The guru of hybrid racing
Anthony Peressini is one of the most sought-after and successful coaches in hybrid sports. He got started in the space creating programming for his wife, Lauren Weeks, who has won three Hyrox World Championships. More recently, Anthony and Lauren have helped other top competitors reach new heights, including James Kelly (3rd place at the 2024 Hyrox World Championships), Kate Davey (6th place), and Lauren Griffith (12th place).
Anthony is also a L3 Certified Crossfit Trainer, USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach, and Professional Engineer. He and Lauren coach athletes of all abilities through their training platform, The Hybrid Engine.
The Hybrid Letter spoke with Anthony about threshold training, race strategy, and how to identify areas for improvement.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Hybrid Letter: Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and your athletic background?
Anthony Peressini: I grew up in athletics my whole life. When I was growing up, it was always play every sport you can. I didn't get into lifting weights until college when I wrestled for Oregon State. In high school everybody always said if you want to get better at wrestling, you have to wrestle. So that's all we did. Wrestle a lot.
When I was in college, I was very lucky to have some influential coaches who would try a whole bunch of different training methods with us. They actually looked into other things outside of wrestling, like running. They looked into CrossFit. They looked into other modalities and methodologies to use in our offseason. I was really close with a couple of my coaches and one of them was Troy Steiner. I would babysit his kids.
One of the things I never really learned was how to work out when you don't have a team. When I graduated college, I had no idea what I was supposed to do at the gym. Everybody was working out to look better and I didn’t really care. In 2011, my mom and my dad had started doing Ironman races, marathons, and triathlons. So I just started running. I started going to the gym at 5 AM.
I ran my first marathon right after my last college wrestling season. And it didn't go so well. For a while I had no idea that people race marathons. I knew people race shorter distances. I thought everybody runs a marathon just to complete it. I started reading books about Ironmans because I started training my mom and dad. Then I trained for a marathon and hit 3:36. I was pretty happy with that but wanted to go under 3:30. I ended up running the Missoula marathon three years in a row.
I graduated from college in 2011, worked for 16 months, and then went back to college for 14 months for my master's degree before moving to Vegas. I met some people and started CrossFit. I met Lauren at the gym, and we coached CrossFit together. We did bootcamps, and we were very much on the endurance side of Crossfit. We were training for Hyperfit, which is Douglas Chapman's gym. It was one of the first 10 Crossfit. He was a very high-volume program person, and we found that it suited us. Crossfit is the workout that everyone talks about but we did so much outside of that. We would train sleds, ergs, and do other conditioning. We worked on pure strength and weightlifting technique. We've basically trained for hybrid racing forever because it’s just strength and conditioning.
THL: When you take on a new athlete, you are known for doing a lot of analysis of their past races. What do you look for, and how does that help you make a plan?
AP: I've been doing this for almost five years now. The first two seasons, it was just watching Lauren do it. I learned everything just by watching her do it. I learned from all the events. I timed everything.
After I talked with James Kelly, the first thing I did was watch some of his old races. He was never bad at the things he did, but he would jog into a station and walk up to his equipment. That was costing him time. He really has improved at that.
Everybody has things they can improve, but most of the time, as an athlete, you don't recognize it. When I was wrestling in college, we used to get videos of opponents, and you would watch them. You hear about film study in the NFL and the MLB. It helps you improve.
THL: When you’re making a plan for someone in a Hyrox season, what are some things you include for everyone?
AP: I think maybe just 0.05% of people need an exact personalized plan. Everybody else could be doing the same training.
Most of our new clients are running too fast. That’s the number one thing we do: slow everybody down.
We also break the mentality of just training your weaknesses. Just because something is your strength, unless you’re the strongest person out there at it, then you can still improve. You build your strengths and weaknesses simultaneously. That's why two people can follow the same workout track. It's not because they are the same athlete. Maybe it’s a workout that feels good for them and bad for you. But you both need to do it.
THL: You talk about threshold training a lot on your training podcast. Can you describe how you build threshold training into your programming?
AP: The base of almost every program I am writing right now is threshold, and it’s doubling the threshold. The way I've approached it is you run twice a week, which are your morning thresholds. And you use machines twice a week, which are your evening thresholds. And threshold should not be a pace that intimidates you. If it does, you need to slow down.
Unless you have accurate testing or a recent 10K or 15K race, then we don't know exactly what your threshold is. I always err on the lower side. It's better to err low than to go too high. And then the athlete can go somewhere to get tested, or if they buy an at-home lactate meter, I'll teach them how to perform it on themselves. Then we can get actual numbers to build off of.
THL: What do you do with an athlete who keeps getting the same race time and feels like they can't break through?
AP: It depends. What if their run times are improving but their stations are getting slower? I don't look at the overall time but at each section. And every course is different. Are you really improving or is the course is easier?
We don't train specifically for these races year-round. Most of the time, we train general fitness because the fittest people are going to perform the best. Especially when something doesn't go your way. Can you get around that hurdle and still keep going? So we train a very broad sense of the word fitness all the time, year-round. When we start getting to these events, we get specific about four weeks, maybe five weeks out.
And so if somebody's stagnant or not improving, it depends. What are they stagnant in? Maybe it's the intensity at a certain part of the race and so we need to work on that section. Or maybe you falter at the end of the race and so we'll program more long runs. It'll depend on where their sticking point is and how we can make changes to address it.
