Back in May of last year, the 2022 HYROX World Championships wrapped up with Kris Rugloski on top of the podium. But, the athlete who may have blown the most minds that day was Lauren Weeks. At 8 months pregnant not only did she participate in the race, but she actually led for most of the first run and still finished 9th out of 14 Elite women competing.

As the 2022-2023 season commenced many questioned if a new mom less than one-year postpartum would be able to hang with the Elites, much less win another World Championship. Despite a strong challenge from HYROX newcomer Meg Jacoby, Lauren was able to put all doubts to rest and wrapped up the season with her third HYROX World Championship.

She is undoubtedly the most dominant female in HYROX history and you can easily put her resume up against Hunter Mcintyre for most dominant HYROX athlete ever. 

• Three Time World Champion (2020, 2021, 2023)
• Three Time Regional Champion (2021 US, 2022 US, 2023 Europe)
• 15 Total Career Races: Ten 1st Place Finishes, One 2nd Place Finish, Three 3rd Place Finishes. The only time she has missed a podium was at 8 months pregnant.
• Second Best Time Ever (59:51) completed on a generally slower grid-style course

The sport of HYROX has rapidly ascended over the past few years and times have quickly dropped. Making this dominance all the more impressive. Here is a look at how Lauren Weeks has been able to stay on top of the sport.

Running 

Lauren came into HYROX without a background in running in contrast to many of her competitors. Many would see that as a large disadvantage as at the top level, the run total will often account for well over half of the total race time. This held true for Lauren at the most recent World Championships as she finished with a run total of 32:13 and station time of 27:38. Putting her run total at 54% of her total race time. 

Despite her lack of run background, her run total of 32:13 put her first among all the women. Of the 32 seconds that she beat former college track athlete Meg Jacoby by 24 seconds came from the running portion. Her ability to sustain pace is what truly sets her apart here. Assuming an 8700m total run course which has been thrown around as an HYROX standard that puts her mile pace right at 5:57. Interestingly, this is exactly the pace she held when she set a 10km PR at a road race in March of this year 36:55. Many other top HYROX athletes with a run background will say that their compromised race pace puts them closer to their half marathon pace. 

This is also where she has made the most progress both within the season and throughout her HYROX career. Prior to this season, Lauren had a personal record of 1:03:43 at the 2021 World Championships where she had a run total of 35:26. Almost all of her time improvement since then has come via her run splits and is the primary contributing factor to her continued dominance. 

Station Work

Lauren was able to drastically improve her running while still maintaining her elite level on all of the stations. Across the 8 stations, there was only one station (Sled Pull) where Lauren did not have a top-three finish. Even there, Lauren mentioned that she was being a bit extra cautious after an early warning from her judge for stepping outside the box. 

Lauren is known for going out at a seemingly reckless pace. But, a look at the numbers from this year indicates that might not be accurate on the stations. When she took first at the 2023 European Championships she had a total station time of 25:38, a full two minutes faster than at the World Championships. It appears that she took a more measured approach to all of the station work (slower on 7 of the 8 stations)  to allow for a much faster run effort.

The only glaring weakness that Lauren showed early in the season was on the farmer’s carry.  In Maastricht, she finished with a time of 2:17 for 9th amongst the field. This was the only station that she went faster on in Manchester dropping 14 seconds from her time and finishing first. It seems that by slightly backing off on her station work Lauren was able to push her run pace to a tempo that was unmatched by all of her competitors. 

As the 2023/2023 season kicks off we look forward to Lauren continuing to battle for a top spot and push the boundaries of HYROX in a way we haven’t seen before. Best of all, she has indicated that we may see her back in action at the first American HYROX race of the year in New York on June 10, 2023.