Laurence Mackin
Do it. In a group. Decide you are doing the Swim a Mile challenge. Right now. Email a friend and drag them on board (or off board actually). Congrats, you’re halfway there already. Our group ran from the complete novice (that would be me, he who could not swim in January) to the knife in water (Liam Ryan, who clocked his mile in about 31 minutes).
It is a completely achievable challenge but it does require quite a bit of work, and the best motivation is a group.
Most people will find when training that the amount of swimming they do as a group will be much greater than the number of lengths you can manage on your own. Don’t be concerned about this; instead use it to your advantage. Use your individual sessions to do as many as you can, and don’t be too concerned at not hitting the heights.
With the group sessions, and the extra impetuous you get from being around friends, you'll find it much easier to rack up the lengths.
No gear can help you
Decent goggles. Swim cap. Swim suit. That’s your lot for under €30. There’s no hiding behind gear, and the biggest expense will be the swimming pool fees.
Swim as often as possible
Initially, the two-week sessions might seem like plenty. But after the first few weeks, you need to be adding on another session or two per week, so that in the final weeks you are roughly clocking up three days swimming in a row and then one day off.
Not all these days need to be intense, but it's crucial to keep getting in the water to improve your technique and build up your muscle memory.
Technique is everything
Fitness
is all well and good (and will you feel good after that mile is done. And sure look at your beach-ready body). But it’s technique more than anything that will have you over that finish line in fine time. The lessons and training are crucial. When the actual mile starts to become tricky, it’s almost entirely a
mental exercise
: having the technique down, and being able to relax and rely on that, will make the experience far more achievable and enjoyable.
Everyone has terrible weeks
Endure the bad ones. Acknowledge them. Move on.
Focus on one point at a time.
While learning to swim, I had a lot of frustrations around trying to improve everything at the same time: breathing, stroke, position, kicking.
As soon as I had one working smoothly, I would get distracted and start worrying about something else, and all the wheels would come off.
I found it initially better to focus on one thing and get it right, to build up the muscle memory so that it would run relatively on autopilot and I could focus on the other factors.
Disclaimer though: I still don’t roll my shoulders enough, I’m not gliding my hand into the water, and I think it was halfway through my second mile swim that I finally figured out what to do with my legs.
The pool
Pick one that’s near where you are in the day rather than the evening. If you work from home, go local, otherwise scout the locations near your workplace. A swim before work is great, but if you have flexible hours, being able to nip out of the office for 30 minutes of lengths will break up your day in the best way possible.
When the training ramps up, you can eat like a beast
Take full advantage. Eat everything. Swim more.
Have you sent that email yet?
Swimming a mile is one of the most satisfying personal challenges I’ve done. The bang of smug off me is horrendous. Initially I just wanted to do the thing. I clocked up a solid time in the 25m pool, and then took on the 50m the following day. I expect to stop talking about it in about June.