TERENZO BOZZONE

2011-11-02T23:12:00.001-07:00

November Update with Terenzo

2011-11-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

Help Terenzo and Kelea raise money for Cystic Fibrosis at Ironman New Zealand by joining their team at http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/teamterenzo/

2011-10-17T22:24:00.001-07:00

2011-10-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

Blogfor the beginner Triathlete - Running

Starting out in the sport of triathlon can be an exciting thing, butat the same time, a little daunting. Three individual disciplines in their ownright combined into one race, with added uncertainties of transitions andnutrition. With this in mind I wanted to write a blog for the beginner about afew points I would like to address with regards to running. If it is wellreceived then I may consider doing more in the series for the beginner.

It may be due to my current injury at the moment that leads me tothis first tip, but I believe a big thing when starting off is not over doingit, especially in running, and its possibly the most vulnerable to injuries ofthe sports. Its easy to look at your mates in the sport going out for long runsday after day and wanting to do the same. What first needs to be realized isthat you need to slowly build your running to allow your muscles to get used tothe stresses and develop strength as well as prevent injury. I quite like the 10minrule, which is never increase your longest run by more than 10min each week.This can be the same for rehab running when coming back off an injury for theamateur. Keep things simple, and slowly build that mileage up in a safe way.

The next point, and possibly more important for injury prevention isshoes. You probably hear this over and over again, but I cannot stress thisenough. Having the correct shoes is essential to staying fit and healthy. Go toyour podiatrist or local sports shoe shop and get them to analyze you strideand foot strike. With this information they can advise you on the best shoe foryour foot.

This is the reason I wear K-Swiss shoes. They have a great range ofshoes for all types of runners, and they are a big reason why my body canhandle ironman training.

Alright enough of the injury prevention tips, but seriously, aninjury free athlete is a happy athlete. Most injured athletes you could almostsay are in a state of depression when they are injured. We choose the sportbecause we love it, so don’t spend more time injured than you do actually outthere on the roads/paths training.

My next bit of wisdom is also one that is thrown around from time totime. Throw away the watch for a couple of runs a week. On those moderatedistance runs where you just feel like you have to get out there and run, don'ttake the watch. As you improve your running, the key running sessions willbecome your long runs and tempo/speed sessions. Thus the other runs should bedesigned to compliment these sessions, not inhibit them from optimal

performance. Without a watch, allow yourself to tune into your bodywithout that constant checking of the watch to see how long you have run for.Tune into your breathing, practice a good breathing pattern. Listen to yourmuscles, do they feel tired? tight? fresh? Listen to the cues your body isgiving you, if you are sore and tired, keep the pace easy and keep the runshort, your body is asking for some recovery.

It can give a good feeling of freedom without the watch for a fewsessions a week, and learning to understand your body is a must in this sportso without the distraction of ‘I must run 45min’ today, you will be more ableto tune into yourself.

The final thing I would like to suggest is simple. Enjoy running. Ifyou are not enjoying running, learn to. Take into advice my first few tips.Don’t push yourself every session, allow to run in comfortable heart ratezones, give your body the recovery it needs, and you will find yourself runningfaster, stronger, longer, and happier.

So grab a pair of K-Swiss running shoes, head out the door, withoutyour watch, and just enjoy the run, and keep your body happy by listening toit!

All the best,

Terenzo

Clif Bar Shot Of: WHAT'S NEXT with Terenzo Bozzone

2011-09-12T14:13:00.001-07:00

Terenzo Bozzone talks to Clif Bar about his plans for the future, with some great Insight from Chris "Macca" McCormack.

Kona update

2011-08-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

HI guys,

On this past weekend I raced the European 70.3 championships in Wiesbaden Germany. It was an extremely tough course and I was looking forward to testing my fitness. I had run everyday for the two weeks leading into the event and while my achilles was not 100% it was manageable and it didn't seem to be getting inflamed by the running. Unfortunately in the race the pain was unbearable, maybe due to the 400 meter uphill run on soft sand into transition. My Achilles started hurting on the bike which was unusual and by the time I started the run every footstep was a sharp pain. It is the only race I can ever recall pulling out of.

The event was amazing, the Germans do a great job putting on world class events and I really enjoyed being a part of it and hanging out at the finish line and cheering the last competitors home.

I received my invitation to compete in Kona at the World Ironman Championships on the Thursday before the race, so thankfully I scrapped in with enough points. I didn't need to start the race but I thought it would be a good test to see where things were at.

So this is where the tough decisions start.

After long consultations with my Coach and Doctors we have decided that the best course of action moving forward is to go back home to New Zealand and look into different treatment options and get my achilles back to 100 percent before any long term damage is caused.

Unfortunately with this injury being around since the beginning of April I have not been able to get the crucial early season training done that is required to build a solid base of fitness. I have taken medical advice and to cram the amount of training now required to be competitive in Kona is taking a significant risk on suffering longer term injury.

This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make but deep down I know it is the right move for my future. I am only 26 years old and if all goes well I still have another 13-15 years of being at the top of my game. I know I will bounce back next year stronger than ever.

I will be making the trip to Kona this year to cheer on my fellow athletes and watch the race closely with a different point of view which will be beneficial for when I come back next year.

I thank you all for your support and understanding through this tough time.

Kind regards
Terenzo

2011-08-19T05:45:00.000-07:00

Terenzo Bozzone and Sam Mayhew hang out in Mexico City for the Enube camp. running at La Pila - 3500m above Sea Level and swimming at the beautiful Las Estacas are a couple of the amazing events they were involved in. A big thanks to everyone who was part of the camp.

Kona Qualifying

2011-08-08T05:41:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

I just wanted to give you a quick update on my immediate race schedule leading into the Ironman World Championships in Kona.

With the new Kona points qualification schedule no one was really sure how each athlete would go about qualifying for the World Champs. I was sure if I had a few solid races under my belt I would make the cut off no problem, but with the achilles problem I haven't been able to do all the races I wanted to race and get the results I had aimed for. That being said I have still had a pretty good season. 20th in Kona last year, 2nd at Ironman New Zealand, 4th at the US 70.3 champs, 5th at the New Orleans 70.3 (high points race), and 9th at the Eagleman 70.3. Outside of the World Triathlon Corporation races that count for points I finished 2nd at the Rev 3 Half Ironman and 2nd at the Kemah Olympic distance triathlon.

The top 50 male athletes on points will compete in Kona. At the end of July the top 40 men were given their spots and at the end of August the next 10 qualifying athletes will be selected. Currently I am sitting in 50th position, but with 3 full distance ironman races and 3 more 70.3 races in the month of August other athletes will move forward on points and there is not much of a guarantee I will make the cut off.

This is part of the reason why I have decided to compete at the European 70.3 Champs next weekend in Wiesbaden, Germany. The points on offer are high but with the large points and the prestige of being the European Champion comes a large number of the best athletes in the sport racing. Hopefully I will be able to get a solid result and secure my spot for Kona

Training the past couple weeks in Switzerland has been great… Tough but great… Oh yeah, and also at altitude. We had a camp with one of my sponsors, Biestmilch in St. Moritz, then a few days in Davos with the Swiss triathlon team. I have never ridden hills so long and suffered so much in all of my life. Coming back down to a normal altitude earlier than expected was a smart move and I am starting to feel ready to race.

Anyway, I will report in after the weekend.

Regards

Terenzo

Mexico Trip

2011-08-08T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

I thought I would write a little update on my last trip to Mexico City. Firstly, despite the crazy traffic I loved the place.

You may have seen in my last blog the list of events I am involved in here, which is quite long, and during the week we have been adding in more interviews to the list. I have been working quite hard here trying to promote triathlon, healthy living and myself here at the ENUBE camp and after 2 days I was already exhausted. Actually I felt unusually tired. A group of us went for a run earlier in the week and an easy swim and they were possibly 2 of the hardest sessions I have done in awhile and I did them at an easy pace. Hmmmmm very odd, it was on this day we were told we were at 2500m above sea level. A shock, I though we were high but not this high. A relief to understand why those sessions were so hard, and an explanation to why I was so tired.

Aside from the body shock to adjusting to the altitude I thoroughly enjoyed the events. All the interviews, conferences, talks, signings, photo shoots, appearances, kids clinic and training groupshave been a lot of fun and I hope I have inspired others into triathlon, healthy living and to set goals to achieve their dreams.

I would like to thank all my sponsors for the products theyhad given me to give away during the week to those involved in the ENUBE organized events. They have been greatly received and I believe we have created more fans in my sponsor brands and have an increased understanding, awareness and knowledge of these brands and why I choose them to support me in my dreams.

The last 2 days topped off my trip. We swam at the most beautiful river, Las Estacas – a spring fed river about 1km long. The current upstream was insane, but it was the most amazing water I have ever been in. Then we ran at La Pila – if 2500meters was insane, try running at 3500meters! Cool trail and had a great group of people out showing us how the locals handle the altitude. Needless to say – I am not so good running when it feels like you are breathing through a straw…

It was great to have mate and training partner Sam Mayhew up with me helping out and taking pictures, we christened him "Blanco"

As always I appreciate all the loyal support I get from my family, friends, sponsors and fans.

Till next time,

Terenzo

Mexico Trip 2011 and the Importance of Setting goals

2011-07-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

So many of you may have seen that I am currently on a week long ‘camp’ in Mexico City. For those that haven’t heard, now you know.

I thought I would take this time to explain a little bit more about the purpose of my trip. Many months ago I was approached my an emerging event organization called ENUBE who were interested in promoting triathlon here in Mexico as well as promoting a healthy lifestyle, especially towards the youth.

After many emails back and forth we managed to confirm dates and the schedule for the week that was beneficial for both of us.

Throughout the week I have the following ‘events’ to attend and be involved in:

Press Interview

Tag Heuer Interview, talk.

Magazine Interviews including Esquire

Live TV show on Fox Sports Latin America

Photo shoot

Run groups/clinics

Cycle session around a car racing track

Club 10 talk (fitness center in the city)

Motivational Talk

Swim session/group

Alongside this some additional swimming, biking and running to get the body back to some fitness for a Biestmilch camp next week.

Oh, and of course getting to see/explore some of the second largest city in the world that is Mexico City, and experience their culture.

So as you can see the focus is not specifically on my training, this week is more of an introductory week back into another training block. The focus is on promoting Triathlon and healthy living here as well as hoping to inspire people, and get them to ‘Challenge Yourself’ (one of the slogans for the week).

A big focus of this week as mentioned is to challenge yourself. To do this an important message I want to get across is about setting goals. Setting big goals, even if they seem impossible and daunting. It is the vision of achieving these goals where your personal motivation will be day in and day out.

In saying this it can be scary looking at the top of a ‘mountain’ you want to climb from the beginning, and thus I stress the importance of taking it in steps, little goals leading to the big goal. Be that in training, to also life goals to become the person you aspire to be.

The added bonus is being able to do this with good friend Sam Mayhew and with the great hospitality of ENUBE, who have planned the week extremely well, and are looking after us as great hosts.

They have many sponsors for the week, which include many of my own, which is great, as the brands I am sponsored by I whole-heartedly believe in, so to be able to promote them here in conjunction with the camp is great, and I believe beneficial to all the parties involved.

I would like to take a moment at this point to thank my sponsors for their support; K-Swiss, Biestmilch, Felt Bicycles, Clif Bar, Oakley, Aqua Sphere, Kellogg’s Nutri Grain, Profile Design, Plumbing World, SRAM, Fuel Belt, Lazer, Triathlon Lab, Zipp, Prologo, and Sidi.

The week is very exciting, and the messages we are trying to get across to people here are important messages not just in triathlon, but also in life. Back home I am involved in youth charities such as Life Education Trust, as I believe the future of the world is in the hands of the youth today. Hence my excitement to work with ENUBE who until this point have had a primary focus on youth education and healthy living.

To follow my updates here in Mexico City and in the future follow me at;

Twitter.com/terenzo1

Facebook.com/terenzobozzone

Terenzo.com

Till next time,

Adios,

2011-06-14T09:44:00.001-07:00

2011-06-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

2011-06-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

HI guys,

So I just finished the Eagleman 70.3 in Cambridge, Maryland this past weekend and by “just” I mean “just”… I almost couldn’t make it to the finish line.

I came into the race as the defending champion from the past 2 years and after a second place last weekend I thought I was in good shape to defend my title.

After the Rev 3 triathlon last weekend we spent a few days with the Clif Bar team getting some footage for a video piece. We met up with friend and Ironman world champion Chris “Macca” McCormack in New York City, which coincided with his book launch “I’m here to win” and the announcement of the New York City Ironman triathlon in 2012.

The temperatures over on the East coast have been super hot and Eagleman is renowned for its Kona like temperatures so this was going to be a good test to see where things were at. We managed to have a few relaxing days to speed up the recovery before we hit it hard again.

The race kicked off and I felt good in the swim. Although I wasn’t able to hold the feet of John Kenny the arms felt strong and I led the chase pack. There were a small group of us that came out of the water together and onto the 56mile bike. TJ Tollakson who would later go on to win the race took off at the early stages of the bike and showed his strength.

I felt strong on the bike, the legs were turning over well but the heat was starting to get to me. By the last 10miles on the bike I knew I was in a little trouble. The watts had started to drop and the body was tightening up.

Fellow Kiwi and training partner James Bowstead after a tough swim managed to bridge back up at the end of the bike and led the group in transition. We were still 4 minutes down on TJ. Off onto the run I tried to keep up with Bowstead and Big Matty Reed, but the legs just didn’t want to turn over. By the 3 mile mark there was nothing, the heat was too much and my body didn’t want to move forward. I couldn’t get enough ice and cold water and the finish couldn’t come quick enough.

I am so glad that I stuck it out and made it to the finish, I experienced the most amazing thing ever. Due to the nature of the course we ran 6.5miles out and 6.5miles back along the same route. In doing so I ran past a large number of age-groupers on their way out and the amount of athletes who made the effort to cheer me on and give me encouragement was overwhelming.

I ended up finishing in 9th place. Thanks to everyone for the support out there and to the volunteers for doing an amazing job in keeping everyone hydrated.

Congratulations to TJ for taking out to win, Richie Cunningham in second, Stanislav Krylov, Matty Reed and James Bowstead for finishing off the top 5 and
Mirinda Carfrae, Tyler Stewart and Sam Warriner for the top three girls.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend.

2011-06-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Rev 3 Half

2011-06-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

On Sunday I raced the Revolution 3 Half distance triathlon race here in Quassy, Connecticut. While the rest of you had the day off, I was out busting my guts!! As you all know I have been struggling with an Achilles problem so this race was going to be a good test to see where my recovery was at and how it was going to hold out. WOW, I was pleasantly surprised but paying for it now!!!

Race morning was beautiful but the air temperature was on the colder side of things, which made it hard to get going. The water was only just non-wetsuit legal at 69 degrees Fahrenheit so getting in was very nipply. The start gun went off at 6.50am and the pace was on from the start by Matt Reed (USA), thankfully I was able to jump on his feet and stay with him. Kenny (USA) then came through at a ‘Phelps’ crazy fast speed but we could not match it and he took off out the front. We then formed a small chase group for the remaining part of the 1.2 mile swim in Lake Quassapaug.

We then exited the water in a time of 24.04 minutes, into T1 we headed, this was a little crazy but made sure I had a lightning fast transition so I could stay with this bunch. So, out on to the bike with Reed, Cunningham, Starykowicz and Matthews. Far out it was cold, It took me about 20 miles to warm up on this crazy tough undulating bike course. At mile 40 I started to feel better and managed to form a breakaway with Joe Gambles, James Cunnama and Dan Hugo and we were in hot pursuit of Andrew Starykowicz who was 4 minutes ahead of us.
Arrived into T2 with Joe Gambles and Paul Matthews ready to chase down Cunnama and Starykowicz. Started the run at a safe pace as I didn’t know how my Achilles were going to hold out on this tough 13.1 mile run course. Felt really good half way through the run so I decided to push the pace and Gambles came with me. Around Mile 11, we caught Starykowicz but still no sign of Cunnama….bugger!! At mile 12 Gambles and I were still racing side by side so I decided that I needed to make my move now if I wanted any chance at grabbing 2nd. Finally made the break and now I was in the hunt for Cunnama who was 70 seconds in front. As I broke away from Gambles I was gaining on Cunnama and he was hurting. In the last mile and half I put 1 minute into him. All of a sudden a started to realise I may have a chance at the title but unfortunately it wasn’t my day, coming in 2nd by 8 seconds. Really happy with this result as things have been a little rocky with the Achilles but I think I’m back on track.

Congratulations to James Cunnama for taking out the win and Joe Gambles coming in 3rd and rounding out the podium.

Also on other Triathlon news: Congratulations to fellow Kiwi Nicky Samuels for taking out the Escape from Alcatraz title and Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack for winning Challenge Cairns.

Next race will be Eagleman 70.3 this weekend, where I’m hoping to defend my title.

You can also see some other footage from this weekend at the below links.
Pre race show- http://vimeo.com/24649421 (skip to the second half to the video to go to the mens stuff if you like)
Transition - http://vimeo.com/24679171
Bike update - http://vimeo.com/24681287
Finish line - http://vimeo.com/24686043
Race recap - http://vimeo.com/24723325

Regards
Terenzo

A different thought on Cross Training

2011-06-01T19:27:00.001-07:00

You may have read my last blog which was about ‘The Dreaded Injury”. If you did then this next blog follows on quite nicely from it. If you didn’t, not to worry, as this post is totally applicable on its own, but I do recommend going back and reading my last post.

One of the good things about the sport of Triathlon is simply that it involves 3 sports in one, and this point alone is good for multiple reasons. The point I would like to highlight is cross training. Whilst recovering from my Achilles injury I was forced to take some time completely off running. For any triathlete, especially those that really enjoy running this is extremely tough news to deal with. This brings me to my point; I still had swimming and cycling to train. A little juggling of programme changes and I had 2 sports to put all my energy into. For many sports an injury can mean having to take time completely away from your sport, but because of the cross training ability in triathlon, this is not always the case.

Becoming the best triathlete you can be is a lot harder than just giving 110%. It’s a fine art. Balancing three disciplines, getting adequate recovery, nutrition etc. For many this is where a coach is invaluable. They can help you take out the guessing of when to space key workouts, how many recovery days you need and how to generally structure your short and long term programme.
This idea of cross training virtually never leaves a triathlete with nothing to do (remember recovery is doing something) and so being able to train across multiple sports is beneficial in the injury setting, it can also be a double edge sword, that leads us to getting injured.
To be a top triathlete, you would like to swim like a swimmer, cycle like a cyclist and run like runner. Many world-class triathletes can hold their own against a world-class athletes in a single discipline. But we can’t train a full swimmers programme, a full cyclist programme and then a full runners program… trust me have tried. We must take into account the significant cross training benefit in order to be a triathlete and allow ourselves the right balance in training and recovery. For many age group athletes, I believe that means cutting out a lot of junk miles they do not realize they are doing. I’ve seen many age groupers that are just as fit as me, but yet they never go anywhere near as fast. I believe this is partly to do with quantity over quality.
Thus my next point I am making here is Quality. We are triathletes, we train a lot! Understand that we are getting gains from cross training and reduce some of those junk miles, and put quality into it. Instead of a long steady-hard swim set, put in some max/threshold every now and again. I can hear people already saying “but im not a sprinter”. Correct, you are not, but doing one or 2 quality speed sessions a week in each discipline does not make you a sprinter, but what it might do is increase you max speed ability, raise your natural comfortable speed, and raise your threshold pace. It also gives the body and mind a different stimulus to hours and hours of the same thing.

Give it a go. Change one session in your swim, one in your cycling, one in your run from a medium long format at a steady pace, to a short sharp intense session. Space them out across the week, allowing recovery time, and it might just spark you into life and out of the funk you may be in and send you towards PBs.

I realize this may be a different angle created by thinking about cross training than you may be familiar with, but that’s why I am writing this. It may scare triathletes to get out of that regular rhythm they are used to, but that’s not a bad thing. New Stimulus can do great things. Be adventurous. Get stuck into it.

May Update

2011-05-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
I hope that you have all been well and keeping busy.
May has been a tough month for me. After struggling with my left Achilles for the early part of the US season I decided to head back to Los Angeles to get on top of it and back running properly.

After consulting with my doctors and therapists back home and seeing a few doctors here in LA we decided that the best treatment was to get a PRP (plasma rich platelet) injection. This creates a healing respons in the body which is helpful in a low blood flow area like the Achilles tendon.

After 5 weeks of no running, well no running on the road, I have been jogging in a Alter G treadmill. This is a reasonably new technology that allows you to alter the amount of gravity you run with so you can control the impact on your body… after running in Alter G I am beginning to feel what it would be like to be a Kenyan! I have been back running properly on the road for a week and things are looking good.
Over my off period I managed to get in some good biking and swimming and it is good to have James Bowstead, a young triathlete from back home over here with me to train and race with. Not to mention it is great to have Kelly up here with me!

We have decided to go ahead with the racing season and next stop is this weekend over the other side of the country in Connecticut for the Revolution 3 Half Ironman followed by the Eagleman 70.3 in Cambridge, Maryland where I can hopefully defend my title.

Terenzo

Super Haka

2011-05-17T20:16:00.001-07:00

James Bowstead and Terenzo Bozzone sending their thoughts and Prayers to Christchurch from the USA and hoping that Kiwis near and far take part in the Super Haka!

THE DREADED INJURY

2011-05-17T16:46:00.001-07:00

A topic that almost all athletes can relate too.
In injury strikes, there is no quick fix, or short cut to recovery. Simple as that. Each injury needs to be seen by a professional and treated appropriately. Doing so will result in the best way to recovery.
There now I have got that off my chest, time to talk about what I want to talk about.
Knowing the above is important. Being told to rest when rest is needed is tough for those where exercise and pushing our body to the limits is as much a part of us as the blood flowing through our veins. This drive in the sporting arena is what is needed to be the best, but it is also what causes us to make poor choices when an injury is involved.
If you are reading this blog, then the message I am trying to get across to you is to beware of that tunnel vision drive towards your goal.
How many times do you see athletes overtraining, running despite being told not to, pushing beyond professional advice. We have all done, I have done it. Do we think we are smarter than the sports doctor/physio telling us we can’t run for 2 weeks, no, but it’s our drive that leads us to ignore the advice and ask too much of our body.
You may have gotten away with doing so once, maybe twice, but your are walking a fine line, are you seriously willing to risk your dreams over a poor choice when it came to listening to advice from a professional.
We all wish we were bullet proof, at times we think we are, but we are not. Realising this can be tough, but once we accept that to achieve our goals we need to look after our body (physically and mentally!)
Yes it’s a setback having to take a month or more off running, maybe miss your next race. But in the long scheme of things I would rather do that, get my injury fully recovered so I can push to the limits again and reach my goal. The other option is, train through the injury, do things that you have been advised not to. Why not race the race despite the pain. Firstly you will never achieve what you want to achieve this way, and at some point the injury will catch up with you, and by this time you have turned a 1 month recovery process into a yearlong process or even ruined your chance for good.
I know what you are thinking, I have heard this all before. You should have, but I’m telling you again. We are a mentally tough and driven breed us sporting athletes so to think clearly when it comes to injury we need to have this idea drilled into our brain, so when that decision comes to know when to stop and listen to the advice, we take it!

I feel like I’m almost telling you off whilst writing this blog if you are someone that can relate to this scenario, and I believe almost all of us can. I don’t wish to do so, but I am passionate about this topic and its importance, and I hate to dreams lost, goals never reached, bodies broken down to a fragment of what they could have been all due a poor decision with regards to injuries.

Yes it is easier said than done. On a personal note, I myself have an Achilles injury, and many of us no how serious these can be. I have just had a month off no running, and it has been hard to deal with. But I am aware of the importance in proper recovery, and at the same time am aware that proper treatment will mean I can reach my goal of becoming the Ironman World Champion in the future. There is still a longer road to recovery for my Achilles, but I will get though it and have it back to 100% in no time. I am also lucky to still be able to swim and bike so ill be working hard in those areas.

Good luck, train smart, recover when needed, and make smart choices.

Terenzo

2011-04-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

2011-04-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, So this weekend was my first Half Ironman / 70.3 of the season, it also doubled up as the US national 70.3 championships, my first win of the 2010 season. I was hoping for a similar result this year but was a little unsure as to where my form would be leading into the race as this year the race had been brought 2 weeks earlier. The race this year was set to be another tough race, with most of the top athlets being present and the Americans who would be looking for a National title bringing their A game’s. Recovery this week after the Kemah Tri has been good. I have been in for a few massages, and Kelly has been making sure I am well looked after with food, washing, recovery and even cleaning my bike for me, so there are no excuses on my side! The race kicked off at 7am on Sunday morning in the 72’F water and due to the new WTC wetsuit rule we were swimming in our wetsuits for the 1900m swim, (our new cut off temperature for non wetsuit swims has moved from 70’F to 76’F – not looking forward to racing in 75.5 degree water with a wetsuit on… a bit hot!). With over 50 guys on the start line there was a bit of pushing and pulling that first 500m, soon things settled down, but the pace still seemed to be hot. I got out of the water in just under 23minutes and in contention with the leaders. John Flanagan was way out in front, but the main guys like Marko Albert, Rasmus Henning and Timothy Odonnell were right there. So it was off onto the 90km Bike, this was going to be fun. Today the course was out and back, along the coast besides the gulf of Mexico, dead flat but thanks to the 20mile per hour cross winds it made for a challenging bike. Soon the field started to split and our group got smaller, Chris Lieto caught up and road through us like he was on a normal Sunday bike, he would go on to gain a 3minute lead off the bike which would be enough for him to hold on for the win. The legs felt okay out there and we were hanging in. Michael Lovato and fellow Biestmilch athlete Ronnie Schildknecht caught up and the pace home was impressive, if I may say so myself. Come to think about it, maybe a bit too impressive cause my legs started to suffer big time early in the run. Off the bike we were 3 minutes down on Lieto, similar position to last year. I knew what I had to run and I knew I could afford to have patience in the early stages. Out of transition in 3rd place with Rasmus Henning hot on my heals. Soon I bridged up into 2nd. The body was starting to struggle, but I was hoping the rhythm would sink in and I would be able to hold pace for the 21km run. Lap 1 of 4 was good, lap 2 was okay then it started to hit me, Henning caught and passed and I had nothing to react with, Lap 3 was painful and lap 4 I lost hope of holding on for the podium when Odonnell passed me like I was running backwards. I ended up crossing the finish line in 4th Place behind 3 awesome athletes so all in all an okay day at the office. I would have loved more but I am happy with where things are at for 5 weeks out from IM New Zealand. It has been a good week hanging out with the Biestmilch crew here in Galveston, the European boys like Ronnie and Sebastian Kienle have showed me there is room for improvement on the bike, might have to go up there later in the year and ride in the Alps with them! Off to New Orleans tomorrow to get ready for the another half ironman next weekend, also my brother Dino is making the trip across so looking forward to seeing him. Catch up next week Regards Terenzo Photos thanks to Paul Phillips - paul@competitiveimage.us

2011-04-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Kemah Triathlon

2011-04-05T10:23:00.002-07:00

Hi Guys,

I have just had my first American race of the season, the Kemah International / Olympic distance triathlon in Kemah, Texas. What a cool race to be a part of. I wasn’t too sure where my body would be at after New Zealand Ironman a month ago so this was going to be a good test going into the US season.

