For more than 30 years, Jon has worked where physiology, coaching judgement, and performance systems meet — helping athletes prepare better, make clearer decisions, and improve with more confidence.
Jon Ackland is a New Zealand exercise scientist, high-performance consultant, endurance coach, founder and former owner of Performance Lab.
His work has supported more than 2000 athletes, from first-time endurance competitors through to world champions, event winners, and serious age-group athletes preparing for meaningful goals.
The science of the elite, adapted for goals that matter deeply to you.
For more than 30 years, Jon Ackland has worked at the intersection of endurance coaching, applied sport science, and performance systems.
As founder and former owner of Performance Lab, he helped shape endurance preparation in New Zealand — through coaching, physiological testing, published training methods, digital coaching systems, and high-performance consulting.
His work has supported more than 2000 athletes, from first-time endurance competitors through to world champions, professional event winners, record-setting performances, and serious age-group athletes preparing for meaningful goals.
Today, that experience is applied to help serious endurance athletes prepare with more clarity, better judgement, and greater confidence.
It's about what is practical, demonstrably successful, easy to achieve and actually makes a difference.
Jon’s experience has included high-stakes professional sport environments, including America’s Cup campaigns with Emirates Team New Zealand, Artemis Racing, and American Magic.
Those environments sharpened principles that also matter in endurance preparation: clear planning, useful data, calm judgement, and better decisions under pressure.
Jon also co-hosted The High Performance Hour, a nationally broadcast radio show exploring performance through conversations with athletes, adventurers, leaders, and high achievers — learning from people who had been there, in their own words.
He has written books designed to make advanced training science more accessible, including Power to Perform and The Complete Guide to Endurance Training.
Across coaching and consulting, the same principles have been applied from first serious endurance goals through to world champions, world records, and long competitive careers built carefully over time.
Outcomes have included professional winners across Ironman and Half Ironman racing, multiple Coast to Coast podiums, ultra-distance campaigns worldwide, and expeditions such as rowing the Atlantic and trekking to the South Pole.
Just as importantly, Jon has helped many first-time endurance athletes prepare well for meaningful goals and achieve them with confidence.
Alongside the coaching and writing, he has created thirteen patents across performance intelligence, exercise prescription, wearable data, and contextual coaching systems.
Today, Jon applies that experience, judgement, published work, and performance thinking to help serious endurance athletes prepare with more clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Most athletes do not need more noise.
They need help understanding what matters now, what to ignore, what to adjust, and how to prepare in a way that fits their body, goal, history, and life.
The modern problem is not access to high quality experience and information.
It is knowing what to trust, what to leave alone, and how to apply the right idea to the right athlete at the right time.
That is where Jon’s work sits: between science and coaching, between data and judgement, between elite sport thinking and real-world preparation.
30+ years · 2000+ athletes
Working across beginner to elite, and across goals that matter deeply to people.
Real World Tested
High-performance principles applied where preparation had to work in real life.
Long history of turning high performance science into useful guidance.
Coaching methods informed by more than twenty years of athlete measurement.
Clear thinking and purposeful action usually outperform effort alone.
Elite performance principles should be useful, not intimidating.
Training should be individual, realistic, and directed toward the goal that matters most.
If that way of working feels aligned, a conversation is the best place to begin.
Jon Ackland
Exercise Scientist • High Performance Consultant • Endurance Coach
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No pressure. Just an honest exploration of whether the work feels right.