I coach working professionals to full and half Ironman finishes, 1-on-1 through TrainingPeaks, from my base in Auckland. Every plan gets built around the athlete’s actual week, and most of mine train 10 to 14 hours alongside a full-time job. I raced professionally from 2012 to 2020, winning IRONMAN 70.3 Buffalo Springs, and finishing 3rd at IRONMAN Australia with the bike course record and 5th at IRONMAN New Zealand. I’ve raced the courses my athletes target.
Racing IRONMAN Cairns. Photo: Darryl Carey.
Who this suits
Most of my athletes work 40 to 60 hour weeks. Some are building toward a first Ironman in Taupo. Others are chasing a Kona slot, an age-group podium, or a sub-11 they’ve been circling for years.
What they share is limited hours. An athlete with 9 training hours, two kids and regular work travel needs a coach who writes for that week, and rewrites it when the week changes. That’s the coaching I do.
What 1-on-1 Ironman coaching includes
Your plan lives in TrainingPeaks. Every session is written out with targets set from your own power, pace and heart rate zones, so you open your watch and execute.
I rebuild each week from what you actually did: your session data, your comments, how you’re recovering. If work blows up a week, the plan bends with it. You get comments on the sessions that matter and straight answers on progress and fatigue. There’s more on how I coach Ironman and 70.3 athletes.
Closer to race day we build your pacing and fuelling plan for the specific course, drawing on my own racing at Taupo and Tauranga.
Full 1-on-1 coaching is $350 a month. Single-sport coaching (run, bike or Zwift) runs $100 to $200 a month. Current tiers and availability are on the coaching options page.
The New Zealand races I coach toward
Most of my roster builds for the NZ long-course calendar: IRONMAN New Zealand in Taupo in March, 70.3 Taupo in March, the Tauranga Half in January, and Challenge Wanaka in February. Dates, distances and how far out to start each one are laid out in the New Zealand season guide.
I’ve raced IRONMAN New Zealand as a professional, finishing 5th in 2017, and my results include fastest bike splits at the Taupo and Tauranga halves. So when I write a Taupo pacing plan, I know where that course bites, because I’ve ridden it on race day with everything on the line.
Offshore races work the same way. I coach athletes across New Zealand and overseas, so where you live doesn’t change the coaching. If you’re local, the Auckland coaching page covers the home patch.
The IRONMAN New Zealand run course along the Taupo lakefront. Photo: Darryl Carey.
Common questions
How much does Ironman coaching cost in New Zealand?
Most quality 1-on-1 coaching in NZ sits between $200 and $500 a month. My full 1-on-1 coaching is $350 a month, which covers the whole build: every session written for your week and adjusted against your data when life moves. Single-sport coaching starts at $100 a month. Current pricing and what each tier includes is on the coaching options page.
How many hours a week do I need for a full Ironman?
Fewer than most people think, if the plan is built well. My athletes typically train 10 to 14 hours a week through the build, with a small number of bigger weeks placed where their calendar can absorb them. A well-structured 10-hour week beats an unstructured 15-hour one, because recovery is where the adaptation happens.
How does coaching work if I’m not in Auckland?
The coaching runs through TrainingPeaks, so it works the same whether you’re in Christchurch, Wellington or overseas. Every session lands on your watch with targets set from your own zones. Your data comes back to me the moment you sync, and I rebuild each week from what you actually did. Catch-ups happen by phone or video, and I coach athletes across NZ and offshore already.
When should I start with a coach before race day?
For IRONMAN New Zealand or 70.3 Taupo, 6 months out is ideal and 4 months is workable. Later than that and we’re managing what’s already there rather than building. For a first full Ironman I’d rather have longer, closer to 9 months, so the long rides and runs can grow gradually instead of jumping.
Do you coach first-time Ironman athletes?
Yes. My roster mixes first-timers building toward Taupo with experienced age-groupers chasing Kona slots, and the coaching problem is the same: fit the work into a real life and make every session count. For a first Ironman the plan leans harder on durability and fuelling, because finishing strong matters more than any split. What the build needs from you is consistency.
What’s the difference between 70.3 and full Ironman preparation?
The full distance is a different fuelling and durability problem, so the prep changes shape rather than doubling. Long rides stretch further, race-pace work gets more specific, and we spend real time training your gut to handle carbohydrate at race intensity. A 70.3 build is shorter and carries more intensity week to week. Some of my athletes race a 70.3 on the way to the full for exactly that reason.
How do I choose the best Ironman coach in New Zealand?
It depends on what you’re after. Every coach has their own skills, history and style of sessions. If you want group sessions, find a squad that runs plenty of them. If you want an individual programme that changes week to week, find someone who writes that kind of programme.
My advice is to make a short list of coaches who look right and have a chat with each of them. You’ll usually know from how they answer your questions whether they’re the one for you. You could even ask to be put in touch with one of their athletes and ask what the training is really like.
You have to put a lot of trust in a coach, so do that pre-work and take your time. The more trust you have going in, the better the programme goes. It’s a hard sport, part science and part art and experience, and you want someone you’ll back on both.
Questions last updated September 2026.
Talk to me
If you’re weighing up an Ironman coach in New Zealand, get in touch or read my background first. No hard sell, just a conversation about your race and your week.
About me
I started in multisport as a kid and raced nine seasons as a professional on the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 circuits. The results that matter here: a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Buffalo Springs, 3rd at IRONMAN Australia with the bike course record, 5th at IRONMAN New Zealand, fastest bike splits at the Taupo and Tauranga halves, and the 2009 ITU Long Distance World Championship in the 20-24 age group. Off the bike I hold a First Class Honours engineering degree from the University of Auckland. I coach from Auckland through Bowstead Performance Coaching, with athletes across NZ and overseas. Durability, the quality that decides the back half of an Ironman, is something I write about on the blog.
