TrainHybrd Podcast - Hyrox, Hybrid Training, Running & Endurance

For the big 100, we're finally speaking with the one and only Jake Williamson. Jake is a Hyrox world record holder, and the only openly gay man in the Hyrox Elite 15.

Before the records, Jake was a footballer. Semi-pro at 16, then college soccer in the States. When he came out publicly, his Sunday league team took him out of the group chat and stopped picking him. So he built his own instead: BTND (Better The Next Day), now running Run Crews and Gym Crews across the UK.

Then came the results. He and Fabi Eisenlauer were the first duo ever to go under 48 minutes in Men's Open Doubles. This year he won Phoenix with Hunter McIntyre and came second at the World Champs in Stockholm, by 35 seconds. He's also run a 100k with just a water bottle.

Ben and Jake get into being gay in sport, inclusivity in Hyrox versus football, where "banter" crosses the line, what it costs to go pro, Stockholm's missing 35 seconds, racing doubles with Hunter McIntyre, and plenty more.

A guest we've always wanted on the show. Enjoy episode 100 and thank you guys for helping us get here. Without you we could not do this show ❤️

Links

• 7 Day Free Trial for HPP TEAM Training
• Become a founding Sparkie Member
• Follow us on Instagram

Episode 100 is coming.

But this isn’t it.

Welcome to Episode 99.5, because before we hit triple digits, we want to hear from the people who have somehow survived 99 episodes of us talking sht.

Send us a video, voice, or text note with:

• Your favourite TrainHybrd moment

• Something that made you laugh

• A question you’ve always wanted to ask us

• Something Jackson probably should’ve been cancelled for

• Or what you want to see happen in Episode 100 👀

We’re putting your messages into the big Episode 100 special, along with a mystery guest Ben is far too excited about.

Send yours here:
👉 https://trainhybrd.com/ep100

Seriously, thank you for listening, following along and giving us a reason to make 100 of these bloody things.

See you at 100.

Ben & Jackson
TrainHybrd Podcast

In this episode Ben and Jackson are joined by a very speedy guest, James Hansen. James spent years as a professional runner. 3:36 for 1500m. 28:20 for 10k. A 62-minute half marathon. A win at the La Roche-Posay 10k in July.

This year in June he walked into a gym and had a crack at a few HYROX movements. Three weeks later he raced Sydney in 57:57. Seven weeks after that, he ran 55:47 in Perth in the open divison, one of the fastest open times ever posted by an Australian. A few days ago he announced he's leaving pro running, at his peak, to do HYROX full time. He will be racing his first Pro Debut in December.

In this episode we get into:

• What happened in that first gym session

• Why James always felt his body wasn't built just to run
• How James is preparing for hyrox (coaching and programming)
• why the stair master will be an asset for him
• What the "real sport" crowd get wrong about HYROX
• Where the two minutes between Sydney and Perth came from
• Jackson's prediction for James' pro debut in Melbourne: It's on record, and we're not deleting this episode if he's wrong 😂
• Why a 3:18/km opening split won't feel hot to him

• His advice for runners thinking about crossing over

For Training options form Ben or Jackson hit the links below

Links

- Join HPP Team, 15% off for founding members

⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠

- ⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠

Big news to open this one. Ben let slip that Jake Williamson follows the podcast, and there's a real chance we've locked him in for Episode 100. No promises yet.

Ben is slightly obsessed with the man, so if it falls through, he'll need a minute.

Here's the thing: the more this episode gets shared, the better our odds. So send it to a mate.

Then we chew the fat on VO2 max training. What it actually is, why it matters for hybrid athletes, how to build it without wrecking yourself, and where it fits in a polarised week. After that, we work through your burning questions from the DMs.

Links

⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠

- ⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠

- ⁠1:1 Coaching with Coach Jackson

097: 7 Lessons From A Sub-57 Teacher | Luke Brotherton

Today Ben and Jackson are joined by a very special guest; Luke Brotherton. Luke teaches all day, and by night he's in the Army Reserves, and he recently ran 56:47, not once but twice in Sydney and at Perth for 4th place at both events. Fourteen seconds off the podium, including a hundred unbroken wall balls to hold it.

Two years ago he was 1:04. He's also never worn a heart rate strap.

7 things we got into:

1. It's never the training that limits you, it's the recovery
2. Why heart rate data can be useless
3. Training on feel, and how it saves you on a bad day
4. Where training by feel lets you down
5. How you lose a race in the first half
6. What putting the ball down actually costs at this level
7. Training around a job instead of pretending you don't have one

We also talk about the new points system, and what it's like when your coach is the fastest guy in the country and he's just gone public about needing more balance.

