How to run 18 miles at sub-4 mile pace...

I was excited all week for my Sunday long run. It happens that Sunday is one of my favorite holidays of the year...Daylight Savings Time in the fall. The one in the spring sucks! I thought if I didn't have an Ironman in 2 weeks I would try to break the world record for the marathon. Since the plan called for an 18 mile long run I knew it was my chance to have the fastest pace for a run I've ever had. I left my car at 9:38 a.m. I went out 9 miles with and turned around. At the turnaround I set my clock back for daylight savings time. When I returned to my car after 18 miles it was 10:40 which means I covered 18 miles in 1 hr. 2 minutes...good enough for a 3 min. 26 second pace for the run. Although I wasn't able to set the world record for the marathon I was able to average under the world record for the mile over the course of 18 miles. I did the middle third of the run at tempo pace so that probably helped. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking that there is supposed to be some technical time when the clocks get set back but I've always operated by the theory that if you get the clock set back by noon you are okay since that's when the football games kick off here in the Central time zone.
Although the record pace run was the highlight of the week I had many other great workouts this week. It was designed to be my highest volume week in the build-up to Ironman Arizona. So far through 6 weeks I've stuck to this plan 100%. For the week my total training time was 29 hours. I ran 66 miles, biked 220 miles, and swam 21,300 yards. I knew the swim total was up there with my highest week of the year and after flipping through my training log I realized it was my highest week of the year. I'm really excited about this race because of how consistent the training has been. I've been 100% healthy, I have my weight down lower than I've ever raced a triathlon, and I'm recovering from workouts extremely fast which is a sign of how fit I am right now. Over the past 5 weeks I'm averaging 17,800 yds/week swimming which is almost double what I was doing last school year. My run average has been 59 miles and my bike average has been 209 miles. I've gotten a tempo run and interval running workout as well as 2-3 hard bike workouts every week. I've gotten a long ride and long run every week. My only worry is that most of my bike mileage has been done on the trainer and I wonder if that will affect my lower back during the race because I don't ride in the aero position throughout all the indoor riding. I have played with my position and have what I feel is a very comfortable, powerful, and aerodynamic position. Through 6 weeks I have been able to check off every box in my weekly goal checklist that includes all the small things like core work, weight lifting, running drills, strides, push-ups, jump rope, plyometrics, and mileage/yardage goals. I had a huge weekend of training. Saturday morning I began with a 4 hour trainer ride with 5 minutes at Ironman goal wattage beginning every 15 minutes. In the first hour I was at 230 watts, 240 in the 2nd hour, 250 in the 3rd hour, and 260 in the 4th hour. During the ride I watched the live streaming of Ironman Florida. It was awesome later in the evening to watch local triathletes Johnathan Schmidt and John Pfautz finish with PR's! Immediately after the 4 hour ride I ran 7 miles at a very comfortable pace that ended up being 6:40. I then did a 4,000 yard swim workout and later in the evening got back on the bike for 90 minutes and then did another 2 mile brick run. Sunday morning with slightly tired legs I did the 18 mile run and then swam 3,000 yards and rode the bike 90 minutes. I definitely will not lose weight this week because I was so hungry after the last workout I ate about 5x more than I normally do on Sunday night before "weigh day". This week Halloween came and went and for the first time since 1980 I did not have any candy at all. I'm guessing every year since 1981 when I was a 1 year old I have had candy every year around Halloween. This year I stayed away and it wasn't even that difficult because I'm commited to going into this race with 8 straight weeks of no junk in my diet. Instead of candy I substitute a Zone Perfection bar which is low in fat but high in protein. This coming week I will drop the volume down but focus on getting some really high quality workouts in. I will begin to cut back a bit next weekend to prepare my body to be rested in 2 weeks when the cannon fires. I'm so glad I signed up for this race. I think about it every day and it drives me to eat healthy and work hard. I really believe every day I've gotten better through the training I've done. Some days getting better means training less, and some days getting better means stripping myself to the core like Saturday when the training time was about 8 hours. Next week I'll post the details of the race tracking and coverage. I'll be wearing a GPS chip for athlete tracking so you can see where I'm at and what my pace is at all times after getting out of the water. My plan right now is to swim relaxed and try to catch a good group to hang with, ride conservatively around 4 hrs. 50 minutes, and be really fresh for the run. My running is better than it's ever been before and I need to make that my weapon of choice for this race. I was 3 hrs. 40 minutes in Wisconsin and if I'm smart I should be able to knock a ton of time off that split alone. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!!