Willy Georges Goes Sub-60 at Nice, France HYROX
As more CrossFit athletes have been dipping their toes into the world of HYROX, a collective goal among many of them has emerged: to finish under 60 minutes in the Pro Division. Just last weekend, Willy Georges got it done. Racing in Nice, France, Georges posted a time of 58:53.
- This was not Georges’s first rodeo… er, we mean HYROX. His first attempt was in Gent, Belgium, in December of 2025, where he finished in 1:01.
A Personal Best
With only two months to prepare for Nice after Gent, he told us he didn’t change his training much at all.
- “I mostly stayed on the same track, because my first HYROX was kind of a last-minute decision. I wasn’t truly prepared. I mainly wanted to do one before the end of the year to challenge myself and gain some experience,” Georges told Morning Chalk Up.
Besides beating his time by over two minutes, he says his most recent race was a much better experience.
- “I was simply better prepared and in better overall shape. I’m not at peak fitness yet (that’s not the goal right now) because I’m in a big aerobic base-building phase. But I’m definitely in much better shape than I was two months ago,” Georges said.
Leading up to his race in Nice, he had been running between 60-70 kilometers (37-43 miles) each week in preparation not only for HYROX but for other upcoming competitions (more on that below).
He shared that to train effectively, he had to find the right balance between maintaining running volume and avoiding overtraining.
- “It’s tempting to think ‘more is better,’ but very often it’s the opposite — more becomes the enemy of better. I adjust, I adapt, and most importantly, I listen to my body. To be fully transparent, CrossFit is a smaller part of my training compared to running (and even cycling), but I still keep a few CrossFit sessions because I enjoy it and it helps me,” Georges said.
What’s Next
Up next for Georges is the Paris Marathon, which will take place on April 12. Just over a month later, on May 17, he’ll take on the Aix-en-Provence 70.3 Half-Ironman, and later in the year, 50-kilometer and 103-kilometer trail races in Oman.
He’s not done with HYROX either. His finishing time in Nice qualified him for the HYROX World Championships this June in Stockholm, Sweden.
- “Like I always say,” Georges said, “sometimes you don’t overthink it: you sign up first, then you figure it out… and most importantly, you plan properly afterward.”
