Weeks before the race

I trained and trained well. I quit my day job at the end of February so I had plenty of time to get ready.

Swim:
I started swimming with Boulder Aquatic Masters at the end of January. The first few weeks were tough. I started with two times per week so I have plenty of time to recover. I didn't think I could finish the workouts for the first 3 weeks. Then I got a bit used to it, it got a bit easier, so I added another day and then yet another day. By the time I was leaving for France I was a regular, 4 times per week and the workouts, while still demanding, were quite doable. I even had time to throw in a couple of open water swims at the Boulder reservoir. My goals for the swim were to beat my previous times and come out of the water relatively fresh.

Bike:
I had plenty of time to ride now but I still didn't feel I got enough miles in the saddle. Partly because the weather still kind of sucked, even in mid May, partly because I had other projects I needed to spend time on and partly because I found out that 25 hours of training per week is indeed quite demanding schedule.
However, my preparation was much, much better than for the last year's IM New Zealand. I kept track of the training, started a spreadsheet and this time I threw in a climb to Flagstaff as part of my 56 mile Westminster -> Boulder -> Longmont -> Westminster loop, making it something like 70 miles, with 6.3 miles of 7% average climb. Considering IM France climbing starts with 500 meters of 12% at about 20 km into the race and then there is about 21 km of about 6% average grade, riding Flagstaff was the minimum.
First time I rode up the damn hill I almost left my legs and soul on it. That was the day I realized that having 11-23 in the back was somewhat less than adequate. I had to turn around one time and ride back slowly about 1/8 mile, just to catch my breath, another time I stopped I had quite difficulty to get it going again. Freaking hill.
It got a bit better after I bought a 13-26 cassette, however, the first time up I thought "How the hell did I make it on an 11-23?". Although I managed to come up to the hill and then beyond, I don't thing I'll loose respect for it anytime soon.

Run:
I picked a training route from our house to a nearby park. Out and back it's 6.6 miles, aka about 1/4 marathon, so this is a perfect route to train for IM Nice. The course in Nice is 4 loops, 5.5k out, 5.5k back. Flat. Doesn't get much better. I ran with various results but overall focused on slow and steady. I varied the distance but for the most part the minimum run was one loop (6.6 miles). Towards the end I started doing bike/run bricks and started getting used to them.

Final week of training before I left for Europe consisted of 220 bike miles (including 2 Flagstaffs), 2 hours of open water swim and 21 miles of running, 14 miles in the last run. I felt good, I felt strong.

That lasted exactly until about the second day in Europe. I flew to Prague on Thursday May 29th, got to my dad's house Friday evening and woke up Saturday morning with a severe head cold, runny nose, my tonsils swollen like a couple of walnuts. Great. Off to the pharmacy, I was pretty sure this is a bacterial infection but I didn't want to take any antibiotics. So I tried to cure it with the traditional stuff, sweating it out, cold beer for the tonsils. It got to the point that I used my drastic approach of dipping a toothbrush into alcohol and rubbing my throat with it. From the inside. Unpleasant to say the least but it gets the bugs out if you manage not to gag.

Well, the freaking bugs moved from my head to the upper respiratory tract so I started coughing, too. I still managed to go out for a couple of runs and a couple of bike rides, just to keep moving. This was supposed to be my most demanding, my last week of training. Well not really, being sick really doesn't do a whole lot for your fitness level.

Another great thing happened as I was unpacking my bike, my nephew said: "Hey, you have a crack in it". I dismissed it for I couldn't see it - it was late in the evening, so I figured I'll take a look in the morning. Yes, indeed, there is a crack in the frame where the seat tube meets the seat stays. Great. I got in touch with Kestrel, sent them pictures of it and basically found out that they can't do anything for me anyway because they are totally out of 2008 frames.

Their recommendation was to take it to a reputable shop and have them look at it. So I took it to a well known shop in Prague, two mechanics are humming over it, saying, well, it could just be a crack in the clearcoat or it could be for real. Wait, we have an expert here, he really knows carbon. The expert showed up, took one look at it and said: "Yup, it's busted". However, he said (as well as a lot of other people did) that carbon just doesn't give up like metal and it's quite OK to ride it until it really cracks. Just listen for the creaking sound and yes, I would probably notice that my pedal stroke all of a sudden got soft. When that happens, it would be a good time to get off the bike. Oh boy, I am looking forward to it cruising down the mountains in France.

The other uncool thing was that I ordered an 11/27 Titanium cassette from Netherlands. The only cassette Campy makes with 11T is 11/23 and I really wanted some bigger gears. Long story short, the cassette arrived at our house on Thursday at about 4 pm when I was already at the airport and it was about 1/2 hour past the time when Nancy could possibly get in the car and deliver it to me at the airport. So she shipped it to me to Czech Republic. I thought for sure that it will show up before we leave for France - the plan was to spend 2 weeks in Czech Republic and then drive to Nice with my dad, my nephew, his wife and their daughter. Well, we were leaving on Friday the 13th of June and there was no cassette. At that point I basically decided that I'll either try it with my 11/23 or bite the bullet and use the massive steel 13/26 I brought with me just in case.

So we left for Nice. It's one week before the race, I am still sick, have a crack in the frame and the one piece of equipment that could make my life a bit easier is nowhere to be found. And I didn't really train nor did I rest a whole lot for past two weeks. At this time I was pretty comfortable with the thought of just finishing the race at any time. The only highlight were my really cool orange racing flats from Saucony (about 1/2 the weight of my training shoes) and my new experiment, toe socks by Injinji. I did my last 14 mile run with this combo and have not had a single blister, my feet felt quite pampered. So I thought, well, at least the run should be fine this time, that is, if I make it this far.