Your HYROX Doubles Training Plan: Which Sessions Need You Both

Two people who each own a solid singles block still arrive at a doubles start line underprepared. The reason is structural, not physical. This is a twelve week doubles plan organised around one question no singles plan has to answer: which of these sessions actually need both of you in the room. The calendar below answers it, then places the two simulations and the fix week that follows them.

Why a doubles block is not a singles block run twice

HYROX is eight rounds, each a 1 km run followed by one functional workout station. In doubles, both of you cover every one of those run legs together while only one works a station at any moment. That asymmetry is what the twelve weeks has to be built around, and it is exactly what a copied singles plan leaves untrained. Your running is not divisible; station work almost infinitely is. That is why a pair with mismatched strength can still race well and a pair with mismatched run pace cannot.

The format rules themselves, including how station work may be shared and what the running requirement means in practice, are in our HYROX Doubles guide. The singles twelve week plan is the layer this block sits on top of, and the HYROX training hub collects the rest.

The one thing a doubles plan has to answer: which sessions need you both

Almost no pair can train together five days a week, and almost no pair needs to. Pairs who force a fully shared week usually end up training less than they would have alone. That is a scheduling problem, not a fitness one, and it has a cheap fix.

The fix is to be strict about what a joint session is for. A few things are impossible to rehearse alone: handing work over under fatigue, holding a run pace that suits two sets of legs, and finding out where a station split falls apart when both of you are cooked. Those, and only those, earn a joint session. Aerobic base, strength, erg volume and accessory work are solo jobs scored against shared targets. A joint session that could have been done alone is a wasted one, and that is worth agreeing before week 1 rather than in week 7.

The joint session calendar for twelve weeks

Here is the whole block in one table. The joint count is deliberately low at the start, because early on there is nothing worth rehearsing together. It settles at one a week from week 6, and only week 11 carries two.

One honest caveat first. The loads here come from the official rulebook; the joint session counts do not. They are our coaching judgement about how long a pair takes to learn to work together, and no governing body publishes a number for it. A pair who land on a different calendar are not doing it wrong.

One thing to square first. Our HYROX training schedule guide suggests roughly one partner handover session a month, the right off block maintenance rate for a pair not building toward a race. A twelve week block ramps up from that baseline as race day gets closer, which is what the table does: an escalation, not a correction. That guide is still where to look for where these sessions land inside your week.

Week	Joint sessions	What the joint session rehearses	Solo focus
1	1	The pair audit: watch the official doubles briefing, set training loads, run one paired time trial	Easy aerobic running, general strength
2	0	None	Aerobic base, lower body strength
3	1	Matched run pace over repeated 1000 m legs	Aerobic base, pulling strength
4	0	None	Aerobic base, sled and carry strength
5	1	Matched run pace, first attempt at running off a hard station effort	Aerobic base, grip and core
6	1	Sled handover on the 4 x 12.5 m shuttle structure	Strength, threshold running
7	1	Erg splits: 1000 m SkiErg and 1000 m row traded in short blocks	Strength, threshold running
8	1	Wall ball splits toward 100 reps, plus lunge and carry handovers	Strength, threshold running
9	1	Full doubles race simulation	Easy running, light strength
10	1	Second full doubles race simulation	Easy running, light strength
11	2	One session per problem the simulations exposed	Reduced volume, sharpening
12	1	The sequence rehearsed once at conversational effort	Taper

Eleven joint sessions across twelve weeks, for a pair whose run paces are already close. A wider mismatch adds to that count, and the gap section later on sets the pattern for it. Every other session is yours alone, which is what makes this schedulable for two adults with jobs.

Week 1: the pair audit

Week 1 has one joint session and it produces three decisions rather than a training effect. Book two hours and do not skip it because it does not feel like a workout: everything in weeks 2 to 12 is scored against numbers you set here. Start by watching the official doubles technical briefing together, so you argue about the format now rather than in the start pen.

Set your training loads to your division, not your ambition

The second decision is which numbers you train to. The table below covers the three Open doubles divisions. Take the one you have actually entered and load your training to it from week 1, so nothing on race day is a first encounter. These are training targets, not a weights reference: for the full standards, use the weight standards tool or our HYROX doubles weights page.

