Everyday Athlete, Sub-10 Ironman: Mark’s Three-Year Story

If you think you need 20–25 hour training weeks and a pro contract to go sub-10 in an Ironman, Mark would very politely disagree.

He’s an everyday athlete with a job, responsibilities, and all the usual life chaos. Over the last three seasons he’s quietly turned himself into the guy who just keeps dropping sub-10 Ironmans and sub-3:30 marathons off the bike. No drama. No hype. Just three years of grown-up endurance training.

This is what that actually looked like. I have put together the numbers from his last 16 weeks leading into his race taper.

2023 – Finding the Line

In 2023 we treated his Ironman build abit like a science experiment.

We were chasing a time but also more importantly we were trying to work out what his body could genuinely handle without breaking. Across the 16-week block he sat around 14 hours of training per week, with most of that time split between solid bike and run volume, enough swimming to stay competent, and not much in the way of structured strength work.

16 week lead in numbers - Roughly 230 hours total (about 14 hours per week)

Weekly split around:

Swim ~1.5 hours (~5 km)

Bike ~7 hours (~215–220 km)

Run ~–4.5 hours (~45 km)

On paper it doesn’t look outrageous. In reality, it told us everything we needed to know. We learned where the wheels started to wobble when the load got too high, what happened to his run when we stacked more bike work on top of it, and how he coped when we put key sessions back-to-back. We also learned something important about his personality: if it’s on the plan, he will crawl over broken glass to tick the box.

This year laid the foundations. No fireworks. Just information and an build an engine.

By the end of 2023 we knew:

He could live around 14–15 hours per week without falling apart

He handled bike and run volume well, but too much intensity stacked together pushed him towards the bin

Mentally, he liked structure and hated randomness – if it’s on the plan, he’ll die trying to tick the box

This testing year set the boundaries for everything that came next.

2024 – Turn the Volume Up and Break Sub-10

Because we’d mapped his limits in 2023, we could safely squeeze harder in 2024.

This time, over the 16-week block, his training time moved up towards 17–18 hours per week. The extra time didn’t come from junk. We pushed his swim and bike volume up, added proper strength work, and focused on making his running more consistent rather than simply bigger. The idea was simple: build a bigger aerobic ceiling, get him off the bike fresher, and make sure he could still run like an athlete, not a zombie.

16 week lead in numbers - Around 280 hours total (about 17–18 hours per week)

Swim: ~2.3 hours (~7–8 km)

Bike: ~8.5 hours (~240–250 km)

Run: ~3.5–4 hours (~38–40 km)

Strength: ~1–1.5 hours

What changed?

More bike and swim volume
We increased his “aerobic ceiling” with longer rides and more frequent swims. The goal: get him off the bike fresher, not just tougher.

Run: slightly less volume, better consistency
We didn’t chase 100 km weeks. Instead, we focused on not missing run sessions and protecting his ability to run well off the bike.

That block delivered his first sub-10 Ironman – 9:54 – with a sub-3:30 marathon off the bike. The numbers said the plan worked.

Then, because clearly he doesn’t like easy choices, he rolled into the Arc 50 miler in early 2025. That race added another brutal layer of time-on-feet and mental resilience. Think less “Instagram inspiration” and more “soaked, muddy, and still moving when most people would have called a taxi”. It laid down even more durability for the next Ironman season.

2025 – Sharpen the Tools, Less Pressure, More Enjoyment… Still 9:50

This is where the story gets interesting.

By the time we got to 2025, the brief had shifted…slightly.

Mark had already proved his point with a 9:54, plus the Arc 50 in his legs. So we met for coffee and he said i want to do anothert IM but i want to :enjoy'“ it. I knew he could suffer, He knew he could suffer. He knew he could go long. What he really wanted this time was to actually enjoy the race, not spend nine and a bit hours doing mental maths and quietly panicking about splits.

So that became the priority: experience first, numbers second.

We didn’t sit down and say, “Right, we’re going for 9:4X.” If anything, we deliberately stepped away from sticking a big shiny time goal on the fridge. He would never admit it out loud, but of course he still secretly wanted another sub-10. We just chose not to let that be the thing driving every decision.

