How long does it take to swim 1 mile of breastroke?

If I can swim 1 mile of breastroke in 25 minutes, then I should be in the good shape, right? I would say so. That would be a 1:25 pace per 100 yards, and that would be pretty darn good for that duration.

Thank you all for your inputs. If I can swim 1 mile of breastroke in 25 minutes, then I should be in the good shape, right? I did not know that breastroke can be bad for knees. May be I should work on my freestyle and use it for my 1-mile workout. For some reasons, I can not swim freestyle more than 20 lengths(25yards/length) nonstop. I think my technique is correct; perhaps my endurance is not good? Thanks.

Don't forget the old 20 yard pools. They were perfect when the races were 220, 440, etc. 88 lengths for a mile and you didn't have to use a rope across the pool to finish the race. Always seemed odd to swim 5 lengths for 100. I think back in the 70's that NCAA used to keep 20 yard pool records.

I swam several 1650s in meets all breaststroke. I just thought of them as a workout. I only worked the turns and tried to keep the underwater strokes long. Drove the freestyle swimmers crazy as I could turn faster than they could and come up 2 yards ahead after the underwater. Then they would go by me as I was really loafing the breaststroke. Had bad shoulders at the time (still do). I think my times were between 25 and 27 minutes.

Josh- to paraphrase Charlton Heston: 'you would have to rip my yards pools from my cold, dead hands'...no. they're still building them.

Which brings to mind a question: are the pools in the US still not metric? Ronald Reagan's first executive action (or nearly) was to cancel the USA's being on track to adopt the metric system. One of George W's first was to cancel the inclusion of metrics in highway signs and other stuff like that.

Which brings to mind a question: are the pools in the US still not metric?

Ronald Reagan's first executive action (or nearly) was to cancel the USA's being on track to adopt the metric system. One of George W's first was to cancel the inclusion of metrics in highway signs and other stuff like that. So the metric system is a communist plot? BTW, Britian (the historical home of miles, yards and whatever else) is gradually moving to the metric system.

Lots of good information and humor! I liked laughed out loud at the response of "a few months". I just swam a mile (1800 yards) today, for the second time in my life. :applaud:How long did it take me...? Just a little under an hour, *** stroke, no stops. What a way to start the day! At over 1 mile per hour!!!:bolt: I had never heard that the *** stroke was hard on knees. Maybe I should learn the crawl. I go real slow, (duh) , if that makes it any easier on those knees.:afraid:

Aren't there some crazy swimmers around called "butternuts" who do lots of open water fly? I didn't know this was a term (or an actual "thing") but last year I was hanging out by a pond on the Cape and I saw some unusual splashing way out in the middle of the pond - half a mile away anyway. I watched it as it got closer and closer and even though it seemed like the splash pattern of someone doing fly, it didn't seem possible. But that's exactly what it was - this girl was swimming all the way across the pond doing fly. Around 50m from shore she turned around and went back across. It was nuts! And impressive! ANd I think it would take several hours to do one mile of breaststroke