Feeling Lost....

Six more sleeps. That's it. Seriously. Six more times to put my head on the pillow before I wake up and start my victory lap to celebrate surviving Ironman training.

This was a week of ups and downs.

Darrell made it easy by wearing his DM shirt

Monday was awesome as I finally got to meet Darrel IRL (in real life). We have been DailyMile friends for 2-3 years now. I'm not really sure how we connected, but we did. He's been very supportive of my entire journey by celebrating the accomplishments and helping trouble shoot the set backs. He was in town for work and reached out to see what my training schedule looked like. It was great having company for a very nice and easy 10K. It gave us lots of time to chat!

Tuesday was a 3000yd set of swim intervals. Maybe I am ready for the swim as it just didn't seem like that much.

Wednesday night I met up with "the guy who still lives with his to-be-ex" or as Angela likes to call him, "red flag". Nice dinner and conversation and I like that while he is impressed by my training, he isn't in awe of it. We can talk about it, but we can also talk about other things. If only there was some chemistry between us. I posted on Facebook that I had a second date and that statement alone generated 116 comments. I swear my friends are going to be disappointed if I ever stop dating.

MP all dressed up for the big dance

Thursday I had a 9 mile run in which I was supposed to keep my heart rate low. I nailed the run. I also got to get a bug out a random woman's car because she was terrified and return a lost cell phone.

This weekend has been interesting. Friday I picked up MP (my bike) and Curtis and Cannon Cyclery have him looking awesome and race ready.

Birthday TRI ladies

Saturday Stephanie, Izumi, and I took to Columns Drive for a 2 hour ride. We would have gone to the Silver Comet, but it was the morning of a half marathon/marathon and I didn't want to dodge that many runners. I was supposed to ride for 2 hours at race pace and it should feel easy. I commented on my workout to my coach that it wasn't easy and I don't know that I can keep up this pace, effort, or cadence for 6.5-7 hours. He responded with telling me about taper blues and a pep talk about how it will all come together. I want to believe him, but I haven't had a good ride in a few weeks.

After our ride we headed out to breakfast to chat and celebrate Stephanie and Izumi's birthdays.

Stacey, Sherpa extraordinaire

I am incredibly lucky. I am going to have the most amazing Sherpa for IMFL. My friend Stacey volunteered months ago and she is true to her word. I met up with her after breakfast and we talked about how the weekend would work. I got to ask her some questions and she pretty much assured me that I would have an awesome race, she would make sure of it. She's even going to communicate with my parents to make sure they are in the right place at the right time and chauffeur me home on Sunday.

Today was my last open water swim. Frank and Lizzie who are also racing IMFL were there as were Sarah and Claudia who were there for moral support. Walking to the lake a few things were apparent. It was foggy and we couldn't see the other beach we usually swim too and the water was cold! It got better as we acclimated to it, but the fog did not lift as we swam across.

I kinda went right, not straight

I couldn't keep up with the four of them and very quickly lost the ability to spot off them. I eventually picked up my head to check the distance on my watch and it said .40 miles. Across the lake is only .45 +/-. I couldn't see the beach. I couldn't see them. I could see the bridge and buoys that I had NEVER seen before and we swam that lake every week this summer/early fall. I might have panicked a little. I couldn't get my bearing on which direction to swim. I did have my swim buoy with me, and I was in a wetsuit. There are no motorized boats in this section and really thought I was going to have to float until the fog lifted and I could figure out which way to swim.
I hollered out for Sarah who thankfully heard me and she and Frank swam towards me until we could see each other and then I swam with them to the beach. I swallowed my pride and asked Sarah to hang back with me going back across. She willingly did and then once we could easily see the other beach I told her I was good and she took off.

OWS and rescue team

SIX DAYS!

Six days and this 'thing' that has been out there for 8 months is going to be a reality. I know I can do the swim. It won't be fast and it might not be pretty, but I should make time cut off. I know I can do the run. Same thing, it may not be pretty, but I know I can keep moving forward. I can't get over being worried about the bike. It is the largest chunk of the race and it's the piece I'm most worried about. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't trying to figure out worse case scenarios for paces to make the cut off times.

I want to thank all of you for the pep talks, listening to me whine, for checking in on me, and for just being a generally awesome part of this journey. There is no way I would have made it this far without all of you near and far. It is humbling and awesome to know I have so many amazing people in my life who genuinely want to see me succeed.

One foot in front of the other. Forward is a pace. 16:59:59 still makes me an Ironman.

You can track my progress on Saturday. I'll post tracking info by the end of the week.