Station	Men's Doubles	Women's Doubles	Mixed Doubles
Sled Push	335 lb (152 kg)	225 lb (102 kg)	335 lb (152 kg)
Sled Pull	227 lb (103 kg)	172 lb (78 kg)	227 lb (103 kg)
Farmers Carry (per hand)	2 x 53 lb (24 kg)	2 x 35 lb (16 kg)	2 x 53 lb (24 kg)
Sandbag Lunges	44 lb (20 kg)	22 lb (10 kg)	44 lb (20 kg)
Wall Ball	13 lb (6 kg) to 3.00 m	9 lb (4 kg) to 2.70 m	13 lb (6 kg) to 3.00 m

One line on the Pro tier: PRO divisions use heavier loads than Open, so a Pro pair trains to heavier loads than the table above shows. Those are not on this page. Take them from the Pro doubles tables on our HYROX doubles weights page, and load to them from week 1.

The paired time trial that sets your run pace

The third decision is the number that matters most. Run 1000 m together, three times, at a pace both of you could repeat if someone asked for another five. Write down the slower partner's honest repeatable pace. That is the pair's pace, and every run session for the next eleven weeks is scored against it.

Weeks 2 to 5: train apart, converge the run

This is the longest solo stretch of the block, by design. Each partner builds their own aerobic base and strength, on their own schedule, in whatever gym they actually go to. There is one joint session a fortnight, in weeks 3 and 5, and it has a single job: close the gap between two different run paces.

Structure both the same way. Repeated 1000 m legs at the pace set in week 1, side by side, with the faster partner disciplined about not drifting ahead. The point is not the aerobic stimulus, which either of you could get alone, but two people learning what the shared pace feels like from the inside. In week 5, add a station effort before a run leg so the shared pace has to survive tired legs; why that trains something a fresh run does not is covered in our compromised running guide.

Keep the solo running honest through this stretch. The pair together carries the full 8 km on race day with no mechanism for handing any of it over, so run volume is the one quality neither of you can outsource to the other.

Weeks 6 to 8: build the handover

Joint sessions go weekly here and change purpose entirely. Weeks 2 to 5 were about arriving at one run pace; weeks 6 to 8 are about transferring work between two people who are already tired.

This block sits here and not earlier because a handover rehearsed at week 2 fitness teaches the wrong lesson. Fresh, almost any split works, and the pair walks away with one that has never been stress tested. By week 6 both partners can generate real fatigue, which is the only condition under which a split tells you anything. It also has to land before the simulations, which are where you find out whether a split holds, not where you invent it.

How the swap is called, who takes which portion and what the resting partner does are covered in our HYROX simulation workout guide and its doubles variant section. Read it once, then use these three weeks to do it. Which stations suit which of you is a strategy question rather than a scheduling one, and our doubles guide covers it properly. What this block adds is the joint sessions to test whichever split you choose under fatigue, and the week 11 data to correct it before race day.

Rehearse the sled handover on the shuttle, not on a straight lane

The sled push runs as 4 x 12.5 m over 50 m, and the sled pull uses the same 4 x 12.5 m structure over 50 m. The natural swap points are therefore the shuttle turns rather than some arbitrary count of metres, because the sled is already stopped and being repositioned. A pair who practise swapping mid lane are rehearsing a transition that costs time on the day. Swap at a turn, every time, until nobody has to say anything.

Erg splits under a heart rate you can actually talk at

Trade the 1000 m SkiErg and the 1000 m row in short blocks rather than halves. Record how many swaps the pair needed, and whether both partners held the target pace on the last block as well as the first. A split that needs more swaps but holds pace beats a tidy one that fades, and this is the session where you find out which you have.

Weeks 9 and 10: where the two simulations go

One full doubles simulation in each of these two weeks. How to run one, set up stations in a normal gym, pace it and rehearse it as a pair are all covered in our simulation workout guide. What this plan owns is where the two of them sit and what you carry out.

They sit in weeks 9 and 10 because before week 9 the handover work is unfinished and you would be testing a pattern you have not learned yet. Later is worse: week 11 has to exist, and a simulation inside it leaves nothing between finding a problem and racing with it.

