Successful Procrastination: TRI-ing new things

While training for the Savannah Rock N Roll Marathon last year, I re-discovered something about myself:

Nothing will motivate me like a deadline.  

I've always known this.  I am the epitome of procrastination.  I don't even write the paper the night before it's due... I wake up an hour before class to write it.  That's just who I am.  Yes, it can bite me in the butt if I miss my alarm, but some of the most creative and thoughtful thinking I do comes during those crucial final ticks of the clock.  (For a good laugh, read more about procrastination on Hyperbole and a Half.  It's like she's inside my brain.)

I realized that deadlines define me in every way.  If I'm not careful, I can allow this trait to define me in a negative way: lazy, unmotivated, lacking passion, stressed out, anxious.

I refuse to let that define me.

I realized that there is one way this "negative" character trait can propel me into the person I want to be:

Turn deadlines into races.

Come up with crazy training schedules that (even with some procrastinating) need to be accomplished in order to get the race done.  Without knowing it, this character trait was responsible for my crossing the finish line.

So here we are.  January 2012.  I've done what NO ONE thought I could do thanks to a race deadline.  What's next?

Set a new deadline?  Pick a new race?  Done.

Though I know this is a stretch... my new fitness goal for 2012 is:

Finish a half-Ironman.  In June.  of 2012.  Yes, I know thats - like - 6 months from now.  

Against all logic, I've decided to not only finish a half-Ironman this year, but I'm going to do it in June (for personal reasons, I don't want to wait for the fall races).  Hey, if those Biggest Loser people can go from morbidly obese to marathon in 6 months, I can totally go from marathoner to half-ironman in 6 months right??

If you didn't know, a half Ironman race is: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run (70.3 miles total).

So that leaves me less than 6 months to do the following:
1. Train almost every day.
2. Build mega swimming endurance (I only learned how to swim 4 months ago).
3. Overcome my fear of an open-water swim.
4. Learn how to ride a bike, buy a bike, and build mega cycling endurance.
5. Prevent injury. (This is my biggest worry.)
6. Stay vegan the whole time.
7. Balance all of this with my career, family, and social life.

Why am I confident that this will work?  Because it's a deadline.  It HAS to get done.  And that's just the way I function.

Any other procrastinators out there?  Has anyone turned their deadlines into goals?