Monday 9/28 + Tuesday 9/29: Two Zone 2 Mornings and a Clean 5×5 at 210
September 29, 2026 HYROX diary from Eldorado (Santa Fe), New Mexico: Two zone 2 run/walks, the second one longer and steadier, then a full 5×5 bench at 210 on Tuesday night before the Roman chair tipped over and re-tweaked my right thumb.
Zone 2 Run/Walks + Bench 5×5
Garmin, Bench, Barbell, Roman Chair
Mon: zone 2 run/walk about 5 km, HR cap 130 / Tue AM: zone 2 / Tue PM: bench, Zercher, extensions
Mon: 4.86 km in 42:16 / Tue AM: 6.53 km in 51:48 / Tue PM: bench 210 5×5 (RPE 7)
Two days in one entry. Monday was a single easy session, and Tuesday was a two-a-day that ended with the best bench of the block. Everything below is from Gird and the Garmin, logged the same day, here in Eldorado (Santa Fe), New Mexico.
Monday 9/28: Zone 2 run/walk
Gird had me on a zone 2 run/walk of about 5 km with a heart-rate cap of 130. I started at 6:52 AM on a cool, cloudy 17 °C morning.
- 4.86 km in 42:16 (41:26 moving), average pace 8:41 per km
- 17:00 running and 24:49 walking
- Heart rate averaged 127 and topped out at 158
- +86 m / −78 m of elevation, 429 kcal
The average stayed under the cap, but most of the time landed in Garmin's zone 3 (30:20) rather than zone 2 (7:32). Staying truly easy on hills at 7,000 feet is still the skill I'm learning.
Fuel: I only logged two of five meals. Breakfast before the run was oats, a banana, and a scoop of protein (about 450 kcal, 33 g protein). After the run I had toast with peanut butter and strawberry preserves plus an egg (325 kcal, 15 g protein). The rest of the day didn't get logged.
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Tuesday 9/29 AM: A longer zone 2
Round two, at 9:53 AM. No video this time, just the Garmin card, which opens the PM edit.
- 6.53 km in 51:48, average pace 7:56 per km
- Ran 35:27 of the 51:48, more than twice Monday's running time
- Heart rate averaged 132 and peaked at 147, well under Monday's 158
- 572 kcal
More distance, more running, and a lower peak heart rate one day later. That's what the zone 2 work is for.
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Tuesday 9/29 PM: Zercher, bench, extensions
7:17 to 8:03 PM, RPE 7.
- Bench press: 210 × 5, 5, 5, 5, 5. A full 5×5 at 210, every set clean. My best at 210 before this was one set of 4 on 9/21.
- Zercher squat: 225×5, 225×5, 205×5. Sets 4 and 5 didn't happen.
- Back extensions: 30, 30, then a max set of 15.
- Roman chair sit-ups: none. The chair tipped over on the first set and re-injured my right thumb, which I'd hurt before. That ended the night.
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What's next
The thumb gets watched. If there's swelling, grip trouble, or it gets worse, it's a doctor visit, not a workaround. The bench number is the headline, though. 210 moved from a single set of 4 to five clean sets of 5 in eight days.
Training for InBody HYROX Phoenix, Feb 25–28, 2027, Men's Open 50–54. The plan lives in Gird.
I track all my interval paces, kettlebell loads, and HYROX prep sessions inside Gird. If you want structured programming with adaptive macro balancing: