Interested in a longer swim? Here are several that might delight your slow twitch muscles:

• You can Swim the Loop in Wrightsville Beach (NC) with a 3.5-mile swim on Sept 29;
• You can dip into Smith Mountain Lake (VA) on Sept 29 (5-km) or Sept 30 (1-mi); or
• You can swim To the Bridge and Back in Richmond (VA) with either a 2.4- or 5-mile race on Oct 13.

That’s some long swimming! And the braver among you might already be looking forward to the 4.4-mile Great Chesapeake Bay Swim next year.

How to train for such monster swims? One option is to regular do a long aerobic set like the Red Mist Set where you try to improve your speed at lactate threshold. There are a variety of options to estimate threshold speed: you can use the SwimSmooth method, or you can use the Salo set (3×300) that Patrick Brundage advocates.

Or you can just judge based on how well improve on the Red Mist set. Either way, happy (long) swimming!