Bubble Wrap

If you haven't figured it out by now...I am so freakin' close to this race that it's frightening. My friends feel they need to wrap me in bubble wrap so that I can remain unscathed for the next 12 days. I went for a 70 mile ride (last long ride!) on Saturday and I stayed way back so I wouldn't risk crossing tires with anyone or miss seeing a pothole because I'm too busy chatting it up with my buddies. I am proceeding with caution wherever I go. During our run on Sunday a mountain biker came out of nowhere and almost ran into us...my friend Tammy yelled at him "stop!"...on our Saturday ride Patrick rode between me and the road so he would get hit by the cars, not me...after lunch today Pete drove me to my car so I wouldn't have to walk and risk wearing myself out...we are all on high alert! I have even resorted to wearing flats at work...no more three inch heels for me the next few days! I always say "safety first"...now I need to live my motto!

If you see someone resembling this walking down the street, don't worry, it's just me! It will certainly take many more ounces of fluid to stay hydrated wearing this contraption...I surely will sweat my butt off in this thing! ;)

Swim, Bike, Run.

That's all I have to do...swim...bike...run.

Breathe.

One at a time, breathe, focus on the small piece...do one loop of swim, focus on that, breathe every third stroke, stay contained...don't let others kicking and flailing freak me out, breathe, focus on form...get out of the water, run over timing mat...breathe...swim second loop, just focus on that...don't think about the run, or crossing the finish line...baby steps, one piece at a time, breathe. Get out of the water, focus on transition one...do I have everything I need for a successful ride?"...breathe...bike the first loop...focus on high cadence, going at a reasonable pace, "staying within myself,"...breathe...let the others pass me, I will catch them on the run or they are a better athlete than I am...focus on me...do the second loop of the bike, breathe...now I know what to expect...focus on high cadence, easy riding up the hills, gain ground on the downs and flats...stay strong, within my abilities, breathe...cross the timing mat into transition 2...make sure I have glided up, including feet!, take my time, breathe...do I have everything I need for a successful run?, fuel, water, clothing...head out on the run...one mile at a time...one aid station at a time...breathe...don't think about mile 20, think about mile 1...go out SLOW, keep a conservative pace...better to run slower and longer than fast and bonk...breathe...no such thing as walking, no such thing...run, run, run...pass those who went out too hard on the bike and are walking...I have done this distance before, 8 times before, I know the pain, I know I can push through it, I know I can run...RUN to the finish line...see the crowds cheering, see my family, see my friends...see the ultimate goal...see IRONMAN!...breathe!

I am a jacked up ball of nerves right now. I am constantly visualizing the race, how I want to execute the perfect race for my abilities, how I will handle any set backs and how I will have the experience of my life. I am a goal oriented person, I always have course maps of marathons, triathlons, etc. posted on my walls at work...I have had my IMCDA course maps directly over me for 7 months now...I look at them every day...come Friday I will look at them no more...I will leave to start this adventure, this adventure I truly started 7 months ago after running marathon number 8 and looking for the next challenge...or maybe it started 14 years ago when I realized I ran one lap around the track without walking and that I wanted to see if I could run two...then three and four.... I cannot believe it is so close! There are crazy dreams creeping into my head...but the main thing in these dreams is a little voice that says "you can do it"..."go out at your pace, this is your race and no one else's"..."be conservative on the bike and you will conquer the run"..."you can and will do this!"...I truly feel so ready!

These are the maps I printed off back in November that have been looming above me at work every day, reminding me of what I'm working towards and what I will be tackling on June 21st.

Stolen Cars

Ok, you know, absolutely know, that you have gone off the deep end with your Ironman obsessing when your car gets stolen and all your worry about is how this is going to affect your training/race prep/week before you leave for Seattle.

Yes, my car got stolen this morning...you heard me, stolen.  I met four friends this morning in Centennial Park, right off busy West End Ave, for a nice 10 mile jaunt.  "Oh, good morning friends, let me just stash my key in my hiding spot and we'll be on our merry way."  Apparently some jack ass (excuse the language) saw me do this and thought it would be cool to take my car.  I yogged back into the park and did a slight double take to notice my car was no longer in it's original spot...where did it go?  I was at first annoyed "great, now I have to cancel my credit cards, call the police, get a new cell phone...don't these people know I want to go to breakfast and take my dog to the lake?"...then I was angry, no, pissed!, "argh! bastards!"...then I remembered my house keys, license, etc. were in my car and that they could go to my house and steal/hurt my dog...I broke down and started bawling!  My friends were amazing and started helping me call credit card companies, banks, police, etc.  Eventually the police came and as they were taking my report a call came into the station that an anonymous caller saw the car behind the market four blocks away...what?!  We drove over and there she was, completely unscathed...in fact, the jerks put my car key back in it's original hiding spot...what?!?!  Needless to say it was quite the morning...and not the way you want to return from a VERY hot and waterless 10 mile run!  I am now a little lighter sans wallet, ipod and phone...but joke is on them, that phone is from the Zach Morris days of cellular technology...and the idiots left my blackberry...again, what?

