The Rich Roll Podcast - 5-Time World Champion Triathlete On Training, Racing, Diet & Life as a Professional Athlete

Episode Date: August 26, 2013

Today I'm joined by my friend and (sometimes) summertime training partner Terenzo Bozzone – 5-time World Champion professional triathlete. I met “T” right after I completed EPIC5 back in 2010 when he arrived in town along with Chris McCormack for several weeks of intense spring training. With a gracious poise and maturity well beyond his mere 28 years, Terenzo is one of the brightest stars in professional triathlon, as well as a remarkable ambassador of the sport — always quick with a kind word of encouragement to his fellow training partners and never too busy to connect on a personal level with his many fans. I've had the honor of getting to spend some quality training time with Terenzo over the last three years and will say this — the sport of triathlon is a better place with him in it. T is one of the good guys. A guy you want to see win. A guy you can really get behind and root for. I'm so pleased that Terenzo took time out of his busy training schedule leading up to his peak race of the season — The Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas just two weeks from today — to sit down and have a chat about his training, racing and life. I hope you enjoy the show. No doubt you'll end up a big fan of all things Terenzo. So do the guy a solid and let's all show him some Twitter and facebook love to get him pumped for the big show in Vegas! Enjoy! Rich

Welcome to episode 46 of the Rich Roll Podcast with Terenzo Bazzone. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey people, it's your friendly neighborhood Rich Roll here, coming to you with the Rich Roll Podcast. your friendly neighborhood Rich Roll here, coming to you with the Rich Roll podcast. Today I've got a great episode for you, my friend, and a great ambassador of sport, five-time world champion triathlete Terenzo Bizzone.

He's a great guy. Kiwi, we love Kiwis. New Zealand, big shout out to you guys. You guys are, besides America, we get the most downloads for this show from New Zealand, big shout out to you guys. You guys are, besides America, we get the most downloads for this show from New Zealand. So I love that. I love the fact that New Zealand is tuning in to the podcast and they're completely dialed in to getting healthier, getting more fit. Australia is right up there too.

So anyway, keeping up the tradition of having guests from New Zealand and Australia. And very proud to have Terenzo on the show today. He is such a poised young man. I'm so impressed by him. At only 28 years of age, he has the maturity of somebody who's been around on the planet much longer than that. And as I say to him at the end of the interview, I wish I had one iota of his maturity when I was his age. He's just a very, very impressive guy

who carries the message of sport across the globe in a very positive way. And I've had the good fortune and honor to be able to do a little bit of training with him. He passes through the Los Angeles area during the summer months, at least he has over the past couple of years. And he's been kind enough to invite me into his little training group. So I've been able to swim with him, cycling not this year. I don't want to slow him down too much.

But in past years, I've gotten out on the bike with him quite a bit. And he's a pleasure to be around. And like I said, a fine young man with a great message who is doing amazing things in this sport. He's extremely talented but also extremely focused and devoted to the sport. He works really, really hard, and I'm always thrilled and excited to see him perform. And he's really at the top of the sport. I mean, this is a guy who in 2013 alone, he's already won two 70.3 races at Mont-Tremblant and in Florida, and he was third at the 70.3 Vineman.

In 2012, he won four 70.3 Ironman races. Those are half Ironman distance, if you're wondering. And this is coming off of an Achilles injury that kind of had him sidelined for a while. And he's gearing up right now to compete at the 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas in two weeks. So it was very kind of him to take a moment out of his training his very focused training to sit down with me as he gears up for that race and we get into everything we get into his nutrition that's that's what everyone wants to know what do you eat before a workout what do you eat after a workout what do you put in your bottles on the bike well we talk about all stuff. We talk about how his training has evolved and kind of what some

of his key workouts are and what he focuses on in his training and how he prepares for a race. So this is very triathlon focused for more tri-geek oriented of you out there. And I think you'll really dig it. Like I said, he's a delight to be around, and it was a pleasure to sit down with him. So I'm so pleased to finally bring this interview to you. A couple scheduling things coming up. I'm going to be in Toronto on the 7th of September. I'm speaking at the Toronto VegFest. I'm doing a keynote.

That's Saturday night on the 7th. And then on the 8th in the afternoon, I'm doing a panel with a bunch of other plant-based athletes, which should be really fun, including James Lightning Wilkes, former guest on this show. So if you're in Toronto or in the vicinity, come on by. It's a great event. It was huge last year when I went. Tons of people, tons of great food, amazing speakers. Um, it's a good time. So if you want to learn more, go to festival.veg.ca.

I'm also going to be in Tucson, September 21st. Uh, the event is called the Tucson Healthy You Network. And, uh, there's some other great people speaking that day all on plant based nutrition and optimizing your health so to learn more go to healthy you network.org what else uh want to support the show go to the amazon banner ad at richroll.com it's on the podcast page it's on the blog page you You're going to buy something on Amazon anyway, right? Well, just go to richroll.com, click that banner ad, takes you to Amazon, get what you're going to get. It doesn't cost you a penny extra, but it goes a long way towards supporting us, what we're doing and the mission. It makes you feel good about your Amazon purchase because it's more than

just what you're buying. A lot of people have been using it. I get tons of great tweets and comments and emails about people that are buying stuff on Amazon. I really appreciate the support. It means a lot. So thank you very much. We also have a donate button. You can subscribe to the podcast and donate whatever you like, a preset amount, a dollar amount of your choice on a one-time basis, on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis. So that's another great way to support what we're doing. Pretty soon, we're going to be moving into a more professional studio, which I'm very excited about. As you'll hear in this interview, we're in the garage, and it's like 100 degrees out, and I don't have air conditioning in the garage. So I had to roll up the door, which faces the road, and it's quite a busy road.

It's Sunday afternoon, so lots of motorcycles on the weekend. So once again, you guys, I'm sorry about the audio quality, but you're going to have to tolerate some motorcycles driving by. And even with the door rolled up, Terenzo was sweating bullets. So I felt really bad about him. And all the more gracious he was to kind of tolerate that and sit through it. So apologies for some of the quirks about the audio. But like I said,

we are moving into this new studio pretty soon. It's all going full pro. It's going to be epic. So excited. Can't wait. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally

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Anyway, that's it. Let's get into the interview. So proud and inspired by this guy. Proud to call him a friend, a training partner, and very pleased to finally bring his message to you guys. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy my little chat with Terenzo Bazzone. Oh, we're starting? Okay. Yeah, you can keep eating that pie as long as you throw the props out. Oh my God, it's so good. It's pretty good. Vegan chocolate strawberry pie over there.

Got a little bit of superfood. For T-Man in the house. So it's boiling hot out, and we're in the garage, so we've got to roll the door up. And it's Sunday afternoon, which means there's a lot of motorcycles out there. Everyone heading out towards Rockstor? Yeah, everyone. Well, exactly.

So for the listener out there, if you hear a lot of rumbling, there's not much I can do about it. We are building the new studio, though, so we're going to get all pro pretty soon. But right now it's homegrown. Well, I love riding. I was riding out this morning along Mulholland, and it was ridiculous the amount of motorbikes that went past. I couldn't believe it. homegrown well i love riding i was riding out this morning along more holland and uh

it's ridiculous the amount of motorbikes that went past i couldn't believe it and yeah you got to be careful there's a um clip up on youtube that made the rounds i don't know if you saw it i tweeted it a while ago it was several months ago but um you know how on rock store they have on the weekends the guys set up there and take the pictures yeah and that's where all the like car clubs and motorcyclists love to ride up there because at the base there's this kind of what would you call it it's like a restaurant bar at the bottom it's very famous called rock store everyone hangs out i doubt anyone ever eats there though there's quite a few people there but like jay leno goes there every, and there's just tons of motorcycles out front. It's kind of a landmark in LA. Everybody stops in there.