Race morning was a struggle to get out of bed but once I got up and going the body felt ready. The format for the race was going to be – get on a boat, get taken out to sea, jump off the boat, swim 1500m / 0.9 mile back to shore, bike 40km / 25miles and run 10km / 6.2miles… what an adventure!

The swim kicked off just after 7am and we were off into the choppy water. I was ready for a good swim but lost the feet I was looking for and slowly drifted off the pace of the top 3. Out of the water I was 30sec down on Andrew Yoder, 21 years old who went on the win the race. Chris Lieto who I thought was going to be one of the main contenders was about 30secs down on me. Yoder and Leito are two of the strongest cyclists in the sport, I was ready to push the bike and that is what I did, but still I lost another minute to Yoder but held even with Leito.

Off onto the run I was sure the kids legs would give way, but I didn’t account for my legs giving way as well. Did I push too hard on the bike… I think so! I tried to get into my rhythm and slowly bridge the gap but it wasn’t working. Yoder was showing the hard work he had put in during the off season and was holding even and Lieto wasn’t far behind. Slowly we worked through the run, the gaps stayed pretty even and I settled for 2^nd.

In the womans race: Angela Naeth 1^st, Becky Lavelle 2^nd and Samantha Warriner 3^rd

All in all Kemah was a cool little town and Kelly and I had a great time. We are now down in Galveston getting ready for the 70.3 (Half Ironman) National Champs this weekend where I am going in as defending champion.

Technique

2011-03-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

Every athlete training and competing in an endurance sport such as Ironman, or any sport for that matter will learn quickly the importance of hard work and determination. Getting up in the early hours of the morning, battling through bad weather, keeping going when it starts to hurt. Doing this is essential to reaping the rewards. But what is something that many neglect? Do you know someone that appears to train just as much as a pro athlete, put in huge hours and miles, practically sacrificing anything else in their life, and yet still finish mid pack next to someone who does less training, has a life and realises he is not a pro.

For me, I see this a lot. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with training hard, and yes you will have to give up certain things to get to the top, but there is more than just training hard to achieve in your sport.

There is another aspect that many people say they know about, understand, and work on, but do they really? I am talking about technique.

Lets get more specific. In Ironman, you have the swim, bike and run. Each of which is sport in itself. If you can master the technique of these different sports, so that you swim like a swimmer, ride like a cyclist, and run like a runner, and put it together, then surely your room to improve with hard work is greater. You become more efficient, and faster.

Now I’m not going to use this blog as chance to teach you technique. That is up to you finding a coach who actually understands proper technique and uses it as the foundation to their coaching. What I am going to talk about is how I am working on this, which hopefully can help dispel the notion that us pros just work really hard by slogging it out, which we do, but we do so on a foundation of improving technique.

There is always room to improve in your technique, and I have really seen how much I have to go after working with Greg Pain at Biosport here in Auckland, New Zealand. I have been working on improving my core strength and how it aids my body position in the cycle and run legs. Now you might think everybody knows the importance of core strength. This might be true, but does everybody actually walk the walk when it comes time to improve it?? Its not just core strength that is helping me to become a better athlete, but how it helps me align my body and activate the correct muscle groups for optimal performance.

Many athletes neglect this stage as when they discover where the improvements can be made, the initial phase might feel like one step back and hence they don’t go for it. I like to look at the big picture and look towards the future in order to take many steps forward.

So currently I am starting to feel very strong across the 3 disciplines, my technique is improving with constant work, and I continue to work hard to growing stronger, fitter and faster. What is really exciting is in doing this everyday I’m discovering more room for improvement across the board, giving me an exciting prospects for the future which will hopefully lead me to winning in Kona and becoming the World Ironman Champion.

Terenzo Bozzone

March Update

2011-03-26T01:37:00.001-07:00

So the Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Ironman New Zealand was 3 weeks ago in Taupo. For those of you who did not hear about the event it was one cold, wet and rainy day.
Preperation leading into the event had gone great, I thought my body was in shape for a break through Ironman performance and of course, third time lucky. But it was not to be my year.
Here is a quick recap of my day, for a more detailed version check out the latest couple videos below. Alternatively you can sign up to my you tube channel www.youtube.com/user/terenzobozzone or become a fan on twitter or facebook – www.twitter.com/terenzo1 or www.facebook.com/terenzobozzone
The rain did not let up all day, from arriving at the transition area at 5:30am to back down at the finish line close to midnight, it was a day for the record books. The gun went off at 6:45 for the professionals and we were off on the 3.8km swim in Lake Taupo. I had a good start and managed to get into a solid rhythm. Unfortunately I lost the big gun Brent Fosters feet at the 400meter mark, but we managed to form a small group of three of us that worked well to only lose 1 minute to the swimming machine we refer to as Fossy. Of course the big name for the event was Cameron Brown who was going for his 10^th Ironman New Zealand title, coming out of the water I had a good 3 minute lead on him.
This was not too last long, Matthais Hecht and I knew we had to pace ourselves but also wanted to keep moving forward through the 180km bike ride. I thought we were riding well and at minimum holding even with Brownie but to our surprise when we hit the first turn around at 45km he and a group of 3 had already made up the 3 minute deficit. Oh well, I backed myself for the run so I just tried to relax and get through the bike. Slowly the body was starting to fail on me, and by 130km Brownie showed his class by riding away from us what looked like effortlessly. Now I couldn’t wait to get out of the rain, I was chilled to the bone and was not enjoying riding through the pouring rain, I guess I should have toughened up on those rainy training days!!
Soon the end of the bike came around and I was off onto the marathon run in 4^th position with 5^th not far back. Running out of trainsition and seeing the thousands of spectators and volunteers standing and cheering in the rain was amazing and gave me encouragement to hang tough and get through the race. I slowly clawed my way up into second and that was going to be as good as it got… this time around.
Sam Warriner took out the womans race with Mirinda Carfrae and Jo Lawn taking 2^nd and 3^rd.
I had a nice 2 weeks off before getting back into training and trying to find a little speed to sharpen up for the Half Ironman season ahead. First stop is the Kemah Olympic distance race in Galveston Texas followed by the 70.3 (half Ironman) US Championships also in Galveston which I am going into as defending champion, then on the 3^rd weekend the New Orleans 70.3.
I am pleased to announce Clif Bar, a sports nutrition company based in northern California to the team. I have used and believed in their product for the past couple years and it is great to have formed this partnership. I am looking forward to being a part of Team Clif Bar.
Kelly and I are both looking forward to getting on the road again as the weather here in NZ is starting to turn and winter is well on its way.
Will keep you up to date as the races progress

2011-03-12T14:04:00.001-08:00

2011-03-12T14:02:00.001-08:00

2011-02-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

The Science of Triathlon - Gizmos and Gadgets

2011-01-24T23:42:00.000-08:00

So the New Year is upon us, and 2011 looks set to be another big year. Going into this year I believe now is a good time to talk about the ‘gadgets’ I use every day in training and racing.

With all the technology out there and the advancements in coaching and monitoring ones performance, the game has and still is changing. It’s gone from having the speed and cadence on your bike to being able to completely understand ones power on the bike and be able to graph all of this and see it at a click. With this evolution in triathlon and sport in general to be the world’s best it is important to know you a doing the best things for your performance, and in many cases, new technology is helping us to achieve this.

It is also easy to go too far and rely totally on all this technology. It is easy to forget the basics, like how your body is feeling, which is an amazing computer itself and can still tell you the most about your performance. Thus I make sure I choose my equipment carefully and at the end of the do what my body tells me.

Heart rate monitoring has been around for a while now, and widely used. Most sessions be it on my bike or whilst I’m out running I wear a Heart Rate strap to follow where I’m at and to check I’m training in the right zones. My watch also has a stride sensor that I have on my shoe, which can give you running speeds, and cadence, which I have found extremely beneficial information to have while training for the longer distance races. With many races throughout the sport of triathlon coming down to the run, being able to understand what you are doing on the run in training, and where you can improve will result in a better understanding and performance on race day.

More recently, power meters have become a big thing on the cycling stage. I use an SRM on my bike, and train the majority of the time now via my power gauge. As an Ironman athlete, pacing is extremely important and finding the highest possible wattage I can supply on the bike for the 180km in a race is valuable information to achieve an optimal pace. With adrenaline pumping through your body at different stages in a race I find it more reliable to monitor my Power output rather than my Heart Rate at times.

Having these ‘gadgets’ are great, but if you don’t understand what they are for or how they work then they would be pointless to you. They are an investment into your training, so invest time into learning how to get the best out of them. All the above products come with easy to use programmes that are run on your computer and are easy to use to evaluate your training. I find it really useful to compare similar workouts Power, Heart Rates, Cadences and Speeds throughout a training block or even between different training blocks. This gives me a gauge on where my fitness and performance is so I can make sure I am constantly and consistently improving.

Good equipment simply said, is crucial to performance in the sport of triathlon. It can also aid in injury prevention, helping you to understand how your body is feeling and adapting to your training. However as I mentioned earlier do not forget the best computer you have, your body. It can tell you so much if you are willing to listen to it, treat these exciting new products that are revolutionizing the sport as an aspect of your training.

Nothing beats hard work, and goals too strive for.

Happy training,

Terenzo

2011-01-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

2011-01-08T19:44:00.001-08:00

2011-01-06T14:10:00.001-08:00

Biestmilch - welcome on board

2010-12-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

I am really pleased to have formed a relationship with Biestmilch. They make a great product and have an amazing team. Looking forward to a long and prosperous partnership going forward

Taupo Half Ironman

2010-12-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

Pretty tough day at the office today. Young gun Matt Burgess pushed me all the way to the finish. Nice to end 2010 with a Win.

Pre Taupo Half

2010-12-09T23:20:00.000-08:00

Ironman World Championships - Kona

2010-10-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

After a tough day at the office and finishing in 20th position i want even more to come back to the island and redeem myself. Macca had a smart yet aggressive race to come out with the Win with Andreas Realert taking 2nd. A few weeks of R & R before getting ready to do it all again next year.

2010-10-08T21:13:00.001-07:00

2010-10-08T00:21:00.001-07:00

My Ironman World Champs Felt Machine!!

2010-10-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

2010-09-28T00:34:00.001-07:00

2010-09-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

2010-08-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

Mabuhay Everyone,

I arrived in the Philippines on Wednesday afternoon for the Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines. Once we touched down we were then whisked away to the National Championship Basketball Final in Manila that evening. Had a great time and the atmosphere was amazing. To top off the night Fred’s team the Alaska Aces took home the Championship!!
Next day we flew down to Cam Sur where the race will be. Dancers, music and paparazzi everywhere on the tarmac, what a way to be welcomed. It was like we were all rock stars!!
I have had a great few days here in Cam Sur trying to acclimatise and soak up the atmosphere of this awesome event. The hospitality here is just incredible and the venue is fantastic, they definitely know how to put on a world class event.
Looking forward to race day tomorrow.....but not so keen on the heat and humidity which will be a huge factor.
Check out the race at www.ironman.com or you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/terenzo1.
Race commences at 6.30am local time.
See you all online!!

Paalam
Terenzo

Triathlon LAB

2010-07-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

Triathlon LAB Sponsors Terenzo Bozzone
by TriEurope

Los Angeles-based triathlon retail store, Triathlon LAB, Inc. is proud to announce its sponsorship of professional triathlete, Terenzo Bozzone.
Of the relationship, Bozzone says, “It is great to be a part of the Triathlon Lab crew. I know that performing at the top of my game requires everything to run smoothly from my body to my bike. I know I can trust the staff at Triathlon Lab to always make sure my bike is operating at the top of its game. All I need to do now is make sure my body is functioning at the same level. I look forward to a long relationship with the team and know we will be able to help each other grow.”
The 25 year old athlete from Auckland, New Zealand already has dozens of 1st place elite and professional finishes highlighting his career. His race record boasts four-first place finishes and four-second place finishes in the 2010 season. One of the first place finishes was earned this past Sunday, July 11, at the Providence, Rhode Island 70.3.
Terenzo has most major 70.3 titles under his belt, including a record setting 2008 World Championship Clearwater win. In 2009, Bozzone began challenging the full Ironman distance, debuting with a second place finish at Ironman New Zealand.
“We are very excited to have Terenzo join us here in Los Angeles,” says founder and CEO of Triathlon LAB, Lloyd Taylor, “Terenzo has a lot of talent and a bright future in the sport. We are looking forward to being a part of his continued racing success.”
Bozzone joins a team of other Triathlon LAB winning athletes, whose professional roster includes Chris “Macca” McCormack, Chris Foster, Jenny Fletcher, Jim Lubinski, and others.

Rhode Island 70.3

2010-07-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

Finally I have made it back home to New Zealand after an event filled few months on the road. The last race of the series for me was in Providence, Rhode Island on the weekend. This was going to be my 9^th race of the season and 8^th race on this trip. My journey over to the East Coast from LA had a rough start with me missing my flight by a few minutes. To add to this frustration I had one too many coffees that morning and had started to get the jitters while checking in. I managed to arrange to get on a 6am flight the next day so it was off to Santa Monica to hang out with Macca and Derrick. I managed to balance the $150 airline charge out with a one night refund on my hotel.

I arrived in Providence late Thursday afternoon to be greeted by Vinu Malik, owner of Fuelbelt, one of my sponsors. The next couple days rolled around fairly quickly and I soon realized that there were a few more top competitors racing than I had expected. I was going to have to have another great day if I wanted to come out on top.

Race morning was here and after 3hours sleep I was up at 3am to get ready for a 6am kick off. Also the start was an hour drive away from the finish. Thankfully Vinu was up nice and early to drop me off. So we cruised down in him Benz and cranked “The White Panda”

The Start of the swim was fast and soon we all realized that we couldn’t hold onto Kiwi, Graham O’Grady’s feet. He ended up putting a good 90seconds on us heading onto the bike. He also biked strong on the hilly course and held us off until the last section, that is most of us except Paul Ambrose who was starting to put time into us like we were kids riding BMX’s. Off the bike we were a group of five with a 3.5 minute deficit on Ambrose.

Richie and I quickly opened a little gap and were trotting along at a comfortable pace. The time to Ambrose was slowly coming down, but it was hard to calculate if we were going to have enough runway to bring him back. With Richie and I not looking around too much we were soon caught by another Aussie Tim Berkel. Berkel was running strong and putting the pressure on. Soon Richie had dropped off the new pace and I was only just hanging on. Onto the second lap we had made up 2 minutes so all going well we should catch Ambrose with a couple miles to go. I decided to make a move on the steepest hill on the course to test Berkel’s legs. He hung strong for most of the way but I managed to open a little gap that I worked hard to get bigger. Soon Ambrose was in my sights and instead of him giving up when I passed he ran with me for a mile or so and was probably puffing less than me.

All that kept me going that last half of the run was the thought of a good rest once I crossed that finish line. The fans were great and kept my spirits high and legs light those finishing stretches. I was relieved to get this win under my belt and one race closer to evening out my firsts and seconds for the season – 4 wins, 5 seconds and counting.

Tim Berkel came in second, Paul Ambrose third, Richie Cunningham fourth and Maxim Karit fifth.In the womans race we Kate Major ran into the win, Catlin Snow took second and fellow Kiwi Sam Warriner who lead the race most of the day struggled the closing miles and finished third.

Just in case I was not punished enough I had to go back and pack up my hotel before noon, get back for prize giving, rush to the airport to fight with the check in guy who has possibly stolen my bike case, fly to Orange County, arrive at midnight, wake at 6am, meet with Felt, shoot Oakley 2011 campaign all day with Walter Iooss, drive to Triathlon lab to pick up bags, drive to airport, sort out missing bag and fly to NZ in not the greatest seat. Glad to be home!

It has been a great season so far, thanks to everyone who has made it possible. I am now home for the next few weeks for a bit of R & R before getting ready for the big one in Kona in October.

I would also like to welcome California based Tri shop Triathlon Lab to the team. They are a great company and are helping to take this sport to the next level. It will be great to have a team of highly experienced mechanics helping me out whenever I need. I am looking forward to a great relationship with you guys.

By the way, New Zealand is cold and Kelly is working in Bali…

Thanks

Buffalo Springs 70.3

2010-07-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Race Number 8 done and dusted over the weekend at the Buffalo Springs 70.3, in Lubbock, Texas. After a long and uncomfortable trip from LA to Texas, we finally arrived and greeted by Randy our homestay and the heat of the Texan summer.

Weather forecast for race day was crazy and the temperatures were meant to soar which could be a huge factor during the race.

Race morning came round fast and we were up at 3.30am, it felt like I hadn't even slept!!

6.30am and we were off on the 1.2 mile swim. Had a great start and settled into a good rhythm early on. After a 21.33 minute swim we were out and onto the bike. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get much of a gap on the rest of the pro field so 6 of us headed out onto the 56 mile bike. Managed to jump on the back of the Lieto and TJ Tollakson's crazy fast express train for the first half of the bike.......whoever told me to cycle with Chris Lieto is nuts.....

After pushing my body for 40mins to try and stay with them I was totally stuffed and fell off the pace......now it was survival mode for me, trying not to waste too much energy for the 2nd half of the bike to ensure I had something left in the tank for the run.

Finally arrived into transition and with the famous Bozzone transition I was out onto the 13.1 mile run 4.30mins down on Lieto. Didn't feel great for the first 2 miles of the run and the temperatures were starting to climb, but I kept digging deep trying to find that extra gear. Seeing Lieto walking on the other side of the lake definitely gave me the extra gear.....thanks Chris!!!

For the next 4 miles I just put my head down and ran as fast as I could to try and catch him. By the turn around point I had run 2.30 minutes into Lieto (race leader), but he was still nowhere in sight. I tried to pick it up but I didn't seem to be gaining on the way home.

Finished 2nd 1.30mins down on Chris Lieto, with Ben Hoffman rounding out the podium. Congratulation to Chris for a great race!!

Thank you to our awesome homestay in Lubbock, Randy and Shari Holloway. We had a great time and hopefully we will be back next year!!

Back in LA for the next week, before I head over to Rhode Island 70.3 on the East Coast for my last race in the USA before I return home to NZ for a short visit. Looking forward to the break and catching up with everyone back home.

Eagleman 70.3

2010-06-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

I just got back to LA after a good 2 weeks on the road. Firstly last
weekend where I finished 2nd to Ironman World Champion Craig Alexander, then
this past weekend where I managed to back it up and win the Eagleman 70.3, a
race I won last year.

This year the conditions were tough with wind blowing in all directions and
the temperatures reaching about 35'C/ 100'F, not to mention the tough
competition.

David Kahn lead the swim from start to finish and managed to hold that lead
for a good portion of the bike, that is until young uber biker Andrew Yoder
swallowed him up. Behind them I was with a good group which included James
Cotter, Richie Cunningham, Tim Marr & Philip Graves. We all seemed to be
struggling and the gap the Yoder grew to almost 6 minutes before we decided
we needed to dig deep to gain a bit back. Cotter and Graves road strong.

We were off the bikes with a 4 minute deficit on Yoder and I guess we were
all questioning our ability to run him down. All I could do was find my
rhythm which I struggled to find and let the rest take care of itself.
Slowly we were making time but with the sun blasting down anything could
happen. Cotter was only seconds behind me. I have done some training with
him in the past and knew he was going to be dangerous.

It wasn't until about mile 8 where I caught Yoder, but things were getting
ugly out there. Every stride was a struggle and I am not proud to admit I
spent more time looking over my shoulder than I did looking in front of me.
Counting down the miles to the finish and it wasn't until the final stretch
where I knew I had the race.

By the time I got to the line I didn't have enough energy to grab the
banner, all I could do was get my hands about head high and try to smile.

Cotter also managed to run down Yoder in the closing stages of the race.

Fellow Kiwi Samantha Warriner took out the girls over Sam McGlone and
Michellie Jones rounded off the woman's podium.

Chilling out for a couple days before trying to find a little extra form for
my next race, Buffalo Springs 70.3 in 2 weeks in Texas.

REV 3 HALF IRONMAN

2010-06-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a race!!! My legs are screaming at me big time!!

Today I raced the Revolution 3 half here in Quassy, Connecticut. The scenery is so beautiful here with stunning lakes and rolling green hills, reminds me a lot of home.
The pro field here was unbelievable with the best of the best on the start line, including Craig Alexander, Matt Reed, Ritchie Cunningham and Joe Gambles to name a few.

The gun went off at 6.50am………tick tick boom, we were now off on the 1.2 mile swim around Lake Quassapaug. Got into a great rhythm early on in the swim and managed to get onto the feet of Matty Reed. He is an amazing swimmer and I knew if I stayed close to him I would come out of the swim in a great position.

Came out of the water with Matt and most of the other main competitors and out on to the incredibly challenging and tough 56 mile/90 km 1 loop bike course. This was the hilliest bike course I have ever raced on and it was a matter of pacing myself and not losing the front bunch so that I still had a little left in the tank for the run. For most of the bike 6 athletes stayed together while Bjorn Andersson flew right past us early on in the bike like we were standing still. Joe Gambles then came through the pack and managed to get a 1 minute gap on us.

Arrived in transition with Craig and Matt, 2.30 minutes down on Bjorn and 1 minute down on Joe Gambles. Matt set the pace early on in the run and he was flying, if I wanted to have a chance at taking the title I had to stay with him. By mile 4 on the run we had dropped Craig Alexander and had about a 1 min gap back to him. Matt and I now thought it was game on between just the 2 of us so we slowed down slightly and found a more comfortable pace. Feeling really comfortable now and running side by side with Matt half way through the run, I now had to make sure I paced myself well so that I still had something left in the tank to get to the finish line first. Looking back over my shoulder at around mile 9 Craig was in my sight again and catching really fast…..bugger, I thought he was down and out. I now had to put the hammer down as Craig was flying toward us. With only 4 miles to go I managed to drop Matt Reed and have a slight gap on Craig Alexander. By mile 10, Craig had caught me and we were running side by side. I managed to stay with him for another mile but he eventually dropped me and unfortunately I had nothing left in the tank to go with him. With Craig now running away from me I knew I had to keep pushing to get to the finish line if I wanted to finish on the podium. Finally made it to the finish line in 2nd, 1 minute behind Craig Alexander and with Matty Reed 2 minutes back from me in 3rd to round out the podium.

All in all this race was unbelievable and really happy with the 2nd place result. With the stellar line up of Pros, grueling race course, incredible venue and professionally run event by Todd and Heather Gollnick and her Revolution 3 team, I will definitely be back here again next year.

Next stop is Cambridge, Maryland for the Eagleman 70.3 on the 13 June.

Regards
Terenzo

Rev 3 Olympic Distance

2010-05-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

4 races in 22days….some would say that is crazy but I was feeling good and wanted to go for the hat trick and a chance at the $115,000 prize purse to win all 3 REV 3 races….unfortunately today wasn’t that day, but I would have kicked myself if I didn’t give it a go.

So the last stop of this 22 day schedule was Knoxville, Tennessee at the Rev 3 Olympic Distance Triathlon. Last minute decision to race today but was feeling great and thought I had another 1 in me. The weather here was amazingly warm all week but then race day came around and it was frreeezzzing!!

The horn went off at 7.45am and we were off. The water was so cold which made it hard for me to get going. Out of the water in 8^th place which wasn’t the start I was hoping for but knew I still had the bike and run to go. With a quick transition I was out onto the bike. I was feeling really strong and comfortable at this stage. Spinning well and getting into a good rhythm for the challenging 40km bike. But unfortunately half way through bike course I was controversially penalized with a 1 minute stand down. So off the bike on the side of the road for 1 minute which feels like forever with all of the other athletes passing by which can be soul destroying and race ruining but I wasn’t going to let it get to me and kept striving for the perfect race which very nearly happened. Passing Chris Lieto into 2^nd with 150m to go. It would have been an exciting race for the spectators without the 1 minute penalty as I was 45 seconds down on Matt Reed at the finish line.

Congratulations to Matt Reed and Chris Lieto rounding out the top 3 and Bjorn Anderson who finished 4^th and came past me on the bike like I was standing still!!

All in all I had a great time here in Knoxville and Rev 3 put on an amazing race and I look forward to the next race of theirs in Quassy, Connecticut on 6^th June.

Wow, what an amazing time I have had racing over the last month. I’m stoked with the 2^nd, 1^st, 1^st, 2^ndresults. I have learnt a lot and hopefully next time there will be a whole lot fewer 2nds in the mix.

Regards

Terenzo

St. Croix 70.3

2010-05-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Just finished my third half ironman in 15days with a bang here in St. Croix. Managed to just hold on for the win over Tim O’Donnell who was also second last week in Texas.

It was a tough day. The competition was world class, the course was hilly and the heat was unbearable!

We kicked off at 630 this morning which meant my alarm went off at 3:45am. I did hit snooze several times. The swim was fast but the core group of guys, which included Craig Alexander Ironman World Champion 2009, Richie Cunningham, Tim O’Donnell and Tyler Butterfield stuck together. That all changed pretty early in the bike section when the Frenchman Romaine Guillaune pushed the pace big time. Fortunately Tim and I managed to keep up and split the group. The three of us stayed away for the duration of the 56mile/ 90km bike and stretched our lead to about 2 minutes over the chase group.

