Gold Coast time-trial king Josh Schoenfeld has retained his crown, taking out the club's 2km run on Monday's return to pre-season.

The 21-year-old, who enters his fourth pre-season, edged out Touk Miller and recruit Jordan Murdoch at Gold Coast's Griffith University.

Second-year forward Wil Powell got the better of midfielder Jacob Dawson for fourth, while the club's new-look coaching staff were impressed by runs from Jacob Heron and Charlie Ballard.  

It comes as part of a new pre-season regime at the SUNS, with players' workloads increased under first-year high performance manager Alex Rigby.

Some players added 50 per cent more loading prior to Christmas compared to the same stage of pre-season 12 months earlier.

Schoenfeld claimed victory again after his November triumph, having seen Kade Kolodjashnij win the same test 12 months earlier.

The West Australian product broke the 3km time trial record at the 2015 NAB AFL Draft Combine with a time of 9:15 – later changed to 2km in 2017.

He added six games in 2018 to take his career tally to 14.