Training reflected that.

16 week lead in numbers - Around 280 hours total (about 17–18 hours per week)

Swim: ~2 hours (~7 km)

Bike: ~7–7.5 hours (~220–230 km)

Run: ~4–4.5 hours (~42–45 km)

Strength: ~1 hour

The big change was how those hours were used:

More tempo and threshold running
Less “just getting through the long run”, more deliberate segments at pace:

Long runs with quality blocks

Sustained tempo

Controlled threshold work

We pulled his 16-week build back to around 14–15 hours per week again – less than the big volume year in 2024. Instead of chasing more and more total time, we focused on using those hours better. The swim stayed consistent. The bike was kept at a level that maintained his strength and durability without leaving him permanently knackered. The run became the main focus: more tempo, more controlled threshold work, more long runs with purpose rather than just shuffling around to clock distance.

Because the pressure was lower, he turned up to a lot of those key sessions in a better headspace. There was less white-knuckle “I must hit this or I’m doomed” and more “let’s see what the legs have today.” The irony, of course, is that this usually leads to better training, not worse.

Race day summed it up perfectly. The plan was simple: swim well, ride honestly, and then give himself a chance to run without chasing ghosts. No drama, no heroics, just executing what he’d been doing in training and soaking up the whole experience a bit more.

And what happened ?
He went 9:50 and dropped another sub-3:30 marathon off the bike.

Less pressure. Less volume than 2024. More enjoyment. Faster time.

That’s the bit most age-groupers miss. Sometimes, the breakout performance doesn’t come from more suffering. It comes from finally giving yourself permission to enjoy the work you’ve already done and letting the result take care of itself.

The Stuff You Don’t See on Strava

The numbers tell a nice story, but they aren’t the whole point.

Mark’s biggest wins over these three years aren’t just 9:54 and 9:50. They’re his consistency, his attitude, and his honesty with the process.

He shows up. Week after week. No chasing “perfect” weeks, no disappearing for three days then trying to cram six sessions into one. He treats training like a pro would, but with a normal person’s life. Sessions get done when they’re inconvenient, not just when the stars align.

He’s also brutally honest. When he’s tired, he says so. When work or life has him on his knees, he doesn’t pretend everything’s fine to keep his ego happy. That honesty lets us adjust before we run him into the ground.

And then there’s the bit most athletes hate hearing:

Some of his best sessions are the ones he never did.

Like every driven endurance athlete, he hates missing a session. A reduced volume week or a trimmed interval set offends him at a deep level. But over the last couple of years he’s become the athlete who will message and say, “I’m absolutely hanging,” and accept it when I pull the reins and bin or modify the session.

Not every time – he’s still stubborn – but often enough that we’ve dodged injuries, avoided total meltdowns, and kept the big picture moving in the right direction. That’s the difference between training hard and training like someone who actually wants to keep getting better for years.

So What Does Sub-10 Training Really Look Like?

Across all three years, a “sub-10 shape” week for Mark has looked surprisingly normal: roughly 14 to 16 hours of training. Swims adding up to around 6–8 km. Three to four rides totalling somewhere in the 220–250 km range. Around 40–50 km of running across four sessions. A bit of focused strength work to hold everything together.

No 30-hour epics. No disappearing from family life for months. Just smart, repeatable work, stacked over time.

What You Can Learn From It

The takeaways are simple, even if they’re not sexy.

Use one year to learn what you can really handle instead of chasing hero numbers. When you’ve earned the right, build volume in a way that your body and life can support. Once the base is there, sharpen it with quality instead of trying to win a prize for who can ride the longest. Be as proud of the sessions you sensibly skip as the ones you smash. And above all, be consistent.

That’s how an everyday athlete ends up with exceptional summits.

If you want your next Ironman build to be by design rather than guesswork – with someone keeping an eye on your numbers, your life load, and your long-term progress – that’s exactly what i do.

All the details are at www.spendurancecoaching.com.

Everyday athletes. Exceptional summits. Time to be a bit less sh#t.