Heading off onto the run my legs were dead. Tim quickly open up a 20second lead in the first couple miles. Finally my legs started to free up and I could find a good Rhythm. At mile 4 I caught up and got myself a little lead that I held onto until mile 7 where Tim caught back up. We then ran together until mile 12 of the 13mile/ 21km run where I made my move and managed to hold on to the finish.

Tim is a class act and a great sportsman – thanks for keeping it real out there buddy.

Tyler Butterfield ran through the field to finish 3rd closely followed by Richie Cunningham and Fraser Cartmell, who lead out of the water.

The woman’s race was won by Catriona Morrison, second place was fellow Kiwi Sam Warriner.

St. Croix has been an amazing experience thanks to my great homestay Dave and Jane Kendrick. They own a amazing restaurant “Kendricks” so I ate in style every night. Think Dave’s special Pasta last night topped off my Carbo loading.

Planning on taking a couple weeks easy now before getting ready for some more races in June.

Will keep in touch,
Thanks for the support
Terenzo

Texas 70.3 USA Championships,

2010-04-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Check out the Memorial Hermann 70.3 race update on the below video thanks to Xtri. It was a tough day at the office but the legs seem to have taken a step up from last weeks race in New Orleans. Another top field here this week including Andy Potts, Chris Lieto & Tim O'Donnell to name a few. Sam McGlone took out the womans race.

Next Stop St. Croix in the US virgin Islands where another top field awaits.

If you are interested in seeing more of what i am up to on the road along with real time race updates you can follow my twitter by clicking this link http://twitter.com/terenzo1

Here is a link to the Galveston County Newspaper where there a are a couple pictures http://www.galvnews.com/

Enjoy

T

New Orleans 70.3

2010-04-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

New Orleans 70.3

2010-04-19T01:02:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

Yesterday was the first 70.3 (Half Ironman) of the season for me here in New Orleans. It was my first time visiting the big Easy and I will leave with nothing but good memories of the City.

I arrived on Wednesday evening after a long trip from New Zealand, actually it was more like Thursday morning, but who’s counting days. I managed to get a few good nights sleep thanks to my friends Imovan and Melatonin, but I still struggled to get out of bed at 4am on race morning. Luckily I set 3 alarms!

The pro field was world class and included Chris “Macca” McCormack, Andy Potts, Paul Amey & Dirk Bockel just to name a few. I arrived in Transition at 6 to find out my new Lazer helmet, that came in from Europe didn’t have the correct US safety sticker and I wasn’t allowed to use it. Thankfully Will, a kind age grouper gave up his aero helmet for me.

We kicked off the swim in the rough conditions with fellow New Zealander Graeme O’Gradey pushing the pace in the chase pack behind the leader, Potts. Sighting the buoys was pretty tough but we managed to navigate through the 1900m swim losing 1minute 30seconds. This was not a good deficit to have on Potts but I wasn’t going to wreck my race by chasing him the first half of the bike. I tried to ride steady and strong for the first 45km/ 28miles then decided it was time to work on catching up as there no way of challenging for the victory from so far back.

I timed my chase perfectly and caught Potts within the last mile. This was going to make for an interesting race. I sped through transition gaining a small lead while he was putting his socks on… I think he has delicate feet (shhhhh, don’t tell him I said that though). My lead was quickly eaten up and he came past me like a man possessed. I felt pretty good, the legs were turning over well but I just couldn’t change gears to go with him. I was stuck in my own rhythm with no deeper to dig.

The 21km/ 13mile from Lake Ponchatrain to downtown New Orleans went by reasonably quick and soon I was running through the French Quarter in second place. It had been a good day and although 1^st place would have topped off my experience of New Orleans I was contempt to settle for second… this time around. Potts is a class athlete and I just wish he wouldn’t have made the victory look that easy.

Paul Amey rounded off this top 3, and fellow Kiwi, Sam Warriner took out the girls race.

A quick thanks to a local kid – Sam Leblanc who helped me out all week with food, training and transport. Would have struggled without his local knowledge.

Next stop, Galveston, Texas for the US national 70.3 championships next weekend.

Regards

The new Weapon

2010-04-09T02:31:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here is the first preview of the bike for the season. If you thought Black
Beauty was cool you will love her opposite

I have been back into training the past couple weeks and the form has come
up quickly which is good as I have to be ready to race next weekend in New
Orleans.

We moved out of our apartment this week which was mayhem and things still
haven't settled down. Looking forward to getting on the plane... hope my
upgrade comes through.

Regards
Terenzo

www.swimchallenge.org

2010-03-08T19:24:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Make sure to count your laps… no cheating

Good on ya…

IM New Zealand - 2nd!!

2010-03-07T12:32:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

So another 2nd at Ironman New Zealand to kick off the year. Not what I came
out here to achieve but all in all it was an okay result.

We kicked off at 6:45 on Saturday morning, the lake was calm and the wind
was down. I knew all I had to do was sit on Kieran Doe's feet and we would
have a good swim. This was easier said than done! With John Key firing the
cannon 'BOOM' and we were off and we quickly got a gap on the field, the
only problem was that I was giving it far too much effort to sit behind him
in his wake, so much that I think I strained my abdominals half way through.
I had to sit up and take a few deep breaths, the pain was agonising, I
thought my race was over. I slowed down and pulled through the water more
gently, the gap to Doe boy in front was getting bigger and the gap to Cam
Brown behind was being eaten up quickly. I couldn't wait for the end of the
swim to start using some different muscles. The end soon came and the
deficit behind Doe was only 1 minute. I pushed through Transition and to
keep every second I had over Brownie because I knew I was going to need it
as the day went on.

Jumping on the bike I felt great, I quickly caught up with Doe. well, I
actually think he was waiting for me. Soon I was on my own out the front,
riding way too quickly, something I was going to pay for later in the day.
My watts and heart rate were not too high but it just shows in an Ironman
that even a small percentage wrong in the effort levels and you will
struggle. Soon I was up to 4 minutes over Brown, then it went to 5, then 6,
then 7 minutes. After 1 lap I was back in town and had an 8 minute lead
over Cam Brown, Kieran Doe and James Bowstead (up and coming 23 year old who
suffered similar problems to me during the race but he will be a great
athlete in the years to come). Now the wind had started to pick up and the
glycogen in the legs was running out. My muscles were fatiguing quickly and
this is when I realized that I had timed everything wrong. I set out to try
and get 8minutes over Cam going into the run. I didn't need this time at
90km. I managed to hold on to 7 minutes of this by the 140km mark but once
we turned into the head wind for the final stretch home every pedal stroke
was an effort. The gap quickly came down and soon we were back in town
jumping off our bikes and I only had a minute up my sleeve. BUGGER!!!

I was curious to see how I would run with all the fatigue so I set out to do
what I thought I could. Not going too fast and just sticking to a good
rhythm. Cam showed his class when he came past me at 6km flying, I soon
figured out this was just a ploy to mess with my head as once he got his
lead of 30seconds the gap didn't change for the next 15km. In Ironman the
20km point on the run is when you really start to struggle, you legs are
sore and there is part of you that is unsure if you will even be able to run
the last 20km. Thankfully there were great supporters out there and they
kept my spirits high. Soon I only had 7km's to go. The gap to Cam had grown
considerably but there was also a good gap to Doe in 3rd.

The last 2km's took care of themselves with the crowds cheering so loud that
it didn't even feel like I was running. Then I was home and it was all over,
the pain, the cheering, the relief. I could now sit down and shut down.

A big congratulations to everyone who competed on Saturday, the conditions
were tough but we all persevered through it and a huge THANK YOU to all the
spectators, we couldn't have done it without you.

Cameron Brown and Jo Lawn, you guys rocked and proved that you will own
Taupo for yet another year, it was a privilege to race alongside you both.
Gina Crawford, Kieran Doe and the rest of the Pro's, thanks for helping to
make this race so exciting.

Also thanks to the many people who have helped me out and supported me
through the last few months.

Thanks
Terenzo

Black Beauty

2010-03-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

Less than 1 day until the big race down here in Taupo. Attached is a picture of Felt bicycle for the weekend.

Hope you enjoy the eye candy!

Twenty Ten........

2010-03-01T00:26:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Twenty Ten is well under way. It feels like Christmas was just last week but we are already at the start of March and I am lining up on the weekend for my first Ironman of the year, Ironman New Zealand, down in Taupo.

The start of this year has been hectic. Kelly and I moved into a place for the summer, we went to Melbourne for filming for a K Swiss advert and to watch the start of the Aussie Open which was awesome, quick trip down to Christchurch last weekend for a wedding and of course the change of bike sponsors to American based Felt Bicycles (www.feltbicycles.com). The change is proving to be awesome, Felt is a great company to deal with and the bikes are super fast, super light and freaking sexy, I can’t wait to unleash it this weekend! With the change in bike sponsors I have also managed to round up some of the best equipment manufacturers in the business including: SRAM components (www.sram.com), Prologo Saddles (www.prologotouch.com), Sidi cycling shoes (www.sidisport.com) & Lazer Helmets (www.lazerhelmets.com). I am also pleased to announce that I have formalized a relationship with Fuelbelt (www.fuelbelt.com) whose product I have been using for the past few years. I am honored to welcome you all on board and I am looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship going into the future.

Preparation for Ironman New Zealand has been going well. After a long 6 weeks break at the end of the 2009 season it was a slow start to the build-up. The 8kg’s of excess weight slowly started to come off and the fitness picked up quickly. I think I have timed things perfectly because now 1 week out I am in great form and feeling comfortable in all 3 disciplines. We have had 3 expeditions down to Taupo in the past 2 months to scout the course and practice getting close to what Ironman is going to feel like next weekend.

All in all I am loving the taper and not having to do much in terms of training and getting all the sleep I can. The form is good, the weight is perfect and the equipment is ready to function at 100%.

Thanks to everyone who has been helping me out over the past few months, your company and motivation on those long days has been much appreciated.

You will be able to follow updates during the race this Saturday (Friday in the US) on www.ironman.com and I will try and get some twitter updates happening (http://twitter.com/terenzo1) during the race so you can get a proper sense on how I am feeling.

Here is a link to an article in the Herald on Sunday this past weekend incase you feel like doing more reading - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10628947

Thanks again and will be in touch after the race

Regards

Terenzo

TRIATHLON WORLD CHAMPION TERENZO BOZZONE SIGNS WITH FELT

2010-02-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

New Zealand's talented 2008 70.3 Ironman Champ chooses Felt for 2010 and
beyond

Irvine, CA (January 11, 2010) - Felt Bicycles is pleased to announce the
addition of 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Terenzo Bozzone to its lineup
of talented Olympic and World Champion triathletes. The 24-year-old New
Zealander will ride Felt bikes, including the DA triathlon bike and AR
aerodynamic road bike, in 2010 and beyond.

"After visiting the company and speaking with Jim Felt and the rest of the
crew, I had no doubt Felt was the place I wanted to be," Bozzone said.
"Felt's track record of producing aerodynamically superior bikes is second
to none, and I'm confident I will be on the best possible bikes and well
looked after."

Bozzone already has dozens of major victories to his name, including the
2008 70.3 Half Ironman World Championship title. Born in South Africa and
raised in New Zealand, Bozzone has seen success at every level of multisport
competition. As a junior athlete, fresh out of high school, he won the Men's
Under-20 Duathlon World Championships in 2001 and 2002, and the Under-20
Men's Triathlon world titles in 2002 and 2003.

In the following years Bozzone chalked up elite category wins at nearly
every major half-Ironman. In 2008, he dominated the Ironman 70.3 series,
winning in Kansas, Idaho and California, before taking the 70.3 world title
in Florida.

"Terenzo is a fantastic talent and we couldn't be more pleased he is
choosing Felt Bicycles to help take him to the next level of his career,"
said Felt company namesake Jim Felt. "He's a proven winner, and the sky is
the limit for this young athlete."

Having conquered 70.3 competition, Bozzone is now turning his attention to
full Ironman-distance competition. His transition to the longer format got
off to a solid start last March when he finished second at his first full
Ironman in New Zealand.

Bozzone competed at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships for the first
time last October and despite suffering badly on the run he finished 11th,
showing great promise. "I am really enjoying competing over the full
distance races and I think I have gained a great deal of experience this
past year," Bozzone said.

For 2010, Bozzone plans to continue competing in key 70.3 events, while also
focusing more on the Ironman events. "My main goals are to get an Ironman
title under my belt and win a couple 70.3 races," he said. "And a top-five
in Kona would top off the year for me. Long term, I aim to be the best
triathlete in the world, and the most recognized triathlon is Kona."

Bozzone joins a talented roster of Felt-sponsored triathletes in 2010
including Australian Michellie Jones and American Tim DeBoom-both two-time
Ironman World Champions-as well as current Olympic champions Emma Snowsill
(Australia) and Jan Frodeno (Germany).

BECOME A SUPER HERO

2010-01-25T18:42:00.000-08:00

BUY A T-SHIRT & BECOME A SUPER HERO

Glassons' store doors will be flying open today to reveal the ever fashionable and always anticipated annual Breast Cancer Research Trust T-Shirt Collection.

This year's striking new campaign theme - BECOME A SUPERHERO - supports the premise that if you buy a t-shirt you can be likened to a Super Hero, as money raised from T-Shirt sales helps to save lives from Breast Cancer.

There are 6 unique designs available which have been designed by 6 of New Zealand's top designers. The T-shirts cost only NZ$29.99, you can buy them in store or at http://www.glassons.co.nz/

This is Glassons' 8th year supporting the Breast Cancer Trust, to date, have raised an impressive 4.5 Million for the trust.

Let's all do our part and help support the Breast Cancer Trust achieve its goal of finding a cure by 2018.

Thank you

Terenzo

70.3 Half Ironman World Champs recap

2009-11-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

The last race of the season has come to a close. It was not the day I was
hoping for but I am glad I made the trip out to Clearwater to compete.

The competition this year was amazing and a lot of the pros brought their A
game. The pace of the swim and the bike would have blown up the competition
every other year but for some reason 40 guys managed to hold on for those
disciplines. Which was spectacular as we were riding at 47km/hr (29miles/hr)
for the 90km bike, and this was not because of the drafting, it was a
relatively clean race but the advantage of riding 10meters apart is still an
advantage, but totally legal. It was not until the run where everyone
started to pay, including me... and pay big time I did!

I tried to make a move with 30km to go on the bike but I guess I had a big
target on my back and was not able to sneak away, apologies to the other 3
(Philip Graves, Fraser Cartmel and Andrew starykowwicz) for getting stuck
with me. They were riding strong and I am sure a break would have lasted
under different circumstances.

I was still in contention for a strong top ten finish with 5km to go. The
mind wanted it but the body just wouldn't respond. I suppose Kona was still
a little in my legs and the lack of quality speed work was not ideal given
the speed of the field.

I eventually groveled home because there were no cars in sight to hitch a
ride with and the spectators and volunteers kept my spirits high. My
position at the end of the day, well, it was worse than I thought it was so
let's not talk about it.

Instead we should talk of Michael Raelert of Germany. His older brother
Andreas finished second to me last year at this events and went on to a 3rd
place finish at Ironman World Championships in Kona this year. Michael had a
great race today which he finished off with a 1:09:05 half marathon run that
gave him a finish time of 3hrs 34min, 6 minutes faster than my world record
last year. Congratulation to you both and everyone else who made it to the
finish today.

Oh well, I have packed my bike and sent it off for a courier, so now it is
vacation time for the next 2 weeks.

Thanks to everyone for all the support over the year. For me it has been
exciting 8 months and would not have been possible without all the help and
support from a large number of people. You all know who you are, so thanks
big time.

Until next time,

Terenzo Bozzone, out!

2009 WORLD 70.3 CHAMPIONSHIP PRESS CONFERENCE

2009-11-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

70.3 Half Ironman World Champs

2009-11-13T08:25:00.001-08:00

Hi guys,

So tomorrow is the Half Ironman World champs here in Clearwater Beach, Florida. I am entering the race as defending Champion with the race number 1 on my back.

Recovery after Kona has gone well and I have managed to get a few speed workouts done so my body should be in shape and ready to go when we kick off tomorrow.

We start at 6:45 Eastern Standard Time, which is the middle of the night back in NZ. You can follow the race on www.ironman.com or my twitter at http://twitter.com/terenzo1. I will also get an update posted as soon as I can after the race.

Well, this is the last race of the season for me, so hopefully I can go out with a bang not a bomb!

3news

2009-11-03T17:28:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Check out the latest interview from 3 News. it is a small story leading into the 70.3 Half Ironman World Champs next weekend.

Enjoy

http://www.3news.co.nz/Bozzone-eyes-up-next-ironman-title/tabid/317/articleID/127671/cat/70/Default.aspx

Last Race of the Season

2009-11-03T17:24:00.001-08:00

I am currently back home in beautiful New Zealand. It is great to be home, even if it is for a short time after a busy year on the road, training and racing. I have just finished racing the Ironman World Championships 3 weeks ago in Kona, Hawaii. It is the pinnacle event on the triathlon calendar and was my debut on the island. The conditions out there are like nowhere you would have every experienced. The winds can blow you off your bike and the temperatures hit the mid 40’s with 80% humidity, let’s not forget the sharks!

I had spent the 7 weeks leading up to the event training on the island with the 2007 World Champion Chris “Macca” McCormack. His knowledge was invaluable and we had a great time drilling each other into the ground. I was ready for the race and as prepared as I was going to be. Race day soon rolled around and everything was unfolding great. I came out of the 3.8km swim in a good position, road the 180km bike well and came off with the main group of guys and then it was off onto the 42km run. I ran the first half in 7^th place and was on the verge of cracking into the top 5 when my body started to shut down and I started to run backwards. The hydration and nutrition was not going through my body instead it was just sitting in my gut. When I eventually crossed the finish line in 11^th position my whole body had swollen terribly. All in all I had a great time in the race and learnt a lot that will help me in future years to achieve my goal of being the World Ironman Champion.

2009 has been an interesting year. I started off the season with the New Zealand Ironman down in Taupo. This was my first time racing over this distance. I had a great day and came in Second behind 8 time winner Cameron Brown. From there I went up to America to get out of our Winter to train and compete. Between April and July I competed in 5 events in the USA (3 firsts, a second and a something else) and another Ironman in Germany which also doubled up as the European Ironman Championships. The competition in this event was great, probably the second toughest Ironman outside of the World Championships, but the spectators where even more amazing. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets and there was seldom a quiet moment out on the course. I ended up having a tough day but still finished 9^th.

A good rest after Germany and I was ready to prepare for the big race in Kona. So after 4 weeks at home I was back on the road and off to the Philippines. This was one of the highlights of my year. We were treated like rock stars and the whole event, which was an inaugural event, was put on to a world class standard. The temperatures were a little hotter than the Ironman in Hawaii so it was good preparation. Among the top competitors racing where Cameron Brown and Chris McCormack. I managed to have a great race and come away with the victory.

I have been home for 3 weeks and leave for my final race of the season, the World Half Ironman Championships in Florida. I am returning to the event as defending champion but with the Ironman World Champs being only 5 weeks prior I am a little unsure of my expectations. I will be sure to fill you in on my return.

Regards

World IM Championships - 11th

2009-10-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

What a day! Just a quick update on the race, will have a more detailed one in the next couple days.

It was an amazing day and I loved it from start to about half way through the run, then I started to blow up big time, my pace dropped and every stride was a struggle. Until then I was working my way through the field and had top five within reach. Unfortunately the rest of the guys didn’t struggle home as badly as me and I dropped just outside of the top 10.

It was an unbelievable experience and I learnt a great deal. I left everything out there on the course and when I crossed the line in 11^th Place I was exhausted both physically and mentally. Not to mention the swelling, I looked like an Umpa Lumpa with most of my body swollen up due to my insides shutting down. Thankfully swelling has gone but chaffing and sore muscles are making up for it.

Congratulations to everyone who competed, it was a tough day and just to get through it is a major achievement.

Thanks everyone for the words of support and encouragement.

Already looking forward to next year

Get your engines running

2009-10-07T15:11:00.001-07:00

So here we are, 3 days away from the biggest race on the triathlon calendar, The World Ironman Championships, here in Hawaii, Kona. The town has transformed over the past week from a quite, relaxed town with no traffic into a small Triathlon City with hundreds of athletes running up and down Ali’i Drive and cycling along the Queen K Highway… in their lycra and compression socks! I can see the local thinking “what the hell?”

Preparation has gone well over the last 2 months and the last 10 days have been mostly about recovery with a few small hard workouts to keep the engine running. I am fortunate to have one of my massage therapists from New Zealand, Ian McKellar up here with me looking after my body and making sure my muscles are ready to go come Saturday. He assures me my body is in a better place than before IM Germany! My Coach Jon Ackland arrived on the weekend with my folks and Kelly. It is great to have Jon’s help and expertise advice leading into the event and having my folks and Kel fussing over me and making sure I don’t have to worry about anything is the best.

Also a big thanks to Chris “Macca” McCormack for inviting me out to Kona in August to hang out and train. He is a great athlete and top guy who didn’t have to think twice about sharing any information with me.

There are a great number of supporters from back home and around the world coming over to cheer me on so thanks guys. I have also done interviews with TVNZ and TV3 so that should screen sometime this week

You can follow the race at www.ironman.com on Saturday 10^th October, we kick off at 6:45am Hawaii time, which is Sunday at 5:45 in NZ. Hope the coverage is great and you all enjoy it.

Thanks everyone

Kona Camp & Roughwater Swim

2009-09-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hi,

We are about 3.5 weeks out from the big day and training in Kona has been going great. Chris Macca McCormack has helped a great deal in my preparation and has been showing me the ropes. What to do and what not to do come race day. Hopefully it should cut the amount of learning years down by a couple!

Last weekend we headed over to the main island, Oahu for the infamous Waikiki Roughwater Swim. It is the original swim race that the Ironman was invented from. See, there was and still is a 3.8km open water swim, a 180km around the island bike race and the Honolulu marathon. At a function after the events there where a group of guys debating on whose discipline was the toughest and they decided to throw them all together for the ultimate champion. So there was a lot of history in the event and a large amount of hype as it is world famous. We all crashed at a buddies place, Tim Marr, sleeping on couches and blow up beds was not the ideal pre race routine but we made it to the start line.

I felt like I had a great swim… I did have a great swim. Unfortunately my goal of beating all the girls out the water was not achieved, the first chick passed me at the last buoy and got 20seconds on me. I finished about 10^th in 47 minutes just at the back of a big pack. Just to illustrate the talent of the guys who competed. I am an okay swimmer, I have been brought up in the water, I come out in the front bunch in most triathlons. The young Australian who won was 4 minutes in front of me. That’s 1 minute for every 1 kilometer, that’s 6 seconds per 100 meters. I take my hat off, respect!

I have just finished a big week of training and my tan is coming along nicely. I have a few easy days before a big workout this weekend which will be a good indicator of where I am fitness wise. Macca has left the Island for the mainland for a couple weeks to catch up with his girls… I think he was struggling too much to keep up!!!

One of my training partners from New Zealand, Mark Cross arrives tomorrow. Looking forward to hearing the good old Kiwi accent again.

Will touch base again before the race

The Shiv

2009-08-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

So we have been here in Kona for almost a week. Our pad that we are staying in is off the hook, it is right on the water off Ali'i drive. We have Ozo, the guy who is in charge of taking care of the house, who is also a Chef, cooking for us and Chris’s buddy Michael Gillian taking care of our massage needs and hydration while out training.

Our new Specialized S-Works Shiv (TT bikes for the World Champs) were here waiting for us and a team from Specialized, Mark Cote - Engineer and Aaron Vogel – videographer where here to assemble the bikes and film our crossover from the Transition to the Shiv. We had a great time, got some good footage and learnt a heap about the new bikes. The data is incredible, especially in a cross wind which will play huge advantages to us here in Kona where the wind is one of the biggest elements on the bike course.

Recovery after the Philippines 70.3 has been slow. I think the heat of the race up there did damage a bit deeper than expected.

Will keep in touch and fill you in on how the preparation is going.

Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines

2009-08-24T03:06:00.000-07:00

Feel it HOT HOT HOT!!!

That basically sums up my trip here to the Philippines. The Weather was hot, the people were great and had warm personalities and this place is amazing. Plus I hate it in cold weather when I can’t feel my toes after the bike, so bring on the heat.

My experience here has been wonderful, we have been treated like rock stars, the venue for the race was beautiful and the event was put on at a world class level which is an amazing achievement for an inaugural race.

Onto a quick summary of the race. The Pro field, although small was definitely high quality with Cameron Brown, Chris Macca McCormack, Pete Jacobs and Tim Mar summing up the male Pros, but with prize money only going 3 deep it was going to be a fight until the end. The swim kicked off at 7am, the pace was controlled as we all knew how hard the day ahead of us was going to be. Jacob’s lead most of the way on the 2 loop course around the wake board park (which we will come to later)! All 5 of us where out together and it was onto the 90km bike. I had a shocker of a transition losing both my shoes getting on the bike. I quickly fixed this and caught back up. Most of the ride was steady except for when Brownie made a break for it at about 30km. He managed to keep away for a good 20km but we soon reeled him back in. The crowds out on the bike and run course where huge. Thousands of locals were out there supporting and cheering. It reminded me of IM Frankfurt where there were half a million spectators.

Then it was off for the 21km run. The course was pretty flat but the temperatures were well over 30’C. Macca left transition at a crazy pace that I didn’t match. He gained a 30sec lead, but was always in my sights. At about 7km I caught back up. We ran together for 5km, Brownie was not too far behind and we were dying. Running through aid stations trying to collect as much fluid and gels as we could to hydrate and cool ourselves down. I got a bit of a gap on Macca and didn’t want to slow as I knew Brownie was close and he looked like he was running fast. I made the last turn around at 15km and was home bound but I really started to struggle now. I managed to hang on for the win, but my insides were cooking. Macca stuck it out for 2^nd and Brownie came in 3^rd. I guess if you count Macca’s Maori heritage you can say kiwi’s 1/2/3. On the girls side we had Lisa Bentley 1^st, Gina Kehr 2^nd and Charlotte Paul 3^rd. www.ironman703phil.com

Once the race was over we all had a go at the wake board park. What fun! I Will get a picture of my insane move that I managed to pull next time (but when shown how to do it by the pros… and governor LRay of Camsur my trick looks almost invisible).