The spacing and the count both sit against pages this plan sends you to, deliberately. Our simulation workout guide says to leave a fortnight between full simulations, because a second one sooner measures your recovery rather than your fitness. That is right for a solo racer, whose simulation measures one engine. A doubles simulation measures a pattern between two people as well, and a pattern run once then left alone for a fortnight has not been rehearsed. Seven days is the compression a pair needs, which is why weeks 9 and 10 carry easy running and light strength rather than a normal solo load.

The second is the count. The singles twelve week plan this block sits on top of runs one full simulation, in week 10, and keeps week 11 for sharpening with no new stimulus. For one athlete that is correct: after week 10 there is nothing left to coordinate, so a second full effort buys fatigue and no information. A pair has a split to test, and a split that has only been tested once has been tested on a good day. Week 11 here is not new stimulus either, just repair work at loads already trained, which is why the solo volume around it drops.

Run both at your own division's real loads, in the sequence the race uses: SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jump, Rowing, Farmers Carry, Sandbag Lunges, Wall Balls. Then collect three things, and write them down before you leave the gym:

• The station where the split collapsed, meaning the one where the agreed share stopped being the share you actually did.
• The run leg where the two of you drifted apart, and which direction the drift went.
• The handover that cost the most time, measured in seconds standing around rather than in how it felt.

That list is the entire output of weeks 9 and 10. Two pairs can run identical simulations, and only the one that wrote it down has anything to do in week 11.

Week 11: fix what the simulations broke

This is the week the block exists to make possible, and the reason no simulation sits later than week 10. Two joint sessions, covering the three findings between them, plus reduced solo volume. Work through them in this order:

1. The station where the split collapsed. Do not fix this by making the tired partner tougher. Redraw the share so the fresher partner takes a larger portion of that station, then run it twice at race load to confirm the new share is one you can both finish. If it collapses again, redraw it in the same session rather than hoping.
2. The run leg where you drifted apart. This is usually a pacing error rather than a fitness one, and it tends to show up after the heaviest station. Rehearse the transition that preceded it: the station, then the run, at pair pace, twice. If the drift persists, the pair pace set in week 1 was optimistic and this is the last sensible week to lower it.
3. The handover that cost the most time. This is rarely a fitness problem and usually a communication one, so treat it as a rep to be practised rather than a capacity to be built. Run that single handover ten or fifteen times, cold, until the call and the swap need no discussion.

Whatever is left unfixed at the end of week 11 is what you race with, and knowing that in advance is worth something. A pair who go into race week aware their sled pull share is shaky will manage it on the day. A pair who never tested it will not know until it happens.

Week 12: whose taper does the pair run on

The taper for a doubles pair is the same taper as for a solo racer. The shape does not change because there are two of you, and our HYROX taper week guide covers the whole of it: how much to cut, the day by day countdown, and what may still be touched. Follow that page. Nothing about doubles alters any of it.

What doubles adds is a synchronisation problem. Two athletes almost never arrive at race week equally fresh. The taper page tells each of you what your own week looks like; it cannot tell you whose week the shared sessions get scheduled around.

Agree it in week 11, not on the Thursday. Schedule the shared work around the more fatigued partner: the fresher one loses very little by resting an extra day and the tired one loses a lot by not. Week 12 has one joint session, the race sequence walked through once at conversational effort with the handovers called out loud. It is a rehearsal, not a session.

When the two of you are at different fitness levels

Size the gap by the only measure that is not divisible, which is run pace, then read the row that matches. All three cases follow one rule: a fitness gap is solved by shifting the split, not by the slower partner training harder.

If your gap is	Your run pace target	What changes in your station split	Your joint session frequency
Small: under a minute per 1000 m	The slower partner's honest repeatable pace, unchanged	Roughly even, adjusted station by station after the simulations	The calendar above, unchanged
Moderate: one to two minutes per 1000 m	Slower partner's pace, and the faster partner trains at it deliberately in every joint session	Faster partner takes a clearly larger share of the strength stations from week 6	Add one extra joint session in weeks 4 and 8, both run focused
Large: over two minutes per 1000 m	Slower partner's pace, with the run gap treated as the pair's limiter	Faster partner takes the majority of every loaded station, agreed in week 6 rather than week 11	Weekly from week 3, with the extra sessions spent on running together

Loading the partner already closest to their ceiling is how pairs arrive at a start line with one injured athlete. The faster partner has the headroom; spend it on the stations, which are divisible, rather than on the runs, which are not.

