Irslan Ali, Anaheim, CA (2026)

06/19/2026

The HYROX Effect

06/19/2026

Winning isn’t loud…

I just saw take 1st place in the HYROX Pro Elite Men’s World Championships in Stockholm…

He wasn’t the loudest, hot off the start or even leading the race at any point up until the last 15 seconds…

When he crossed the finished line, he was as surprised as everybody else — he didn’t even expect to win…

What he did do tho was run his own race and perform to the best of his ability…

His performance is the quintessential state of “flow” I was talking about in an earlier post…

At the end, he didn’t brag, he just shared a message…

Somebody told him, now that he’s a father, he had to choose between HYROX and becoming a world champion and being a dad…

He rejected that belief and proved to everyone that those two things are NOT mutually exclusive — you can be both a world champion and kickass dad to your three year old…

In my own life, I’ve seen how every time I’ve been loud and exalted myself if you will, I’ve been abased and humbled…

Moving forward, I’m embracing the silence and quiet — the quiet mornings, early nights, that effort without noise from the outside that it takes to let go and allow whatever is inside of me to express itself fully and without interference…

Because that’s where winning truly takes place; in the dark where no one sees it until the nth hour when it’s all on the line…

Congratulations to Dylan Scott and what an incredible example to set as a human being for what’s possible when you stick to your guns…

Washington DC HYROX Update Week 2/12

06/17/2026

This is why I stopped cursing / swearing

06/16/2026

I ran a 5k in 17:59 this AM (5 min 47 second miles per hour pace) and this is what I learned

06/15/2026

1 hour 25 min zone 2 run for 9 miles in 80+ degree weather in NYC with the sun out (these Strava stats are from today, yesterday’s run wasn’t recorded)…

I’ve never done anything like this before and for the first 40 mins of my run yesterday, the conversation in my head was how it’s too hot, I’m not well hydrated enough and that I’m going to pass out…

I genuinely felt like I couldn’t do it at the 40 min mark and pushing through that led to my mind quieting completely and then the final 45 mins went by in a breeze…

So much of running and really just about anything we do, especially if it’s new and outside of our comfort zone, is mental…

Our brain’s primary purpose is survival and to keep us alive so any time we step outside of our comfort zone, it’s going to do everything it can to pull us back in…

Yet, the person we want to become, the body we want to have and the life we want to live all exist outside of that comfort zone…

And guess what?!

I experience it too! The same doubts, fears and mental conversations as anybody else…

Training for this HYROX and being coached by an elite athlete made me aware that the higher up you go, the greater the doubts, fears and mental chatter become…

The only way to continue to achieve and perform at the highest level is overcoming all of those things and building a level of self-confidence greater through pushing past them with hard work and sheer effort…

I share this because I was having this discussion with a team member earlier this morning and she was shocked to hear that I think this way…

She assumed that I don’t experience these mental hurdles and that I’m on a different level than everyone else…

When the truth is, I experience it too — I just don’t let it stop me; in fact, it’s the exact opposite, I see it as a sign to push harder…

Michelangelo said it best “If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn’t call it genius.”

Similarly, if you saw how much unspeakable hard work it took to compete at the highest levels, you wouldn’t call it luck, genetics or talent because it’s none of those things…

HYROX Washington DC Update Week 2/12

Goal Time: 1:08 or faster ;)

PS

Had watermelon instead of ice cream 😂

06/15/2026

You Don’t Lack Discipline, You Lack This.

I have found that the clients in our South Asian Six-Pack Transformation Program are TOO disciplined!

Homies be working out consistently 3-5 times a week at the gym completely missing the boat…

This is what trips you up, it’s design and let me share with you what I mean by that in the video…

06/13/2026

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve gotta re-learn this lesson in my life…

I can virtually pin point every mistake I’ve made in every aspect of my life to this one thing…

Earlier this AM as I was getting in my first hard training session coming off my first HYROX in NYC last Saturday and I was psyching myself out about it…

I hadn’t done a hard session for seven days and so I mentally was getting myself ready to do it…

As I was going through it, I found I was doing quite well up until I got up to the sleds…

The same weight that was moving like butter on the sleds felt immovable today…

I didn’t realize that the humidity made such a big difference and instead of lowering the weight, I kept trying to push through and bang, strained my mid back…

Immediately dropped everything I was doing and left the gym…

“Listen to your body” is a lesson I’ve had to learn and re-learn so many times in my life…

More than listening to it, trusting it instead of trying to be in control of everything is something that I’ve gotten much better at especially through this HYROX prep and clearly have not mastered — yet…

I have found that in any area of my life, I have made the biggest mistakes when I’ve decided to override what my body was telling me…

Whereas the best decisions I’ve ever made where I’ve been the most aligned have virtually always been when I both listened to and trusted what my body was telling me…

What’s interesting is that I’ve found that the clients we work with in our South Asian Six-Pack Transformation Program that exhibit the best results also have their own intuition about their body alongside the coaching we offer…

So here’s to learning and re-learning this lesson — hopefully for the last time, to listen to and trust your body, your gut and intuition…

It also made me feel so grateful for the fact that I have an able body that can perform the way it does and made me even more aware of the responsibility I have to be a good steward over it…

As the cliché goes, “Let go and let God.”