And on the weekends, it's just a crazy number. You get the car clubs with 20 Ferraris in a row or the Porsche clubs or even the little kit cars or whatever, and they come steaming up Rockstar. So I try to avoid that ride on the weekend. kind of steaming up rock store so i try to avoid that ride on the weekend but there was a youtube clip where a guy was riding and he was you know he's pretty close to the top of rock store like right at that that that hairpin bend you know that last hairpin bend yeah and a a motorcyclist uh just couldn't you know was was pinning it a little bit too hard and just rear-ended this cyclist who went over the top of him it was crazy it was all in it was all on video too oh my god i'll put the clip up in the show now so yeah you got to be careful yeah but i mean it's cycling heaven around here but there are a

lot of motorcyclists and you get the guys who i mean the bikes that they make these days are so powerful and you have the weekend riders who maybe aren't as experienced as they should be or have a little bit more power between their legs than they need to have and what's ridiculous we were talking today and one of the guys said they were at going past the shop and they said you can get a like a ninja 600 or like six thousand dollars seven thousand dollars which is cheaper than you can buy a push bike right and uh but yeah it's funny because you you ride past the rock store the shop down the bottom and that's where all the motorbikes park, so there's 200 motorbikes.

Yeah. And I was looking there going, oh, my God, if you're a first-timer or a first-time rolling off to the rock store, how the hell would you park your bike? You'd get it in there and you'd fall over and take down 20 bikes. It could be pretty funny. It's sort of like being a novice surfer and jumping out into a lineup where you have no business being, I guess. And, yeah.

And also when you have the guy there that's taking pictures, like, oh, here's my moment. It's like a guy just guns it. Guys are going over the edge like all the time. There's accidents all the time. But it is trying to heaven. It's like 90 to 100 most days and like hilly everywhere good canyons i just i love it out here the train the training don't don't like mac always says don't yeah pipe down we don't want too many people knowing about how

good it is here i lie yeah if anyone knows me i'm a liar yeah i was at um I stopped into the bike shop over in Agora yesterday, Sirius Cycling. And I was talking to the owner over there, and he was talking about how he wants to get a Gran Fondo together for I think like February or something like that. Because the cycling around here is really great, and there's definitely organized rides. And you have like – they have the King of the Mountains Challenge where you 10,000 feet over 100 miles. And there's some stuff like that, but there's no proper full Gran Fondo where they lay out – like it's a big event. So he wanted to do it and he was talking about how then the next day they would do a time trial. Oh, nice. But he said he thought – he was talking to George Hin George Hincapie, who was committed to doing it.

And then he said, oh, yeah, and Terenzo said that he might be into it. And I said, oh, yeah, I know Terenzo. I go, I don't know if he's around here in February, though. No, no. I went for a ride with the boys, and there were a couple of guys who were super strong. But, yeah, they were talking about it. So apparently all the pro cyclists come out here in the winter. Right. But I'm back home because it's summer it's summer there i don't know if you want to be around here in february but if you are that would be good for all of us yeah

that's great so um so already today what is it it's like 3 30 right now you've already done your swim you've done a ride you took a nap and you're gonna run tonight yeah and it's a bit of an bit of an easier day today i've got a hard it's an easy day yeah it's an easy day for the champ we're two two weeks out from uh 70.3 world champs in vegas yeah and uh yeah i'm just just trying to get the legs ready get them freshened up and have a couple couple hard workouts where i can i can test the legs and I guess bring them up to that peak condition Right, so you've got a couple, probably

just a couple more hard days and a couple key workouts you've got to get in to just tone it up Yeah, tomorrow, Monday is a pretty big day for me and then after that I'll recover and then maybe do two or three moderate type workouts next weekend, so one week ten days out from the big race and then maybe do two or three moderate-type workouts next weekend, so one week, 10 days out from the big race,

and then into taper time. All right. Well, I want to get into all of that stuff, but let's clear one thing up immediately because every time I have a world-class athlete on and I go to Twitter and I say tweet your questions, immediately it's like, what do you eat before a workout? What do you eat after a workout? What do you eat when you're on the bike? Everybody

wants to know that kind of stuff. They want the secret sauce. So everybody's different. I think everybody should find what works for them and it's not going to be the same for everybody. And what you do is different than what I do, but everybody wants to know. So take us through a day. I want to go through a day in food and i want to go through a day in training okay okay um so starting off you're laughing as you're eating the vegan pie over there yeah the cacao how many calories is this i'm like well it's a lot but there's a lot of good superfood in there too yeah that's that's all all i'm thinking about is the superfood the cacao and the cacao.

Yeah, everything. Well, after your run tonight, you can text me and let me know how it settled. How it sat? Yeah. So basically, I mean, a normal day I wake up, eat a coffee or a green tea before I go swimming. I usually wake up, like, I like my sleep, so I'll sleep in as long as i can so there's not really time for for breakfast before swimming um yeah so jump in the pool do do a swim set uh and you're you're really regular with the swim i mean you've been going i don't know five days a week or four yeah most

mornings yeah five five days a week try to uh between four and five thousand meters or yards and uh yeah i find that i mean, out of those five sessions, two of them are usually really hard and the rest are moderate to easy. After swimming, I'll… And then during swim workout, you usually have a water bottle. Yeah, just… Do you have water in there or do you ever put anything else in there? Depends how I'm doing, but, yeah, I mean, you don't want to get too depleted if i'm if i'm loaded up i'll uh i'll just yeah just drink water but if i feel

like the day before was a hard day and i lost some electrolytes i'll put some some cliff cliff shot electrolyte drink inside there and and yeah that way you just keep your electrolytes coming in while you're training so you don't don't get to a too depleted state right but you're you don't you you don't ever do i mean most of your swim workouts are 4 to 5K. Like you never put in, at least that I know, like these big 10,000-yard swim days or anything like that. But you're a solid swimmer. I mean you're fast in the pool.

Yeah, I'm no Andy Potts when it comes to racing. But most of the time I'm a front-bunch swimmer. I did a few of the 8, 10K workouts back when I was swimming competitively and I've got enough of that to keep me. Yeah, I don't need to get any more insane. Yeah, but I think the big thing for me with swimming, now that I've built up my base, is just maintaining good technique and getting in those one to two,

sometimes three hard swim workouts a week. Right. And I think, you know, it's important for people to know. I mean, when we swim, you always take the time to do, you know, do drill sessions and, you know, work on your technique. And, you know, what I always say with swimmers, because especially in triathlon, like I come from a swimming background too, but most people don't and they come in and they, they have, you know, poor technique or, you know, up to fair or whatever, but they're so

worried about getting their workout in or their five grand or the four grand. And a lot of times they'll just get in and swim without even any set, like just swim straight, or they don't want to take, they don't want to take the step back and focus on the technique because they're worried well i need my conditioning but yeah you're always like no you know like if you would just do that for if you would just not worry about your swim conditioning and work on technique for six months you would have a quantum leap in your performance well that's the big thing with swimming you you've over the years i've come to realize that it's i mean your fitness is is okay it's a part of it but the biggest part is is your technique in the water and your feel in the water so that's why i mean i swim five times

a week sometimes it's i mean if i don't feel good i'll do i'll do a mile or two two k's and and get out but i'm in the water and working on that feel and then if you keep that feel it's it's a big advantage and uh and then the technique side of it if you have good technique there's yeah you can you can cut out on a lot of hard stuff you do yeah and worry about doing the hard stuff on the bike or the run yeah it is weird with swimming um i think more so than than cycling and running where if you take a break and you don't do it you you really do lose that feel and you feel like you're floundering in the water. Even if you're fit from the other two sports, you really do have to keep contact with that and it's about consistency as much as anything else. Yeah, exactly.

All right, cool. So you get out of the pool. We usually meet 7.30 around there. So you're not sleeping in too much. Yeah, these guys like to sleep in back home in New Zealand I'll swim at 5.30 or 6 o'clock in the morning

because they want to meet early yeah that's just the time of the squad I mean when you're a professional athlete you know I mean sleep is so important and maybe you know I think a lot of people overlook it but like if you're I mean if this is your job and this is what, you know, your profession, like you've got to get that sleep in.

