I swam 15 laps in 15:40. I realized, that it will be VERY difficult for me to improve my time by just doing the whole thing together. I realized this because every time I would get back to the wall, the clock would be advanced at just about exactly 60 seconds. No matter how I changed my technique, I kept finish right at 1 minute.
This made me realize that whatever I was going to try, I would still end up with a 33+ minute mile time. With all of the exercise that I have been doing on my upper body muscles, I can't figure out why I am not on track for a further improvement.
In order for me to improve my overall time (and get it down to 30 minutes), I will have to be able to improve my overall speed in the water in regulated way so that I don't burn out 1/4 into the race...which I am not capable of doing right now. It is either a sprint, or it is 'relaxed'.
I decided to stop doing the long swim and try something else. I would sprint 1 lap (50m) and check my time. As soon as I can recover breathing, I will repeat and keep track of my time.
When I sprint (and do a flip-turn), my time would be between 45 and 50 seconds...depending on how sloppy my flip-turn was. (I had several in which I would have to stop completely, come to the surface, and take a life-saving breath of air)
If my sprint is 50 seconds, and my long distance lap time is just over 60 seconds, I should probably continue doing drills so that my long distance time gets to about 56 seconds (or better)and I am comfortably breathing after the sprint. If I do this, then I should effectively drop my time from 34 minutes down to 30 minutes and 46 seconds.
While I was doing these sprint drills, I noticed that I was breathing a lot heavier which made my lungs much larger. This buoyancy actually helped me speed up...so there is benefit to having your lungs work harder in swimming. There were times where I felt my body just bobbing on the surface and all of my power was just going into forward motion...it was really weird.
Next time I swim, I am going to warm up and increase the intensity of my breathing. This way, when I do the real swims I will be holding more air and cut through the water easier.
Now the hard part will be settling back into a long distance swim after doing sprints.
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