Irslan Ali

Oh you know just an almost half marathon first thing in the morning before 7:15 AM at meagerly zone 2 pace of 7:43 a mile 🤣

I actually used to HATE running as a South Asian I felt like our bodies weren’t meant to do that no like seriously…

Even though I’ve been working professionally in the fitness industry helping South Asian clients achieve body recompositions where they lose fat and build muscle, I never considered running to be a healthy form of cardio…

If you think about it logically too, when did our ancestors every just distance run?

They would only walk and sprint when needed to catch a prey or escape a predator right?

Not so, turns out some our ancestors were so savage that they would distance run to catch up to an animal until the animal died of exhaustion…

As I began training as a hybrid athlete for HYROX, I got into running and the first time I ran 60 mins straight, I called an ambulance after the fact because I thought I was going to die one day I wish I I was kidding about that…

Crazy to hear that coming from a guy who’s sub 10% body fat with six pack abs year round but it’s true…

I realized the reason I hated running is because I would always be doing it wrong…

I never knew about heart rate zones and how to build my aerobic endurance…

I thought you just had to run more, which is part of it but not the whole truth…

As I got into zone 2 running, I finally experience runner’s high for the first time!!

And now, it’s pure bliss to run in zone 2 and I’ve gotten so fast by running slow which is the most paradoxical thing in the world that last Tuesday I ran a sub-18 minute 5k!

That’s a 5:47 mile pace for 3.3 miles straight!

I’m coming for that HYROX in Washington DC on September 3rd!

HYROX Week 3/12 Update

80 mins of pure flow state consciousness 😌✨

- Irslan “THE LION” Ali