Legends of the lava

I was lucky enough to attend the legends of the lava coaching panel, put on by tritravel and triathlete magazine. It had just a few heavy-hitters:

Dave Scott
Mark Allen
Chris Leigh
Belinda Granger
Lance Watson
Paula Newby-Fraser

That's twenty combined wins. Smart folks. It was fun to watch the collegial and well-practiced ribbing between Dave and Mark, who I think both believe are just slightly better than the other.

There was some real technical discussions about nutrition and bike positioning, a reasonably strong panel agreement that aero helmets are for pros only, and some good reminiscing.

By far the two biggest laughs were in answer to a question about why, even with the new technology, Mark, Dave and Paula put up better times than Chris, Belinda, and Lance's clients.

Mark's answer - "We had better drugs"
Chris' answer - "We're all a bunch of pussies"

As for advice I'll take away....

Paula said that in this week you're pushed and pulled around, even on race day. She said, rather than be passive about it, spend the week "remembering that this is something _you_ want to do, and do it."

Also, Mark Allen responded to another panelist saying that you shouldn't worry about "what goes on out there." I thought he had a good point when he responded with "What goes on out there is affected by what goes on inside of you." He was pointing out that your decisions are important on race day, and they start with how you approach the day.

So, that's what I learned from the legends. This week is freakin awesome.