Ollie Craig came to me in July 2025 as a beginner triathlete. Eight months later, on 7 March 2026, he finished IRONMAN New Zealand in Taupō in 10:16.
At a glance
- Goal race: IRONMAN New Zealand, Taupō, 7 March 2026
- Starting point: new to triathlon, with the swim the biggest gap
- Build: about 8 months, averaging 11.7 hours a week before race week. Biggest week 20.9 hours.
- Result: IRONMAN finisher in 10:16
Where he started
Ollie could already ride and run. His first logged ride was an hour, and 9 days after we started he ran 15 km.
The swim was the gap, so that’s where the plan started slowest.
The first few weeks were about gathering data: record everything, keep it not too hard, then test.
What we changed
I kept swims to two a week at first and told him to take a breather whenever he needed one. Through July and August his 11 swims were all 1.9 to 2.5 km.
On 20 October, 3 months after his first swim with me, he did 3.8 km in one session, the IRONMAN swim distance (rests included). From January it was 16 swims in 6 weeks, 10 of them 3 km or more.
Bike and run stayed separate at first, so he could recover between them. The first run off the bike came on 13 September, 15 minutes of it. By February it was 12 km at IRONMAN pace after a 5-hour ride.
Long rides mostly went on Saturday and long runs on Sunday. Both grew:
- Long ride: 2.5 hours in July, 100 km in late October, 4.5 hours just before Christmas, 170 km on 14 February.
- Long run: 15 km in July, the Auckland Half Marathon on 2 November, 25.8 km on 8 February.
On 11 October he trained for over 4.5 hours in one day. My note that day: a couple of months ago, that would have been impossible.
Fuelling went into the plan early. In September I wrote him a note: 60 to 90 g of carbohydrate an hour on long sessions, practised the way he’d race.
The Tauranga half on 17 January was a fitness check, with no expectations on my end. He rode the 90 km in 2:28:50 on his watch, with very little difference between his first 45 km and his second. Then he ran the half marathon in 1:38:45, about 4 minutes off his Auckland Half time, and this one came off the bike.
The biggest week came in early February: 20.9 hours. Saturday was a 5-hour ride, written as 3 one-hour blocks at IRONMAN heart rate, then 12 km off the bike at 4:48 per km. Sunday’s run was written as 3 x 7 km at IRONMAN pace, 25.8 km in all.
A week later he rode 170 km, the longest ride of the build, and ran 14 km the same day.
Race day
Ollie’s race plan for Taupō was set by heart rate: 140 to 150 bpm on the bike with at least 80 g of carbohydrate an hour, then about 155 bpm on the run at around 5:00 per km. My note on the plan: the first part of the race should feel almost too easy.
Ollie finished in 10:16, eight months after his first session with me.
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