I realized I had a problem when I look at my friend Lynn and said "I'm going to need a ride to swim practice today."   Yeah, I was thinking about how I was going to get to OWS practice 3 minutes after realizing my car had been stolen...what?!, insane, I know.  Luckily the vehicle was found and they didn't steal my helmet and bike shoes (believe me, had a minor panic attack about that too...lord knows, you can't buy new ones!) and I was able to drive to practice to get in some swimmin'...whew! (insert someone making the "cookoo face" here).  I think someone was testing my wits...luckily, I think I passed.  

I Watched an Ironman and All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt

As mentioned, I have quite the cheering squad coming to CdA to watch me suffer, er race, on June 21st. Mom and I have always tried to find something for her to wear during my marathons so that I can easily pick her from the crowd...sometimes this works, other times not so much (see London Marathon when she wore a red hat...well, apparently the official volunteer color was red, more specifically red hats...where the hell is mom...I got nauseous trying to spot her!...and never did until the finish!) So, I have put together special t-shirts for my crew...Team Tilly! shirts, hilarious! I hope I can spot my big green team while I'm out there swimming, biking and running!...if I can't see them I know I will hear them!

You've Been Very Knotty!

I went to get a massage yesterday to work out some of the kinks that have been building up over the past few months.  I love how IM training allows for you to "need" massages to help repair and heal your muscles...usually I'm just considered an overindulgent snob, but now it's for the benefit of my Ironman...yeah, right!  I mean it's on my training plan, right there in writing..."massage"...uh, ok, coaches orders, I have to do it!  (I have been wondering what I've been paying him for and now I figured it out...his plans include massage days!)

Well, I planned it perfectly...have the massage at 7:45, slip out of there after an hour and glide right into bed...genius!  Now I can be super relaxed and then just drift right to sleep!  Oh sweet mother of god, that was not the case.  Apparently I drew the psycho masseuse card.  I'm not talking about "oh, could you please lighten the pressure, that's a little tough"...no, she might as well have been using a meat tenderizer on me, hammering it on my back over and over again...I was like ground beef walking out of there.  I knew there was a problem when I was lounging in the quiet area reading up on the parties around town in N Focus magazine (where do these people find time to attend galas and parties...don't they know there's a long bike ride the next morning?) and I see this flash of a person fly by back and forth, hurrying and scurrying along in a very ungraceful fashion.  "Please, please, please don't let that lummox be assigned to me, please!"...card's up...she's mine!  The girl had me grimacing within the first three seconds and I think I was even more tense, fearing what she was going to do, than when I had walked in there.  She found muscles I didn't even knew existed and preyed on the ones that had been overly abused at swim practice that morning after about 1200 yards of pulling.  "Make the madness stop, please...why didn't I sign up for 30 minutes?...an hour!?!  HELP! "  Even the parts that you expect to be gentle, you know toes, head, face, were an all out beating...not ease or grace about it...I was being pummeled.  Even though I was in a constant state of fear and panic for the entire hour, I walked out of there really loose and actually felt great.  I did go home and try to see if I had bruises on my back...probably resembling a dog who hears himself fart, looking around and around at my back trying to see something.   

Alas, all the benefits were lost less than 24 hours later at swim practice when Ashley had us do 15x200, with a 600 warm up and 400 cool down...4,000...yep, my back's all jacked up again!

It's June, wait, what?...IT'S JUNE!!!!!

Ok, crappy job with my photo, I know.

Oh lord, it's June! June, June, June...I flipped my calendar and there it was, staring me down, taunting me, questioning my work...June 21st. The M-Dot I drew on my calendar back in January is there, right there on June 21st...isn't there another month between May and June...Mune?, Jay?...nope, nothing...it's here, less than three weeks away, 18 days, hours, minutes, seconds.

Am I ready, yes...am I freaking out, absolutely!!!

I have come leaps and bounds from where I was in January...it's amazing how the body can adapt and grow with the stresses you put on it. You start looking forward to long rides, getting up before your alarm and feeling like poop if you only work out for an hour instead of 4. I am in a constant state of buzz...I have adrenaline and anxiety pulsing through my veins, getting huge surges when I actually let myself really think about it all. My stomach will knot up and my eyes will swell...I cannot wait to toe the line, cannot wait to finish the swim and hop on my bike, cruise for a cool 112 miles and lace up my shoes for marathon #9...CANNOT wait to cross that finish line and see my friends and family standing there...cannot wait for the hugs and and high fives and the post race foot rub down...cannot wait to be an IRONMAN!!! And sickly I cannot wait to see what's next!