Like waking up super early doesn't seem like it would serve that. Yeah, dude, I'm up at 6 o'clock waiting for you guys. Oh, I'm hanging around going, yeah, these guys, where are they? No, but yeah, that's the big thing. I guess the difference between professionals and amateurs is is we can spend more time recovering and and that's why i mean we don't necessarily train harder or train longer but we recover better and so i mean good eight nine sometimes 10 hours of sleep a night and then uh then a nap during the day or or just feed up on the couch

and and getting good food into you is really important. Is it easy for you to crash and take a nap in the middle of the day? I mean, if I'm really tired, I won't even remember hitting the pillow. But usually, I mean, I get an hour of downtime. I'll close my eyes and lie down. If I fall asleep, it's great. But if not, I'm unwinding for for an hour

all right so swim practice is done we usually grab a quick breakfast and then i go to work and you go get on your bike right yeah yeah um yeah so i mean breakfast can be anything from eggs and like eggs and salmon uh shame on you sorry we'll get you plant-based eventually yeah i i i but i mean i definitely agree with with the eating clean and and i try and do that as much as i can um i was actually i guess kind of a personal thing but i was actually realizing for thinking about it when i was on my way over here. I didn't put deodorant on. I sweat a lot, but if I'm eating really clean, my sweat doesn't smell, or at least it doesn't smell to me. Swimming helps too.

When you're in the pool every day, you need something about the chlorine. You don't need deodorant as much. I don't know what that is, but I don't know if that's good. But, yeah, when I'm back home, I'm actually sponsored by a company called Kellogg's. You guys have that company here, but they make a cereal brand called Nutri-Grain, which you don't get here. We don't have that here? No, you don't. Kellogg's is a Michigan, it's a United States company.

Yeah, yeah. And so it's only in New Zealand, Australia, and Asia they get the cereal called Nutri-Grain. And it's pretty good. It's quite delicious. A lot of sugar in it. It's not sugary enough for Americans to have a palate for, I guess. But I guess when I was born in South Africa, I actually grew up on Frosties, Frosted Flakes. Yeah.

I used to love Tony the Tiger. I had a few of those in my past. My brother, the monkey he is, he was always into Coco Pops. So, all right. So, out on the bike. Yeah. What are you doing? Like what's a typical bike workout for you when you're kind of ramping up to get ready

for a race like what you're about to go into in Vegas? So, usually I kind of, I go between two or three different bike workouts. One of them is I call it like an anaerobic threshold workout where I work on the shorter, harder efforts, so one minute to three-minute or one minute to five-minute efforts. And that's kind of my anaerobic threshold power, so really pushing and hurting. And usually try to get that into a three- to four-hour ride.

And you usually try to do that on relatively flat terrain, right? Yeah. I mean, you want to be going fast, and being on the flat gives you a true indication of where your power is. And I also try to do that workout on the same loop every week so the power is consistent. Right, so usually you ride down to PCH and do it there, right? Usually for that workout, do the loop,

so through Hidden Valley, over Potrero, and then, yeah, down onto PCH. Right, down Los Posos, down to the right, right. Yeah, yeah. I haven't gone up Los Posos yet. No, that thing pitches at like 26 degrees or something like that, I think. It's fun to go down, right. Yeah, yeah. Cool. I haven't gone off Los Posos yet. No, that thing pitches at like 26 degrees or something like that, I think. It's fun to go down, though. Yeah, yeah.

And that's where those big fires were recently. Well, not recently. Maybe, what was that, five or six months ago maybe. Yeah. You can see it's all torched when you go through there and down. Yeah. Down by Channel Islands, the college down there. Right. So that's one workout.

Yeah, one workout. The other, this is probably my favorite workout, especially to do here, is a long ride. It's only between four and six hours, and try to get as many vertical meters as you can in. I think my record is about, I want to say, 10,000 in six hours, 10,000 vertical feet. Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but around here it's not that hard to do, right? But there's so many great canyons to ride up.

Like, I mean, Latigo is about a 35-minute climb. You've got Stunt, Paiuma, they're roughly 15 to 20, 25 minutes. Right. Yerba Buena, have you done that one? No, yeah hear that's... The pavement is chewed up there. It's kind of gravelly in places, not the smoothest, but I think that's the longest climb.

It's a good one. You've got to do that one. You should do that one tomorrow. I hear Deer Creek is the steepest one. Deer Creek and Decker are the steepest. Okay. Yeah. And Tuna is really steep, too.

Not too many people ride Tuna because it's almost too steep. Oh, yeah. It's crazy steep. I've been down there a couple of times. And it's long. Decker and Deer Creek aren't quite as long. But, yeah, it will put the hurt on you for sure. So, all right, that's cool.

So the long rides and the interval rides i mean do you and and you do hill repeats once in a while right like you did that maca uh yeah workout i watched that video um yeah so that's probably that's one of my bread and butter workouts uh do it on the bike and and running is is hill repeats so for the bike i'm looking at between 10 and 15 minutes where i sit around that half Ironman race wattage with intensity and go between, I mean, early in the season, I'll do three to four, and later on in a build-up, I'll get up to maybe six to eight. Sometimes I've done 10, but usually eight's where I peak out at.

And when I do that workout running it's usually about a five minute effort and um yeah so anywhere between four and ten right and what what works for you on the bike in terms of cadence i mean you have like kind of the you know the guys like lance armstrong that are spinning super high cadence and then the jan ulrichs who are churning you know big gear kind of thing. Like, is there one of those that works better for you or? I mean, I used to be a 90 guy, sit around 90 on the bike and running. But over the past couple of years, I've been working on increasing my cadence a little

bit, trying to race around that 95, 96 area. I mean, it would seem like a higher cadence is less anaerobic and would set you up for a better run that i mean if you're if you're turning huge gears that has more muscular fatigue i would yeah that's that's the big thing so pushing bigger gears there's more i mean you're depleting the glycogen stores in your muscles but pushing a higher cadence you're you're you pay for it by your heart rate being slightly higher. So it's a catch-22. You either got a higher heart rate or your muscles.

But I've found over the years that with half Ironman and Ironman distance races, it's not really your lungs that blow out. It's your legs that go first. Right. And what are you eating and drinking on the bike uh so you're training days yeah on long rides i'll so anything anything around three hours i'll uh i'll probably just just drink a couple bottles of electrolyte drink uh and then the the hard the hard rides where i'm doing intervals i'll uh i'll get a couple cliff shots in uh but the long longer rides i'll i'll try and simulate what i'll do in an iron man race uh where i'll have one cliff bar uh probably half a bar every hour for the first couple hours

and then i'll move to the cliff blocks and uh probably have a couple couple packets of them and and if if i've blown or if i need some energy really quick i'll i'll grab a couple shots right but you usually i mean from what i've observed you you're pretty good about starting If I've blown or if I need some energy really quick, I'll grab a couple of shots. Right, but you usually, I mean, from what I've observed, you're pretty good about starting to take the calories in early rather than waiting until you're hungry. You have literally every 20 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever, you're putting something in your mouth to just kind of keep, I don't know what it is, maybe 100, 200 calories an hour or something like that.

Yeah, well, I mean, the easiest calories to get in are calories through your drink bottle. And I mean, that's quite easy. But the thing is riding for six hours just drinking electrolyte drink and nothing else. Yeah, like when you're day in, day out, day in, day out. Yeah, so it's quite nice and I'm quite fortunate to be sponsored by Clif Bar, so there's a huge variety of different flavors and whatnot that I can experiment with. Do you ever stop and just eat lunch or get regular food in you? Yeah, if I'm really tired and I need a break, I'll stop.

And it's around lunchtime, I'll stop. But I've made the mistake. I stopped at Neptune's Nest once down along PCA. The whole ride back, I had this reflux and felt horrible. What did you eat, like fried shrimp or something there? No, no. It was quite normal. I think it was just, what was it?

