The critical thing to remember is that proper technique improves endurance and speed. Without the correct positioning and technique when kicking and reaching, you're going to slow yourself down, reduce propulsion, and you may also put yourself at risk of an injury.
So, while speed may be on your mind, it's far more advantageous to concentrate on technique first and allow speed to come later.
Many Factors Can Affect Swimming Times
There is no easy answer to the question of 'how long does it take to swim a mile' because everyone is different, and there are several factors at play. For instance, the following issues will affect how fast you can swim over any distance, a mile or otherwise:- Your swimming endurance level, or stamina
- Swimming technique on different strokes
- The water you're swimming in, i.e. is it a swimming pool, a lake, or the sea?
- Water temperature
- Your overall physical condition
- Your age
As you can see, when it comes to asking how long to swim a mile, you need to consider many different factors before coming up with an average time.
Swimming Miles Are Different to a True Mile
To further complicate the answer to your question, we also need to consider that a true mile, e.g. a road mile, is different from a swimming mile. A swimming mile is a little less and how you would reach the magic number depends upon whether you're in open water or a pool, doing laps. If you were to swim for a mile in a swimming pool, you would need to swim for 1650 yards or 1500 metres, but there is a little debate over these numbers in many circles. Overall, however, if you stick to these numbers, you're falling with the majority consensus. If you're swimming in a regular-sized pool, e.g. 25-metre indoor pool, then you'll need to do 66 lengths of the pool. Of course, if you're swimming in a pool that is a different size, you'll need to take that into account when working out how many lengths you need to do.
Mile Swim Times on Average
Remember that we're not talking about a true mile here. We can give you some general guidelines here as to how long the average time to swim a mile is but again; it does depend on the many factors we talked about earlier. Working out how long does it take to swim a mile really depends upon ability too. An experienced swimmer is obviously going to have better technique and endurance and will therefore have a faster swimming speed than a beginner or intermediate level swimmer. An Olympic level swimmer can, on average, swim a mile in around 16 minutes. Of course, that is the very highest level of swimming proficiency and someone who is used to competitive swimming, so this isn't something you should aim for if you're just starting out! Competitive swimmers have spent much time honing their skills and working on endurance. An intermediate swimmer may swim an average mile in between 25-45 minutes, and a beginner or average swimmer should aim towards 45 minutes at best.
This mile time is based upon swimming pools and not in open water. Obviously, in sea swimming or other bodies of water, times will be a little slower and depend heavily upon the current on any given day.
Swim Times Depend Upon Technique
Everything, from endurance to swim times, depends upon how you swim. So, you need to make sure that you have the correct positioning and technique to improve your performance overall. Then, you'll be able to build up to your fastest time. The best way to do that is to practice as much as you can, but a professional swimming instructor will be able to check your positioning and technique and give you advice on how you can improve. You may think that you have your technique down-pat, but unless you seek advice from a professional, you may simply carry on doing something less effective and not improve your performance at all. Never be too proud to ask for advice!
The ZEN8 swim trainer is also a great tool to help you perfect your technique out of the water. You may not have the time to head to the pool or local lake to practice on any given day, but you can still get some training time in by using the swim trainer. This will help build your core strength and allow you to practice positioning and technique since it mimics the conditions you will experience in the water. As a result, you'll reduce drag during your swims, and you'll have less chance of injuring yourself.
Build Your Swim Times Gradually
As a beginner, you may be in a rush to improve quickly and make leaps forward in your swim time, but you need to take things slowly and build up your performance over time. It's very easy to become disillusioned with your performance if it's not improving at the pace you would like, but a realistic view here is essential. Swimming for one whole mile without breaks isn't something you're going to be able to do very quickly straightaway. Regular practice and training will allow you to slowly build up your times and reach your aims. You should also avoid comparing your times with anyone else's, as everyone is different in their fitness level and progress rate.
An average person who is in good physical shape and has a good cardio fitness level may be able to swim a mile in between 2-3 months, as long as they practice regularly and have the correct technique in the water. For those who need to build up their stamina first, it can take up to around six months or possibly, even more to be able to swim a mile non-stop.
Swimming a mile isn't an easy feat, but it can be done with regular practice, dedication, and making sure that you focus on fitness outside of the pool, as well as what you do in it.