Mark Bowstead: Ironman coach and former pro triathlete

Based in Auckland. Coaching athletes in New Zealand, Australia and further afield through TrainingPeaks.

I’m Mark Bowstead. I raced as a professional triathlete from 2012 to 2020, then moved into coaching. Those years shaped how I coach: training built around physiological data and what you can actually handle, not a one-size plan. That holds whether you’re building toward a first 70.3 or chasing an Ironman PB.

My Coaching Philosophy

I’ve coached endurance athletes since 2017. I build every plan around your physiology and your actual life, not a template. Your plan runs in TrainingPeaks, and I rebuild it week to week from your RPE, heart rate and power.

High-performing professionals don’t run steady schedules. Careers, travel and family shift, and a rigid off-the-shelf plan breaks the first time life does. I replace the guesswork with structured training and a simple loop: check how you’re going, adjust the plan, repeat.

Every session earns its place. That’s what turns limited training time into real physiological adaptation, and real adaptation into a strong result on race day, without the fatigue that wrecks it. The thinking behind all of it, session by session, is on the blog.

My Path and Results

I started racing at 11. By high school I’d picked up multiple area and national titles across multisport, duathlon and triathlon. A month after my 20th birthday I won the 2009 ITU Long Distance World Championship in the 20-24 age group, over a 3km/80km/20km course. Then a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical and Materials (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland, squeezed in around 25+ hours of training a week and my first pro races.

After university I raced full-time as a professional from 2012 to 2020. The results: 1st at IRONMAN 70.3 Buffalo Springs in Lubbock, Texas, in 2015. 3rd at IRONMAN Australia in 2018, with the bike course record. 5 New Zealand long-distance triathlon podiums. Multiple IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship starts, best finish 16th. Multiple Hy-Vee Championship appearances. A stint representing Cycling New Zealand at the World Zwift Championships.

I wrote a report after almost every race through those years. They are up, unedited, in the race archive.

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