HYROX Washington D.C.
Goal Time: 1:08 or faster
Week 1/12 🫡

06/09/2026

Why 1:08?

On Saturday, I raced my first HYROX in NYC and hit a time of 1:11:21 (+15s penalty on top of that).

I was actually pretty happy with my performance on the outside.

What caused me to feel the sting of failure and disappointment was the what was happening on the inside.

I didn’t show up as my best self having already won like I’ve done with so many other goals I’ve set for myself.

1:08 was just an arbitrary number that I set after seeing some of the top elite athletes I respect hit it.

It wasn’t a sub-60, which I knew I would need much more extensive training for, it was a sub-70 and a number I knew was achievable for me.

It’s not even the number that matters, although I’m going to hit it during my next race in September less than 90 days away, it was what it represented to me at the time.

My name Irslan means “Lion” and I often refer to myself as a Lion.

However, it’s one thing to say it and a whole n’other thing to be it.

Hitting that 1:08 goal was proof that I am exactly who I say I am.

It was only after the race when I reflected that I realized, I don’t need anything outside of me to show me who I am.

I know who I am and for the first time in my life, I believe in myself to such a high degree that I know with absolute certainty that anything is possible and I can truly do anything I put my mind to.

I wanted to show what the human body is capable of naturally even without caffeine let alone performance enhancing drugs that many in the fitness industry take.

Not that I’m judging them for it — only that I believe we end up losing ourselves in pursuit of our goals when all that matters in the end is who we become in the process.

Even if I hit my 1:08 goal, it would have been empty because I know I didn’t show up as my best self.

Conversely, if I hit 1:11:21 and showed up as my best self, I don’t think I’d be doing another HYROX.

Because winning and losing isn’t an external fight, it’s an internal one and that fight is won well before the race starts.

Besides only quitting is true failure. Otherwise, I either win or I attempt, I learn and then I win.

Washington DC HYROX September 3rd 2026

Goal Time: 1:08

06/07/2026

I failed.

I failed at hitting my 1:08 goal let alone my 1:03:45 goal I re-adjusted down to within the past week for my first HYROX in NYC…

I had a plan of action for Friday and ended up carb loading completely wrong, sleeping poorly and waking up feeling like I had already lost…

I texted my Coach in the morning telling him how I don’t feel like I was in the right head space to race and was going to drop out last second…

But then I opened up to a couple of guys that were also racing, Matt, Storm and Travis…

They shared some perspective with me that helped get me back in the right mindset…

Storm shared how statistically, one meal or bad night of sleep has not been shown to impact race performance at all…

Matt shared how we’re healthy, fit and alive; life’s good and to remember to have fun…

I forgot my nose strip at home and another racer offered me a couple of his…

As we got into the race tunnel, the MC who was sending us off shared how we have a choice of leaning into the pain or leaning out…

As the start clock began winding down, I got filled with gratitude for the opportunity just to be here remembering everything that led me to this point…

I know I didn’t race to my potential and I was incredibly disappointed in myself…

Then it hit me while throwing myself a pity party, after the race watching a tv show, when the character in the show said:

“One trial does not define you or her or me. I don’t need your approval to know who I am.”

And that was the lesson…

One trial does not define you, me or anybody…

I don’t need to hit a time to know who I am…

I am and will always be a f #&king LION!

What I’m most proud of is how I didn’t back down, showed up and showed out to the best of my ability on this day…

And that in-of-itself is the win…

Goal Time: 1:08

Race Time: 1:11:21 (+15s penalty for stepping over the line during the sled pull station)

P.S.

Huge shoutout to my former client Bill Kenworthy for cheering me on and capturing some race day shots and clips!

And to everyone who made this prep possible, our clients, family and friends!

05/27/2026

Flow state

As I’ve been training for this HYROX, there are times where I feel so deeply present in the moment that thoughts literally cease

It’s like my body is going and I’m not thinking about anything; not how much I have left to go in my workout nor even about how much pain I’m in

This concept was first coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihályi and he describes flow state as when you go into a zone where time begins to move differently and you’re fully immersed with the task at hand

I’ve experienced it only a handful of times in my life before whether it was with work, creative endeavors like drawing or writing and now for the first time in my life, with exercise

Interestingly enough, flow state is the opposite of self-sabotage where the negative thoughts and inner critic that causes athletes to choke ceases

I’ve been able to cultivate it through removing substances like caffeine and getting out of my head by removing distractions like time

Just like drawing on the right side of the brain, the left side of the brain is concerned with data, numbers and logic whereas the right side is unconstrained by these limits

I know when I’m in flow state, I can do anything because my body, mind and spirit are all aligned

And I’m flying

NYC HYROX Update Week 17 & 18 / 19

A week and a half left to go…

June 6th NYC HYROX 1:08.

Photo credit: .esq

Irslan Ali

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

06/17/2026

06/16/2026

06/15/2026

06/15/2026

06/13/2026

06/09/2026

06/07/2026

05/27/2026

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