THL: How do you approach strategy with athletes? Lauren is always aggressive at the start of races which many athletes could not do effectively.
AP: It’s funny when people say Lauren is aggressive at the start of races because she hasn’t really been aggressive at the start. That’s how fast she can run.
It depends on the type of person. There are two types of people when it comes to racing. Some people want to time trial and ignore everybody. And there are people that want to race and compete against somebody.
If they are time trialing, usually, we'll set out goal paces for everything. We tell them to run their race until they get to the rower and then look at the time and see if they are on pace. From there, you can keep going and try to hit your times so that you're reaching your time trial goal.
If you're racing, it depends on who's in the race with you. Do you need to get out fast? Or can you just shadow somebody for a little while until they break and then you pass them? It really depends on the person who they're racing.
THL: What are some of the mental strategies you give athletes to get through tough moments during a race?
AP: A lot of that is Lauren, my wife. She’s the one who talks to them about having the right mindset. You have to believe that you belong there.
Kate [Davey], I think she did really well at the Hyrox World Championships. She got to the rower in second, and she didn't think she was supposed to be there. And she got scared of the race, Imposter Syndrome. I think she could have helped herself if she believed more in herself. And the next time she's there, she's going to believe.
In regards to James Kelly, Hunter [McIntyre] is a very intimidating person. And he’s intimidating at the top of the field. Last year, everybody was like, who's going to touch Hunter? But James was able to finish ahead of Hunter. Just having that belief is important.
You can follow Anthony on Instagram or catch Anthony weekly on Hybrid Fitness Media’s Monday night live show or the Hybrid Fitness Coaching podcast with James Kelly.
Question of the Week: Protein power
The Hybrid Letter has assembled a panel of some of the top hybrid athletes in the world. Throughout the season, we'll pose questions to this group and publish the responses. If you have a question you would like to ask this group, send your suggestions to alex@hybridletter.com.
This week's question: Do you keep track of your protein intake? If so, how much protein do you eat daily?
Beau Wills (2024 Hyrox World Championship, 8th Place): I don’t track my protein down to the gram, but I do have a rough idea of my daily intake since my daily eating routine is pretty much the same every day. This would add up to more or less 180g per day. I weigh 82kg (180 lbs).
Terra Jackson (2023 Hyrox Elite 15; 2023 Deka Mile World Champion): I think that protein consumption for most people is pretty low, so tracking can help individuals see where they are currently, identify foods they currently are eating that are high in protein, and create reasonable goals to start increasing their overall intake of protein. The goal of most dietary changes, in my opinion, would be to create habits that are realistic and sustainable. Gradually adding in additional protein sources or maybe simply increasing the amount of foods someone is already eating high in protein.
I track my macros on and off, mainly to make sure I'm eating enough. I've found that constant tracking makes me a little too obsessive with my eating. It may not be realistic for all people to track regularly, but getting a snapshot of your protein intake can be helpful as most people eat similar things day to day.
I personally have a wide range, when I do track I've found I'm generally around 130-170g but use quite a few supplements to help me keep my intake high (shakes/bars/pwrlift). It's not that easy to get a high-protein diet unless you are incredibly intentional. I always think it's wild when someone is getting 60g of protein a day, and a trainer tells them to start eating 130g. It's such an overwhelming jump. Just like with anything else, I think if you go too extreme, you lose people. Not because they aren't trying but just because it's too much of a change at once, and it gets overwhelming.
Vivian Tufuto (2024 Hyrox World Championship, 3rd Place): I don’t track food or protein. I stay consistent with electrolytes, and as workouts get longer, I add more carbs to my pre-workout snacks so I don’t crash towards the end.
Hybrid Athlete of the Week: Bray Alley
Name: Bray Alley
Age: 32
Hometown: Austin, Texas
When did you start hybrid racing? I started hybrid training in May 2021, leading up to my first Hyrox race in Austin. Some close friends were into the sport, and it gave me a chance to challenge myself and do something with them. It started as just something to do but has grown into something much more important in my life.
Favorite race to date? Hyrox 2024. I spent the entire day on the course, from 8 AM to the close, either competing or filming friends. The Austin community traveled to Houston in force, making it a blessed experience. It charges me up when I see my friends cross the finish line.
Do you have a race goal? My goal is to break 60 minutes in the pro division. I know what it takes. I am learning to love and trust the process.
Favorite station? The sled pull is my favorite because it really plays to my strengths. I’ve always had strong hips and grip strength from grade school wrestling, so this station highlights those.
Most challenging station? Wall balls are the most challenging station for me. It’s the one I can still make big improvements on. I’m excited to get better and get stronger here. It’s a side goal to do them unbroken one day in a competition in the pro division. It’s a love-hate relationship.
What is something you wish you knew when you started racing? Reflecting back, there are many approaches to hybrid training, and the best one is the one that fits your life and keeps training enjoyable. Whether you work with a coach or a community or create your own plan, it needs to be sustainable and balanced. Training for this sport can be intense and challenging, and it’s easy to want to do sport-specific training year-round. This can lead to burn out and risking injury. Staying healthy is key to continuous progress.
