What should I ask Flandis?

May I please have some too?

Or, How’s that new hip treating you?  (I assume it’s been replaced)

For whom are you voting for President?

What's your new hip made out of?  Steel?  Carbon Fibre?  Titanium??

Ya wanna compare scars???  That hip scar has got to be big!

Strictly based on their backgrounds (Floyd raised in an Amish family and Lance raised in a trailer park), think I'd put my money on Armstrong in a street fight. 

Mark

So how'd it go?  And did he say anything about if and when he's returning to racing at the level he was at after the ban?  Is he going to do something else?

I love the question above - when's your first Ironman?  That's good.

Ask when he's coming back to his hometown in Amish country? I just moved about 35 miles from Lancaster, PA, and maybe I'll run into him biking one day.

[NB - all is paraphrased from memory, no notes taken, accuracy is to be questioned > ]

First of all.. Mennonite.

Second, well, you've all heard him interviewed, he's not the most articulate person, he hems and haws a lot, but then again, you also get the impression that he is "real."  He's just a normal guy, like you and me, just happens to ride a bike very well.  He waited in the buffet line just like everyone else. 

He came off as charming, a bit self effacing, and humble.  There were no questions that were off the table, and he addressed them all.  While his answers weren't always compelling, neither were they canned or rehearsed.  The first question was on doping and the French lab, and his response was a litte incomprehensible.  But he prefaced it by saying "oh, I also forgot to tell you I am also a scientist."  He distingished between the "elevated testosterone" test which wasn't applicable, and the testosterone/epitestosterone" ratio.  Honestly, I didn't follow much of his explanation, if I knew more about it I might have.

When asked what his favorite type of Jack Daniels was, he said "free."  And that it's a rumour that all he drinsk is Jack.  He had 2 or 3 different kinds of beers last night

He was asked, since there are a number pf Phonak riders who have had drug issues, was there ever any team pressure, from staff, management or riders to dope.   He said no, it doesn't really serve anyone since they all make their living off of it, and if they get caught that's gone.

You get the distinct impression that he isn't Lance, and does not follow a scientific approach to training, and isn't as much into what Lance called the Sh1t.  I asked whether he did more power or endurance training.  He said, "get out and ride.  If you have an hour, go for as hard as you can for that hour.  If you want to break up the monotony, do some sprints."  When asked "how many grams of protein do you eat on a typical training day?"  he said "huh?"  He just eats, I guess.

As for tour training, he said he doesn't really go by miles, but a peak week would be 25-30 hours, and about 500-600 miles.  He doesn't really believe in overtraining unless it starts interfering with the rest of your life.

The one thing he was clearest on was that most of his training time is spent going uphill.  That forces you to work harder for longer. 

It wasn't a one on one.  It was him and a room full of 800 people and questions that people had written and the moderator chose to ask.  I would have felt silly asking "Floyd, I currently ride between 300 and 400 miles a month, including hills, sprints, intervals, etc..  What should I do to get better?"

Lots of training questions were asked.  Unfortunately, as triathletes, we're geeky and like numbers.  Like what power should I be trainng at?  How many grams of protein should I eat?  He does use power, but to sum up his training philosophy:

Ride hard, ride lots, ride uphill.  Doesn't matter who you are.  Doesn't matter if you are doing sprints or a 40 mile time trial.  Doesn't matter if you are slow or fast.  Do those three things, you will improve

I was also at Floyd's talk last night and think Chris's summary was spot-on.  He was a really nice guy, great sense of humor, and definitely not rehearsed (sometimes he'd forget the question b/c he'd be off on some tangent that was hard for everyone, even him, to follow).  The questions were presented by our club head coach, and the people at my table actually thought that the coach looked /sounded more like the pro athlete than Floyd did; Floyd just seemed like a normal guy.  He laughed a lot about his feeling that he can't really swim (laughed about the gift of a yellow tri-club cap, which he said would replace his yellow jersey, then called it a yellow condom and declined to try it on for everyone), and tried to focus his answers on triathlon -- someone asked him about whether his unconventional aero position would hold for a 112-mile time trial, and he replied, "WHY would I want to do a 112-mile time trial?"  I think the coach then pointed out the Ironman connection, and Floyd replied that the longest TT he'd done was around 40 miles, and he wouldn't tell us what part of his body hurt after that.