It was like a tuna sandwich. Yeah, but it did not sit well. I can't imagine. But that's kind of like that restaurant is sort of perfectly positioned for like mid-ride when you start to get hungry. Yeah, exactly. I found myself going in there and then looking around and going, there's nothing I can eat here. I always wanted to hit up one of those taco or the food trucks up the top of Zuma Beach then. But it seems this last year that the food truck, those, yeah, those trucks aren't there anymore.

Oh, I haven't noticed. No. Not as much construction, I guess, you know. And you're a guy who likes to train with other people, kind of like Macca, right? Like you're always like, hey, where, you know, who's going to, you're always like sort of rallying the troops to come with you as opposed to like a lone wolf kind of guy. you as opposed to like a lone wolf kind of guy yeah well i mean so i love triathlon and i and i love training but but there comes a stage where where you got to be able to enjoy it and and while i enjoy hurting myself i i much prefer it if there's someone else out with me and i can make them hurt too um yeah so i mean over here i'm quite lucky i've got a couple i mean a couple

guys that are regular in the pool. Yeah, yourself, Rich, and a Kiwi guy who lives up here, Aaron Franklin. I tried to get him to come over here to sit in on the show, but he just got back from Thailand. He's too jet-lagged. Yeah, yeah. He was meant to swim this morning, but he apparently was up at like 2 o'clock and in and out of consciousness all of yesterday.

And who have you been riding with? Yeah, riding's been a little up and down. is up at like 2 o'clock and in and out of consciousness all of yesterday. And who have you been riding with? Yeah, riding has been a little up and down. I've got a couple of guys who I get out with on the weekend, Larry O'Shea and Johnny Rocket. I don't know if that's his actual surname. Johnny Rocket. He goes like a rocket. And yeah, that's about it. It gets a little bit lonely during the middle of the week,

but I try and recruit people where I can. It's all good. I wish I was a little bit more fit and had a little bit more time to join you. What was that, two years ago where I was riding with you and James posted pretty consistently? Yeah, when I first came up. Yeah, you were the man showing us all the rides. I was all about it.

Well, I was getting ready for a race, which is a little bit different than this year. But I'll be back out with you soon. Come back in February. You got to train up for Ultraman again. I'm thinking about it. You know, it's just trying to figure out how to balance everything is an evolving question know question it's sort of like i i definitely you know want to go back to ultraman and i feel like i definitely have not had my best race there it's really a question of like you know i have to devote so much time and energy and resources to

that and is that the best place for me to put all that energy you know like yeah like all the time that i was training now i'm doing podcasting you you know, I'm doing other things and, and, uh, and kind of the message has become more important than the race results, you know, but like, but at the same time, I love it and I want to keep doing it. So I have to find a way to make all the pieces fit. And, and, you know, this past year and a half, it's, it's just been about kind of trying to build a foundation to be able to kind of promote this message and you know in a broader way and it's been great and amazing and i wouldn't have had it any other way but i had to sacrifice racing you know it's like i don't want to race unless i'm full on you know like i i'm like i'm all in or i'm nothing you know and i and trying to you know and i always look at people that race all the time and don't sweat whether they're in the greatest shape or not and just go and do it for the love of it. And part of me wants to be like that. And also part of me knows I'm just not wired that way. When I show up, I want to be knowing in my heart and my head that I've done everything to perform as well as I can.

Exactly. But also that keeps me from racing. It's like I want to – I don't know. I've got to figure it out. How much, what's the difference in training for an Ultraman versus a Nine Man? I don't think that it's that different. I think the biggest difference is you don't have to run off the bike, right? So I think you have to do, I mean, there's only so much volume you can do without getting

over trained. Yeah, exactly. So there's a lot of zone to, you know, ramping up the volume very slowly. And certainly the runs progress to distances that you would never do training for an Ironman. You know, like I'm going, like, you know, a 40-mile run, a 45-mile run in training, you're not going to do that training for an Ironman. But I'm also not doing really very many bricks, you know. So I don't have

to have that like what's it feel like to get off your bike and immediately start running yeah so it's different in that regard um but 40 mile run that i mean how long that would knock your legs around pretty good yeah yeah yeah well i mean when i did it the way that i've prepared over the for the last couple ones um as I start to get in the months closer to the race, then I'll do these race simulation weekends where I'll progress the volume. So like a couple, like maybe, I don't know,

three months out, I'll do 70% of the race over a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And then a month later, I'll do 80% of the race. You know, I'll just approximate the race. You know, I'll go for a long swim in the morning and do like a 70-mile bike. And then the next day on Saturday, it'll be really long, maybe 110 miles, something like that. And then I'll do a long run on Sunday.

And each of those gets longer until like a month before the race. I do like 90% to 95% of the race distance. At least that's the way I've done it in the past. So that's different than an Ironman for sure. But when I first did it, it was really just about developing like a huge aerobic base and I didn't do very much intensity. But now with a couple of years of that under my belt, now it's shifted to a little bit more interval-based training than I did in the past.

to a little bit more interval-based training than I did in the past. Okay. But I definitely noticed that I do better with the volume than I do with intensity, and that was the way it was when I was a swimmer too. I mean, I just think it's my biology or whatever. But other than that, I don't think it's – you've got to swim, bike, and run a lot. Basically, there's no way around it really. You know what I mean? So, uh, but you're not,

you're not doing a lot of huge tempo runs and stuff like that because it's like if you can run the Ultraman double marathon on day three, if you're holding like seven 45, eight minute pace and you can just maintain that all day, like you're killing it. You know what I mean? You don't have to run that fast. You just have to be able to not slow down. You've got to be efficient in that zone.

Yeah, you've got to be incredibly efficient, and you've just got to be able to go all day. But anyway, man, yeah, I feel bad. I feel like I've deprived you of some companionship out there. But I also don't want to go out there and slow you down either. It's like I got my imaginary friends. And you're kind of like – it's funny because you're Kiwi through and through, but you're kind of this global citizen where you sort of live in all these different places.

You come to L.A. for a certain number of months every year, and you're in Portland. What is that like to kind of always be relocating, and particularly now that you're married? Well, I mean, New Zealand's obviously home. I mean, I have a house there, but long term, I would definitely like to look at having a house here where I live for six months because I'm pretty much on the road six months and at home six months. Right. Well, I told you we're going to put some yurts in the backyard. Yeah, all I need is a little teepee or a hammock. We'll get Wi-Fi in there for you.

And Julie to cook for me. I'll be sorted. Yeah. But yeah, my dad, he's half Italian, half French. My mom's half South African, half Lebanese. I was born in South Africa. Moved to New Zealand when I was, I want to say, 11 years old. And basically for the last six years, I've been spending half the year in New Zealand,

half the year pretty much based out of America. I usually spend my time between LA.A. and Portland, Oregon. Yeah, I love it up in Portland. Yeah, what's the difference in training up there versus training down here? Other than it's hotter down here. Yeah, but the thing is Portland has a month where it's about the same climate as here, a little bit more humid. But training is really good.

The running is unreal. There's a forest park. There's a couple of trails along there. One's called Leaf. The other one, Wildwood. And then Soulsman is where I do my hill repeats. It's a four-mile hill, so you can make the hill repeats as long as you want. My brother actually went to university up there, so that's how I... Oh, so that's the connection. Yeah, but...

Does he still live there? No, he's actually in Australiaralia um but yeah so i've started training there and actually one of my buddies that i trained with in canada a few years prior to that chris boudreaux he um he started a bike shop and um yeah so they athletes lounge right they sponsor me and and he's a great training partner i mean i this this year i was up there for a few weeks and it's amazing to see how much he's developed great training partner. This year, I was up there for a few weeks, and it's amazing to see how much he's developed as an athlete. He was pushing me along on the bike and running.

