Hydration and Fuelling for Hyrox - Pre-London event

An afternoon with Elite 15 athlete Liam McCroary, coach and nutritionist Darrell Corley, and performance specialist Dr David Lipman.

Ahead of the Hyrox EMEA Championships, we brought athletes and the Performr team together for a day on what actually moves the needle on race day: fuelling, hydration, training consistency, and the mental tools that get you through the back half of a race when everything starts hurting.

Three parts to the day. First, a Q&A with Hyrox Elite 15 athlete Liam McCroary, who walked us through his journey from football into Hyrox, his training week, and the practical tips he leans on at the highest level of the sport. Then a panel with Darryl Corley, Hyrox coach and nutritionist, and Dr David Lipman, performance specialist, on the science of fuelling, hydration, and the supplements actually worth your time. Finally, we got out the door together for a 5k shakeout run.

Huge thanks to Tenzing for partnering with us on the day, and for keeping the room hydrated throughout.

Liam's Story: From Football to Elite 15

Liam came to Hyrox via football, the kind of cross-discipline pathway becoming increasingly common at the elite end of the sport. He took us through the transition: how his football background shaped his approach to training, and what it took to specialise into the specific demands of a Hyrox race.

The headline from his training week: nothing about getting to Elite 15 is glamorous. It's structured, periodised, and, like every elite athlete on the planet, consistency is key. The miles, the strength work, the race-specific sessions. Nothing magic. Just done well, repeatedly.

Liam's Top Tip: Squeeze the Wristband

The piece of advice that landed hardest with the room was a small one. When the race really starts to hurt, the sled push, the wall ball burn, the back half when your legs are gone, Liam squeezes his wristband - a distraction that carries him through.

It sounds almost too simple, but it works. First, it's a physical anchor, a tactile cue that interrupts the spiral of this is too hard, I have to slow down. In the cave of a race finish, find a distraction technique to carry you through.

The Panel: Fuelling, Hydration, and the 1% Trap

Darrell and David tackled the part of performance amateur athletes most consistently get wrong: not the training itself, but everything around it.

1. Don't Do Anything New on Race Day

Race day is for execution, not experimentation. New shoes, a new pre-race meal, an unfamiliar gel, a different caffeine dose, a pacing strategy you've never tested at intensity - every one of those introduces variance you can't afford. Every kit choice, every fuel, every hydration product should have been rehearsed at race pace in training. If it hasn't, leave it at home.

2. Build Consistent Habits

The unsexy answer keeps being right. Athletes who train, eat, hydrate and sleep consistently, week after week, month after month, build the base that everything else sits on. The most common mistake at amateur level isn't doing the wrong things; it's doing the right things inconsistently.

3. Fuel for Your Training, Not Just Your Race

Most amateurs fuel for race day and under fuel everything that builds towards it. The result is compromised training adaptation, sessions that were supposed to develop your engine end up grinding it down instead. If you train hard, you eat to support that training. Race-day fuelling is the easy part. Daily and session-by-session fuelling is where the gains are actually made.

4. Chasing an Extra 1% Means Nothing if the Base Isn't Solid

This was Darryl's strongest line of the day. The marketplace of marginal gains: supplements, ice baths, red light, recovery boots, the latest gadget, only matters once the fundamentals are dialled in. Sleep, daily nutrition, training consistency, hydration. Get those right, then layer.

A 1% habit on top of a leaky base isn't a 1% gain. It's a distraction.

5. Do the Simple Things Again and Again - Then Test

Once the base is solid, experiment. Try the carb-loading protocol, the new electrolyte mix, the caffeine timing. Run the n=1 trial. But do it deliberately, in training, with enough repetition to know whether it actually moves your numbers and never for the first time on race day.

Supplements and Macros

The conversation moved into specifics on supplements and macronutrient targets - what's evidence-based, what's marketing, and how to think about protein, carbohydrate and electrolyte intake around Hyrox-specific demands. The headline message: most athletes need more carbohydrate than they think (particularly around training), and most don't drink enough through the day to start sessions properly hydrated. Supplements are a finishing layer, not a foundation.

The Common Thread

Across both halves of the day, Liam's Elite 15 perspective and the coaching-and-science view from the panel, the message was the same. Hyrox performance isn't built on secrets or shortcuts. It's built on a small set of fundamentals, executed consistently, with a few well-chosen 1% habits layered on top once the base is solid.

Race day is the test. The work is everything before it.

A 5k to Finish

We closed the day with a 5k shakeout run together. A chance to put theory aside, loosen the legs, and get into race-week headspace. A fitting end to a day on Hyrox performance: the work of racing happens in the doing, not the discussing.

Thank you to Liam, Darryl and David for an excellent day, and to Tenzing for their support and for keeping the room fuelled throughout. Good luck to everyone racing in EMEA - see you on the floor.

At Performr, we're building the wearable biosensor platform that gives athletes the physiological data they need to train smarter, fuel better, and race stronger. Sign up to the waitlist to keep up to date with developments.