All in all a great trip. The community really got behind the event and put on a awesome show. Can’t wait to get back here next year.

Off to Kona tomorrow, will be in touch once I have settled in

Cheers

Australia to the Philippines

2009-08-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

I Have just arrived in Camsur, Philippines today. The weather is super hot and humid which is great because the fat is just dripping off my body… or at least the fluid is. The Cobra energy drink 70.3 is on Sunday and although the pro field is not that large the quality is definitely here with Chris McCormack, Cameron Brown, Timothy Mar and Pete Jacobs competing. Check out the attachment and have a look at the race website http://www.ironman703phil.com/tri-tans where you can vote on the Clash of the Tri-Tans (Macca, Brownie and Myself). At the moment I am in second behind Macca, but Brownie could be the man to watch on the day with his great results over the half ironman distance races this year, but you should still vote for me!

The past week I have spent training in Cronulla, Sydney with Macca. What a great place to train and hang out… and who said it was winter, the weather there has been mid to high 20’s every day. Training with the group up there which included Paul Ambrose (who is an up and coming Pro who you should watch out for) we had a great time and drank enough Coffee to last us a lifetime. Chris’s family – Emma, Tahlia, 5 and Sienna, 3 were good fun. Thanks for having me guys.

Unfortunately I finished off the week there training with a bit of a bike crash, actually a pretty bad crash. I was going about 50km/hr and hit a pot hole about 10minutes from home. I did a great superman impression flying over the handlebars. Luckily my head broke the fall and even luckier I had my specialized helmet on. I managed to get a lift back to the house in a kind persons car and got patched up. Then I packed my bags and got ready for the flight up to Manila on Philippines Airlines the next morning.

Things are starting to loosen up. One of Macca’s advisors who is also a muscle therapist is up here with us and he has been looking after me. Should be back in fine form come Sunday.

Will be in touch after the race

My Magic Box

2009-08-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just finished packing and about to head on my way to the airport. I always over pack, but Kelly is not with me this time, so she can bring the kitchen sink in a couple months when she comes to meet me in Kona.

From the above picture I bet you are wondering where my bike is? Well my dad, the legend has just finished Mach 2 of the Carbon Magic Bike Box and my tiny Specialized Transition is hiding in there, along with 2 Specialized helmets, my Zipp race wheels, several pairs of K Swiss shoes and a few other bits and pieces of ARX, Profile-Design, Aqua Sphere and a few copies of the Pure Indulgence Chocolate cook book purchased from the Stellar Trust, www.thestellartrust.org.nz . The case, fully developed and padded weighs in at 5.5 Kg’s and altogether with my gear is an amazing 22kg’s. Bring it on check in ladies, there is no way you are going to charge me for my bike… I hope.

What else do I have – well a big Oakley luggage bag with my Tempurpedic mattress overlay for good night sleeps and recovery along with my clothes, weighing in at 24kg’s. A Zipp Wheel bag with my training wheels and some other small bits that I couldn’t fit anywhere else and my Oakley back pack.

Should be able to get around the airports without a trolley and without a sore back.

Off for a quick stop in Sydney before heading up to the Philippines 70.3 race on the 23^rd August then onto Kona to get fit for the IM World Champs.

Will keep you posted with how things are going, until then T out.

Philippines 70.3 on the road to Kona

2009-08-04T14:56:00.001-07:00

After having a good rest after Ironman Germany it is back into the hard yards in preparation for the World Ironman championships in Kona. Surprisingly and thankfully my form did not drop away too much, I put that down to all the millage in the legs from this Ironman training the past few months.

I was a great off season relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. I made it down to the snow a few weeks ago with my girlfriends dad and sister Nikki, unfortunately the weather was not great but we did manage to get a couple half days boarding and besides a few aches and pains from using different muscles I escaped in good nick. I managed to keep relatively chilled out and not too busy, but I am paying the price for that now with a never ending list of things to do before I leave New Zealand next week that just keeps getting longer.

I have also just confirmed that the Cobra Energy Drink Ironman 70.3 Philippines will be a new addition to my race schedule leading in the World Championships. It takes place in Camsur, Philippines on the 23^rd August, so I have another two and half weeks to get on top of my form so I can give Cameron Brown and Chris McCormack a good run for the money. It will also be a good way for me to test the heat and see how my body handles it in preparation for Kona.

I leave NZ on the 12^th August to do a week’s training in Aussie on the way to the Philippines. From there I head to Kona, Hawaii to do a training camp with McCormack. I plan to base myself for the remainder of my build up leading into Kona so I can work on my tan… and learn the course.

Will fill you in after the Half Ironman in the Philippines

Terenzo

Frankfurter Sparkasse European Ironman Championships

2009-07-12T19:23:00.001-07:00

Finally we are back home in the freezing cold after a long 3 months of living out of suitcases. Last stop was the Frankfurter Sparkasse European Ironman Championships in Frankfurt Germany on the 5^th July. It was an amazing experience, the course was like nothing I have ever done before weaving in and out of small European towns on the bike course and a 4 lap run on the river banks and bridges with thousands of spectators lining the course.

Before I go into detail about the race I would like to bring your attention to a great initiative by The Stellar Trust, a trust formed to create awareness about the drug Methamphetamine also known as P. I am not asking you for a charitable donation, instead all I want to do is raise your attention to the Pure Indulgence Chocolate cook book where 100% of the proceeds go straight into the charity. I have seen this cook book and the quality is exceptional, the ideas are great and there are hundreds of great meals and desserts involving chocolate… and don’t fool anyone by saying “you are not a chocolate addict!!!” This would be a great birthday or Christmas present or a present for a loved one hoping they will try out some of the recipes on you.

The book can be purchased for $60 NZD plus postage by visiting The Stellar Trust website www.thestellartrust.co.nz or clicking on The Stellar Trust – Rise above P logo on my new website www.terenzo.com . Thank you.

So back to Germany. I was lucky to have one of my massage therapists from New Zealand, Ian McKellar make the trip over to look after my muscles before the race, and boy did I need it, my body was in bad shape from all the travelling, racing and training. Kelly’s sister and husband, Amanda and Karl, who are travelling through Europe also made it up to Frankfurt to help out which was great. The weather race week was rather hot which I enjoyed. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant across the road from our hotel every night which got a bit much but the routine was good and the cooking didn’t make me crook. I had 4 drug tests in 5 days, one urine sample at 9:30pm, and another one at 6:30am two days later, a blood test before briefing on Friday and finally a urine test after the race… luckily I hydrated well.

Every aspect of the event was put on at a top level, we had shuttles to take us anywhere, timing was down to an art, if something was meant to start at 11am it would start at 11am, not 11:02am which just shows how professional everything was run. Along with the professionalism of the event came the Athletes. The toughest Pro field outside of the World Championships in Kona, most of the big names were present and all of the European names were there.

The race kicked off at 6:45am on Sunday 5^th July in a small lake just out of Frankfurt. Andreas Raelert who was 2^nd behind me at the 70.3 World Championships last year pushed the pace and we managed to get a small break of 6 out of the water. The group worked hard on the bike and stayed together for the first lap where we grew our lead up to 3 minutes. Then a motor bike took half of us the wrong way, a mistake that was quickly fixed but with 2 guys getting a bit of a lead and now pushing it to make a break it was difficult to catch back up, something in hind sight I should not have tried to do. I pushed it for 20km to try and bridge back but soon I found myself with blown legs and 70km still to go. Not a position you want to be in for an Ironman. Soon the group that we had 3 minutes on which included MACCA (2007 world champ) and Timo Bracht (who went on the win this race today) caught up and I had nothing to stay with them. I ended up losing about 10minutes by the end of the bike but knew with a marathon still ahead of us anything could happen.

So I went off and tried to find my rhythm, I felt okay but was still struggling too much too early. I ran the 1^st lap well, the 2^nd lap a little worse, the 3^rd lap… well I felt sorry for anyone watching me because I am sure I looked horrible and the 4^th lap was much of the same. Now I understand why people walk through aid stations, they need to get more Oranges and Pretzels, when you are blown they taste so good.

I was at the end of the run in 8^th place and the crowds were wild so I took my time and soaked in the atmosphere, high 5ing as many people as I could and loving every minute of it, then 20meters from the line someone sprinted past me, (I was sure there was no one there). I kicked back and passed him through the finish gantry – a photo finish. He was in front before the line, I was in front after the line but his correct foot with the timing chip put him on the mat in front of me. I had to settle for 9^th. Woops.

What a great race to finish off a great trip and a lot more experience to add to my knowledge of Ironman.

Next stop the Ironman World Championships in Kona in October, should be an exciting day.

Thanks for all you support. Check out my new website www.terenzo.com and check out the Pure Indulgence cook book, you will thank me later

Terenzo

Eagleman 70.3

2009-06-14T17:18:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

What a day it has been……3.40am start, 4 hour race, packed bike box, packed bags and sat in traffic for 3 hours making our way down to Baltimore, finally making it at 7pm…..wow!!

The day started far too early at 3.40am, after having a restless night sleep with fierce thunderstorms lighting up the sky. Race day had finally come round. Feeling pretty good and having done all the hours of training for the last couple of months I knew it was going to be a good day!!

Raced here at the Half Ironman 70.3 Eagleman in Maryland last year and unfortunately got a drafting penalty of 4 minutes. I finished 2 minutes back in second place….you do the maths!! So I was out to set the record straight today……………

The race start was very interesting……the MC got a little carried away with introducing the pro women that he forgot about the pro men in the water. All of a sudden we hear this ‘GO!’ over the speakers…..15 seconds late and no warning. All of a sudden it was on and the race had started!

After the wary start I managed to get into a good position and find my rhythm early on. I really wanted to push the pace on the swim so I could put myself in the best position possible for the start of the bike. I felt really good out there and exited the swim in second, 20 seconds behind John Kenny.

After a great transition it was out onto the bike in hot pursuit of chasing down John Kenny As I was feeling pretty good I wanted to keep the pressure on as I had about a dozen extremely fast pro men chasing fast from behind. Got into a good rhythm and managed to pass Kenny early on in the bike and now into 1st. Continuing to keep my form strong throughout the bike I managed to put a 3.35 minute gap between me and the rest of the field.

Out on to the run with 3.35 minute lead I tried to get into a good rhythm and keep up a good tempo to hold off the chasing pack. At about mile 9 things unfortunately started to change a little…the legs feeling tired and definitely slowing down……bugger. All I could do was push through this and hope that I had put enough time into the chasing pack during the bike. With about 1.5m miles to go, I turned around just to see if I could see anyone and there was Richie Cunningham who was having a phenomenal run and catching me. With the legs completely finished and feeling like bricks I had to put the hammer down to the finish line. Managed to stay in front and taking the win, with Michael Lovato rounding out the top 3.

Thank you to Luke and Susan for having Kelly and I to stay at your amazing place. We had a great time and hopefully see you again next year.

Heading to Portland, Oregon to hang with my brother Dino and get my final bit of training done before Germany.

Terenzo

Buffalo Olympic distance Triathlon - Minnesota

2009-06-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hi,

The last few days we have been hanging out in Buffalo, Minnesota with Bret Oden, the race director and his family. Kelly and I have had a great time here, we were expecting it to be hot up here but even though the weather has been freezing the setting here is beautiful and the Oden's have been so hospitable.

Training has been going great the past few weeks, I have managed to get some good workouts done and the form is coming up nicely. Unfortunately we have now left Santa Barbara for this trip, just as we were getting used to the place and I was finding the good hills to train on. Oh well, guess we will have to come back. On Tuesday we are off to Cambridge, Maryland for the Eagleman 70.3 next weekend, then we are back over to the west coast, Portland, Oregon for my final 2 weeks of training before heading over to Germany for the Ironman.

The race today was a good challenge. I really struggled to find my rhythm throughout the race as my body didn't like the icy weather, it was about 45'F/ 6'C a typical winters day back home in NZ, but now I feel soft complaining because I heard that the Nordic skiing team here trains and races in -30'F in the winter…crazy! The pace was on from the start of the swim, but I managed to get away and keep a small lead for the rest of the race to hold on for the win but 2^nd place was under 2minutes back and 3^rd close behind. The course was great as it had a bit of everything, the volunteers and race organizers were awesome and did a great job and to top off my experience here I got to race with a truly inspirational guy with a great team behind him. Paul, who is melanoma cancer patient was receiving chemotherapy 2 weeks ago while the rest of the competitors were out there hitting their hard training and getting ready for the race. Not only did he, his wife and son along with a whole group of supporters turn up and finish the race but he carved it up big time. I saw him out there on the course and there is no way you could tell what he has been through. Congrats Paul, keep up the great fight, you are a true inspiration!!

Along with racing with Paul, the proceeds from the race went to sports teams at the local high school who's budgets have been cut, without this funding the teams would not be able to continue.

Just got back from the movies, saw "The Hangover" an absolute must see, it is hilarious!

Will be in touch

Regards

Terenzo

Columbia, Maryland USA 17 May 2009

2009-05-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey hey,

What a great place to have a race, Columbia Maryland is so beautiful, very green with loads of hills… well at least the course had plenty of hills. The weather was a little fresh and a little wet for my liking but with me carrying a few extra kilos (my rubber ring) around the course it meant I didn’t have to worry about overheating. We started at 6:45am and because the water was 70’F (over the 68’ cut off) we were not allowed to wear our wetsuits. Ffffffreeezzzzing. But as we got going and the blood started pumping the cool temperatures made for a fast day. I was second out of the water with a little gap on the other competitors which was nice. I got going on the bike and thought I was riding strong… I was riding strong but Andrew Yoder, a young 19year old who is the bomb on the bike came rolling past me 10minutes into the bike and made me feel like I was standing still. He was the only person I saw out there on the challenging but fast 40km bike. He ended up putting almost 2minutes into me by the end of the bike.

I felt good starting the run and just tried to find my rhythm. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to run back my 2 minute deficit, all I could do was run within myself and hope to see him by the end of the 10km run. I got to half way and still no sign on Yoder. There were was plenty of up and downhill throughout the run so I just keep working it and eventually at about 4.5miles / 7.5km I caught him, but he didn’t give up and pushed me all the way to the finish. I managed to hold him off for the win and we were not too far off the course record.

All in all… besides the travel, our experience here has been great. The Tri Columbia staff and volunteers did a great job in looking after the athletes and putting on and world class event. Also ARX http://www.fastertomorrow.com/ one of my sponsors was an event sponsor so it was great to hang out with them at the expo and after the race.

Back off to Santa Barbara first thing tomorrow to get into some heavy training millage for IM Germany. Right now I have to break down my Specialized bike to fit it into my custom box (made by my dad), dry and K-Swiss race flats and my Aqua Sphere Swim Suit, email the kind folks at Zipp to let them know my Sub 9 Disc with Ceramic bearings must have had a stone flung at it at Wildflower because I found a small crack in the carbon before packing my bike for this trip, and chat with the guys at Plumbing World about the Stellar Trust Ball that was held this weekend in Auckland, New Zealand in order to raise funds for the awareness of the drug “P” or Meth.

Next race on the cards is the Buffalo Triathlon in Minnesota in 3 weeks time.

Until then, Take care

Terenzo Bozzone

WILDFLOWER 4 MAY 2009

2009-05-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

So I guess in this line of work or any line or work you have good days and you have bad days. This past weekend at the Wildflower Half Ironman in California was one of those bad days at the office.

Last week started off great, after flying back to the west coast after my race in Florida we headed down to Specialized at Morgan Hill, although I didn't get any product I felt like a kid a Christmas. Hanging out with the engineers and designers looking at the new bikes and equipment that will be coming out later in the year... I can't wait.

Well, The race started off as a good day. I swam well and was out of the water not too far behind Andy Potts (one of the fastest swimmers in our sport), jumped onto the bike and was riding strong, at least that is what my SRM (power meter) said. But for some reason there was a bigger group of guys than usual pushing the pace, and they didn't slow for the whole 90km. We soon bridged the gap to Potts but Bjorn Anderson had started to put some time onto us and was riding into the distance. We got about 75 percent through the course and hit one of the big climbs. To illustrate how fast we rode up the hill - Chris Lieto (a great biker) had put about 1minute into the group in about 10km, half way up the climb we had already caught him, surely he was meant to be riding away from us? These guys were racing up the hill like it was a 40km bike race and I probably should have backed off, but I didn't want to lose time so I pushed it to stay with them.
We soon got off the bike and headed out onto the 21km hilly run. Potts and I were running shoulder to shoulder, It was not feeling great so after a mile I backed off the pace and thought he would come back to me, I was finding my rhythm and my legs were starting to feel okay, that was until I hit the hill at mile 4 and had to slow into a walk. I think the drink bottle I lost at the start of the bike with all my calories in it was a bigger problem than I thought. I tried to keep going the best I could but it was ending up like last year's race where I blew up big time. On the course we passed a road that would lead us down to transition/ the finish, that is where I wanted to go (a short cut to the finish), but I couldn't do that so I just kept plowing through the run, almost running backwards, I went from 2nd place with a comfortable lead on the rest of the field down to 8th place.
This was definitely a race that I would like to forget, but after looking at how last year unfolded after getting thrashed at this same race I am sure the rest of the year will go okay. Maybe my weekend was not that bad after all, Dixie - a great lady who helps organize the event slipped on the grass on Friday and broke her ankle, my buddy Chris Boudreaux was having a great race and it a pot hole at full speed and pulled his back out and couldn't finish, another friend James Cotter hurt his back and was having trouble moving the days leading up to the race and last but not least James Bowstead, he was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the femur 10days out from IM New Zealand and was meant to be up here training and racing with me but is still not back running. Other than that it was a fun weekend, a couple of my sponsors, ARX - Faster tomorrow, Aqua Sphere and Specialized had a presence at the expo and I had a good time hanging out with them.

We are now settled into our place in Santa Barbara with my brother where we will be based for the next month training and working on our tan while swimming in our lycra in the awesome 50m outdoor pool that is pretty much on the beach.Attached are a few pictures from the past week.

Next stop for me and Kelly is the Columbia Olympic distance Tri in Maryland on the 17th May

Thanks
Terenzo

ST ANTHONY'S 26 APRIL 2009

2009-04-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

It is the end of a long day here in St. Petersburg, Florida, even though it was a shorter race than I am used to. It was an Olympic distance race, but non drafting on the bike made it a more fun playing field for me. The race was held about 30 minutes from where I won the World 70.3 Championships last November.... Kelly and I love this part of the world, the sun is always shinning.

The age group swim was cancelled due to the water conditions being really rough, I wish they cancelled our swim and made it a bike run.I lost a bit of time in the swim to the likes of Andy Potts and Matt Reed (2 x winner here) but made up good ground on the tactical and fast bike course and came off the bike in second behind Andy, about 40 seconds down.
I ran most of the run with him in my sights but couldn't seem to bridge the gap... bugger.To round off the top three was Stuart Hayes from Great Britain, also a ITU racer from way back moving into the non drafting scene.
We have had a great stay here in St. Pete's with our home stay, Lisa and Philippe and all our new friends... well actually there friends that we will now claim. They made our stay here relaxing and enjoyable.

Next stop Specialized bikes in Morgan Hill, CA for a couple days before heading down to Wildflower to get punished by the course. This year the race has one of the toughest fields in the history with almost 80 professionals lining up on the start line. Sure it will be good fun as always.

Will keep you posted on next weekends events.

TERENZO

2009-02-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

THE STELLAR TRUST APRIL 2009

HI everyone,Please read this email and browse the attachments, if you are unable to help please pass the information onto some of your contacts that may be able.This email probably relates more to those based here in New Zealand but is not to be taken lightly by anyone else. It is in relation to a charity that I am part of and who's aim is to fix issues that most are effected by in one way or another, Drug use, in particular the drug Methamphetamine know on the street as "P". The Stellar Trust (http://www.thestellartrust.org.nz%3chttp/www.thestellartrust.org.nz>) is going to make a huge impact on our society and the issues it is trying to solve is not only a National problem here in New Zealand but escalating on an international level.Methamphetamine is the world's worst drug problem and sweeping the globe at pandemic levels.Below is an extract from the fact sheet attached that highlights the issues here in New Zealand:
New Zealand now has the highest recorded per capita use of P in the world
In 10 years New Zealand came where it took America almost 30 years to get
Over 60 percent of all frequent meth users are in full time employment
P knows no boundaries and is just as commonly used by well educated business people and school students as it is by unemployed criminals
A frequent user of meth may need as much as $2000 a day to support a 3 gram a day habit
On average a P user will commit $24000 worth of crime every 6 months just to support their habit
A P user is thought to cost their employer about $47 500 per year in lost productivity, absenteeism and theft
Almost 60 percent of High Court cases involve meth manufacture or dealing
In 2006 P was thought to cause $554m in social costs, more than any other illegal drug
The purity of methamphetamine has been directly linked to addiction rates and increasing violent crime. New Zealand has some of the most pure methamphetamine in the world
Customs now make up to 4 seizures of crystal meth or chemicals to make the drug a day, but 70 percent of what's found in New Zealand is made from locally madeBasically what we are trying to do now is to raise funds so that we can create awareness about P and its addictive and harmful characteristics. There is a Charity Roast at Sky City on May 16th where Paul Holmes is going to be Roasted! Along with other national and international entertainment. Please see the attached information.This is a problem that we are going to need as much help as we can to fix.On a much smaller and light hearted note I raced Xterra (off road triathlon - 1000m swim, 30km mountain bike and 11km trail run) this weekend down in beautiful Rotorua, it felt like one of the hardest races in a while, I couldn't stop puffing going up the hills and was screaming like a little girl on the inside going down the hills, unfortunately I crashed my new Specialized and broke the frame but managed to finished 5th. Was great fun and I will be back next year to try and get my title back.Thanks to everyone for their support, I hope you all take this email seriously as "P" is a serious issue that needs something to be done about it. If you need any more information please read the attached files or go to > to find out more.ThanksTerenzo Bozzone

PROGRAM FOR 2009April2009

HI,

I have had a good few weeks relaxing after Ironman New Zealand and am now in the second week of getting back into training. The summer in New Zealand is really doing its best to hold on, hopefully it hangs in there and stays warm until I leave for the States on the 21st April. I can’t think of anything worse than riding in the cold and wet, I think I have gotten soft with old age.

My coach and I have decided to slot in another Ironman race before the World Championships in October as I need to try and move forward as fast as I can and we believe the best way to get experience over this distance is to do more racing… within reason. I have chosen the Frankfurter Sparkasse IRONMAN Germany which is on the 5th July in Frankfurt, it also doubles as the Frankfurter Sparkasse IRONMAN European Championships. It is going to be a great race with some of the best Ironman athletes in the world. I have heard great things about Ironman Germany, it is a world class event and the support from the spectators is like the hill stages in the Tour de France. All the top athletes have gone to race there before Kona with the likes of Chris McCormack, Cameron Brown and Peter Reid performing well in their build up for Kona and hopefully I will follow in their footsteps in the near future. I am really looking forward to event, and hope that I can put what I learnt at IM New Zealand into practice.

This is what the next 3 months will look like for Kelly and I – I can guarantee we will be sick of being on the road and living out of a suitcase by the end of it:

18th April – Xterra New Zealand down in Rotorua, I won this event last year and hope to defend my title.
26th April – St. Anthony’s Olympic Distance (non Drafting Triathlon)
2nd May – Wildflower Half Ironman in California (well really in the middle of nowhere, but an awesome place to race… and camp)
17th May – Columbia Olympic Distance (non Drafting Triathlon)
7th June – Buffalo Olympic Distance (non Drafting Triathlon) in Minnesota, a good friend and competitor Chris Leigh has said great things about this race, so thought I had better check it out.
14th June – Eagleman 70.3 (Half Ironman) Maryland, after getting a dodgy drafting penalty here last year and finishing 2nd I have some unfinished business.
5th July – Frankfurter Sparkasse IRONMAN Germany

After Wildflower we are planning on spending a month in Santa Barbara with some training buddies from Portland. Then looking at either Portland or San Diego for the 2 weeks of training between Eagleman and Germany.

For those in New Zealand you can watch the footage from IM New Zealand on Sky this week, below are the dates and time:
7-Apr-09 21:00 SKY Sport 2 8-Apr-09 23:30 SKY Sport 1 10-Apr-09 06:00 SKY Sport 1 11-Apr-09 02:25 SKY Sport 2

I will keep you all posted with results and how you can follow events online.

Kind regards

Terenzo Bozzone

TAUPO IRONMAN NEW ZEALAND 7th March 2009

So on Saturday the 7th March 2009 in my home country New Zealand in front of a spectacular crowd down in Taupo I competed and completed my first full distance Ironman. I now know how it got its name!!! It was one of the toughest days of my life not only cause of the physicality of the event but also because of how the event plays with your mind and tries to destroy you in any way it can.

The day started at 4am for me when I got up, my beautiful girlfriend cooked me breakfast in bed (I can’t get her to do that for me at 6:30am most of the time). I then did a small bike and run warm up from our motel before heading down to transition to get body numbered and put air in my tires. The gun went off at 6:45, 15 minutes in front of the age groupers. I tried my hardest to stay next to Brent Foster who is an awesome swimmer but that didn’t last long. A small bunch of 7 formed and we chugged around the 3.8km swim. Unfortunately Cameron Brown had been working on his swimming and we were unable to brake him, from then I knew it was going to be an interesting day.

Once I put on my arm warmers and socks (it was a little bit cold) we started the journey on our 180km bike. Here is the thing with ironman, the pace actually feels reasonably easy for the first half but the second half feels like death. I was honestly ready to get off my bike after lap 1 and call it a half ironman! Eventually the second lap did start, I managed to get my special needs bag which had a couple drink bottles and a snickers bar in it without too much trouble. There were 4 of us rotating the lead, although we were not getting an advantage from sitting 10-15m behind the person in front it was a great mental break to be able to ride and look at others than riding at the front with only bare road in front of you.

45km to go and Dirk Bockel made a break for it, then at 40km to go Cameron Brown started to pull away and I couldn’t do anything about it, this was my first bad patch of the day. All I could do was concentrate on pedaling and count down the km’s. After eating my snickers bar and drinking 2 bottles of Pepsi I started to climb out of my slump and was able to ride properly again breaking away from the remaining 2 guys in our group. Now the bike was over how the hell am I meant to run a marathon is what was going through my mind. Truthfully it was the crowd that started me off, the cheers were so loud that I couldn’t hear my body moaning at me so all I could do was run. Brownie was 45seconds up the road and Dirk had managed to stretch out to a 5minute 30second lead. For the first 10km Brownie was in my sights, we were both running quicker than we should have been but he wasn’t pulling away, at about 12km that all changed, heading back into town on the first lap I was hurting but I couldn’t give up because my support crew were turning up everywhere and there was no way I was going to walk in front of them!!!

At the end of the first lap, Dirk was still up 4min and Brown had stretched out to just over 2minutes. All I could do was run my pace and keep my rhythm, I guess this is what they call the Ironman shuffle! 10km’s to go and Dirk was only 2 minutes up the road, Brown has taken the lead and was showing his class by not slowing down as all of the grueling 42km. Dirk, also a first time Ironman athlete who was running time into Cam and myself for the first 10km was now starting to struggle, he was walking through aid stations and I could see him coming closer and closer. With about 6km to go I passed him and all I could think about was making it to the last 2.5km where I knew the crowd would carry me home, and that is what they did, the pavement was lined with massive amounts of people, out the corner of one eye I saw Harold, the mascot for Life Education what an awesome surprise. I wasn’t sure how much time I had put into Dirk so I couldn’t slow and start high 5ing people cause I felt like I would trip up or do something stupid in my almost comatose state.

Finally I was in the finish chute and all the pain and suffering from the day was a distant memory, I had done it, I had worked through all the mental barriers and made it to the finish. What a day and 2nd behind Cameron Brown, well that’s ok, for now.

Congratulations to everyone who finished the race, inside or out of the cut off time, you are my inspiration. Seeing you guys out there still giving your all when most people have tucked into bed to call it a day, that is what Ironman is all about.

Thanks to everyone who have been part of my preparation for this event, there is no way I would be where I am now without your help and support.

Here are a couple links with some news coverage and photos for your information.

TV1
http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/brown-storms-eighth-ironman-win-2523604/video

TV3
http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/sports/19321.html

here is a link to some photos
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/lPgfWBWAUH_/2009+Ironman+New+Zealand/32I0VpWEKiD/Terenzo+Bozzone

and attached are a couple other photos.

Thanks again

Terenzo

NEW ZEALAND 16 FEBRUARY 2009

HI guys,

I hope 2009 has been off to a great start for all of you and you are keeping well and healthy. I am 3 weeks out from my first full distance Ironman event, it will take place in Taupo, New Zealand on the 7th March. Training has been going great, probably thanks to all the good company I have had on all those long and hard days. I can definitely say my buddies have put me in the hurt box more than once!!! On top of that the summer has been really good… touch wood. But for some reason the weather has turned around today and it is bucketing down outside as we speak. Oh well, lucky I have an easy day.

Below are two links from a couple of pre Ironman interviews I did with our National TV stations, the first link is from TV1 and the second from TV2. Hopefully they still connect. In the background of the Photo below is the yellow pages Treehouse Restaurant where I took Kelly for an early Valentines dinner. It was an amazing experience dining 10meters up a tree.

http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/bozzones-hope-1-37-2458707/video

http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia/tv/sports/17913.html

I will let everyone know closer to the time how you can follow the event live.

Thanks for everything and I wish you all the best for 2009, I hope you have a great year and you reach all your goals.

Kind regards

Terenzo

2008 70.3 WORLD CHAMPION

2008-11-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

CLEARWATER 70.3 WORLD CHAMPION 9 NOVEMBER 08

Hey guys,

Just a quick note to let you all know that finally on my third attempt I managed to crack the World title with a course record here at Clearwater Beach, Florida.
It was an awesome day and coming across the line first was an indescribable feeling. I still cant really believe that I did it.I had a good swim and was about 5th out of the water, Andy Potts, last years champ had about a 45sec lead. A big group of about 20 athletes formed on the bike, everyone seemed to ride fair and there was no drafting going on. The bunch split at the half way point and unfortunately I was way at the back as I was struggling to find my legs. I managed to bridge back up to the leaders and get in a group of 4 that broke the group again. the conditions out there were great, not much wind and not too hot.
So into transition in 2nd place, and out of there in the lead.I found my rhythm early on, but it may have been a bit quick as I hit the first mile in about 5.05 which is about 3:10 pace per Km. I was running out the front by myself and things were going great, I finished the first lap in about 35min and that is when I started feeling my legs, my quads and calves were on the verge of cramping and my legs were starting to blow, my pace had slowed big time and Andreas from Germany was running me down and quickly. I did everything I could to keep moving and thankfully I had put enough time on him in the bike on on the first lap of the run to hold him off.
The spectators were amazing, the volunteers were great and to have my folks and girlfriend here with me topped off my day. it would have been even better if my bro was here but I guess studies have to come first!!!

Thanks everyone for everything, this has been a great year and I have loved every minute of it.

Now Kelly and I are off on holiday for the next 5 weeks, we are probably going to have to have a holiday when we get back to recover from our travels.

Terenzo

2008-11-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

CLEARWATER 70.3 6 NOVEMBER 08

Hi I hope everyone is well and healthy. Just a quick note to fill you in on what's been happening the last month.

First stop was Kona, Hawaii for the World Ironman Championships. I stayed with the Specialized team for the week and we had a blast, even though I did have one of those weeks from hell. I dropped my cell phone in the pool, I broke my hand riding my bike down town for breakfast and I was not even under the influence of Alcohol. I got a job on race day as a spotter out on the course which meant I got to see the race from the front the whole day which was a huge learning curve. I stayed in town for another 3 weeks to train in the sun but the VOG (volcanic smog) was killing me, so off to Clearwater, Florida a few days earlier than expected to get some clean air.My last key workout on Friday on the race course went well, so now I am counting down the days, 4 more to go. The healing of my hand has come along well but I am still have to ride with my splint on.Last but not least I would like to welcome my newest sponsor onboard, ARX by Healthy Directions. ARX is a recovery pill that I have been using for the last couple months. In a world where recovery is so important and can determine your outcome on race day, ARX helps speed this along. My legs to be able to bounce back after hard workouts so I can train harder more often. Check it out at http://www.fastertomorrow.com/.

Saturday 8th November is the World 70.3 (Half Ironman) Championships here at Clearwater Beach, Florida. 6:45am kick off time which is 12:45am back home in NZ, so you all better be up watching!!! Just kidding, I will try get an email out soon after the race so when you wake up on Sunday morning you should know the result. If you do wish to follow the race you can do so on http://www.ironmanlive.com/ hopefully they will have respectable coverage.

Thanks and will report back soon
Terenzo

LIFE EDUCATION RACES DAY

2008-09-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

LIFE EDUCATION TRUST

At the Auckland Race's, in Ellerslie on the 27 September 2008. - The Terenzo Bozzone 1200m was won by No.12 EBONY BABE . It was a great day where Life Education held a fun family outing, which was enjoyed by all.I am very privileged and honoured to become an ambassador of Life Education Trust. I have been the ambassador of What’s Up and I am also sponsored by Plumbing World who raise funds for the youth in need. I believe that every kid has to be given an education that shows them how to handle all situations in life and also to choose the right direction, and this is what Life Education Trust does through Harold the Giraffe and his team.

Check it out at http://www.harold.co.nz/ I am committed to making a difference to the lives of the kids of New Zealand and the world.+EBONY BABE and the owners won the Terenzo Bozzone race. Many kids took advantage of Harold’s Big Day Out

2008-06-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE 70.3 7 SEPTEMBER 08

I arrived home on Monday evening and have been catching up on sleep since. I am starting to find my feet and looking back on my whole trip I am pretty happy with how things turned out and what I learnt from the different races and training. I thought by now I would have stopped using the experience excuse, but I have found myself in a position where the lessons I am learning are the most important to date and once these are under control the limit of what can be achieved will be raised to a whole new extent... I think.

Training in Portland was awesome. I did most of my training with Chris Boudreaux and Andrew Lafrenz who were awesome training partners and all round nice guys. When I had enough energy and felt fresh enough I went running with my bro and his team, I am sure they just ran fast because they didn't want a triathlete running with them. When I wasn't training I was either sleeping, eating, lying on the couch in a comatose state or relaxing on the massage table of Michael Bilyeu.

Last stop for me was the Singapore 70.3, I mean ITU, woops no I actually mean 70.3 with a little bit of drafting going on. It is hard for me to get my head around how this race was marshalled. It was the largest prize money 70.3 race outside of world champs and it seemed the drafting rules didn't apply. With the field stacked with Aussies including 3 times ITU world Champion Peter Robinson and 2004 Olympic representative Simon Thomson I really wanted to make the bike ride hard which soon proved to be what it was for me but not so much for everyone else behind. As my legs where almost about blown from trying to break away I realised that I was a marked man and this was not going to happen. So I tried to let my legs recover a bit before the run cause I was going to need it.

The guys headed out like it was a 10km ITU race and at 1km into the 21km run there were 5 Australians ahead of me. This was either going to be a long day for me or for them if they blew up. I just found my rhythm and ticked along. It was hot and humid and pace was going to be the deciding factor in the second half. I slowly ran through the field and soon I was 50meters behind the leader Simon Thomson and holding even. At about half way he slowed and I caught up. we ran together for the next 7km and when he surged with 3km to go, my tank was empty and could not match him.

I crossed the line in 2nd place, 15sec behind.

I now head down to the snow for 3 days with Kelly and her family which I have been looking forward to. Then it is back to the drawing board to make a few changes and plan to get ready for half ironman world championships in November in Florida.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement

Kind regards

Terenzo

VINEMAN 70.3 HALF IRONMAN 20JULY2008

Two weeks into solid training and my first race of this block is done and dusted.Today was the Vineman 70.3 (half Ironman) in Sonoma country, just north of San Francisco near Napa valley where all the great vineyards are, hence the name Vineman.
It was probably one of the strongest half Ironman races of the year with most of the big names. The swim was straight forward, up and down a river, then a large bunch formed on the bike which was not the best as the course had a lot of small climbs and corners and there was a big yoyo effect through the group, I suppose all the accelerations did pay off as a few people started struggling near the end. I got off the bike in 4th about 3 minutes off the leader but managed to string out a 20 second lead over Craig Alexander, one of my main competitors but he pulled that back within the first 2km, which was a huge shock to me as I thought I was moving fast.His pace didn't slow, but I managed to hang in there, struggling at times. We caught the leader Steve Larsen about half way through the run and Craig slowed up a bit, I thought I would test his legs and keep the pace going, I gained a small lead and it kept growing, I didn't know what was going on, was he playing with me or had his legs gone. I wasn't going to hang around to find out so I kept pushing along. With 1mile to go someone yelled that I was on for a course record, I was already giving it my all so all I could dowas try and hold on a bit longer. I crossed the line in 3.49.30 about 30 seconds under the record and got a large 3L bottle of La Crema wine, who knows what I am going to do with that.
So all in all not a bad day at the office. In fact the last few days have been great, I have been staying with Chris Legh at this great home stay in Santa Rosa, the Devore's, where tradition says their house has a great curse where someone who stays their will be victorious. Well let's hope they don't wash the sheets!!! Okay that sounds dirty, but you know what I mean.Quick turn around today, already back on my way to the airport to head down to San Diego for a day before going back to Portland to work on my recovery before getting back into some serious miles. My brother and I purchased a nice small car so I should have a bit more independence and save some $ on gas.Next stop for me is TimberMan 70.3 in a month so will check in again soon.RegardsTerenzo

OUCH!!!! 16 June 2008

I'll keep this one short and brief.Stop 3, Kansas 70.3 (half Ironman), similar temperatures to last week, hot and humid, but not quite as bad. I knew this race was going to be a tough one, 3rd in a row. And that is what if felt like, bloody hard. The swim was okay, Simon lessing pushed the pace early on and surprisingly a small bunch hung around. Onto the bike with 4 other guys including Lessing and Craig Alexander, winner and runner up at the 2006 half Ironman world champs and I had nothing in the tank, soon I found myself riding solo about 1 minute behind. I wanted to stop, I couldn't find any rhythm and had no power, I told myself things would change as the race unfolded, when the blood started moving to my sore muscles, but it felt like things were getting worse from 30-40km and I was starting to get worried. Then all of a sudden after one of the turn rounds something snapped and I was back to my normal self. I made up the deficit and then put 1minute on Craig and TJ Tollenson, what was going on?Onto the run and I knew I was going to have to pull something special out to hold off Alexander, I pushed the first couple miles which I ended up paying for the next 10miles, woops. I could feel my calves and quads on the verge of cramping but nothing bad enough to stop my stride. I crossed the line with a 3 minute lead. I am glad I don't have another race next week. Well, I didn't quite get the clean sweep, but I am happy with how the form is looking, especially off no base training.Three races in three states that I have never been to, and all with great memories, not only of the races but of the whole experience, from people to scenery. I now fly back home tonight, don't know what I was thinking when I booked that flight. Think I must have been looking forward to getting home to my new TEMPURA bed that arrived as I was leaving for the airport 3 weeks ago. Should make for a speedy recovery!CheersTerenzo

EAGLEMAN 10 June 2008

Okay, so the signs are out there. If I didn't love doing this sport so much and love it when people try and make my life a living hell I would probably retire and get some high powered job so that everyone was afraid of me. I mean honestly, first not making the O game team and now getting a 4 minute drafting penalty in the first 1km of the bike because someone else came in front of me and slowed down. If we were racing at the world champs last year he would have got the penalty. But besides that, ruining someone’s race before it has even begun is not on, at least give the race a couple miles for everyone to settle into their positions and if you are going to give a penalty for something so pathetic, so early on, just make it a stop and go penalty! Okay so enough of me bitching. Now I had to decide whether I kept going or just pulled out of the race and focus on the half Ironman in Kansas the following weekend, I decided to keep going, I have not pulled out of races in the past and I wasn't going to start now. After all, this trip is all about learning new stuff. I eventually cooled back down and settled into my rhythm, with a penalty you have to stop at the first penalty tent on the course to do your time, in this case it was at 22miles or about 35km. It so happened that I ended up riding at the front of the bunch the whole way there, people are not allowed to draft and have to sit 10meters behind the cyclist in front, but there is definitely an advantage when riding behind someone, even at that distance especially when there are 5 guys in front of you.So after my 4 minutes hanging out in a tent on the side of the road, I had drunk a bottle of Gatorade as it was a stinking hot day and was only going to get hotter, like 40+ degrees Celsius, I was back on the bike, probably riding a bit too hard, but determined to make up time and I would have if the second bunch hadn't caught the front guys and pulled them along. Anyway, off the bike about 4 minutes down on the quick runners, Paul Amey, being one of them, one of the quickest runners in the sport. All I could do was find a pace that I could hold, if I went out too hard in this heat things could have got nasty. Slowly I picked my way through 6 of the 7 guys who were in front of me but just could not close the gap on Amey. I finished 2minutes 30seconds down, not a bad result given the situation, (you do the maths), all I can say is it would have been a great battle if things were how they should have been.Straight to the medical tent for me where I received 2 IV drips to help re-Hydrate. I finished the race at 10.30, and I was still hanging around outside a couple hours later when there where still people heading out on the run and it was a whole lot hotter then, I take my hat off to those guys. I had a great home stay in Maryland, a beautiful house right on the water and Luke Finlay the owner was a great host.Now I am just settling in Kansas, ready to scout the course and recover this week. My legs felt fully recovered after my Idaho effort so much the same routine from here to get the legs back in shape.Sorry again for the long drawn out report, what can I say, I like to keep you guys informed. Next time I think I will do it in bullet point form and see how that goes. Will probably be a hell of a lot easier to write with my 2 thumbs on my crapberry.Have a good weekRegardsTerenzo

1 down 2 to go 3 June 2008

Who would have thought traveling could be so stressful!!! What a mission. Getting to the airport, checking in with someone who is determined to make your day miserable, flights being changed and no where to stay at my destination... Well, if that's not character building then what is?
I think recently I have had to learn to deal with these types of situations, I have had to learn not to let things out of my control wear me down.
Anyways, back to the race. I woke up, forgot to hit my snooze button and realized an hour later, woops. For this particular race we had two transitions, the swim to bike, which was 20min drive away, and we had to hike up a 1km hill, usually the pros get preferential treatment and dropped off right at the start, not this time. I was actually a little worried because my quads were throbbing the previous night from having to walk down this monstrosity.
So the swim was cold, icy cold and instead of cutting it short I think it was slightly long, and did I mention it was cold? I was out the water first with a small group of guys and headed off for the bike which had a handful of notable climbs and a heap of wind. Chris Lieto came flying past me at about 20km, I had decided to race my own race and control myself so I let him go, I was expecting to loose about 3 minutes on him, but by the time I got off the bike I was nearly 5 minutes down, oh bugger. I had thought my new bike position was good, but with such a deficit I think I will have to look at it again.
Off onto the run and I had to find a quicker rhythm than what I was planning if I wanted to make up time on Chris. By the end of the first lap (10.5km) I had closed the gap to just over 2 minutes, then I got a bit carried away and started running quicker, I wanted to be sure I could catch him, I ended closing the gap in 4km, poor guy seemed to be hurting, well I suppose that's what you get when you ride like Lance Armstrong. I finished with about a 2 minute lead, my first win in the 70.3 series and with it being the inaugural race here in Boise it was really special.
Chris Lieto finished 2nd, with Joe Gambles and Leon Griffin from Aussie 3rd and 4th and Jordan Rapp, fellow training partner up in Victoria finishing off the top 5.
Next stop Cambridge, Maryland this weekend, I think my legs should be back by then.
Well back on track and still early days, so thanks for sticking by me.
Chat soon
Regards
Terenzo

Boise 70.3 1 June 2008

http://www.insidetri.com/article/71387/bozzone-tackles-boise-703

3 IN 1 28 May 2008

Where in the hell do I come up with these subject headings? You can see I write too many of these updates, am going to start running out of material.
Okay, so off to the US again for three Half Ironman races in this one trip...
First stop Boise, Idaho for a race this weekend, then Cambridge, Maryland and lastly Kansas. It should make for an enjoyable trip, living on the road and out of a suitcase for three weeks.
After Wildflower 3 weeks ago I had a quick stop in Portland, Oregon to scout out the training terrain and visit my little brother. It was great to see him and get a better understanding for this University life stuff, it is no wonder he is always tired when I speak to him, it doesn’t matter what day it is I can always call him before I go to sleep, about 5 hours time difference and he is still up either studying about half the nights or out partying the other half. All in all the training is good, the running tracks are the best in the world and I get to run with fast guys – like crazy fast guys, 3 guys on the team are low 28min 10km runners. The cycling seems to be good but I think I will need a tour guide for the first couple weeks and the swimming, well not too sure about that. Couldn’t seem to find any descent pools let alone swimming squads, but hey they have a big river there, will just need to make sure I don’t start off down stream… I am planning on spending most of the second half of the year up there training in the sun.
Well back to this trip – so I was lacking a bit of strength at Wildflower which should have changed by now as I have managed to get a good couple weeks of solid training done back here at home, but 3 halves in a row is a bit crazy, but definitely doable. I was fortunate enough to get a bit of time in a wind tunnel to play around with my set up thanks to Tri NZ – my girl friend calls it the constellation prize for not going to Beijing. We came up with some exciting stuff, some of which will be tried in these next few races.
The plan for the year is to kick butt at the Half Ironman World Champs in November and everything up until then is focused on learning more about this distance of racing and figuring out where my limits are and how far I can push the boundaries before I pop, like I did at Wildflower. That is not me making excuses for average races up until then, I don’t get on the start line to place at the bottom of the podium, for me it is all or nothing.
Thanks
Terenzo

WILDFLOWER....... No Comment 4 May 2008

I guess you need more than two weeks strength training to race a tough half Ironman!!! But at the end of the day I shouldn't really use that as my excuse. I knew where my fitness was and if I raced inside my zone I am sure the second half of the race may have unfolded differently. The swim was great, I relaxed the first half of the 1.9km swim and with 500m to go I went to the front and pushed the pace to get a bit of a gap on the weaker swimmers. It worked well and I picked up the swim prime exciting the water first. The first part of the bike is very tactical and I kept pushing the pace even though my heart rate was a few beats higher than what I wanted. But I got a good lead and as my pace settled so did my heart rate. At about 10km into the 90km bike Bjorn Anderson the fastest biker around over this distance caught up, I thought the pace he was riding was comfortable for me so I tried to stick with him for a while. Then all of a sudden my legs started to die, I was only a quarter through the bike, this was not good. My pace started dropping and continued this trend trough the race, I could see on my power meter the numbers drop, about 100 watts difference from start to finish. Not good at all. I was really paying for my mistake, the same mistake I have made a couple times, you think I would learn from mistakes. I like doing and learning things the slow, hard way it seems. Not for any longer.Off onto the run in 6th position, I tried to let my race start again. I found a steady rythem and for the first 5km I was moving well. But my legs were still deteriorating and I was struggling to keep going. Blisters that had formed and bleed out due to the high proportion of the run course being on soft surfaces and every muscle from my hips down just wanted to rest. I could see a couple of competitors up the road and every time I tried to pull them in I died a little more. I was passed by Chris Liegh but caught Bjorn in the final stretches so finished in 6th spot. All in all the atmosphere was great, just like I remembered. The great support from the spectators and volunteers and the racing environment is a lot friendlier than the ITU Olympic distance stuff. Whenever a competitor passed me yesterday they either smiled at me to keep going or told me to keep it up. Even Chris "Macca" who ended up winning said when he passed me near the end of the bike "stick with us, you are the fastest runner here, you will be able to make up time." I am fortunate to be able to do a sport that I love for a living and to be around great competitors and supporters who make my life enjoyable. Even at moments like these I can reflect on what I do have in my life and I find myself smiling. That's not to say I am happy with my performance, in fact the complete opposite is how I feel, but I will not dwell on that for too long, instead I am going to fix what went wrong and make sure next time I am more prepared. Yesterday was not my day, I put myself in a position for a great day as doing average is not what I reach to achieve, but a bit more control would have gone down a treat. I was also fortunate to have my little brother Dino down from University at Portland, Oregon looking after me. We are know back in San Francisco to watch a couple of his team mates run a 10km invitational race at Stanford tonight, then we head back up to Portland to figure out if the surrounds are perfect for me to train and get ready for the northern hemisphere summer of competition.Next stop for me is the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in 5 weeks which will be a good day for me to have a perfect race.I hope that everyone is well, I will keep in touch to let you know how everything unfolds.RegardsTerenzo

XTERRA NEW ZEALAND CHAMPIONSHIPS 14 APRIL 2008

What was I thinking entering an off road triathlon. A 1000m swim in the Blue lake in Rotorua, then a 26km Mountain Bike around the Redwood forest and to finish off an 11km run. Well that was how I spent last weekend

The afternoon before the race I thought I would go and check out some of the course and see what I was getting myself into. I didn’t want to ride the whole thing mountain bike so I just did the first 30minutes, well that was no fun – it was all up hill. Then I wanted to get back to my car… the short way, I found a straight line down the mountain on the National Downhill MTB trail, woops, I shouldn’t have done that. I couldn’t stop praying for it finish, I think I almost wore the brake pads down on my bike completely. So this little outing really was a blow to the confidence, I arrive confident and went to sleep that night thinking oh well, I did just come down here for fun.

Race day was beautiful. The sun was up and had warmed the cool air by the time our race started. Off on the swim and my competitiveness took over, pushing my way to the front and trying to keep the pace up as I knew I would have to put some time on the better Mountain bikers. First out of the water and off onto the bike… uphill right from the word go. To summarize the bike, the “uphill” was no fun, but I didn’t loose any time to the skilled bikers and the “Downhill” was exciting but I got time drilled out of me. Thankfully for my Specialized Epic mountain bike I managed to keep my deficit to a minimum.

I was off the bike 3min 40sec down on the leader and second and third were also well ahead, so I found my rhythm and pushed the pace. I now know why they call it an off road tri. Side stepping through the bush, would pay its dividend on the second lap where I experienced cramp so bad I had to stop and stretch it out. That was when I lost back the lead I had caught up on the first lap, so back in second and hobbling along, trying to prevent the cramp from returning, every stride I thought my race was over. I tried to change how my foot was contacting the ground, which seemed to work, and then laid the hammer back down.

Finally I got to the finish in first place, my first Xterra. Second place, Mark Leishman was only 20seconds back and had really made me work for the victory. I couldn’t believe what a great event it was, after racing around the world I was surprised to see an event in the middle of the forest on such an international level. Everything was run so smoothly, from the tricky parts deep in the forest to what would normally be chaotic transition zones. And the media covered the event well.

Well, what is next for me? After the huge upset in not making the Olympic team I have decided to focus this year on more of the non drafting races. I will be racing the Half ironman at Wildflower in 2 weeks and then be returning Back to San Francisco in the beginning of June for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. My main goal for the year is going to be the 70.3 (half ironman) world championship in November in Clearwater and I am still undecided on the Xterra world champs…hehe

New Plymouth 9 April 2008

I win.. just by starting the race.

OH SHIT 4 April 2008

I don’t really know how to start this email and I don’t think there is any easy way to inform you that the selectors made there decision last night and decided not to select me. it was a huge shock to me as I was sure the cards I had played would guarantee me selection. But hey, I suppose “selectors discretion” means just that… I really should have sent them an Easter egg. Too late now.
I know there has been a media release stating this, I would have really like to let you all know from me before the media, but I had quite a tough night. So sorry if you have heard from other sources before me.
As everyone knows this has been my life’s Dream and Goal. The past year has been solely based around making this team and representing New Zealand with Pride. This was a huge blow to me as I had done everything possible.
I am a strong believer of Fate – everything happens for a reason, and although right now that reason is far from clear to me, I know I am going to continue striving my best with new determination to be the best Triathlete the world has seen.
I know that everyone supported me to be the best I can be and no question about it, I have been striving in that direction my whole life. I am disappointed that I am not on the team as it would have been a great journey for us all. The support you given me over the years has made me what and who I am and I regards all of you as a part of my team.
Not too sure what the next steps are for me leading into the future but you can be sure that I still love this sport and with this set back I am going to come back to reach new heights.
Thanks everyone for everything and sorry this outcome has not been in our favour.
I look forward to catching up with everyone in the near future
Kind regards
Terenzo

Mooloolaba "THE BALANCE" 1 April 2008

Well, race one of the season is done and dusted. Not nearly the result I was looking for but a solid performance, the whole race went to plan… except for the outcome.
The day was hot and there was a slight wind, the field was stacked with several World Champions and Olympic medalists and the course was one similar to that of the course in Beijing. I had to finish in the top 5 for automatic selection. This is how my day unfolded.
It was a beach start with a short run into the small surf which suited me and I managed to get out past the breakers near the front. There was of course the usual pushing and pulling throughout the swim, but I can pretty much guarantee that whoever got too close to me wont be doing that again, I stood my ground. You can never really tell where in the field you are until you are out cause all the kicking and splashing makes it look like you there are twice as many people in front of you. but when I got out of the water I was in the top 10, goal one accomplished. I thought this was going to be a deciding factor as on this course a small bunch of 10-15 usually stay away, that was not the situation today. I think the whole field came together on the bike and there where definitely some decent crashes as I heard bikes getting pilled on top of each other multiple times.
Coming into the second transition I managed to get onto Marko Albert’s (from Estonia) wheel and received a good drag down the final kilometer of the bike. Soon it was off onto the run. I knew this was going to be hard as I was starting to feel my legs tighten up near the end of the bike, but I kept thinking positively and going through everything in my head. The first kilometer was crazy fast and up hill and it seemed we didn’t slow down for the whole of the first lap (2.5km) actually it seemed that the leaders didn’t slow down at all throughout the 10km. However that was not how my race was going to unfold. The start of the second lap I felt as if I had been hit by a train, I kept loosing the group in front of me and catching back up down the hills, but when the third lap rolled around my legs where even heavier, guys I can usually run with where running away from me, I don’t know how I even got to the finish. At the end I had managed to hold off Shane Reed, the other kiwi who was going for that spot. I finished 14th. Not a bad effort but I am far from happy with my performance, my running training had been going great but without the fire in my legs for the second half it made for a tough day. So the next big obstacle is how I am going to manage swimming well and running well on the same day, it always seems to be one way or the other.
Because I didn’t make the top 5, there is no automatic selection, instead the selectors will announce the team next weekend after the New Plymouth World Cup, so fingers crossed.
Right now I am doing everything in my power to recover faster and get ready for next weekend, it is going to be a different outcome.
Will be in touch
Regards
Terenzo

Mooloolaba 25 March 2008

HI all,
I hope that you had a good Easter. I am having withdrawals from the lack of Chocolate in my body. I guess I will have to make it up after this weekend.
I just wanted to write a quick note before I head off to Mooloolaba for our final Olympic Selection race this weekend. I have been looking forward to this race for some time now and can’t wait to let it all out this weekend. The criteria for the final New Zealand spot is that we have to be the first New Zealander home and in the top 5, which is a pretty tough task with the international field expected for the race. If we fail to reach this criteria then it is all up to the selectors.
My preparation has gone well and I am happy with my form leading into the race. I have had some pretty hard workouts with some tough guys like Adrian Blincoe – New Zealanders fastest 5km runner who will be competing in the games for Athletics as well as a couple other friends, Tom Mayo and Paul Angland who I have been able to rely on 100% to come out and push me along giving his everything for every workout. So thanks guys.
If you would like, you can follow the race this weekend on www.triathlon.org – they should have live video coverage of the race. Our race starts at 1:40pm Sunday Australian time, which is 4:40pm in New Zealand, and 8:40pm Saturday evening Pacific Time in the States. So tune in if you can.
Also apologies for terenzo.com being down the last month, I should have a new and improved site up and running in a couple weeks time.
Thanks everyone for you support, will touch base after the race
Kind regards
Terenzo

2007-06-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

CLEARWATER Half Ironman World Championship 11 November 2007

What a day!!!
Well, I arrived here in Clearwater, Florida on Monday evening. Surprisingly it was no where near as hot as it was last year. They where having a cold front which made it almost unbearable to be outside if you weren’t sheltered from the wind and in the sun… okay maybe not unbearable compared to most other places around the world at this time of year but it wasn’t what I was expecting. All those weeks of training with lots of layers of clothes on was going to prove to be unnecessary. My time included: checking out the course, fine tuning my bike, ice baths every night and massages from my two private therapists – mum and dad and by the end of the week my legs had mostly recovered from my race in Mexico. I had a few other commitments, but my most favorite was the Question and Answer night that Specialized held at one of the local bike shops to help the launch of their new Time Trial Bike, what a machine. I got to hang out with Peter Reid, one of Ironman greats which was awesome and everyone who came to the shop were great to talk to.
Race day quickly approached and before I knew it I was ready on the start line waiting for the gun. I had a great run into the water and was out in front for about 200m that was some unknown territory for me, I am never that far up in the swim. Then Andy Potts, one of the top swimmers in triathlon came past and I tried to stay on his feet… hard work especially with the current we had, we soon found ourselves 50m off course swimming in the totally wrong direction. Once we fixed up I sat in the group and Andy put a bit of a gap on us. By the end of the swim, expecting Mr. Potts to come out 1 minute ahead I found him right in font of me, the guy had gone off course again, poor guy.
Onto the bike, the pace was fast for the first few kilometers then we started settling in, that was until Bjorn Anderson and David Thomson, absolute machines on the bike, came rolling past. I thought this would be my time to put a gap on the rest of the field. So I rode up with them and put the hammer down to get away. It worked and soon we were cruising at about 50km/hr on the flat and I felt great, this was going to be my day. With the half ironman races there is no drafting on the bike so everyone has to keep a 10meter gap between the person in front and nobody wants to risk a 4 minute penalty so we end up leaving almost 20m just to be safe. Everything was going well, until about mile 40 (65km) into the bike, I started feeling my hips slowly cramp up, my quads blow. I had pushed the envelope a bit hard a bit early and I was going to pay. I made the stupidest mistake ever, I didn’t race my race, I knew my limits, but I still pushed them to ride with the leaders aiming for that extra edge. The last 20km of the bike I really tried to up my Carbohydrate intake, I slowed my pace right down and hoped my legs would come back.
I finished the bike with an average speed of about 44km/hr but only a 90sec lead over the main group which consisted of Craig Alexander, Andy Potts, Andrew Johns and a handful of others All I had to do was have a strong run and I may be able to hang on. So I set out the fastest pace I could hold but my legs were fried. I tried to keep focused but I was so tired, I must have been inches away from lying on the side of the road and passing out. Every stride was a struggle and by the end of the first lap the group was starting to pass me. I wish I could say that I only lost 90seconds on the 2nd lap as well but I dropped even further than before. I knew it was bad when girls on the first lap of their run where passing me and I could do nothing to hold on. I wasn’t going to pull out so I just chugged to the finish. Finishing in 9th place. A position that is still respectful, 9th in the World, but I was far from happy, I am still far from happy. I did the run in the same time I ran last year, but last year I had only run a couple times in the months leading up to the race due to an injury.
I messed this race up, I was ready and having a great day but I made a little mistake that I paid for big time. I have definitely learnt my lesson, it doesn’t matter how you feel you still have to race within yourself to a certain extent. At least for now while I am still young and not as strong as my older competitors.
Overall I have learnt and monitored some interesting information that will help me tremendously in the future to be a consistent champion.
This is the end of the season for me, so a few weeks off to recharge then back into it to get ready for Mooloolaba, our final selection race for the Olympics.
Thanks for all your support over the year, it has helped hugely. Good luck for the rest of 2007
Kind regards

MEXICO CANCUN ITU WORLD CUP November 2007

Firstly sorry for all the emails about the wrong race time. If anyone managed to catch any of the race I hope the coverage was okay.
I came to Cancun to get an in depth idea of how and what exactly I would need to do to race at the top of the game. I was aiming to nail the swim and get out with the front bunch, something that is proving to be of utmost importance to those who want to be in contention for the placings. Then I wanted to cruise the bike and have a good run.
Well this is roughly how it went: wearing number 10 I managed to get a good start position which was going to be pretty important as it was a beach start and the positions to the far right were optimal as you could wade about 20m further than those to the left. The start went well, I settled in behind the likes of Whitfield, Docherty, Gemmell and co. and felt I was off to a good swim, but slowly I got pushed back and by the time we cut around the first buoy a group from the left must have slipped past because before I knew it I was in the shit fight with leg grabbers and body slammers, everyone wanting to take the pole position around the turns. The swim was a lot different than any of use are used to, we had to run and duck dive about 100m at the start and a 100m at the finish and another 100m or so between the laps. Who thought duck diving could take that much breath out of you!!! To make matters worse there was a howling onshore wind which chopped up the water and made it impossible to find any rhythm.
The swim finished and I was out the water in about 20th position I ran hard and fast into transition, passed a couple people, had to pick up my helmet that had been blown off my bike and was soon off on my bike. I don’t know why but I managed to be the first person NOT to make the front bunch, great! There was a small group of us that worked pretty hard to bridge the gap but the front guys had the hammer down and soon we were swallowed up by the group behind us. I don’t know what they were thinking because as they caught up they stopped working, why? There were still 20 odd guys up the road. There were a small few who tried to push the pace but nothing lasted longer than 1km, I could see the front bunch coming out of every U-Turn with more and more time and by the end of the bike they had over 3 minutes on us.
Off onto the run and tried to find a fast rhythm, it lasted a couple kilometers then I started to suffer, pushing the pedals too hard on the bike was paying its dividend. I ran as best I could given the circumstances and how I felt and managed to maintain my position to the finish. 24th!
I am definitely not happy with the outcome, all I needed was to be 5 seconds quicker onto the bike and the race would have had an entirely different outcome. But no use talking about it know, its all about the then and there when I need to put it on the line.
Next weekend, the last race of my season, 70.3 (Half Ironman) World Championships, although it is a half ironman not an Olympic distance race I will be going out there to learn as much as I can that will help me when Mooloolaba, which is just around the corner, rolls around.
I will let you know how and when you can follow the race closer to the time.
Have a great week
Kind regards

AUCKLAND: 1 November

Hi all,
I am just about to leave New Zealand for my last two races of the season. First stop is this weekend in Cancun for an ITU World Cup, it seems the field is pretty stacked with a lot of the guys ranked in the top 20 competing to finish the year with maximum points. This is the same distance race that I will be competing in for our last Olympic spot so it is a good opportunity for me to figure out places I need to work on and how I can race at the front with the likes of Gomez and company for that number one position at the games. My coach Jon Ackland and I have come up with some great ideas and testing to see how they have worked will really be interesting.
The race is this Sunday at 10am Cancun time (Eastern Time) which is Monday morning, 4am in New Zealand. Anyone interested in following the race can do so on www.triathlon.org not too sure what if they will have live video but there will be some information up.
From Cancun I head up to Florida for the Half Ironnman World Champs, a race where I finished 6th Last year with no run training so will hopefully be a different outcome this time round.
Training has been going really well the last few weeks so not much trouble there, but coming from our Spring where the temperature is still below 20’C to Cancun and Florida where they are hitting 28-30’C with 90+% humidity will be a real deciding factor
I will let you know how things unfold after this weekend
Kind regards and thanks for the support

Beijing World Cup: 16 September 2007

Well well well…
Yesterday I had the Beijing World Cup on what is the Olympic course, a race that I have been planning for all year. For the New Zealand Team this race had a lot of importance placed on it as it was our first Selection race. After having a great day in Hamburg at the World Championships 2 weeks ago I really believed that I was going to be in for a good day. Leading into the race I felt like I felt the week before Hamburg, I was ready. Our selection criteria was first 3 kiwis in the top 5.
The race started in smoggy Changping, a small city on the outskirts of Beijing. I had the premium position, next to Andy Potts, the fastest guy in the water. For the first couple hundred meters I knew this was my day, Andy was swimming great towing my along and then the guy on my other side decided to roughen it up a bit and swam over top of me. It didn’t matter too much as I thought I was swimming alright until I got out the water and I was a little down, about 35th. I smashed it through transition and was right on Kris Gemmel’s wheel. We were mowing down the leaders. Just as we were about to close the gap a fellow competitor from my birth country South Africa stood up and changed gear, his chain slipped and he swept across the road catching my front wheel and pushing me over. By the time I got out of my pedals and started going again I was well behind the pace, I put my head down thinking that the leaders would slow down in a couple laps, yeah right, they just got faster. Paul Tichelar and myself road the whole 40km on our own, not giving up for 1 second, but by the time we got onto the run I was over 90seconds back. Oh well, I wasn’t going to pull out now so I cruised the run, caught a couple straggles from the lead bunch and that was my day.
It just really sucks how you put months of preparation into performing on 1 day and when something totally out of your control happens there is nothing you can do. Bevan and Kris ran into 3rd and 4th respectively, so I would have had to have had a great race to squeeze into the team. Now it comes down to Mooloolaba world cup in March where the rest of us will fight for that remaining spot.
From here I head down to Melbourne for 4 days holiday with Kelly and then it is back to the drawing board to get ready for the 70.3 World Champs in November in Florida.
Look forward to catching up with everyone over the next few weeks.
Regards

GERMANY: 2 September 2007

Wow what a day, a well overdue result,
The day started with everyone crossing their fingers hoping that the rain would hold off. It seemed to have worked, because the course seemed to stay dry until after the race when the heavens opened…
Well that’s all that I wrote traveling from Hamburg to Japan, I thought I would be able to finish writing it on my blackberry on our 5hr bus ride but as my luck would have it, no phone reception and my outlook has died on my computer (due to changes made by XTRA my ISP). So here I am doing it the hard way (writing while connected to the internet) well, not really the hardest way, but not the easiest way either.
To finish off on race day, the gun went off at 3pm, there where 81 starters and I knew I was going to have to have a great start to avoid the kicking and punching. The big decision before the race was where to start. You had Gomez and Whitfield to the far right and Potts to the left. The first turn buoy was dead in the middle. I decided to go slightly to the left to have the outside line around the buoys to hopefully avoid a few fists. It seemed to have worked well, it was still pretty rough but I knew I was near the front and still in contention.
Out of the swim I was about 20th, 20seconds behind the leaders, I nailed the transition and pushed the start of the bike to get on the wheels in front of me, probably a bit of a waste of time because the whole field ended up coming together at the end of the first lap. The course was 8 laps and there were about 9 corners per lap making for a tactical race. I tried to position myself well in the bunch to avoid heavy accelerations out of the corners but it seemed everyone had that idea, you literally had to push your way through to keep your position. The bike rolled around pretty quick and soon we were onto the run.
I left at a comfortable pace and a small bunch formed just in front of me, my legs were feeling good so I decided to run with them. This was the first time I was running with the leaders and feeling comfortable. All that training in Victoria had seemed to pay off. The first lap went by and we were half way onto the 2nd lap when there was a sudden change in pace that I couldn’t react to fast enough and found myself running in no mans land with no one to pace off. At that stage I went through a real slump and thought my race was over. I really focused on my technique and trying to stay on top of it and it seemed to work, by the end of that lap I had found my legs and was making my way back up. With the last kilometer of the race I picked up the pace and managed to make up a few more places, crossing the line in 7th place, the first New Zealander home.
Now I am settled in at our base in Japan, the nearest main city is Nagano, about an hour drive from here. But our house is situated 800m above sea level near all the ski resorts. The food is… how do I put it, well it is food but I am really struggling. I may be a bit lighter by the time next weekend comes. Everything is revolved around recovering for the big race next weekend in Beijing. It is our first Selection race for the Olympics and the whole team is keying that event as it will be a huge relief to have selection out of the way this early on. I leave the base on Monday and over night in Tokyo then fly out the following morning to get my lungs acclimatized to the pollution, hehe.
Hopefully this is a start of good things to come. Thanks to everyone for having patience and supporting me through the rough patch.

GERMANY: 1 September 2007

Guten tag from Germany,I hope the weather around the rest of the world is a bit better than what we are experiencing here in Hamburg.I arrived here on Tuesday from Canada and it is now apparent to me that it is pretty hard to find warm weather anywhere in the world. I left home as it was too cold to train there, but I have not put on a pair of shorts since I have been away. I was training in Victoria, Canada for the previous 4 weeks with Simon Whitfield and the Canadian squad who I have spent a lot of time with in the past. The training was some of the hardest that I have ever done but it was great to have a group of people doing the same work day in & day out pushing the pace. I managed to improve the areas that I needed work. From swimming in a 50m pool & lots of open water session my strength really picked up, & run training with Simon, one of the fastest guys on the circuit at the moment couldn't hurt either. So heading into World Champs and 2 weeks down the track Beijing world cup/ our first olympic selection race I am in a good place... I was house sitting for some good friends for a couple weeks and thankfully the house that they just moved into didn't fall or burn down. Kieran Doe, a fellow New Zealander who is into the long distance racing stayed with me for a couple weeks leading into the canadian ironnman in Penticton last weekend which he lead from start to finish to take the win.Well race day is tomorrow, Sunday at 3pm, or 1am back home in NZ, so I won't be too offended if you don't log into the ITU live feed. Hamburg is a beautiful city, I love seeing all the old buildings and being around a different lifestyle is really an eye opener.The only down side of racing here this weekend is that with another big race in 2 weeks time I can't afford to indulge in the local ice-cream. Oh well maybe next time!Will touch base with you all after the race tomorrow and let you know how things unfold.Take care

Vancouver; Des Moines; Edmonton World Cups June 2007

Hi guys,
Firstly I would like to apologize for the missing race updates the last few weeks. I felt like every time I was giving an update there was never any positive news so I wanted to wait until I had some good news before I filled you in on the bad news.
I arrived home in Auckland yesterday after a long trip home from Edmonton, Canada and now a day later my bags are still nowhere to be seen. The joys of traveling. I was away for 3 weeks and did 3 World Cup races. 1st stop was Vancouver. This was a first for the city and a practice run for the World Championships next year. The course suited me well. I was 10seconds behind the leaders out of the swim, and with my bunch doing no work we quickly dropped back to a minute deficit to the lead 7. At the rate things were going I was not going to be racing for a top spot, so I put a bit of an effort in and broke away from the bunch with one other. Due to the nature of the course, with all the sharp corners a small bunch was going to move along much quicker than a bunch of 30. We were bridging the gap by 15 seconds a lap, at this pace we would have caught up to the leaders with 10km to go, I was feeling great and riding hard, maybe too hard because I went around a corner at the bottom of a 400m climb a bit too fast and rolled my tire off the wheel and it blew up. Luckily I managed to stay on my bike, I tried to keep riding on the rim, but because the tire was half off the wheel would not fit through the frame. So I jumped off my bike and started running, I could see the gap to the leaders getting bigger and the chase group catching up, but still I ran as hard as I could, up a 400m steep hill and then along 200m on the flat to the wheel stop, by the time I got back on my bike I was exhausted and had lost a minute to the chase group. What was I meant to do, pull out the race and save it for next weekend, or keep going and see what I could make of it. The adrenaline was pumping and I didn’t want this whole race to go to waste so I put my head down and kept going. I didn’t gain or lose any time top the bunch but when I started running I knew that if I was in the lead bunch the results would have been a bit different. I slowly passed a few guys on the run and finished 31st.with absolutely no ITU points. Samantha Warriner from NZ won the woman’s race.
I then caught the ferry to Victoria to stay with my good friend Rob Hasagawa and his family and do some training with Simon Whitfield and his group before heading to Iowa for my next world cup. A new race to the circuit with the biggest prize purse in the sport, with the winners taking home US$200 000 and a Hummer, which would have been no good back here on our small roads. I knew if I felt as good as last weekend I was going to be in for a good race, but from start to finish I was struggling. I felt like I was going to sink in the swim and the air was hot and humid and I really struggled to breathe the whole race. After a hard day at the office I crossed the line in 24th, earning some much needed points to make it too the start line in Beijing.
Last stop of this trip was the Edmonton World Cup. A course that suited my style of racing. There was a lot of pressure for me to do well at this race, I needed to have a good race to improve my ranking otherwise I was going to have to find some more races later in my season which I would like to avoid doing. I went into the race baking myself all the way. I was not racing for experience anymore, this one was for the win. Race day came and I felt good. I had a good swim and nailed my transition to get on the bike with the front guys. There was a group of about 18 of us working pretty well to hold off the rest of the field. By the time the run came along we had about a 2 minute lead which was good. I headed out and my legs felt great so I pushed the pace. 3 guys including Kris Gemmel from NZ had broken away with 5 km’s to go on the bike and had a 20 second gap which closed slowly. Bevan Doherty took the lead after 4 kilometers and I was running comfortably closing the gap to the front. At the start of the 2nd Lap I started getting the most excruciating stomach cramps which were killing me with every stride I took. I lost about 20 seconds within 2 kilometers, but then came right and started pushing the pace again. With another big jump in pace with 1500meters to go I found myself running past a couple guys and finishing off in 6th spot. One of my better performances on the ITU scene, which was a big relief. And with lucky number 6 comes a drug test!!! Great, especially now that I was dehydrated.
This result gave me a lot of points, not enough to guarantee a start in Beijing in September, but has got me a lot closer as I am now ranked 4th kiwi, so it comes down to how the others race over the next couple months as to weather or not I have to race another points race.
It has been a long road to get back on top of my game and there have been a lot of down times where I have found it really hard to keep going. I appreciate and thank everyone for supporting me through this rough patch in my career, as without your help and encouragement I may not have made it back. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come in the near future.
I will be sure to write more frequently and not as lengthily.
My next 2 major races are Hamburg world championships on the 2nd September and our first Olympic Selection race on the 16th September in Beijing on the official course.
Thanks again and take care
Regards

Richards Bay World Cup 13 May 2007

Hi from sunny South Africa,
Well what can I say about my trip... Umm, well the weather was good. That's about all that was good for me.
The red eye down from Europe was okay, I managed to get a few hours of light sleep squashed in the back of the plane. Finally after about a day of traveling I arrived in Richards Bay, it was great to be at my final destination and settle into a rhythm. I started a short course of antibiotics as I seemed to pick up a bit of a throat infection on the way and was struggling to get through the day, uncomfortable and tired, with sore legs from last weekend.
I didn't end up doing much during the week, a little bit of easy training and heaps of resting. By the time Sunday race morning came along I was feeling better but still struggling with my breathing, however I was determined to go out there and have a good race. I told myself that in the past when I have had some of my best performances I have felt pretty ordinary before the start. So maybe I was ready for a great day. This was not to be.
The men headed off at 2.30pm, and the start of the swim was crazy, we only had 275 meters to spread out 75 men before our first turn, I thought that I had positioned myself well and it seemed like I was near the front, but when it came time to turn the buoy I found everyone on my outside was now on top of me. Inhaling air without getting a mouth full of water was impossible, and sometimes getting your head out of the water was hard enough. I knew at this stage that I was a way back and I had to do a lot of work if I was to bridge the gap. I pushed the pace and slowly made my way up the field, once I was out the water at the end of the second lap of the swim I ran as hard as I could as I knew I was going to be close whether I made the front bunch or not. I had a great transition but was still too far behind, soon a small bunch formed and even smaller few pushed the pace to bridge the 20 second gap. It gets quite frustrating when there are only a couple guys working to bridge the gap, someone should point out to some other individuals that if we don't bridge to the front pack the best position that they will get is 30th. Maybe next time I will just sit up and see what happens. By the end of the 3rd lap we had closed the gap but my legs where a bit fried, add another 5 laps with a 300m uphill sprint ever lap and I had not put my legs in a good position for the run.
The last few laps of the bike went by fast, but there was a break away of about 10 guys that got a minute lead onto the run which didn't help my situation. And when I started out running I felt like I had never run before, I struggled to put one leg in front of the other, I struggled to breath in air and after about 1500 meters I was struggling to move in a forward direction, it got so bad that I had to stop and walk for a second, I was on the verge of pulling out, I had dropped from being in the top 20 to being over 40th in less than 2km's, but I realised I would achieve nothing from quitting, I was still alive and my heart still wanted to kick some butt, I now had nothing to loose so I just put my head down and found my rhythm. Before I knew it my legs where moving well, I was pulling in guys left, right and centre, slowly making my way to the front. Trying to get quicker and quicker each lap, I was digging real deep, but my knee was slowly giving in, and I knew that every place I pulled in, I would get more points towards my Olympic qualifying ranking so I just kept finding more and more, if only I felt like this for the first lap I would be running up with the leaders. Not today though, I was going to have to settle for 21st place, a rather disappointing result but one that was going to have to do. James Elvery, a fellow New Zealander had a huge kick at the end of the run to hold me off and finished 20th.
I hate being made to race when I am not ready, because all you get at the end of the day is disappointment. I know that if I had enough time to have a good build-up and get sufficiently ready I am capable of much better things, but because of the Olympic Selection Criteria it is what needs to be done.
I start my long trip home today with a short over night stopover in Johannesburg to catch up with a few of my old school friends that I have not seen or spoken to since primary school. I get home on Thursday and its back to the hard training for a couple of weeks before I head to North America for 3 more World Cups in June. I know I will be a lot stronger and ready for some better results.
Thanks as always for your support and encouragement.

Lisbon World Cup 6 May 2007

hi everyone,
I hope you are all well and keeping busy. As for me... Well I have sore legs.
Yesterday was my first World Cup of the year, held in Lisbon, Portugal. Well where do I start? I arrived in Lisbon on Thursday after 30 plus hours of travelling, luckily I managed to get upgraded on Thai Air and slept at least half of the trip. Thursday afternoon I tried to go for a little bike which ended up taking the whole afternoon. Not only was I scared out of my pants with the crazy drivers but once the sun started setting and I had no idea where I was and it seemed that I was so far off course that no one could point me back to my hotel I really started worrying. After calling on all my bike handling skills I managed to weave my way through peak hour traffic and get back to my hotel. My next challenge was to try and stay awake until 8pm so I could settle in to the time zone straight away, this was a real struggle but when my head hit the pillow that night my lights were out.
The rest of the week was pretty ordinary and routine, checked out the course, race briefing and drinking coffee at one of the many cafe's. It seems to amaze me that these little cafes are packed all day given there are so many that wherever you are it would take at most 30 seconds to walk to the nearest one.
The course was one that would be great for the spectators and could go either way for the athletes. The transition was inside a big event centre, so we would have to ride through a technical part 8 times and going into and coming out of transition we were on cobblestones. Absolutely scandalous to use my zipp z-tec wheels on such a surface.
Well race time rolled around and at 2pm on Sunday we were off. I was determined to have a good swim to set me up for a good race so I made sure I pushed the start. Apart from all the leg pulling, punching, kicking and pushing the swim went well. I was out of the water in the top 15 and out of Transition 1 in the top 10. The bike started pretty fast and didn't slow for the full 40km. The bunch was pretty much strung out single file the whole ride with a couple crashes costing some of the guys their race.
Soon we were out onto the 10km run, I had a good transition but struggled to find my rhythm and speed early on. I found myself alternating 2km moderate, 2 km faster for the whole run. I am still lacking a bit of strength from only being back training for 4 weeks after my knee operation 9 weeks ago. I finished the race 22nd, So onwards and upwards from here.
I am currently sitting in Frankfurt airport typing with my 2 thumbs on my blackberry, waiting for my connection to Johannesburg where I then head to Richards Bay, a couple hours from Durban for my next World Cup on Sunday. I just need to make sure that my legs recover this week and I should be on track for a better result.
Will keep in touch.
Take care and thanks to everyone for believing in me and supporting me to achieve my dream.
Regards

What a month!!!

At the end of February I had surgery on my Knee. I had been struggling with it since a head on crash on my bike with a car in October last year. After trying everything to make it heal Surgery was my last option. Now coming to the end of the month training is slowly picking up, I am back Swimming and Biking and hope to be back on me feet running in another week or so, but don’t tell the doctor I said that.
Every year on my birthday the 1st of March, my sponsor Plumbing World holds a Plumbing Industry Charity event to raise funds to support youth at risk in New Zealand. The beneficiaries of this event are Rotary International, Parents Inc., FADE, and What's UP a youth line that works towards helping to prevent youth Suicide in New Zealand. My good friend Cameron Calkoen and I have been ambassadors for this charity for a number of years and it is great to see how What's Up has grown over the years with the help from the Plumbing Industry Charity Event. Thanks to everyone who supported this event as they managed to raise over One Hundred Thousand Dollars.
I have also signed up to be part of Charity Mix, which is an online charity that benefits from people purchasing songs and play-lists that I and other Athletes have created. There are half a dozen charities and we each get to choose one, my charity of choice is the National Prostate Cancer Coalition. Check out the link on the right of the page, if you do purchase one of my play-lists which have some great New Zealand Music you will be helping raise money for Prostate Cancer. If for some reason you don’t like my taste of music which I will be really upset about, you can browse to another athlete’s page and check out there tunes.
I hope everyone is well, I know that we down here in the Southern hemisphere have been enjoying Summer while the rest of you are probably training with a dozen layers of clothes on, but it is almost that time of year that things will change and we in the south of the world will be freezing our butts on our long rides.
Good luck for any of the upcoming races.

2006-06-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year
I hope that your Christmas and holidays were good and you have made some interesting New Year resolutions. I have had a great break from training and I am now feelin.lly refreshed and ready to go.
2006 was a good year for me, I won the Wildlfower Half Ironman in record time, had a couple good results on the world cup scene, finished 6th in the first 70.3 Half Ironman World Champs and then finished my racing for the year at the Laguna Phuket Triathlon coming 2nd in a competitive field. After my race in Thailand my girlfriend and I took 10 days to enjoy the culture and visit different parts of the country. We had an amazing time but we are still trying to get out of holiday mode.
My big goal for this year is to make the New Zealand Olympic team. Our selection race is in September but I will need to keep racing the world cup circuit through the year to keep my points up so I can get a start in the selection race. This is going to make it pretty hard to keep my form up until September but my coaches and I have planned the year as best as possible so when September comes I will be ready.
I would like to welcome onboard Saucony, Specialized and Profile USA, the newest team members who will help me reach my goal of becoming the best triathlete. They will join my great support team who has helped me get to where I am today which include: Plumbing World, North Shore Toyota, Oakley, and a number of other companies and individuals who’s help I could not do without.
I am still keeping up with my studies towards my Bachelor of Business which is giving some stimuli other than triathlon, but at the rate I am going it will probably take me until the end of my triathlon career before I have my degree, but hey, it’s better than nothing.
I would just like to say thanks again for all your help in making this Journey possible. I hope the road ahead is even more adventurous than that that has just past.
Good luck for 2007, I hope you achieve what you have set out to accomplish.
Kind regards
Terenzo Bozzone

CLEARWATER Half Ironman World Championship 11 November 2006
Hi all,
I hope that everyone is well and gearing up for the Christmas holidays. Last weekend I was over in Florida competing in the World Half Ironman Champs. Firstly my apologies for the late newsletter. I have found over this past year that when I have a good race it is easy to tell the story about how things unfolded, but when the cards turn and the race doesn’t seem to go as planned I always find it harder to get the words onto paper and it never sounds as good… well here goes everything.
Well it all started about 9 weeks ago when I started my build up for this race. Everything was going to plan and I was feeling stronger than ever. I knew that everything was going to come together nicely. I was just finishing my second week of training when I was riding my bike down to Piha (one of our famous surf beaches) with one of my training partners Silas Cullen and I had a head on collision with a car. I was totally at fault and besides a few scraps and bruises I was not too badly injured and my bike was still in working form. We finished our 6 hour ride and then I headed off for a run. It wasn’t until the next morning when I got up to go for a run that I realized that I had done more damage that I thought. From the crash I had pushed my pelvis out of alignment and to keep training was probably the worst thing that I could do as my body wasn’t working correctly and I was putting strain on the wrong parts. I was diagnosed with ITB friction syndrome, something most endurance athletes would have encountered at one stage or another. An injury that usually takes me a week or so to recover from is still hanging around. I did everything that I could, I saw the physio every day, sometime twice a day, regular massages, strengthen and stretching and a cortisone but nothing seemed to help. So I struggled between doing an occasional run on the road and a fair amount of aqua jogging. I had a choice to either pull out of the race or go over and give it a shot. I chose the latter. I had been looking forward to this race all year and I knew that anything could happen on the day.
The race started at pier 60 on Clearwater beach and the pace was on in the Swim, the water was calm and warm and all we had to watch out for was the sharks. Coming to the end of the swim I found myself at the front, I thought I could get out of the water first and pick up the swim bonus, but someone else had the same idea, the sprint had begun. I was just about out of the water when I lost my footing and took a dive for the sand, yum yum, there is nothing like the taste of fresh sand.
Next up was the 90km bike, besides a few bridges the course was predominantly flat, the roads were smooth and our average speed was around 43km/hr. The top contenders where all up there, Simon Lessing, Craig Alxander, Richi Cunningham and everyone was riding as strong as the next person. I tried the whole bike to set a faster pace and to get away as I knew that I hadn’t done much running and I would have liked a lead heading out onto the run, but with the course being so flat and straight it was near impossible to shake the guys. My knee held out until the last 40km of the bike, that’s when it started hurting and it started to become a matter of surviving, but at the same time I didn’t want anyone else to catch up from behind. Eventually we made it back to transition and this is where the hard part starts, out into the sun for the grueling 21km. The pace was set fast early and I couldn’t find my legs to keep up, I decided to find a rhythm and I would come right soon. For some reason my legs didn’t come right, I made it to the end of the first lap and I found out I wasn’t running too slow, I just had to keep up this pace and I would do okay. Then it hit me, my knee came back to haunt me, I started running with a limp and before I knew it every stride hurt with immense agony, but I didn’t come all this way to pull out so I just tried to keep chugging along. The finish couldn’t come quick enough and it wasn’t going to because I had slowed down so much that guys who were 3 minutes behind off the bike like Chris Leigh were catching up. I just tried to focus and find myself but the pain was getting worse and worse I don’t know how I made it to the finish line but after 3 hours and 52 minutes I was there. Only in 6th place, I had paid for the lack of running but I had learnt a lot and beside all the pain I enjoyed the race.
Well what’s next for me? At the end of the month I head to Thailand for the Laguna Phuket triathlon which is always an amazing race in the scorching heat.
Take care and merry Christmas if I don’t speak to you before then
Regards and thanks for the support
Terenzo Bozzone

LAUSANNE World Championship Triathlon 3 September 2006
Hi everyone,
Well what can I say? Firstly, what they say is true, “there is no place like home!!!” finally I after 2 months training and racing around the world and about 2 full days of traveling I arrived home. My last stop was Lausanne, Switzerland where I competed at the world triathlon championships. Prior to this I was based in the south of France at the base of the Pyrenees with the New Zealand team. The weather was great and the training grounds were ideal. I managed to keep healthy and I was on top form. After 4 weeks at the base we fly up Switzerland to settle in before the weekend of racing. We arrived on Tuesday evening and for some reason the 2 short flights and a train trip seemed to take a lot out of me, but I had the whole week to rest and come right and by Saturday I was feeling ready to get out there and have a great race.
Race day quickly arrived at 1 O’clock we were off. I knew that I had to have a good start to set up for the race, so I made sure it happened, however when we got to the first buoy I was still to far back. It was a complete stand still, everyone jumping on top of the next person, pulling legs back and pushing heads under, I was pleased when it was over to have just made it out alive. I then just tried to settle into a rhythm as I thought I was in a good enough position. To my knowledge everything was under control…and then we came out of the water and into transition. I could not believe it, I was further back than what I had been in previous races. I put this all behind me and did all I could to close the gap. I nailed my transition and was on my bike in great time, then my foot slipped and I lost my momentum. I hammered it as hard as I could but my legs weren’t operating at full steam, this was not good, especially on this course where we had 7 laps and on each lap we had to go over 2 steep climbs. Trying to push my pedals as hard as I could, but each pedal revolution I felt my heart trying to jump out of my throat. I knew all I had to do was get through the first few laps and my legs would warm up and come right so I just hung in there as best I could. By the end of the first lap I knew it was no use, the bunch I was with, even though riding the hills so fast was cruising so slow on the flats. I could feel my race riding away from me. My legs only seemed to come right with 2 laps to go, I wanted to leave everything on the course, you never know what could happen as it is not over until you cross that finish line. So I put in a big sprint and broke away from the bunch I was with, I quickly put time into them, but it was too late, the front bunch had ridden to much time into us.
I hit transition and headed out onto the run, although I was so far back I tried to run the race as if I was up the front. Slowly I started to pick up the straggles from the lead bunch. My run was going the best out of my 3 disciplines, if only I was up the front. I managed to keep the pace up and by the end of the run I had almost caught up to fellow New Zealander Shane Reed, but he sensed me coming and gave a big sprint for the line to hold me off. Hamish Carter and Kris Gemmell had great races, finishing 2nd and 4th respectively. Nicky Samuels finished 3rd in the U23 girls, and race favorite for the Junior Girls, Rebecca Spence had an unlucky race finishing 10th. New Zealand also took several medals in the age group divisions.
What a trip, I didn’t end up getting the results that I was hoping for but I did manage to learn a few new things. Not getting the results I was expecting has given me more motivation to train harder and smarter and find other ways in which I can get back on top of the game of triathlon. With the Olympic Games selection coming up this time next year I am going to have to be a whole new athlete. it is going to be a big challenge for me, but with the games being a dream of mine since before I can remember I am prepared to do all I can to put me in a position that I can make my own destiny.
Thanks again for all the support and let’s hope with my last big race of the year I can write home with a similar story as my first race this year.
Regards
Terenzo Bozzone

CornerBrook & Salford World Cup Triathlon 23 & 30 July 2006
Hi all,
Well I hope that everyone is healthy and well, more than what I can say about myself. I have had the craziest last two weeks; this is how they unraveled, more or less.
So after my easy week in Minneapolis I flew to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada. It is pretty much what its name suggests… in the “corner” of the world. Flights were delayed and cancelled throughout North America due to the bad weather they had been having and this didn’t help my travels and I ended up having to overnight in Montreal. Finally I arrived in friendly Corner Brook with no bags, just great. So the 2 and a half days before the race I was trying to locate my bags and no body seemed to know where they were. It was coming to the stage that I was going to have to borrow equipment and I didn’t fancy that. I woke up on race morning and my bag was in reception waiting, but only my bike bag, no clothes still.
To cut this story that I wish I wasn’t telling short this is pretty much how the race unfolded. My swim started off well but before I knew it I was having an asthma attack (my asthma medication was inside my bag that didn’t arrive, I suppose that is my fault for not carrying it on me) and found myself struggling to get around the first buoy. I was ready to pull the plug; with my bags not being there I wasn’t able to get ready mentally like I needed to. But I found my breathing coming right and my arms feeling better so I worked my way back up through that pack in the Swim and found myself leading out the second pack less that 25seconds behind the leaders. Everyone road pretty hard to bridge the gap to the front and by 15km into the bike we were all 1 group, that is until 3 guys broke away and got over a minute lead. With my breathing as it was and the course being pretty tough I was struggling to keep up and eating into my running reserves. The run started and I thought I should give it a go and see if I could make something from it, maybe this was my lucky day. It was not meant to be, by a quarter through the run I was dead, I had never felt this bad, I was running at a training pace and feeling worse and worse, but I had to finish, I didn’t come all this way to have a DNF (did not finish). I struggled across the line near the rear of the field, I was surprised that when I finished they hadn’t packed up and gone home. Fellow Kiwi, Kris Gemmel won the men’s race with Simon Whitfield from Canada having a great run coming in Second.
I Spent a couple days training in Corner Brook before heading to Salford, Manchester, all I can say is wow… and I thought that New Zealand had a lot of hills. My trip to Manchester went smoothly, I was planning on staying a night in London with Kelly’s (my Girlfriend’s) sister and fiancé but I thought I’d better get to the race site, settle in and try and change my unlucky streak that I have been having. Leading up to the race everything seemed to be feeling good, I felt ready to have a good race.
Race morning came along and like every world cup race we, the guys have to wait until about 3pm to start. So there is a lot of hanging around in your hotel room watching TV and trying to sleep as much as you can before you start getting ready 3 hours before race time. The weather in Salford had been unusually high, but not to bad and I was looking forward to racing in the warm weather, it wasn’t meant to be, just before we started our swim it began to rain and the temperature dropped rapidly and I was freezing. The gun went and we were off, and just like my other races this season my swim was nothing to write home about, I got smashed around and found myself playing catch up. I felt better and better as we spread out, but I wasn’t making up enough time and when we got out of the water I was lagging at the back of the second pack, I wasn’t to worried because I knew we would close the gap, but when? Luckily the bunch was moving quickly and by the end of lap 2 out of 8 laps there was a big bunch of about half the field, 35 guys swerving in and out of corners on a very technical course. Heading into transition I tried to work my way to the front of the bunch, as I knew any advantage would help as this run was going to be lightning fast. It took me a little while to find my legs and once I did I had already lost a fair amount of ground and due to not being able to find the right fluid to race with my stomach was cramping. I was not going to give in that easy, I wanted a good result and I knew that I was going to have to work for it. I felt like I had my running legs on and they felt like they were turning over well but for some reason it was not good enough, what was going on? Last year in all my world cup races I was finishing in the top 15, now this year, I had done a lot more training, I was a lot stronger and a lot more experienced and I was struggling to race well.
I finished in 24th. place, an improvement from last week but still way to far off track. My coaches and I am going to have to have another good look at my plan for the next few months and see how we can fix this. At the end of the day if would be great to win everything but realistically you cannot be on top of your game for the whole season. I have ITU world champs in September and then the Half Ironman world champs in November. Those are the targets, lets see what we can do.
Sorry about the lengthy email, I will try and shorten them down a little in the future.
Regards
Terenzo Bozzone

Life Time Fitness Triathlon Minneapolis 15 July 2006
Hello to you all,
Sorry about the delay in getting this update out. I have been trying to think of how to explain my race in the most Politically Correct way possible, but at the end of the day I think I will just tell it as it happened.
After a reasonable performance at the Edmonton World Cup last weekend finishing 9th I flew out to Minneapolis, Minnesota to get ready to compete in what would be the biggest money race in the sport of triathlon. The race was to be held on Saturday and we were going to cover the standard Olympic distance, a 1500m Swim, 40km Bike and a 10km run. The race was going to be a non drafting bike, similar to the format of a half iron man event, and lastly, the woman were going to have a handicapped start of 9min 49sec and the first person, male or female across the line will take home the grand prize.
I stayed at a great home stay with a guy Matthew Heggie who really made my time before the race comfortable. The heat was definitely going to be a factor on race day as by the middle of the week we were hitting low to mid 30’C and it was predicted to get over 35’C on race day and coming straight from New Zealand where we are in the middle of winter didn’t help, but hey everyone had to put up with the conditions and I usually enjoy the heat.
The end of the week approached and everything was falling into place, I was as ready as I would ever be. I could not wait for the race to get underway and that it did on Saturday morning at 8am the girls were off, almost 10minutes later us guys hit the water. I was a little nervous as to how my swim was going to go as I did not have the greatest swim last weekend, but it seemed that my body was back on track, I had a good start and settled into the bunch, I knew if we were to keep up this pace for the entire race the girls would soon be swallowed up. At the end of the swim there was a big pack of us and heading out onto the bike we were going to have to be very cautious not to get penalized for drafting and that I was, I slowly made my way to the front of the bunch to pick the pace up and hopefully tire out some of the faster runners. On my way to the front it happened again, I lost my flask with squeezy gels inside; I can never seem to keep them on my bike, even though I tried a different holder. Oh well there was nothing I could do so I just put my head down and hammered. Eventually another couple guys came through to take a turn at the front, but for some reason they started to slow down and I found my way weaving back to the front to keep the pressure on, just as I was about to take the lead again a motor bike with the US officials pulled up next to me and told me to pull over, I could not believe it, this was impossible as I was 100% certain that I had not gone out of line once, it was absolutely incredible. Further more with the rules being what they are, you aren’t allowed to question these guys even if they are in the wrong. This officials call was going to cost me my race, it was a very disappointing decision from the “Good Guys”. I had to pull over to the side of the road and put both my feet on the ground for 1 minute. I could still not believe it, and this was not the first time this week that these guys had done the dirty, 2 nights ago at the pro athlete meeting they told us that we would not be allowed to use our helmets because they didn’t have the USA safety sticker inside of it, and the only reason that it didn’t have the US safety sticker in it was because it was from New Zealand and we have different, yet higher safety Standards than here in the US, and it didn’t matter that other people who purchased there helmets here in the US, the exact same helmet as me only difference was that it had a different sticker in it. So with aero helmets making such a difference in your bike position aero dynamics I had to go out that evening and purchase another helmet.
Okay so enough of me complaining and making excuses, I had come here to race and that is what I would do, when I was allowed to head back out on the bike I made it me mission to get this rubbish out of my head and concentrate on racing the perfect race. I gave it everything to make up my lost time, I knew that I would either catch back up and have given too much on the bike to be able to run well or maybe I would be having a great day and for some reason my legs would be invincible, either way, to go hard was the only choice I had if I wanted to try and have a respectable finish, so this I did and to my surprise I managed to catch the main bunch of guys with 5km to go, I went straight back to the front and started to ride away from the bunch, could it be, was I back at the front of the race. As I approached transition I could hear the announcer calling out a few of the guys names and I realized that I didn’t see them in the bunch when I rode through, there were about 3 or 4 guys who had make a break from the field and were a minute up the road.
Now the interesting part, would my legs hold out on the run? I started out and I didn’t feel too good, but I thought, “give it time, it will come right.” With the heat pounding down and the guys that I had just passed catching back up I didn’t know what I could do, all I wanted to do was to run fast but my legs felt different. All I could do was hold the best rhythm I could find and that I tried, and I bet it was not a pretty sight, I felt heavy and tired. Now I could not wait for the race to be over. It had been a long race and I would have to wait until next year to try my luck again at the Worlds Richest Race.
Beside a handful of guys dropping out through the race I found myself crossing the line last guy, just behind the 4th. place girl. A disappointing finish for me.
Hunter Kemper (USA) was the first person home, with Hamish Carter, fellow New Zealander finishing 3rd male. Emma Snowsil, who has been dominating the female side of thing over the past few years was unable to hold off the guys, but she did managed to hold of the rest of the girls field.
I am still in Minneapolis until Thursday but I have moved home stays and now I am staying with Steve Brandes, an up and coming force in long distance triathlon, we have been having a good time and training is going to be pretty chilled this week as I get ready for my next race on the weekend up in Corner Brook, Canada.
I hope that everyone is well and healthy. I will keep in touch with how my progress is going.
Thanks for everything and take care
Regards
Terenzo Bozzone

Edmonton World Cup 9 July 2006
Hi everyone,
I hope that you are well, and everyone back home in New Zealand is not freezing.
I am just leaving Edmonton, Canada after my first world cup of the season, with a 9th place finish.
I left Auckland on Wednesday afternoon and arrived here in Canada on Wednesday evening (its great how you can gain time though travelling such a distance). I didn't think it would ever happen to me but it did, both my bags didn't arrive and I hugely regretted not being prepared for this situation. I went 24 hrs with no clean clothes, no training equipment, no anything. Although it may not sound that drastic, when you have been travelling for 20hrs, you really need to get out and spin the waste out of your body.
I eventually arrived at my hotel and woke up my room mate Shane (Snuffy) Reed, an experienced professional who has been on the circuit for a while and a great friend. The rest of the week slowly passed, and if it wasn't for Wimbledon, the Tour de France and the World Cup Soccer I might have gone crazy.
After waiting around and trying to make time pass quickly in our hotel room our race started at 3.30 in the afternoon, the weather forecast was 29, but I don't think it ever reached that temperature, in fact everyone was pilling on the clothes while waiting for the start as it was raining and cold.
Eventually we were off and because I had not raced yet this season I had a poor starting position and didn't manage to get off to the greatest start, getting beaten up and pushed back, I tried to relax and not get caught up in all the hustling and wait for the right time to start moving back up through the pack. Once we got onto the bike I was 20 seconds back on the front pack, but the group I was with worked well and before 15km were up we were all one big bunch. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the bike to pass without crashing and heading out for a strong run.
I got out of transition in the top 5 but my legs didn't feel great and I wanted to try and pace myself better than I have in the past. So I really relaxed the first 3km, and after we hit the next lap I knew that I was starting to feel strong, so I started to pick up the pace and work my way back through the field. Slowly I was passing people and one by one I was making my way closer to the front of the bunch. Running into the last 1km, I was in 10th position with 9th place not to far up the road, but it was not until the last 100m that I actually decided to sprint for the line. With the crowd cheering and the finish line getting closer I dug in deep and managed to sprint into 9th position.
I was pleased with my result although I would have liked to have been further up the ranking, the season is still early and there are bigger races to come in future weeks and months.
Next stop is Minneapolis where I will compete in the life time fitness triathlon – battle of the sexes. In this particular race the woman start ahead of the guys and at the end of the day the first person across the line takes all.
Well take care, and I will keep in touch to let you know how things are going.
Regards
Terenzo Bozzone

Ironman Baja 70.3 Mexico 21 May 2006
Hi all,
What a place, what a race.
My room mate Bryan Rhodes and I arrived in Ensenada, the wine area of Mexico on Wednesday, a lucky move as there was a shooting on Thursday and the border was closed.
It is great being in a race environment as there are no other stresses, all you have to worry about is looking at the course and recovering. In our case though, looking at the course turned out to be a matter of surviving, as I may have miss interpreted the course map and taken us slightly off course down the back roads of Mexico.
Race morning fast approached and by Sunday I was as ready as ever to attack the challenging course. I had been looking forward to the race all week and couldn't wait for the gun to go off. I was going to have to wait a little longer as everything here is done on a sort of island time schedule. What was meant to be a 7am start ended up being a 7.40 start. Everyone was in the same boat but after waiting around for about half an hour I realised that the race was going to end up being a long hard day at the office for me. I tried to keep focused and was determined to try and make the race as hard as I could.
When we eventually started I raced to the front and set a strong tempo in the water as I wanted to make as much time as I could on Chris Legh, who got second to me at Wildflower. My plan worked but not as well as I had hoped. I headed onto the bike with a 1 minute lead, put my head down and got into my rhythm.
With triathlon you rely on a lot of external factors to go right. You hope that the race is what you expect it to be, you hope all the things that can go wrong with your bike and equipment don't, you hope that the food you have eaten over the last week don't react with your body in the wrong way. Well for me at Wildflower 2 weeks ago everything went my way, and it was my day, but yesterday it seemed that my luck had changed.
Between 5 and 6 kilometers into the bike race we went through a really rough section of road with pot holes and bumps every few meters. I had almost made it through this section perfectly and then I hear something hitting the ground, I reach behind me to make sure my drink and nutrition were still in tacked, they weren't, what do I do? Do I turn back and pick them up as it is important to make sure that you get your calories in during the bike so that you don't blow up, well I thought that maintaining my lead was more important, looking back now I wish I had made the opposite choice and picked them up.
So I road the first 30 minutes without fluid before picking up a drink bottle at an aid station. Now from here to the turn around at 45km was all up and down hill. I just tried to keep the best rhythm I could. I was still feeling good, I knew that all I had to do was keep this pace and I would get off the bike with at least a minute lead. But with 30 kilometers to go I started to feel my legs loosing power, the lack of calories was starting to kick in and make things worse the wind had picked up and it was a head wind the whole way home. I just tried to relax and keep turning my gear over, but my legs were feeling worse and worse, at this time I was worried I would not be able to move my feet when the run started.
With 10km to go Chris caught up, I was just hoping that he was a little tiered to so I could slowly work into the run. We soon came into transition and after leading the race from the start I was not about to give up. Having come from a back ground of world cup races I had a faster transition and was off into the run. I was quite surprised, the day before I had eaten something that had up-set my body and it felt like something was stuck in my throat, thankfully it hadn't got any worse. I tried to cruise the first few kilometers and get as much coke into me as I could, I knew this would help make me feel more alive and boost my calories.
After running with Chris for a few kilometers I felt like my legs were right and I could run my race again. So I slowly picked up the pace and made a little gap all I had to do was not blow up and this race was mine. I felt comfortable, that was until about kilometer 7. All of a sudden I started having bowel problems and needed to go to the bathroom badly. I hoped that it would go away, my pace was slowing and my stomach was getting worse. At kilometer 10 Chris had caught back up and I had to go to the bathroom. After stopping for a few seconds I had to catch up the time I had lost, I closed the gap down and this must have been my lucky day (not), after making up my lost ground I had to make another bathroom stop. This time when I came out of the port-a-loo Chris had made an even bigger gap and when I started running again I just couldn't get my legs turning over. I tried several times to stick it out and push the pace to catch back up, but it seemed every time I pick up the pace my stomach played up. I knew I could not afford to loose any more places as my goal for this race was to come top 3 so I could be selected for the half Ironman world championships in November. I had to keep moving and get to the finish line. I didn't drink anything else, I just couldn't stomach it. My bowel was still playing up but was not that bad that I had to stop. I could see Chris up the road moving at a huge pace, I tried once more to bridge the gap and after a couple hundred meters I knew that this was not my race. Now it was just a matter of surviving. The finish couldn't come fast enough.
Eventually I made it. Crossed the line in Second place, what a race. Chris Legh was on fire, he came from the back and had an amazing race.
I managed to do what I had come to do so I was pleased about that, but was really hurting deep inside, to lead the race with all that bad luck and then drop off the second half of the run was disappointing. Well done to Chris who was the better man on the day.
What's next for me? Well I leave Ensenada Mexico today and then leave San Diego on Tuesday night. I will have a couple easy weeks of training before building up for my next big race- the Life Time Fitness triathlon in July.
It has been too long away from home. I can't wait to have a break from living out of a duffle bag and sleep in my own bed. At the same time it has been a beneficial trip for me. I have learnt heaps more about triathlon and life and had a couple good results.
Thanks again for all the help and support and I look forward to catching up when I get back.
Take care
Terenzo