And I believe he coaches my friend Christian Isaacson, who just did Ultraman Canada and is getting ready for Ultraman in Hawaii. Yeah, sounds right. And he did quite well. Cool. It's cool. So, yeah, whatever Chris has given him to do seems to be working yeah chris is pretty clued up he's he's i mean he's super passionate about the sport and uh but yeah i'm i mean i'm just i i'm really fortunate to be

able to spend so much time uh on seeing the world uh but the other side of it is it does get hard being away from home or living out of a suitcase. So that's why ultimately having a place up here in the Northern Hemisphere would be ideal so you don't feel like you're living like a nomad for six months of the year. For some reason, I got married at the end of last year. And for some reason, just traveling this year just seems so much harder. It's probably just a state of mind. But yeah, so my wife, Kelly, she was meant to be coming up in a couple weeks just before Vegas, but I was a little bit homesick, so she changed up everything back home,

which was pretty impressive because she's got her own handbag and jewelry business, Zabana. What's the website for that so I can put it in the show notes? It's Zabana, Z-A-B-B-A-N-A.com. And, yeah, she was meant to have like a two-week sailing trip on the north and south island. And, yeah, so she crammed it all into four days. And she gets on a plane tonight and comes up. So I'm looking forward to seeing her. Dedication.

You have to be over here to escape the paparazzi in New Zealand. Oh, yeah, yeah. They're stalking you down everywhere. No, I have to you have to be over here to escape the paparazzi in new zealand oh yeah they're just talking you down everywhere no i have to say um i was looking at the downloads for for this show the other day and uh obviously the most are in u.s but after that it's new zealand man huge audience for the podcast in new zealand new zealand's great. I mean, it's it's, the country is very clean. There's a lot of people that are passionate about the sport, not only triathlon, they're passionate about all sports.

And they're also passionate about their health and eating healthy and being healthy and living healthy and that complete package. So it's a great place to live and it's amazing to be around people who are just so passionate about their own health. Yeah, I love it. I love you, New Zealand.

I see pictures of these amazing places there, and if I ever visited there, I don't know if I'd come back. Yeah, I know a few people have come down and decided not to come back. Yeah. But all right, so let's get through the food thing. Yeah, I forgot about that. All right, you finished a long ride. What are you eating for lunch?

The mystery will be revealed. It's going to be really compelling. Join us right after this short commercial break. So lunch is either usually a big tuna salad, a couple cans of tuna and a salad just with all different, as many vegetables as I can get in there, or a smoked salmon avocado sandwich. That's usually lunch. I'll have a protein shake, so a little bit of protein powder, cacao powder, maca powder, chia seeds, almond milk, shake that, green superfood powder.

Right. And, yeah, so I'll do that during the day. And then usually a run sometime, I mean, if it's a big bike day, I'll do a run in the afternoon, usually 40 minutes to an hour on big bike days. And that's a little bit technique focused. Maybe I'll do a few little stride outs or accelerations. And then if it's not a hard bike day, if it's a hard run day, I'll usually run in the morning. So long runs, usually about two hours.

Either do my heel efforts or like 1K repeats. So between six and eight by 1K. But usually you do the run. You try to schedule the run, start it's boiling hot. You're sweating like crazy. Nothing I can do. We don't have AC in here. Sorry about that.

crazy nothing i could do we don't have ac in here sorry about that um usually i mean it's seen i would just based on observing you you know you usually your runs are on tired legs you know it's like you know like it's rare that you wake up and do your run first right unless you're doing a super like i don't know like tempo or technique oriented run no if i'm i usually i mean if it's if it's a key run day i'll do it i'll try and have my legs a little bit fresher uh i mean they're never totally fresh because the day before was probably a hard bike day um but that way if you do it a little bit fresher you can get a little bit more from the workout and and also it doesn't knock you around as much and and you can recover a little better so that's why yeah i find you don't you do want to train hard,

but you don't want to put yourself in a hole that you can't get out of. Right. And how often do you do strict bricks where you're just immediately off the bike or running? Maybe once a week. So it's not – from early on in my career, I experimented a bit and noticed if i i mean for a long bike ride and jumped off and went for a run or or you finish your long bike ride get some food and you have a nap and then go for a run later on in the day the transition feeling is it's actually more of a transition feeling if you wait till later in the day because you're the blood you've accumulated

all that yeah interesting so that's why I'm... I mean, it is good to get those workouts done, especially if you're new in the sport and starting out in the sport, get those transition workouts done or brick workouts done quite a few times. But for me, I find I just get the same amount of benefit. Interesting.

And you've had to deal with some run-related injuries, right? I mean, the other year, you were kind of out for quite a bit, kind of struggling with something that wouldn't go away. And so being cautious and judicious with your running, I would imagine, is kind of forefront in your mind all the time. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's the thing. As pro athletes, well, even as amateur athletes, as triathletes,

we're always pushing the limits and seeing what the human body, what our human body can withstand. And I guess I just tipped the scale a little too much. Actually, I remember the workout where I wrecked my Achilles quite vividly. It was the day I had a super hard bike ride in the morning and then recovered in the afternoon I had a super hard bike ride in the morning and, uh, then recovered and an afternoon to the track workout was doing some four hundreds at, like 60,

62 to 64 second laps. And, and it was just a little bit too much and felt, felt the Achilles go. And instead of listening to my body and saying, okay, that's just call it a day and go chill out. I,

I pushed through three more four hundreds and, uh, that was probably the icing on the cake and i struggled for about eight months with with that achilles and just couldn't get going so ended up resorting to surgery and now is it it's all fine yeah touch wood it's 100 and um yeah but the thing is you learn you learn about your body and there's and you you have to with what we we put our bodies through you have to do you have to look after and you have to, with what we put our bodies through, you have to look after it.

You have to do maintenance work, so good massage, good recovery. And also there's certain areas where each individual has different areas where they need to look after strengthening. So I've learned what areas I need to strengthen. Glutes are a big thing and calves. I do eccentric calf raises quite a few times a day. And I find if I do that, it's pretty good maintenance and keeps me in working order. Yeah, I mean, you seem to be really conscientious about those little things outside of swim, bike, and run to keep you healthy.

I know you're always talking about massage. But, I mean, you're not like a big weight room guy either, though. I mean, but do you do strength in the off-season or what other kind of stuff other than, you know, swim, bike, run? Well, I mean, I went through early on in my career, I did a lot of Pilates, and I think that actually gave me quite a good grounding and looked after my

body quite a bit but i just found i mean when you get older you just just don't have as much energy and don't have as much time to see old man don't even dude if we look at uh you were born the year i graduated from high school yeah the thing is i've been doing the sport probably as long as you know you've been doing it a lot longer than i have. Yeah, so I did Pilates, and then a couple years ago, after my Achilles, I actually went to the gym, had a trainer, Sean Hughes, who helped me out a bit, and we did a lot of TRX stuff, and he introduced me to trigger points and all that stuff.

All the core. But the thing was I would turn up at the gym, and I would be fried from training, and I didn't want to do the gym at the beginning of the day because that would fry me for my biking and running. So I'd turn up at the gym and, yeah, I mean, I would be… Useless. Useless, yeah.

Try balance on one leg after you've biked for five hours and ran for an hour. It's hard to find, you know, the balance and how to make all that stuff, you know, fit in and work. Oh, it's definitely a juggling act. But that's the cool thing about it. You experiment over the years with, okay, well, I mean, swimming, put swimming one side, but with your biking and your running, if you do this much biking and this much running, what's going to happen to the other discipline?

And with your nutrition, if you alter your nutrition, what happens to your recovery? this much running what's going to happen to to the other discipline and uh and that's and with your nutrition if you alter your nutrition what happens yeah what happens to your recovery what happens to you how you feel and and your strength so that's that's the cool thing about triathlon it's just it's just never ending with you're constantly doing experiments on yourself yeah exactly i mean how has your training evolved over the years? You know, what were you doing differently previously and, you know, what didn't work, what seems to be working now? Well, that's the thing. I mean, I guess training over the years, I have workouts that I like and, yeah, they work for me. Or at least I think they work for me because I've done the workout and at the end of the training block had a good race.

So I'll keep certain workouts and put them in and some workouts fit better at different times of the year and I'll just trash workouts that I found didn't work or took too much energy or took too much willpower to get through and yeah so I guess I mean my key workouts are the hill efforts on the bike and running anaererobic threshold stuff, so the one to five-minute efforts on the bike and the 1K reps on the run. And does that change? I mean, like, you know, when it's sort of off-season or early season, I would imagine you're doing less of that and more just kind of base training,

base miles, or no? I mean, the thing with the Achilles, with that being a problem i i've decided that i try and keep a little bit of speed work in running all throughout the year um just i mean sometimes it's not much speed work but it's just just just a little bit there to keep keep the tendons and the muscles stretched out um and then in early season base stuff, probably there's more hill effort type work, and that's when I'll do probably less repeats, but, oh, sorry, more repeats, but less intensity and just build that strength, build that good base.

What do you notice, you know, when you go to all these races and you're always traveling? I don't know, it seems like you do a race like every second or third weekend, and obviously most people at these races are amateur triathletes. Do you, you know, what do you see, like what are some of the common mistakes that you see in people kind of in the days before a race or in, you know, in their actual racing that you're like, don't they know that if they just did this that it would be so much easier for them or better for them? You're like, don't they know that if they just did this,

that it would be so much easier for them or better for them? I mean, like, you know, there's got to be things that you see that could be helpful to somebody who's listening out there and might not know. Well, I guess the big thing with racing is when it comes down to pacing. Some of the guys just get carried away on the bike. And I think that everyone knows going into a half Ironman, I've got to pace myself. I know my limits.

This is what I have to ride at. But their buddy comes flying past them at the start of the bike, and they're like, I'm not going to let him get away. So I'm going to give everything to keep up with him. Yeah, so they'll push the bike too hard and have a bad run, or they won't ride hard enough and have a great run. So you speak to them after the race and they're like, oh, yeah, I swam really well. I biked really badly but I ran well.

Or I swam and biked really good. My swim bike was great but my run wasn't great. I don't know what happened on the run. I rode like two minutes slower than you. Well, you were 25% above your watt threshold that you usually ride. I think that has to do with experience and confidence. Like if you really are secure in your preparation and you know, you know, what you need to do,

then you should be unaffected by what somebody around you is doing. Right? Yeah, exactly. And it's, it's a long day. It's, I mean, for, for the pros is four hours for the amateurs. It's anywhere up to six, seven, seven eight hours so being able to know what what your body is capable of and sticking to your race plan will get you to the finish line as as quick as possible and and that's yeah but you have to balance that also against the idea of saying like sort of going into a race saying this is what i know i'm capable of sometimes you know how do you break that glass ceiling and perform? Sometimes you've got to go for it, you know, like to have that day,

but you just have to know when the moment is too. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, you want to be pushing the limits. And if you stick five years and stick to your same race plan as five years ago, then you're not really improving. You're staying the same. So you definitely want to try and evolve and set new barriers. But yeah, go into the race and say, okay, I'm going to ride at this pace or this power

or this heart rate and see what happens on the run. Yeah, and I think the 70.3 distance is so tricky because, I mean, for somebody of your caliber, I mean, you really have to be on the rivet the entire time you know like you're you're pushing like the envelope for a very long period of time like in an iron man you can't do that right like so the pain threshold is way higher at the 70.3 distance right well that's why i love the distance so much. Coming from an ITU racing Olympic distance background where you're redlining it for an hour 45, and then stepping up to half Ironman, it's a great distance

because I've always enjoyed training more, so longer training rides, longer training runs, and the half Ironman seems to suit me really well because it's a good test of your endurance and it's also a test of how fast you are. But the thing with even Ironman is as the sport evolves, all the short course guys, the guys who I was racing back in the ITU days are moving up, and that's how the sport's getting faster and faster.

So even Ironman isn't an all-aerobic day. There's definitely a lot of push going on out there. Right, right. Yeah, there's a lot more cat and mouse on the bike, I think, than meets the eye when you're way up at the front, right? Yeah. I mean, Macca talks about that all the time. Well, he's the king of our – he plays the game really well,

and he's strong enough to be able to do that. But a lot of guys, if they try and play the game really well, and he's strong enough to be able to do that. But a lot of guys, if they try and play the game, try and control the race the way he does, are going to pay for it big time on the run. Right. When you're out training or even when you're racing, I mean, how much energy do you devote to thinking about your competition? Like you're going into a race, like, okay, I know I have these, these are the three guys I kind of have to worry about.

I mean, does that enter into like your training calculus or do you just focus on, you know, your thing? Yeah, probably not so much my training. Yeah, my competitors don't really influence my training. The course definitely does um but but coming into a race i'll i'll look at who's racing and and i'll i'll look at their strengths and weaknesses and and see how they will how they they play into my race plan and see where i can use them or where i need to watch out for them and it it's definitely important to know your competition strengths and weaknesses.

So, for example, you know, I think it was last year or the year before, it was like you and Chris Lieto were like, you know, tick and tack at a whole bunch of races back to back. And so obviously he's a guy who's super strong on the bike. So when you're going into a race, you know you're going to race him. What is that like? So how do you, you know you're going to race him. What is that like? So how do you – what's the approach then? Do you let him go on the bike or you're just like, I have to keep –

I just have to make sure his gap isn't more than this? Or you don't have to tell me your trade secret if you don't know. For me, it would be suicide trying to ride with Lieto. But, yeah, I mean with guys – i mean strong riders like liato he's he's a quick rider and and generally you could look at the racing okay i can afford to give him this much this much time or if i ride at this power output it's gonna gonna give me the best opportunity to run fast and and if you work it well then it comes it can come down to the wire at times, but hopefully you have a little more in the tank.

But the thing with leaving it at that, there's times where these guys that push the bike really hard actually get off and have good runs, and Sebastian Kienle was a key example of that last year in Vegas. He came out the water four minutes back, got off the bike two or three minutes up the road and ran only a minute and a half slower than Crowey and Tim O'Donnell and all those guys. So you never know whether someone's going to have a cracker or not, I guess, right? Exactly, yeah.

So you can't ever give anyone too much leeway. But there's also so much, there's only so much you can control too, I mean. Well, yeah, you have to race your race and if you start, yeah, if you start getting controlled by these other guys, then they're in control and you're not racing your race and you lose that control, which could cost you big time on the run. So we're two weeks out from Vegas and this race is what your season's all about, right?

Like this is what you've been gearing up for, this is the focus? Yeah, well last year was, I mean, recovery from the Achilles and getting back into racing and finally when August came around, I started getting my running strength back and my running legs. And I knew I had to push myself a couple of times to bring up my performance before Vegas. And I did something that was really risky. But if it paid off, it would have worked well. Because in the past, when I raced a lot, I seem to step up.

So I came up from New Zealand, raced 70.3 Brazil, and then jumped over to 70.3 Ireland. It was a bit of a trip and came back for Vegas the following week and just, yeah, picked up a bit of a bug coming back. Right. Which, yeah, which meant I couldn't stand on the start line. So there's definitely a big part of me that wants to perform well

this year, and it has been a big goal of mine. So, yeah. It's all lining up. So you've got three wins this season? 370.3 wins? Two wins, two seconds. Two wins, two seconds. And two thirds. So I got one of the seconds was ITU long course world champs.

And then last weekend you pulled out, right? Yeah. So what was going on? I said, yeah, Timberman 70.3 over on the east coast up in New Hampshire. Lake Winnipesaukee? Yeah, that's the one. I went to summer camp up there when I was a kid. It's a cool place to hang out. It's beautiful up there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's great.. I went to summer camp up there when I was a kid. It's a pretty cool place to hang out.

