By Michelle Pickles
For Terenzo Bozzone, there's a lot more to running these days than just putting his shoes on.
His anti-gravity treadmill is one of its kind in New Zealand, and a perfect fit, after he had Achilles surgery two months ago which has prevented him from running on the road.
“There's no impact, you can vary the amount of gravity you’re running at, so you can run at a hundred per cent of your body weight, which is normal, or you can bring it down to 90, 80, 70, 60 per cent. And at 60 per cent, I’m 45 kilos and like a Kenyan,” Bozzone says.
But he's still looking forward to being able to run outdoors.
“I'm counting down the days, so hopefully a week or two weeks I'll be back building up on the road, going to be a slow progression,” he says.
“Running is special and you have to be special to enjoy it, but I’m at the stage where I really miss it.”
Bozzone has been able to swim and cycle. Next weekend, he'll return to racing for the first time in nearly four months, when he does the bike leg as part of a team at the Taupo half ironman.
“I'm really looking forward to just testing myself,” he says.
“I’ve really struggled with ironman over the full 180km bike. So, being able to concentrate more on my riding at the moment will hopefully pay dividends next year.”
His big goal is to test that theory, and the results of his Achilles surgery at Ironman New Zealand next march.
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