Technique

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

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