Ps dont prounounce his last name wrong please, it's "Brother-ton"

Listen now, link in bio. If you haven't heard Part 1, start there.

Links

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1:1 Coaching with Coach Jackson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠⁠⁠

Overtraining Part 2. Ep 096:

Ben and Jackson discuss all things on climbing out of the hole you have gotten yourself in. How long it actually takes, what fixes it, what makes it worse, and how each of us got back to training properly.

This is the way out. Why the answer is almost never total rest, and why most people come back too early and too hard and end up right back where they started.

Inside the episode:

• Why complete rest is rarely the answer, and what to do instead
• How long it actually takes, days for overreaching, weeks to months for the real thing
• Sleep and food as the treatment, and why under-eating keeps people stuck in it
• The signs you're coming back, resting HR settling, HRV climbing, wanting to train again
• Reintroducing intensity without repeating the exact thing that put you there
• Building a week that won't do it to you twice, real deloads, honest easy days, and reading the trend instead of the day
• What worked for the two of us, and how long each of us really took

Listen now, link in bio. If you haven't heard Part 1, start there.

Links

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1:1 Coaching with Coach Jackson⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠⁠

Ben and Jackson unpack the very real reason behind their extended mid-year break. They also dive into training by RPE and why listening to your effort can be more useful than living and dying by a heart-rate percentage.

If you’d like to support Ben’s brother through his recovery, you can donate a few bucks to his GoFundMe here.

Quick Links

• 1:1 Coaching with Jackson
• Join Sparkies Running
• Follow us

Think your first HYROX is about fitness? It's not. It's about not making the 10 mistakes everyone makes.

Ben and Jackson run through the 10 things that will actually get you through your first HYROX, then Jackson opens the book on 3 years of racing. He's taken 10 minutes off his solo Pro time, from 1:10 down to 60 minutes, and none of it came from just training harder. The mistakes, the learnings, and how our training has changed as the sport, and our understanding of it, has evolved.

Inside the episode:

• The 10 things we wish someone told us before our first race
• Why your first HYROX is won in the plan, not on the day
• Jackson's 3-year journey from 1:10 to 60 minutes in solo Pro
• The mistakes that cost us the most, pacing, station strategy, and compromised running
• How HYROX training in 2026 looks nothing like it did 3 years ago
• What we'd do differently if we were starting from scratch today

Links
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1:1 Coaching with Coach Jackson⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠⁠

Ben and Jackson talk overtraining. The signs, the symptoms, how to avoid it, what it actually is, and their own experiences training themselves into the hole.

This one's Part 1. What overtraining really means for endurance and HYROX athletes, and why it's a nervous system problem, not a sore legs problem.

Inside the episode:

• The difference between fatigue, overreaching, and true overtraining
• The early signs, elevated resting HR, suppressed HRV, dreading sessions you usually love
• Why hitting every session while getting slower is a warning, not fitness
• How life stress lands on the same ledger as training load
• Both of our stories, what we ignored and what it cost us
• How to avoid the hole, hard days hard, easy days easy, and a recovery week you actually take

Listen now, link in bio. Part 2 covers the way out.

Links

⁠⁠⁠⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1:1 Coaching with Coach Jackson⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠⁠

Ben and Jackson are joined by Elite 15 athlete Tom Rodgers.

Twelve months ago Tom was top 6 in the world, an Elite 15 athlete racing the best on the planet at the HYROX Chicago World Championships. Then his body broke. Eighteen months of injury, surgery talk, and long days on crutches.

But he never stopped. We're talking garage ski erg sessions for hours on end, holding onto a world-class engine around long shifts as a cop in rural Melbourne, refusing to let the comeback die.

This one is about the setback most athletes never come back from. The mental war of being out that long, how you protect your fitness when you physically can't run, and whether you can fight your way back to the top while the sport gets faster around you every single week. We also

We also open with the LSKD controversy blowing up in HYROX right now. The cease and desist, Puma's exclusive grip on the sport, and whether it's fair that the big brands ambush from the sidelines while the smaller ones get shut out.

Ben and Jackson, back with one of our best yet. Let's get into it.

Links

⁠⁠⁠- Become a founding Sparkie Member⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠1:1 Coaching with Coach Jackson⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠⁠