Fitness racing: what it is and how to prepare.

• A fitness race alternates running and functional-training stations, in a fixed order.
• There are individual, pair and relay categories, and the loads change with sex and level.
• The number of legs, the distances and the stations are set by each event: read its rulebook.
• You prepare like a hybrid plan: strength, easy running, intervals and a mixed session.
• Measure before you start and repeat the tests every six to eight weeks to see whether you are progressing.

It is a competition that combines running with functional-training stations, where you work strength-endurance through different movements. The stations always come in the same order.

You can enter as an individual, in a pair or in a relay, and the station loads change with the sex and level of each category. The number of legs, the distances and the exact list of stations are decided by each organizer, so before preparing for a specific event, check its current rulebook.

In a road race you only run. Here you run, stop for a strength-endurance station and run again, so you reach each station with your legs already loaded.

A WOD is a session with a fixed format that you do whenever you like; a fitness race is a competition with an order and categories you do not choose. What they share is the clock: both are measured in time. That is why a WOD works as practice for the mixed part. If you are not sure how to read one, start with what a WOD is.

Because it asks for both qualities at once, and for switching from one to the other with no long pause. Someone who only runs falls short at the stations, and someone who only lifts runs out of gas on the running legs.

The challenge of combining them is recovery. The running and strength guide covers the so-called interference effect and how to order same-day sessions; the hybrid training guide covers what a hybrid athlete is and how to split the week.

Measure a few things and repeat them under similar conditions, for example every six to eight weeks:

• Running: a 5 km or a time over 1 km.
• Strength: a working load in the squat or the deadlift with clean technique.
• Mixed: a reference WOD, to see how you respond when the effort switches. The benchmark WODs guide covers how to repeat and log it.
• How you arrive: sleep and fatigue on the day of each test, because they explain part of the variation.

Improving one quality without getting much worse at the other is already a good result.

You do not need a different week from the hybrid one: you need the mixed session to look like the event. The full routine, day by day, is in the hybrid training guide; here is how to adapt it to a fitness race:

1. Start from the week in the hybrid training guide: strength, easy running, intervals and one mixed session.
2. Do the mixed session with running between blocks, to practise the switch of effort you will face in the event.
3. Place the mixed session when you are freshest and do not stack it on a hard leg session.
4. Keep most of your running easy and save high intensity for one or two sessions.
5. Repeat your tests every six to eight weeks and cut volume if fatigue builds up.

If time is short, keep the key sessions: one leg-strength session, one quality session (intervals) and the mixed one. For other weeks by goal, see the running and strength guide; and if you combine your preparation with natural movement, see the natural movement and WOD guide.

In training, scale: lower the load, simplify the movement or reduce the volume, and log the version you did. That way you practise the station with good technique and build up gradually. The guide to scaling a WOD explains what to change first.

In the event, loads are set by the category. Pick one you can complete with good technique, not the one that sounds best.

• Starting too fast on the first legs: pacing is part of the strategy, just as in an AMRAP or a long For Time.
• Training only the stations or only the running, and never practising the switch between them.
• Stacking two hard leg sessions on consecutive days.
• Raising volume and load in big jumps instead of gradually.
• Not logging the version of each workout, then not knowing what you are comparing.
• Not reading the rulebook: stations, distances and loads depend on the event and the category.

If your performance drops over several sessions in a row or your legs feel heavy every day, cut back. The guide to training by fatigue and HRV explains how to adjust when you arrive tired.

• Format, stations, distances and loads of each event: the organizer's current rulebook.

Zoku Athletics brings together a multimodal timer (For Time, AMRAP, EMOM, Tabata and mixed) and more than 150 benchmarks to repeat and compare your results. Vital Flow adjusts the load to the fatigue you report; it is guidance only and does not replace a coach.

SafeTrack goes with you on outdoor sessions: if you stay still for five minutes it asks whether you are okay and, if you do not answer within thirty seconds, it opens your messaging app with your location ready for your emergency contacts. It is not an emergency service and does not call 112.

The app is not public on the stores yet. It is in testing and there is no launch date.

The Free plan is free, with no card and no expiry. Pro and Elite are paid; what each includes is shown in the plans section of the home page.

Who is behind the website and the app: About Zoku Athletics.

• Hybrid training and hybrid WOD: sample week: What hybrid training and a hybrid WOD are, how to combine strength and endurance in the same week and a sample weekly routine you can adapt.
• Running and strength: how to combine: How to combine running and strength training: the interference effect, session order, three sample weeks and signs that you are overdoing it.
• How to scale a WOD: Rx vs scaled: What Rx and scaled mean, when to scale a WOD and how to adjust load, movements and volume without losing the stimulus or your technique.
• Benchmark WODs: Fran, Cindy, Grace, Helen: Fran, Cindy, Grace and Helen: what each benchmark WOD is, how to repeat it under comparable conditions and how to track your progress.