Wildflower Half Ironman 6 May 2006
Hi to all,
Hope your legs are feeling better than mine. Well I have just finished one of my greatest races ever. On Saturday I raced in the Wildflower Half Ironman. I had the race of my life. Everything seemed to go right for me on the day.
I arrived at the race site which is halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on Tuesday evening. What a long trip it was, my plane was delayed 90 minutes out of Auckland, my rental car company didn't send a bus to come pick me up and what I thought was going to be a 3 hour drive ended up taking a little over 5 hours. What can I say... Character building.
I met up with a friend, Johnathan Collet in LA and when we got to Wildflower we were put up in a caravan, my first time staying in one of these, what an experience, especially because the darn thing was parked on a hill, this made sleeping rather difficult. Well we got through two nights there then were moved to a house about 20 minutes away. What a beautiful place, right on Lake Nacimento, basically...wow.
The week leading up was relaxing, I felt up and down with my training, but I did feel a little more confident on the course, which was reassuring.
Race day came and I was up at 5am getting ready, all was going well until I started warming up on my bike and my nose started bleeding, so I rode back to my car trying to seal my nose with a sniff and my head tilted to the back, not the easiest way to ride a bike. Well that stopped and soon I was ready to race.
The gun sounded at 8 o'clock and we were off. There was a great field racing with pro athletes from all around the world. Although Simon Lessing, the defending champ and record holder was not racing due to an injury, one of the favorites was Torbojorn Sinbad from Denmark, 2nd place getter last year. I knew I was going have to watch out for him as he rides a bike like a demon on wheels. My plan was to make sure the swim was at a strong fast pace, this would spread out the field, leaving some of the strong cyclists a little bit behind out of the water, giving me a chance to try and hold them off. All went to plan, the swim was a descent pace and heading out onto the bike in 2nd place behind Tom Evans, Canadian Ironman legend. I quickly took the lead as the technical part of the course was right ahead, I kept my head down and pedaled as hard as I could for the first few Kms, not looking back I kept going, expecting some of the guys to go to the front and pick the pace up. Well I made it to about 20kms and still no one had came past, I glanced over my shoulder, and to my surprise there was no one to be seen. I made sure I kept my head down pushing the limits as I knew Torbojorn, the great Dame would not be far behind. I had soon made it to half way through the challenging course and still no Torbojorn. This soon became a lesser part of my worries as I knew that the second half of the bike course had a lot more hills and I would have to keep my pace up to stay away from the rest of the field. My legs slowly felt like they were deteriorating and with the last 15km being a gradual uphill this was not good. Thankfully I had paced myself just enough to ride the 90km course and soon I was off onto the equally challenging run course.
Did I have enough juice in the tank to tackle the hills or did I empty it all on the bike, we would soon find out. I knew I was going to have to pace myself as the hills got harder and harder. I had to find the best rhythm I could, as is was in the back of my mind that I wanted to break the record that Lessing had broken last year. Running along with all the volunteers and spectators spurring me on was great, and this is what kept my spirits high. Attacking and pushing my limits right to the edge, until I got to the steepest section of the course, last year I had to stop running and walk for 10m, was I going to be able to keep running this time. Well I would love to have said yes but no, I had to walk for a few meters, which wasn't actually much slower than running and by walking I gave me body a little time to slow down instead of pushing my heart rate too high.
My goal in the run was to keep picking up the pace and this I tried to do running every mile of the second half faster and faster until I made it to mile 10, kilometer 16, where we had to turn around and run uphill for about 1km then it was another 4kms home.
At the turn around some yelled at me, said that I had 24 to get the record. Everything was running through my head, actually just mathematical equations, didn't have enough energy to think of much else. As they only had mile markers on the course I was trying to work out if I had converted the miles to kilometers correctly and if I remembered the correct amount of miles that I had to run, because 24 minutes to run 5km is just under 5 minutes per kilometer, quite a bit slower than training pace. Well soon I figured that at the end of the day I was aspiring to my perfect race, so I stopped thinking about the record and just put everything I had left into the last section of the run. And then all of a sudden I had more things to worry about, my quads were starting to cramp up, I could feel my muscles starting to twitch and I prayed that I would not have to walk back to the finish line, that would have been risky. I kept thinking about what my Pilates instructor Raewyn always tells me, "relax and breath." Thankfully this helped but I knew that the race wouldn't be over until I was holding the finishing tape in my hands. The last kilometer of the course is probably the most challenging, situated where it is. It is a downhill stretch to the finish line, well I knew this was going to be tricky as my legs were finished and running downhill on what felt like sticks from an old frail tree was going to be interesting. It didn't prove to be as hard as what I thought but now 2 days later I am wondering why my legs are aching. I got to the bottom and saw the crowd yelling, running down the finishing shoot with hundreds of people yelling was amazing and looking at the clock reading 3hr53min was a huge shock as until last year no one had broken 4 hours and now I was about to go 6 minutes under the record set by the great, Simon Lessing.
What a day. It is not too often in a triathlon that you feel great and everything goes your way but on this day, on this course, I had my day!
I wouldn't have been in this position if it hadn't been for some important people in my life. First and foremost, my parents, nothing can describe what you guys have done for me. My brother Dino and girlfriend Kelly, I don't think anyone has put up with as many mood swings and grumpy days as you two have. Maz (Kelly's mum), my cook away from home, always making sure there is good food for me to eat, even if it is a mid-night snack. My coaches Jon, Frank, Mark, and Raewyn my Pilates instructor, thanks for everything. And my sponsors, for without you help I would not have had the opportunities that you have made possible over the years, I would not have the best equipment, and I would be struggling to get from race to race, so a huge thanks to you. And everyone else, thanks for being a part of my journey.
Well next stop Baja, Mexico on the 21st May. Let's just hope my legs recover fast enough.
Take care and thanks again
Cheers

April 2006
I hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend and didn’t eat too much chocolate.
So far my year has been off to a good start, I have managed to get in some of my biggest training miles ever, and I am really looking forward to starting to race.
I leave home on the 2nd May and head to Los Angeles where I will drive up and race the Wildflower Half Ironman, a race that after I finished last year I swore I would never do again. This year I know what to expect and I can only hope that my training has made me more prepared for the grueling course and the challenging competition. I will then spend a week recovering and training in San Diego before heading to Baja, Mexico my second Half Ironman of the season. There is a little more pressure to do well in this race as it is part of a series that will help me get selected for the Half Ironman World Champs in November in Florida. A great perk of this race is that we get put up in a five star resort for the week, so there is no need to worry about over training before the race.
I will then come back home for a month to firstly sit my exams at university and then get ready for my next trip traveling and racing through the States and Europe.
University has been going well, so far I am on track and I am enjoying having something to do that takes my mind off triathlon for a few hours a week.
I look forward to hopefully having some good news to write home about, but until then be safe and God speed… because he is allowed and we will get fined if we do.
Congrats to all the Commonwealth Athletes – awesome results. A special congrats to friend and training partner Paul Hamblyn on a great 1500m. Well done to Bevan Doherty, Sam Warriner, Andrea and Debbie
Cheers

February 2006
So far this year training has been pretty good and I am getting ready for a big year. I will start racing in the middle of April and my season doesn't finish until November. Paul Hamblyn, my brother and I have started doing Pilates with Raewyn Hing at IQ Pilates. We have all found great benefits with doing Pilates. Our flexibility has increased which is so important when doing endurance events as you never do stretch enough and wind up with injury after injury.
Also would like to say congratulations to Nathan Richmond for winning and breaking the record at the Tauranga Half Ironman and Keiran Doe for coming a respectable second.
Congrats to Bevan Doherty and Samantha Warriner on winning nationals

2005-06-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Laguna Phuket Triathlon December 2005

Absolute beauty and luxury, treated like Royalty and truly spectacular surroundings. Race start and after a reasonable swim that was it, I just could not get things going and then ...puncture...!!! No problem I will quickly put my spare on, it should only take me a minute. Well that was not the case, the tubular was stuck on all around the rim and so hard I could not get a grip to get it off. Finally after 10 minutes or who knows how long, I find something sharp and cut the tire off. It just wasn't to be my day I could not stop thinking how beautiful the place was and how I had let these people down who had expected to see me do a little better than this. Results : Greg Bennett 1st Craig Alexander 2nd Richie Cunningham3rd whilst Samantha McGlone was 6th and Laura Bennett 8th Terenzo 11th overall All that is left for me to say is I hope that I will be lucky enough to return to this magnificent place someday.

ITU World Cup Rookie of the Year 2005.

What an honor the ITU have given me. As a result of my World Cup performances this year I have been awarded the very prestigious accolade of being the 2005 ITU World Cup Rookie of the Year. Thanks to the ITU team for putting on a great 2005 season. After my 1st. year as a senior Elite Professional I am ranked 31 in World Cup Ranking and 36 on the ITU World Ranking. Not bad especially if you look at the strength of the other Triathletes on the World Circuit. almost every country have athletes that are capable of being number one in the world. Yeah! not so easy, but satisfied with 36 in the world, for now.

November 2005

Hi Everyone,
Well I am back to my base training after a well deserved rest.
Recently I was at the Auckland marathon helping out a sponsor by taking their employees for warm downs and stretches. I was there with many other athletes including Sarah Ulmer, Ben Fouhey, Beatrice Faumuina and Erika Takacs. Congratulations to all the people that took part on the day.
I attended the Secondary Schools Sports Awards in Manawatu with Kate McIlroy, the World Mountain running champion. It was great to see all the up and coming athletes.
On 5th November I participated in the Harbour Crossing Swim Race. What an experience!! There were hundreds of people and the weather was everything but ideal. The water was choppy and the waves were pretty high. I managed to finish, losing my way a bit. Congrats to Moss Burmester for taking it out on the day.
As you all know New Plymouth hosted the last ITU World Cup of the season last weekend. It was such exiting race – unfortunately I did not take part in it, but fellow Kiwis Bevan Doherty and Kris Gemmel had the most amazing race finishing 1st and 2nd respectively.
At the end of November I will be heading off to Phuket to race in the Laguna Phuket Triathlon. This will be the start of my racing for the summer. Craig Alexander and Greg Bennett from Australia are both on the start list which should prove to be an interesting race.
Cheers
Terenzo

St. Kilda Australia Commonwealth Games Selection Race

Hi Everyone,
Well now, I’m back in New Zealand for the summer. Last weekend in St. Kilda Melbourne there was a selection race for the final 2 spots for our commonwealth games team. Most of the kiwis where really on form this weekend. The day started off with the girls’ race at 7am. They were also racing for the final 2 spots as Samatha Warriner along with Hamish Carter’s performance’s at world championships secured their selection into the team. It came down to the run for the girls with 4 of them off the bike together. Andrea Hewitt was the top NZ girl followed by Debbie Tanner and Evelyn Williams, just missing out.
The guys were off next. The swim had a lot of turns and really made it challenging to avoid being pushed around. There was a bunch of about 15 of us heading out onto the bike and after having the worst transition of my life I managed to get back onto the pack. Nathan Richmond was really pushing the pace on the bike trying to spread out the field along with Craig Walton, one of the strongest cyclists in our sport. The bike was a mixture of turns and small hills but we all managed to make it to the end together. Heading out onto the run, is where the real race would start, with some of the best triathletes around, Bevan Docherty, Tim Don and Greg Bennet. The start was dangerously fast and I knew that I would have to hang on for as long as I could to make it onto the team. Instead of the pace toning down it seemed to get faster and faster as the race went on. There were 15 of us at the start, including fellow New Zealanders Bevan and Kris Gemmel, but with the pace so hot the leaders pack got smaller and smaller until about half way through the run, when struggling to hang on I started to drop off. I lost the leaders and the race started to go downhill, with my running getting slower as it was much harder to run by myself with the wind blowing towards me. I kept giving everything I had as I knew anything could happen on the second half, but unfortunately everyone was on form and kept up the pace. Well done Bevan and Kris.
Also, congratulations to Cameron Brown and Jo Lawn for an outstanding performance at Hawaii Iron man. As well as the many age groupers who performed very well.
Cheers

Home Sweet Home!!

It sure is good to be back in Auckland – even the long white cloud was welcoming.
I have been away for almost 6 months. It was a great experience and I learnt heaps that will help my future as a triathlete be more successful. Since my last update I put my head down and started my grueling build up for World Champs. Having to pack up all my belongings from Canada proved a bit stressful, but with my brother Dino and my girlfriend Kelly there we managed to get through it.
What's Next
Back home and trying to focus on getting back into a steady routine. My next event will be in Melbourne on 15th October. This is a selection race for the Commonwealth Games. Hamish Carter has already got one of the spots from his great race at the World Champs, and there are 2 more spots available. It would be a great honor to represent New Zealand with Hamish Carter and all the other top New Zealand athletes.
Cheers
Terenzo

Beijing 17 September 2005

One stop down one to go as we headed off to Beijing to compete on the course for the 2008 Olympics. We stayed in a great place near the course in a town called Changping. It was close to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs. The course was very different to the week before with a few more hills but not so many tight corners. Unfortunately I did not have as good a swim as the week before and missed the front bunch which I never caught – not through lack of trying. Bevan Doherty who was with me out the water managed to bridge the gap to the front bunch where team mate Kris Gemmel was. I started on the run with a couple of the top athletes in the sport, Shane Reed and Tim Don. My legs felt good and I was happy with my run finishing in 14th place. We managed to see a few of the sites and do some shopping at the markets which really proved to be a cultural experience in the great part of the world. We were treated exceptionally well by the Chinese and I know that the 2008 Olympic games will go down in the history books for years as being one of the greatest Games.

Gamagori 11 September 2005

September arrived and with it came my first Elite World Championships and racing in the heat and humidity of Japan made it even tougher. I felt good, but very nervous on race day. I came out in the top pack at the end of the swim, there was a bunch of 10, but before we knew it, our pack had grown to just about the whole field, which was not ideal as it was a very technical course with a few serious crashes and a lot more near calls. All the kiwis were in the front bunch and unfortunately Nathan had mechanical problems. I came in first to transition off the bike and had an awesome first 400 meters and then realized that the lottery was not mine for the taking this time. I managed to finish the race in 27th place. Hamish finished 5th with Shane Reed finishing 11th. A lot of the top athletes found it very tough, not only because of the course and the heat but also because of trying to find a routine in such a different culture, where it was hard to find food that we were used to, which I am sure it is the same way the Japanese feel when they compete elsewhere.

HI FROM CANADA
Just back to Victoria from the round trip to Corner Brook and Edmonton World Cup Triathlon races.
Edmonton 23 July 2005

Left the next day for Edmonton with sore legs. Arrived in Edmonton but my bike didn’t…..until the next day. I was there for the week which gave me some time to see a bit of Edmonton which was manly the West Edmonton Mall, the largest shopping centre in the world.
Race morning came along and the weather wasn’t looking to good, thinking it could be a repeat of last year, where the race was cancelled due to hail storms.
It was a top quality field with the likes of Hamish Carter, Simon Whitfield, Bevan Docherty and many more top elite athletes.
Again I managed to have a good start which really set me up for the race. It was a 2 lap course and at the end of the laps I found myself running hard to transition to catch on to the leading few athletes. With Andy Potts and Craig Walton bolting from the start to gain a 2 minute lead by the end of the bike. First half of the race unfolded a lot like Corner Brook for me as there was a bunch of 10 of us on the bike. Although unlike Corner Brook managed to stay away from the chase bunch for the whole duration of the bike.
Heading onto the run in 3rd place again I knew I had to pace myself better than the week before. Unfortunately there were no gears for me to change on the run as there are on the bike. Instead of picking up the pace for the second half of the run I found myself stuck in the same gear and not being able to go any faster. It was still a good day for me as it was a top class field. Finishing in 13th place was still a great achievement for me and I really enjoyed the event.
I am going to have a well deserved easy week traveling around British Columbia seeing the sights before I start my build up to world champs, which are in September in Japan.
Hope everyone is well and keeping healthy.
Cheers
Terenzo

Corner Brook 17 July 2005

1st stop, Newfoundland, Corner Brook, which is North-east of Canada, so far in the middle of nowhere that they have a 30 minute time difference, from the nearest mainland, but the people were very hospitable. The country side was very much like New Zealand.
I arrived there a couple of days earlier, to go over the course, to discover it was going to a tough and grueling course.
Race day came along and the sun was shinning.
Off to a great start in the swim and tried to set myself up for what was going to be a tough swim bike transition as we had to run up a steep 400m hill to get to our bikes. I was out of the water in about 5th place but had to give everything to get onto the top few guys, like Tim Don, Victor Plata and our very own Nathan Richmond. There was a break away of about 10 elite athletes for the first 30km of the race, but we just couldn’t seem to get working and the bunch increased as the chasing pack caught us. 2 cyclists got away and made a 1 min gap on the rest of the field. I was 3rd into transition and ran out with Tim Don at an extremely fast pace, which was probably not the best idea as after the first couple of kilometers my legs realised this wasn’t the pace for me and I spent the next 6 km battling over the strenuous hills trying to find my legs. At this stage I was probably in about 17th place. At this stage I had to push the red button that reads “do not push” and managed to run myself into 11th place. It is still early in the season for me and this was a great stepping stone as I learnt a lot which will hopefully benefit me at World Champs later in the year.

Specialized May 2005

Terenzo finds a company with the right attitude and signsup with Specialized for: bike frame, helmet, cycle shoes, and cycling clothes.

Wildflower Half Ironman 3 May 2005

Hey everyone - Hope you're all well back home in NZ.I've just finished the 2nd race of my adventure, the Wildflower Half Ironman. We arrived on Sunday night to a place that was in the middle of nowhere, then spent the week going over what would be the hardest and toughest course of my life. It was a huge shock to see the course and to know that the strongest athletes in the sport will be competing for the one spot as well. Took it all on board and turned it into positives, and knew I could learn a lot by racing on this course with these athletes.
Race morning came and at 8am we were off for our 1.9km swim. Managed to stick with the top guys in the water and got out of transition in 4th spot. I knew I was going to have to pace myself carefully on the ride and that the race would only start 60km into it. I was leading the ride for the first 40km with Simon Lessing, Bjorn Andersonn and Andrew Johns. All of sudden Norman Stadler the world ironman champion and Torbjorn Sindballe, the "Great Dane" came flying past, which immediately picked up the pace. Trying to stick to my own plan which must of been similar to Simon Lessing's, I backed off the pace a bit to save my legs for the run, which was going to be the deciding factor. And as I had been warned the 60km came, along with the steepest up hill section of the course. Trying to keep the pace on till end of the bike, I found myself passing Bjorn Andersonn and riding in 4th place. I could feel my legs starting to cramp but managed to make it to the end of the bike in 4th place, 2 and a half minute's behind the leader. Off into the run with Simon Lessing, probably one of the most renowned names of the sport, I tried to hang with him as long as I could but found my legs started to give way on the hilly course at 5km. I found the best rhythm I could that would get me to the finish line, as now it was just a matter of surviving as the heat was kicking in. The spectators were amazing and kept my spirits up. Coming down to the turning point at 17km, I had a chance to see what Normann Stadler had left. I wasn't going to settle for 4th place, I wanted to get on the podium this time, so I started to pick up the pace on the last uphill section of the race. Giving everything I had left, I could see I was getting closer and closer to Normann. The unthinkable happened and I past the world's greatest with 3km to go.
At the end of the day, although I wasn't standing on the top of the podium I was so overwhelmed to have finished 3rd in such a top quality field, 4 minutes behind the winner Simon Lessing in a time of 4hrs, 4min.
My girlfriend Kelly and I have just started our trip around the Western States area, with our final destination Victoria, Canada on about 9th May. Thanks everyone for the ongoing support, without your help I wouldn't be able to achieve these results.
Have a great winter, I'll catch the sun for you all. I'll keep in touch.
Best wishes

Terenzo

Honolulu 17 April 2005

Hey everyone,
Hope all is well and sunny in NZ. I have just finished the first world cup of the season in Hawaii. Had a bit of a slow start and struggled through the swim but once I got going on the bike I started to come right. The pace was a bit slow as it was hot and windy and nobody wanted to do any work. A few guys got up the road in a break away including Matt Reed a former New Zealander and got up to over a 1 minute lead. I came into transition near the front of the bunch and headed off into the heat. I started off really strong and tried to hold the pace as long as I could. Tim Don from Great Britain and Hunter Kemper from America and I were chasing down the leaders and the gap was closing quickly. I managed to hold on until the third lap were I started to loose them slowly. Half way through the last lap Courtney Atkinson from Australia came flying past and I had nothing left to try and hang onto him. I finished in forth place, a great result for me. Also had the second fastest bike time and ran 31minutes for the run.
Will keep you posted with my progress
Terenzo

Port of Tauranga Half Ironman January 2005

Just completed the Tauranga Half Ironman and after having had a puncture which set me back over 3 minutes I managed to finish in 6th position. I completed the course in 3:52:34 The winner of the race was Australian Craig Alexander with Kieran Doe 2nd and Levi Maxwell 3rd.
Tauranga has got to be one of my favorite places. it has great surf and beautiful beaches and this year in particular the race seemed to be run really well. I think I was one of very few people who punctured, because the course was quite clean.

2004-12-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

Taupo Half Ironman December 2004
I completed my first Half Ironman at Taupo on Saturday 18th. December After having a good swim and coming out of the water first I managed to increase my lead after the bike then increasing this a little more after the 1st lap of the run, and although Kieran had an amazing 2nd lap I maintained a good lead to finish in a new course record of 3.57.03
Taupo is a great place to race and Hooksie Knows how to put it on for the all of us.

2004-09-30T14:52:00.000-07:00

Plumbing World September 2004
I am excited by the prospects of signing with Plumbing World . Plumbing World has a strong code of conduct, they are known to strive for excellence in customer service and quality of product and I am very happy that they found me to be of similar substance. They are a great fit and our relationship will prosper.

2004-03-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Queenstown World Champion 4 Times in a Row
To win a back-to-back world title is a dream come true! And I wouldn't have done it without my family, coaches Frank Clarke, John Ackland, my sponsors, and everyone else out there supporting me, and thanks to those who have sent emails and messages. Special thanks also to Kelly Hawkins from Millbrook resort who accommodated us and were absolutely superb - wasn't it a fantastic venue for the race!
I am now back training after the big race. Everything has started to calm down now after the big hype.
My weekend down in Queenstown staying at the luxurious Millbrook resort was amazing. My race was one of the first, early Saturday morning. We were expecting the worst on the weather-side; the forecast was terrible but fortunately by the time our race started the worst was over, but due to the heavy down-pour that night the transition was ankle deep in water and this lead to my first complication. We were not allowed to take our bikes out of transition for warm up, so I brought a pair of rollers to do my bike warm-up on, but with the water level being so high on the grass I couldn’t set them up properly!
But anyway, the race started at 8:15am, there was a bit of pushing and shoving at the start which eventually settled down as I moved out wide. The next obstacle was the hill up from the water, this was a huge gut-buster, then back into the water as we ran through transition. Onto the bike and we were off. Peter Croes rode like a demon. James Elvery said that he was traveling about 40+km/hr and Croes came from behind and made him feel like he was standing still. Then when he caught up he hopped onto the front and powered it up the hill pulling a small bunch with him. The break didn’t last long and the bunch reformed out the back and we all stayed together all the way into transition.
Next up was the tough run leg through Millbrook resort. I had a little lead at the start which faded and two Frenchmen, David Haus and Laurent Vidal. These guys were running amazingly, holding off the rest of the pack, but in the end it was the home town advantage and the great support from everyone out there cheering their lungs off that kept me driving to the finish line.
The atmosphere down there was great, and thanks to my coach Frank Clarke I met and got to hang out with some great people including Simon Whitfield Olympic Gold Medalist and his coach Lance Watson. There was also a huge NZ cheering Squad out on the wall of our cottage making sure nobody was slacking off.
Next up for me is the Oceania Triathlon Champs in Davenport, Tasmania. This race also backs up as a selection race for the third New Zealand spot for the Olympic team, which I and many others will be gunning for.
Thanks again to everyone for all your help and support. Keep in touch and I apologize for being a little slow in writing this - I try my best, but there just are not enough hours in the day.
Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year, and all the best with future endeavors.
Terenzo