It's beautiful up there. Oh, yeah? Yeah, it's great. It's very much like home. It reminded me a lot of home, all the trees and rolling hills. It's a great place for a race. Yeah. Yeah, so what was going on? Yeah, I mean, I had a pretty good swim and jumped on the bike. I'd done quite a bit of training the

weeks leading in and actually arrived on Thursday. We stopped and got some food, driving up to New Hampshire. And that night I was just ill all night. Oh, really? Had a little bit of food poisoning, which probably slowed down my recovery a little bit and took a little bit out of the tank. And, yeah, just got on the bike after the swim and the race.

And Andy Post was about a minute up the road. And there were a couple of guys, Leon Griffin and Mark Bostead, chasing from behind and I just had nothing. My legs were just dead. It felt like I was pedaling with someone else's legs. I mean, I hate to pull out of races, but it was a tough decision I had to make. Vegas is my main goal and I knew if I struggled through the race,

it wouldn't do any good for my body. It would probably put me in a deeper, darker space. So I had to make the decision to pull out. I think it was the right decision. There's that weird thing where it's like, well, all the amateurs are out there, so you owe it to them to finish. And it's like finishing is not an issue. It's like you're a professional.

You're devoting your entire life to this, and you have big goals, and you've got to do what's in your best interest to see that through and achieve what you've set out to achieve, and Vegas is the priority. I think you made the right decision. Yeah, it's great. I mean, it seems like a lot of people understood that and supported my decision. But, yeah, it was really cool. I pulled out of the race, but i jumped on the side of the road and and watched

everyone go past and watched everyone on the run and uh a few guys again gave me a hard time but but it was it was cool just to be able to cheer for for the amateurs going past and and just see their faces they were just i mean they were all over this race they they loved it and and it just it gives you gives you more meaning in the sport. And it's great to see so many people that are loving the sport that you can make a living from. That's what's so special about triathlon. You know, it's the only sport really where the pros and the amateurs can mix it up like that. And the pros, I mean, I love it.

And the pros love it too to be at the finish line and the Ironmans at midnight when the final people are coming in. It's a pretty special thing. For sure. I mean, that's the real inspiration for me. That's what got me into Ironman racing. I was down at New Zealand at New Tigray and Ironman in Taupo, and my fondest memories are going down to the finish line and watching the last finishers come in.

And it's just amazing seeing people of different shapes and sizes and ages and everything come down the finish line. And it just goes to show if they can get through this race, which is horribly hard, you can get through anything in life. And it's just a huge inspiration. And I thank all the amateurs for for being such a big part of of what i do and uh yeah it's just great to great to meet you guys along the road at at races and uh yeah hope to hope to see you around a bit more so so let's talk about iron man a little bit um do we have to yeah we don't have to you don't want to

talk about that no it, it's okay. No, I mean, I think there's a lot of interest in, you know, there's a lot of, you know, when's Terenza going to race Kona again? And is that important to you? Is that a priority? Or have you just found your niche with 70.3? I mean, it seems to be the distance for you. I mean, you really excel at it. And it allows you to race a lot, you know, race regularly and pursue your sport. But you kind of, you know, you made a big bang at Ironman early on, and now you've kind of, you know, settled into 70.3.

Is there an interest or a plan to return to the longer race? Yeah, definitely. Kona is the pinnacle event. It's like the Tour de Franceance of cycling or the america's cup of sailing it's it's uh i mean it's where every triathlete wants to have their day and it's always been a goal and a dream of mine to to race there and to become the king of kona and um and that's still very much at the at the forefront of of what i want to do um i just decided this year with with coming back from the Achilles problem and having a really tough day at Ironman New Zealand this year,

I thought, you know what, I'll just focus on the 70.3 stuff and try to fight for my title back in Vegas for the 70.3 World Championships and then go from there. But the guys that are racing well at Kona are in their mid to late 30s. Yeah. So, I mean, I have a long career ahead of me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just need to make sure I do things right.

And, I mean, I've got a great team, great team of sponsors, great team support staff, my coaches, and my family. And I just, yeah, I thank them. And with them, I know that anything's possible you'll be there oh yeah exactly there's no doubt in my mind you're a young spry young man many years to get ready for that i have no doubt you'll be killing it there soon um so who's who are who are the people that uh everyone's sort of looking at other than yourself in Vegas? Well, I think Sebastian Kienle is going to be – I mean, he's probably got the target on his back after last year's performance.

And for the listeners who don't know, he's somewhat on the newer side of being on the scene, but he's an unbelievable cyclist. Oh, Uber biker, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was reading somewhere that he does most of his cycling training on the road bike yeah but he doesn't he doesn't get on the tt bike all that often which seems different that seems distinct from most triathletes who spend most of their training time on the tt bike what's the training camp up with him and uh ronnie and the beast milk crew

up in switzerland a couple years ago yeah he was he was all on his road bike and uh i mean i yeah i stick on stick on my tt bike for most of my training but uh yeah sometimes i mean argon 18 is my bike sponsor so i'm pretty fortunate to have a road bike as well which yeah get out on the early season or pre-season and keep up with the cycling boys up the hills right but yeah i mean he's uh he i think initially people were thinking oh he's just a he but yeah i mean he's uh he i think initially people were thinking oh he's just a he's a you know he's just a pure cyclist phenom but he put the run together pretty well in vegas last year so yeah he did yeah um so there's him i mean craig alexander's always always never heard of him yeah Yeah. All these bloody Australians.

Now, I mean, Bevan Doherty, a Kiwi guy, he could do really well. But the thing is, a lot of these guys are racing Des Moines, Hy-Vee, the 5150, the week before that. And that's the big prize money. Right, that's big money in that one. Yeah, big's big money in that yeah big big money and uh yeah i've just found with with with me i found doing an olympic distance race just takes a little bit a little bit of a zap out of your legs and uh i mean last year greg bennett who raced really well at high v and who had a good year in the 70.3 uh scene came to vegas and yeah he just he just had a really tough day. Right. And there's a lot of new guys on the scene. A few years ago there used to be

half a dozen or a handful of guys that were a threat but now the list goes on and on and there's probably at least a dozen guys who could be fighting for the podium. Yeah, it's going to be awesome to watch, man. For sure. I'm looking forward to it. When you sit down at the beginning of the year and try to decide which

races you're gonna you're gonna do i mean what is you know do you say well i'm gonna do this many wtc 70.3s and i'm gonna do some rev threes like how do you make those decisions well the rev three guys are doing a great job putting on world-class races. Everyone loves those guys and the races they're doing. Yeah, yeah. But for me, when I sit down with my coach, John Ackland, at the beginning of the year, we kind of plan the year and we look at what the big goals are

and then work back from there, basically, and look at when should we be racing, like what's ideal for certain build-ups, and that's basically how we choose. Right, and then do you ever like call audibles and say, well, I was going to do this one, but I'm going to switch it up like mid-season, make changes to that, or do you usually stick to what you set out at the beginning of the year? Yeah, roughly stick to it. There's probably one or two races through the year that I'll change up.

But, yeah, the plan that we write at the beginning of the year is usually pretty accurate, and there will be a few small changes, but pretty much stick to that. And with your coach, I mean, how does that work? Does he give you every single one of your workouts and you do it over the Internet, or is it more of a kind of a general idea of what i want you to accomplish this week or oh well john john and i have actually he's he started coaching me when i first started in in triathlon so he's been with me the whole long time the whole way through and uh yeah we just have a great relationship um what what we do is i mean we, we sit down at the beginning of each training block and, yeah, in the annual plan we've identified what each training block

is going to be focused around. And then in that particular training block we'll look through what are the key workouts that need to go in there. The training block, we'll look through what are the key workouts that need to go in there. And then we talk every couple of days, report in how my legs are doing, how I'm recovering. And we'll usually have to make small adjustments to the plan and either take out workouts or it's usually take out workouts now. But do you like upload them all to TrainingPeaks and then he looks at them? I mean, is that how the communication works?

