swimming workouts

Question
George, I have been swimming for 6 months now and am kind of obsessed or shall I say very passionate about it. I have an extensive surfing background. I also run 3 to 4 times a week...3 to 4 miles. I have recently began competing cause I can hang out with swimmers and hopefully better my times and stay in top shape. I did 5 events this summer here in Hawaii... 1 mile, 1.6 mile, 2 mile, 2.5 mile twice. I love it and it doesn't seem like I get tired. Oh, these are open ocean swims by the way. The natural beauty of the reef, fish, colors etc. takes my mind off the exertion of swimming I think. Question...I can't get to the ocean every day so I use the pool for laps and I do a mile every day. Im 53 and lean. Body wise and health wise, should I be doing a mile a day? Do I need time for muscles to "mend" as docs say? I alternate breath every 3 strokes. Is this ok? Should I change up my breathing or just do what is comfortable? I have so many questions about my new passion. Thank you for a response. Dave Sherman...North Shore

Answer
Dave--
WOW, I'm impressed.  As long as you are deemed physically able, by a physician, I see no reason to not do at least a mile per day.  In order to improve your results in the longer races you are going to need a good training base to push to faster results in longer races.  Distance swimmers tend to train at least twice as far as they are going to compete, if not 3 to 4 times the competitive distance, so 1 mile would be a good warmup.
As for the muscles, I wouldn't worry about muscles needing time to mend.  Swimming is not a high resistance sport like weight lifting, so you really aren't tearing muscle cells, working out once a day is not detrimental to your training.
Continue to breath however is comfortable for you and gets your muscles enough oxygen to maintain the pace you set.
Hope this helps, let me know of any other questions I can help with
George