Podcast Ep 283: As Irish entrepreneur Brian Lee launches the TRYKA fitness race league, he talks about how his journey building the Freshly Chopped food chain prepared him for this next big challenge.
Tomorrow and Sunday (11 and 12 October 2025) a new chapter will be written in Ireland’s fitness journey as TRYKA positions itself as a community-first alternative to global events like Hyrox, with multiple race formats designed for all fitness levels from beginners to elite athletes.
The new fitness race league aimed at making hybrid racing more accessible to every day gym-goers.
“I believe we can take TRYKA global, and we’re not going to hang around”
The TRYKA league is the brainchild of Brian Lee, the entrepreneur behind healthy fast-food chain Freshly Chopped.
TRYKA’s signature race format features eight 800-meter runs paired with functional fitness challenges. However, recognizing the intimidation factor for newcomers, the league offers TRYKA 500 – a shorter, beginner-friendly version with 500-meter runs and modified workouts.
The events are structured to accommodate individuals, pairs, gym groups, and corporate teams, with the 12-month league season running from October 2025 through October 2026, culminating in a season finale in Portugal’s Algarve region.
It’s more than a brand, it’s a community
“There’s not enough Irish entrepreneurs out there that think big enough and global. We need to encourage Irish SMEs and entrepreneurs that they can go bigger than just small”
In the latest ThinkBusiness Podcast Brian discussed his transition from the healthy fast food business with Freshly Chopped to creating a new fitness event platform that aims to get people moving across Ireland and beyond.
We start by discussing how he built Freshly Chopped from one location to 65+ international outlets. “It was a hell of a journey, probably a little bit longer than I anticipated. It was close to 13 years of my life. I didn’t set out to put that amount of years into it – Covid added about five years to my original plan. My original plan was to move on to bigger and better things. I don’t want to be a one trick pony. I would like to show how good of an entrepreneur I can really be, and deploy my skill sets to multiple sectors.
“This one now is really more about my passion and what I believe in. As entrepreneurs, we should really follow our passion if possible, because they will be the most successful. It doesn’t feel like work when you’re passionate about something. I’m really enjoying this business now, compared to the last one. The hospitality sector is a really dog-eat-dog world.
I point out that there’s a common theme in terms of health and wellness in his ventures. “Back in 2011/2012, within the space of three months, I opened the first Freshly Chopped outlet and opened a small boutique style gym. So they were always my passions – anything to do with the longevity of the body, getting people up and moving. But you always have to have a good balanced diet to go with it.”
The growing awareness of wellness was something he spotted while he worked in carpentry and building while travelling through Australia and living in London. “I looked at how people were more health conscious. I just felt that it was only a matter of time for this to catch on back in Ireland. You couldn’t go into a supermarket and get a fruit pot back in 2010-2011. You couldn’t even get a salad to pick up and go.
“I always believe in being the innovator, not trying to follow everybody down the road. I like to call myself a health and fitness entrepreneur, but anything to do with health and wellbeing is something that I have a real interest in. It has to be about a brand – I like building brands. It’s just something that gets me up in the morning.”
The key to understanding the TRYKA brand is in the name – it’s all about “trying.”
“By having goals, whether it be TRYKA, whether it be a marathon, whether it be anything in the diary, you’re going to get up and you’re going to move towards this. TRYKA is giving you one of those reasons to prepare for something in your diary and achieve it, giving you self-satisfaction of achievements, whether it be alone, whether it be in the community with your local gym, or whether it be in your workplace.
“We’ve got corporate leagues, we’ve got gym leagues, so it allows you to be part of something in communities. I just feel that’s a bigger thing to be part of and to be building for Ireland and beyond.”
Fit for everybody
With the inaugural event happening on 11 October, Lee says there something in it for everyone.
“You can race solo on your own, and you can do a 500 version or an 800 version. What I mean is you’ve got eight runs, and in between each run, you have a workout station – functional workout stations like skiing, rowing, pushing a sled, pulling a sled, lunges, burpees. So you’ve got eight workout stations, and in between each one, you’ve got a run station.
“You either have 500 meter options, which we like to say is a nice entry level for people that have never done something like this before. Then you might want to upgrade to the 800. You can do it as a doubles partner – two males, two females, or mixed doubles. You share the workout stations but stay together on the runs.
“I like the doubles personally because I think it’s enjoyable to train for the event – you have somebody keeping you accountable all the time. Then you have a relay option where you can split the whole course up into quarters with four people. A lot of our corporates are taking these options as team building opportunities because we have a corporate league called our Fitness Company League.
“For the top elite people, we have a Pro Division that’s totally separate and another step up again. So we’ve got three different layers, giving people things to target and challenge themselves with.”
Key to getting TRYKA up and running has been forging partnerships with more than 200 affiliate gyms as well as a multi-year partnership with Life Style Sports.
“We’re trying to give as much love and care to our affiliates, so they have the assets and the know-how to prepare their local community and members for our events. We’ve gone out and done simulations and workouts in their gyms at no cost, just to help them build the morale and excitement to prepare for our first event.”
Go big or go home
Once Lee gets TRYKA up and running in Ireland (no pun intended), he wants to push further and make it an international event.
“That’s not who I am as an entrepreneur – to keep things small. I want to go as big as possible, but I want to do it in a controlled manner with a very nice culture to the company. I really want TRYKA not to be seen as a company. I want it seen as a community.
“I believe we can take TRYKA global, and we’re not going to hang around. In our first 12 months, we will be in Portugal. We’re looking at other venues across Europe and further afield. The ambition is not Ireland – it’s a global brand, and we want to bring the Irish flair to that.
“There’s not enough Irish entrepreneurs out there that think big enough and global. We need to encourage Irish SMEs and entrepreneurs that they can go bigger than just small.”
He goes further: “I think the Irish are amazing entrepreneurs, probably one of the best in the world. You go to other countries, and they’re not entrepreneurial-driven countries – they’re more corporate driven multinationals. We as a nation should not be reliant on multinationals for jobs. The entrepreneurs need to be supported more in Ireland.
“It’s great to see that entrepreneurship is now slowly being put on the curriculum. When I was in school, there was nothing about it. I actually see now that I’m a case study as an entrepreneur on exam papers. It’s nice to see these changes, but I don’t think it’s coming quick enough.”
He admits his learnings from 13 years with Freshly Chopped will be applied. “It’s definitely a new chapter, a new journey, but I’ve taken my knowledge from those 13 years with that business. My experience has absolutely helped me with this business, especially with building teams and trust and different types of people that you want to have in your closer circles, and how you build that team and scale it to go further.
“There’s so many learnings around building a brand,” he concludes. “As I said before, I believe I can do it bigger and better than I’ve ever done it before, and I’m able to prove that to myself more than anybody.”
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