Well, I basically download the data and get average powers, average heart rates, average cadences, and get that data across to him. And we look at that data and see how it changes from week to week, from training block to training block and uh yeah and when you're when you're out training i mean are you a guy who's super into the technology like just looking at your watts all the time and your heart rate and geeking out on the graphs or do you go more by feel like like you know i think everyone's a little bit different i mean you have yeah I think I'm somewhere in the middle. Yeah, like Macca kind of doesn't seem to really feel like he needs all that stuff, and he's a purist in some regard.

And then you have like a Jordan Rapp who's like an engineer, and he's really into the technology part of it. Yeah, and I definitely think both sides have their pros. I mean, Macca doing that, he gets to understand his body a lot more and understand what feel is, where Jordan or someone who looks at the numbers a lot can identify what areas they can develop on. For me, I'm probably somewhere in the middle.

I have an SRrm so i get my power data and uh and we've actually with through john and i well john's actually developed a formula to work out roughly what what power you run it and um so that way wait wait hold on a second really like so yeah how does that work explain that that's interesting well i guess uh because well the thing with with training that your heart rate is the amount of training you do, you become cardiovascularly suppressed and you get to the end of a hard week and your heart rate doesn't go up. So it's a really hard indicator to show you where you're at.

Yeah, it can be impacted by so many things like your sleep, what you ate, how hot is it out, how tired are you. So it's not like watts are a little bit more regular. So having power is a direct correspondence to your output. And so on the bike, it's very accurate to have a power meter. And on the run, I guess the formula you created has a little bit to do with, I guess, your weight, the gradient of the hill or if it's on the flat, and the speed you run. And basically that gives you power, but yeah.

So wait a minute. Wait, I'm not following. So when you're running, so you take these variables, grade, heart rate, weight, speed, I guess, or cadence or whatever. So how do you – so then there's some mathematical formula that you put all that into it, and then it says this is what your power output per stride is or something, or the force that your foot is hitting the ground? Yeah, I guess your power output.

So you can look at a run and say, well, using this calculation, my average power on the run is X, and then you can compare that to your other runs. Yeah. That's pretty interesting. It works quite well if you're doing like hill repeats. So you take your weight, take the gradient of the hill, take the speed up the hill, and that'll give you your power output. Or if you're running 1Ks on the track, it's flat,

so you take your weight, no gradient, and your speed, and this is your set power output. And, yeah, it's really interesting stuff. And he's spent a lot of time developing this virtual coaching software, which is not far from coming out. So it'll be exciting when that becomes available. There'll be quite a few people interested in checking that out, I think. That's really interesting.

I'd never heard that before. But I guess that makes sense i mean i'd heard rumblings about coming up with some device uh to measure power output per stroke when you're swimming like some kind of sensor on your hand or something like that i don't know where i heard that i don't know i would imagine that's still far away from being real but you know it's swimming still is kind of the one pure thing where you don't have all the gadgets and the data, but it's starting to creep in with the underwater MP3 players and all that stuff.

Yeah, yeah. They do the flying goggles. Yeah, I'm purist in that. Just coming from a swimming background, it's like that's the one place where you should just be by yourself, I think, alone with your thoughts and the black line and the pace clock and Terenzo barking at you to go faster. Hurry up, bro.

What's the matter with you today? So after Vegas, are you going to take a break or what happens after that? Looking at doing Ironman Tahoe. Oh, wow. So it's a couple of weeks afterwards. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's, I mean,

at altitude, which would be tough, but I just... That's going to be a very interesting race to watch. Yeah. It's going to be amazing. Yeah, I think I have a lot

to learn over the Ironman distance and doing another Ironman a little bit low-key is, yeah, I think will be good for me. And then after that, we've got a few friends and like my brother and my wife's sister, and friends are coming up.

It's actually my wife's 30th. You'll probably kill me for saying that. And we're going to go down to Mexico, hang out there for a week, and have a little bit of a party in Vegas. Nice. Head over to Kona and watch the big boys fight it out on the island. Yeah, that'll be fun. Yeah.

Good times. Well, for Tahoe, sooe so i mean your training really has been oriented around you know mastering 70.3 i mean how different will you just go like how do you then switch gears to get ready for an ironman race i mean how different is the training for ironman for you than 70.3 um i mean ironman train definitely has a lot more a lot more bike mileage done in it and uh less intensity and probably even a little bit more run mileage but you know with vegas being my main goal was i'm pretty much not thinking about tahoe until right until after the race yeah so yeah get that nailed and then then we'll see what happens after that. Right. Well, I had to point out one guy.

I tweeted before the podcast, like, hey, I'm sitting now with Terenzo. Tweet your questions. And one guy named John Paul Severin said, how does it feel to get beat by 50-year-old guys in Agora on the bike? I was like, what's going on with that? Oh, that's his name. It's not Johnny Rocket. It's JP.

Oh, JP. Yeah, yeah. All right. So he's handing it to you. Do you have anything you want to tell him? Yeah. Well, first of all, he's not 50. It was actually Soren rode with a local guy who used to ride pro when he was younger, Soren.

And yeah, man, there's some really strong cyclists around here. Yeah. Well, that's good., he's, there's, there's some really strong, strong cyclists around here. Yeah. Well, that's good. So he's not 50. He's, he's, he's, uh, hedging a little there, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, next time you see him out on the road, you should have some choice words for him.

Yeah. Hopefully I'll be in a car. Right. All right. Good, man. Well, I'm excited to see you race, uh, in Vegas and, uh, I think you're going to rock it, man. You're looking really fit. Solid. I think it's all, I think you got going to rock it man, you're looking really fit

solid, I think you got all the pistons firing this year it's going to be good, so everybody look out for Big T he's ready to unleash a big one in Vegas cheers guys thanks for coming by it was fun, love catching up, love hanging out

anything else you want to share? well I'm just going to go back to the kitchen and grab another slice of chocolate strawberry pie and I'll be on my way. Cool. So for people that want to find out a little bit more about Terenzo, he's on Twitter at Terenzo1. Yep. And your website is Terenzo.blogspot.com, right? Yeah, just go to Terenzo.com. It'll redirect. Andlogspot.com, right? Yeah, just go to terenzo.com. It'll redirect. And you have a Facebook page, right?

Yeah, facebook.com slash terenzo. Oh, you know, there's one other thing I wanted to ask you about, which is that I know you do some stuff with some charities. Yeah. So you want to just give them a little shout-out, and we can chat about that a little bit. Yeah, for sure. I want to hear about that.

Well, I'm strongly involved with youth charities, especially back home in New Zealand. And I strongly believe that the youth are really important and how we mold their future determines what they'll become and the people they'll become. And I'm very fortunate one of the charities is Life Education. It's a learning learning uh type project they they have these learning capsules and and uh and educators that go around to all the primary schools in new zealand and and teach kids about healthy

healthy living being healthy uh what to put in your body saying no to peer pressure uh all all really important life skills. And they're a great charity. They have a mascot called Harold, Harold the Giraffe, and actually race with a wristband with Harold on it. And then another charity is What's Up, which is a youth line. And back down in New Zealand, we have a really high rate of youth suicide. And having helplines like 0800WhatsUp gives kids an opportunity to reach out and talk to counselors and hopefully help them with their problems.

Cool. And do you know websites for both of those? Yeah, I think 0800WhatsUp.com and harold.co.nz. Harold.co.nz. Harold.co.nz. I like it. How old are you? I'm not a teenager anymore. No.

How old are you? 28. 28. Like if I had half the maturity that you have when I was your age, I don't know what I would do. You're an inspiration, man. Thanks, Rich. You're a fine young man.

I wish you only the best, man. Sweet. All right. Are we swimming tomorrow morning? No, not tomorrow. Got only the best, man. All right. Are we swimming tomorrow morning? No, not tomorrow. Got a hard bike run workout. All right. Tuesday?

Tuesday for sure. 7.30. All right, man. Obviously enough of 6 o'clock waiting for you. No, come on. Whatever. I'll see you there, man. All right.

See you. Thanks, man. Peace. Plants. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you