The related case is one partner losing two or more weeks to illness, work or injury. Keep the joint sessions and cut the solo volume, because handover timing and matched pace decay fastest and neither recovers alone, whereas aerobic base and strength tolerate a short interruption. If the missed time lands in weeks 9 or 10, move one simulation later rather than dropping it. If something has to go, take it from the joint sessions in weeks 2 to 8 first. Protect the week 1 pair audit, at least one of the two simulations, and the week 11 sessions that use what it found: a simulation nobody acts on is a hard session with no output.

Wherever the gap sits, the shared job in the ROXZONE, the central transition zone athletes run through between every run and station, is the same for both of you: arrive together, agree who starts, leave together. That does not get easier with fitness, and it is the part a mismatched pair can be genuinely excellent at.

Frequently asked questions

Why twelve weeks, when doubles is meant to need less runway?

Because two things have to be ready and only one of them gets easier in doubles. Our how long to train for HYROX guide is right that a doubles entry shortens the runway from the same starting point: the station work splits between two athletes, so the strength each of you has to build drops. That guide is measuring physical readiness. Coordination is the other thing. Handovers under fatigue and a single shared run pace have no solo equivalent, and they do not shrink when the load per athlete drops. Twelve weeks is what carries that plus two simulations and a week to act on them. Starting from a lower base, add the four to eight week base block that guide prescribes ahead of week 1 rather than compressing the joint sessions.

How many sessions do my partner and I actually have to do together?

Fewer than most pairs assume, and the count rises as race day approaches. One joint session in week 1, one a fortnight through weeks 2 to 5, then one a week from week 6 through week 10, of which weeks 9 and 10 are the simulations. Week 11 carries two, one per problem the simulations exposed, and week 12 carries one short rehearsal. Everything else is solo work scored against shared targets.

What if my partner is much fitter than me?

Shift the split, do not ask the slower partner to train harder. The pair runs at the slower partner's honest repeatable pace, and the fitter partner takes a larger share of the station work. Both of those are trained deliberately in the joint sessions rather than improvised on race day.

How do we practise the handover if we do not have HYROX equipment?

Rehearse the timing rather than the kit, because arriving together, agreeing who starts, swapping cleanly and leaving together is a sequence that trains on any equipment. Save the race-specific gear for the two simulations in weeks 9 and 10. Our simulation workout guide covers improvising the stations themselves.

Should we do the runs together in training?

On the joint sessions, yes, because a doubles pair covers every run leg side by side and needs a pace both can hold for all 8 legs. On solo days each partner runs their own paces. Converging on one shared, repeatable pace is the main job of weeks 2 to 5.

How many full race simulations should a doubles pair do?

Two, in weeks 9 and 10, run in the correct sequence with the real division loads. One is not enough to expose a split that fails under fatigue, and three inside the last four weeks leaves no recovery before the taper. The purpose is data, not a fast time.

Does a mixed doubles pair split the weights by gender?

No. A mixed doubles team races one team-wide set of loads rather than each partner using their own gender's column, which is why a mixed pair should set training loads to the mixed division figures in the load table above from week 1. Relay works differently, so do not carry the assumption across.

When in the twelve weeks should we lock in our station split?

Provisionally in week 6, when the joint sessions go weekly, and finally in week 11 after both simulations have tested it. Locking a split in week 1 commits the pair to guesses about who holds up under fatigue, and leaving it open past week 11 means rehearsing a pattern you have never run twice.

References

• HYROX Doubles Rulebook, Season 26/27 (PDF). The official source for the loads and for the format constraints this plan is built around: both partners run together, one works a station at a time. No training prescription here comes from it.
• HYROX: The Fitness Race. The official race-format page, and the authority for the round structure the twelve week block is built to.
• HYROX preparation guidance. Official preparation advice, the second official anchor for the running volume rationale in weeks 2 to 5.
• DOUBLES: Official HYROX Technical Briefing. The official video briefing embedded above, and the week 1 joint homework.

HYROX standards and format rules change by season and can vary by event, so confirm the loads against the official rulebook for your own race before building a block around them. The training prescriptions here are our own coaching guidance, not rulebook content. RoxTribe is an independent community resource and is not affiliated with HYROX.