About the coach

Iván Koch

Endurance coach, in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Started out as the friend who wrote your plan.

For a long time I thought helping someone wasn't a one-off gesture — it was something you were supposed to be doing. When I coached my first athlete, a friend who wanted a first marathon, I wasn't building a business. I was handing over what I already used on myself.

That is still the job. Today, after a lot of learning, the certifications and thousands of hours coaching, it's around forty athletes at once.

How it started

The deal was simple: I brought the plan, he brought the legs, and the marathon stopped being an idea. It worked well enough that the next one wasn't a friend.

The reason never changed. The scale did. Monday is now the same check-in, forty times over, in three languages.

Why I stayed

I have a finance degree and an MBA. I like that part. What kept me in the sport is doing the arithmetic while I run.

An example I use a lot: 4×4s for VO2max. Knowing they're the protocol isn't enough. You have to look at whether heart rate actually crossed threshold, how long it stayed up there, and whether the fourth rep was still the work or had turned into survival. That calculation, made on the road, is the same one I make later with an athlete's file.

Some athletes want to see it. Others just want to know what Tuesday looks like. Both are fine — in both cases I've already done the interpreting, and data that arrives raw leaves as next week's training.

What I've actually run

Twenty marathons. Three times under 3 hours, the best of them 2h58. The average across those twenty is closer to 3h30.

The first was 3h23. Then came a lot of 3h30s. There are also afternoons of 4h00, 4h10 and 4h15. Both of those are mine, and the second set is what makes me useful when an athlete’s race falls apart halfway through.

Iván Koch running the Buenos Aires Marathon in 2022 — Buenos Aires Marathon, 2022

Three full Ironman finishes, the fastest in 10h06. A 110-kilometre ultra. And all the races nobody asks the time for: the ones I used to test a carbohydrate load, a taper week, or a plan I later hand to someone else.

Iván Koch on the bike leg of IRONMAN Florianópolis 2022, in the rain — IRONMAN Florianópolis, 2022

I still race. Not because the method needs another medal, but because my own race file is the cheapest laboratory I have.

Iván Koch crossing the finish line at IRONMAN Cozumel in 2021 — IRONMAN Cozumel, 2021

TrainingPeaks

I started by selling plans in their marketplace. Then I joined Coach Match: the limited directory TrainingPeaks refers athletes into when someone completes the questionnaire and has to be paired with a coach.

A good share of those referrals in the region now reach me. That's why I say I work in partnership with TrainingPeaks: not as a badge in a bio, but because the real flow of athletes runs through it. I'm also a Level 2 Accredited Coach on the platform, and that accreditation is renewed every year.

The 111 English plans in the catalogue live on that same platform. So does the 1:1 coaching.

Certifications

TrainingPeaks Level 2 Accredited Coach · TrainingPeaks Coach Match · ESCI Certified Coach · IRONMAN U Certified Coach · Certified Stryd Coach

They are not the method. The method is the test, zones built from your numbers, the Monday check-in, and the re-test that confirms the progress was real rather than a feeling.

Try the zone calculator — it's public, it's the same one I use with my athletes, and it shows you concretely how I work before you talk to me.

Frequently asked

Is Iván Koch on TrainingPeaks Coach Match?

Yes. TrainingPeaks refers endurance athletes to his roster through Coach Match, the platform's limited coach directory.

What accreditations does he hold?

TrainingPeaks Level 2 Accredited Coach, IRONMAN U Certified Coach, ESCI Certified Coach and Certified Stryd Coach.

What languages does he coach in?

Spanish, English and Portuguese.

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