Three weeks to go...tapering and taking care of my body...eating right, getting a few massages, hydrating, hydrating, hydrating. "The hay is in the barn" my coach said...I'm not going to get any stronger, faster, fitter now...it's time to trust what I have done and know that I am there, ready, willing, in the best shape of my life.

Yes, it's June...hello, I have been anxiously awaiting your arrival...

DSB's and OWS's

I am so tired I can't even type out full words and am having to abbreviate my titles...jokes...this weekend was full of Dave Scott Brick's and an Open Water Swim.  Saturday was a LONG day with the previously mentioned brick workout (for those who need reminding and just 'cause I want you to think I'm a badass, it was 20/2, 20/3, 20/4, 20/6...ride/run mileage).  We were off by 7:00am sharp and there we were quite the motley crew.  There were 7 of us to start, each person doing their own section of the workout.  Some only did one leg (20/2) others did two (20/2 and 20/3) while some did three (you get the picture) and some, ahem, ahem, me, did all four.  It was a very cool and crisp morning, but after 7+ hours of work and the sun rising to it's full potential, it was HOT!  We all rode the first 20 mile loop together in order to learn it and not get lost and ran the first piece together as well.  Needless to say, we were hauling arse!  I felt good and knew it was probably a death wish, but I went along for the ride.  The first run was a little swift as well...heck only two miles, you can push it...again, death wish.  We held 8:15's for the 2 mile run and about 8:20's for the 3 mile run and 8:30's for the 4 mile run...by the time I was on my own for the 6 mile run, I was lucky to hold 9:30's...blech!  

Ben and I were the last two standing on the final ride/run leg (other's didn't need to do as many and Sarah is recovering from a wreck) so we had a mentally tough ride/run as well as physically.  I let Ben go ahead so I wouldn't feel the need to keep up...good thing, because I started to fall apart on the bike.  Legs...so...tired...must...keep...pushing.  It was a hillier course than the last DSB workout, so I was shot come the last round.  The plan for the run was to do the 3 mile loop twice and stop at the house if we needed more water, fuel, etc.  As I was out on the run I thought..."if I stop at the house I am done, no way I will do another loop"...especially because before I even headed out on the run everyone was sitting in the garage drinking an ice cold, frosty, delicious beer...jerks.  So, I grabbed my water bottle and headed out yelling "if I'm not back in an hour, come find me!"  I decided to not go all the way back to the house and ran the loop part twice, making for a 5 mile run...not the full 6...oh well.  When I got back to the house Ben claimed he only went 3 because he couldn't force himself back out there once back...I knew it would happen...glad I didn't go back!  I also started making deals with the devil on the run..."ok, if you let me walk to that mailbox I will give you my first born child"...good..."if you let me make this walk interval 1:15 instead of the normal 1:00 then I will name my first son Lucifer"...deal...  I kept the walk one minute per mile interval pretty consistent up until the last mile, but was ready to konk out in someone's grass during the last 10 minutes.  I finally ran back to Andy's house and everyone was in the garage chanting "Tilghman, Tilghman..." it was hilarious.  I sat down, blurted out something that would make my mother proud and chugged some water in preparation for my well deserved beer!  It was a great, albeit long, day!

This was my mixology station at home the morning of DSB's.  Thirsty little fella?

A group of us also got together to do an OWS on Sunday morning.  There were about 15 of us who met at Percy Priest Lake to do the 1.4 mile route.  I wanted to do the route twice, but I felt like I deserved the rest and only did it once...leaving the longer option for this coming week!  On the way out to the buoy (turn around point) I was a little freaked out...breathing every other stroke and trying not to notice what was going on in the water around me.  On the way back in I got into a nice groove...breathing every third stroke (as I have been instructed, over and over and over again) and really feeling good.  I am so damn ready for this race!  The big dead fish on the shore did not make me happy going into the water and I was just waiting for a big mouth Bass to come and swim directly into my face...ahhhh!!!!!

Some of the crew getting ready for the swim...7:00 comes really early on a Sunday!

The marina where we do the swim...it's nice and calm.  You can see someones heading popping out...you're almost there, keep going!

I took Cash to the lake later that day so he could get in some open water practice as well...apparently fat doesn't float...his butt sinks like a rock!  I might have to use his technique on the final push of the IM!