How often do you swim more than 1500m NON-STOP?

I think the longest distance I swim is 1000 yards if I happen to do a long distance workout. I never swim longer non-stop distances than that.....so my answer is never.

Almost never.My longest race is 200 M(except when I entered the 400 IM during what was clearly a psychotic episode) and I think race pace work is important so I see little reason to swim over 200M.Once or twice a year I'll swim a 1600 IM just for something different early in the season.Some times I'll do it as swim,pull,kick,swim each stroke.

How often do you swim long distance non-stop, say 1500m or more? How often is good? I try to plan for myself :) (Also, when doing that, do you swim only freestyle or sometimes change to different strokes?) If I did a 1500 meter straight swim, I would have my head examined to see where my brain disappeared too. I love do repeat 300's and 400's but do straight 1500's, a person has to be really bored and not able to create more fun practices.

I said every few weeks, but that's probably an exaggeration. Let's see, last summer I swam two open water swims of 5K and also the pool 5K, so that's three. I swam the 1650 free at Clovis so that's four. It's possible I swam over 1500 meters in training once or twice, but I don't recall doing it. At the absolute most I probably swam over 1500 meters without stopping a total of six times in the last year.

but do straight 1500's, a person has to be really bored and not able to create more fun practices. the inverse is: a person has to be a really stuck not to be able to create a fun 1500 try a 1500 fartlek 25 cruise, 25 fast, 25 cruise, 50 fast, 25 cruise, 75 fast or alternate 100fr /100 stroke or build by 500 or 100 or hold lowest possible stroke count or

I said once every few months. Usually more often during OW season and then hardly ever during the rest of the year.

I've been doing more of this recently. I work out with a group 2x a week (this is a fairly new development, I had been training by myself for the last year) and then the other swims I do during the week are solo. I've started to use these solo swims to do big blocks of distance with the thought that I need the endurance for some open water swims I want to do. To keep from being bored out of my skull I do have a waterproof mp3 player that I am pretty happy with so far. My big problem is keeping track of my distance. I ordered one of those goofy looking finger counter things to try out so I can know just how far I am really going. If I go much further with all the gadgetry I'm going to end up looking mildly bionic... :cool:

If I did a 1500 meter straight swim, I would have my head examined to see where my brain disappeared too. Most people I see at my pool just swim back and forth at the same pace for a certain period of time. They jump in, don't warm up, swim back and forth and leave. How boring is that:yawn:

I've laddered up to 2000 while training for Swimtrek tours. I probably didn't need to, the guides stop you every 30 minutes for hot drinks on the longer swims. It's easier in a 50m pool, but as Chaos said, there are ways to make it interesting.

Rarely.