out as fast as possible!
Bonus workout: 2-minute test
This challenge comes from RMR training:
In 2 minutes complete:
1. 10 (beginner/intermediate) or 14 (advanced) calories on the rower
2. 14 wall balls (10, 14, or 20 pounds)
Then rest for one minute.
Add 2 calories and 2 wall balls to the next round.
Repeat until failure.
If you try it out, tell us how it went in the comments!