Alcatraz!

Ron, Go for it. The only way to be an experienced swimmer is to experience swimming. And a 32 minute mile is better than a lot of people, especially because it was an ocean swim. The pool time was probably less because of turns and too may people in a lane. But you are already seeing improvement. The more you swim, the better you get and the more comfortable you are with your own swimming. I am sure many people have much advice about how to train for a mile or more ocean swim. I will relate to you my way of getting into conditioning for ocean swims. And I have to tell you here, I am the crazy woman who is going to attempt an 18 miler in August of 2008 and I'll be 60!!! When I do the one mile ocean swim here every March in the triathlon (I only do the swim, nothing else), I never swim a mile in practice. Swimming a mile trains my body to swim a mile and that's not what I want. And this is mainly because most people will just swim a very slow mile and their bodies will get used to this slow speed. I do repeat sets. I would suggest you get used to doing say 4x400s and watch the clock with a rest interval that you can tolerate. The idea is to not swim them slow, but to swim them at what will be "race pace", each 400 about the same time. This will build conditioning and endurance. I also do 2 sets of 4x200s with the same principle. Also, 20x50's with 15 seconds rest trying to keep them all close in time. You get the idea. There are all kinds of sets you can come up with. One thing I will say that I have found to be most important is to do a swim (ocean preferably) and swim 20 strokes ez, 20 fast, until failure, no stops before the failure. In a pool you could do 10 ez, 10 fast because you'll be at the wall. The benefit of this is it is a great stamina drill, it helps you when you need to pass someone in the mile race because you will know you can "change gears" without suffering from it. And, I have used it in ocean races every single time I swim them. And I knew that I could "sprint" to get around a group of people and then resume my "pace." When the gun goes off at the one mile ocean swim here, I swim 4x400s, not a mile. I usually swim a 23 minute mile. Happy swimming:groovy: Donna

Ron, Go for it. The only way to be an experienced swimmer is to experience swimming. And a 32 minute mile is better than a lot of people, especially because it was an ocean swim. The pool time was probably less because of turns and too may people in a lane. But you are already seeing improvement. The more you swim, the better you get and the more comfortable you are with your own swimming. I am sure many people have much advice about how to train for a mile or more ocean swim. I will relate to you my way of getting into conditioning for ocean swims. And I have to tell you here, I am the crazy woman who is going to attempt an 18 miler in August of 2008 and I'll be 60!!! When I do the one mile ocean swim here every March in the triathlon (I only do the swim, nothing else), I never swim a mile in practice. Swimming a mile trains my body to swim a mile and that's not what I want. And this is mainly because most people will just swim a very slow mile and their bodies will get used to this slow speed. I do repeat sets. I would suggest you get used to doing say 4x400s and watch the clock with a rest interval that you can tolerate. The idea is to not swim them slow, but to swim them at what will be "race pace", each 400 about the same time. This will build conditioning and endurance. I also do 2 sets of 4x200s with the same principle. Also, 20x50's with 15 seconds rest trying to keep them all close in time. You get the idea. There are all kinds of sets you can come up with. One thing I will say that I have found to be most important is to do a swim (ocean preferably) and swim 20 strokes ez, 20 fast, until failure, no stops before the failure. In a pool you could do 10 ez, 10 fast because you'll be at the wall. The benefit of this is it is a great stamina drill, it helps you when you need to pass someone in the mile race because you will know you can "change gears" without suffering from it. And, I have used it in ocean races every single time I swim them. And I knew that I could "sprint" to get around a group of people and then resume my "pace." When the gun goes off at the one mile ocean swim here, I swim 4x400s, not a mile. I usually swim a 23 minute mile. Happy swimming:groovy: Donna