Swimming: 5000 yard key workout

The Swim Across the Sound is coming up, and with that in mind, I scheduled a key workout this morning.  Actually, I meant to do today's main set on Thursday, but I only got about halfway through it before getting thrown out of the pool.  Alas, one of the little kids pooped, necessitating an evacuation.

So it had to be today.  I put in a solid 5000 yards, the most I've swum in several years.
Warm Up
4 x 200 @ 3:00 easy
200 kick (fly / breast / free / fly by 50s)
10 x 50 @ :45 breathing every 3rd

Main Set
30-minute aerobic swim for distance (2200 yards)

300 kick (fly / breast / free / fly by 50s)
100 easy
5 x 100 @ 1:30 pull

100 easy
4 x 50 fast, alternating fly/free @ 1:00

100 cool down

We swim 30-minute legs during the Swim Across the Sound, hence the need for this workout.  It's obviously not smart to get out fast in an event like that, but most swimmers train to go hard, even when they're training for "distance" races.  After all, the longest distance race in organized age group swimming is just 1,650 yards.  We'll be going much further than that in August.  Doing that takes both training and practice.  It's actually *hard* to learn to go slow.

Today's key swim was a case in point.  I took the first 100 out in 1:15 and spent the next 800 yards holding right at a 1:20/100 pace.  That gave me 900 yards in a shade under 12:00 and my first 1000 just under 13:30.

But by then I was breathing hard and had more than halfway left to go.  With some effort, I slowed down to a more manageable pace.  I caught my breath easily, but even so, the last 200-300 yards required a significant effort in order to keep my stroke long and smooth.

That was the whole point.

My wife and I are going out for a long open-water swim on July 4th, providing the weather cooperates.  I find it a little easier to manage long slow distance in open water, without the pressure of a pace clock or an obviously visible end point.  Still, practice is necessary, and here we are.

I let myself go a little faster towards the end.  I held the 100s pull between 1:15 & 1:16 and put both my 50s fly under :32.  That's pretty good for the end of a long workout.

The Swim is in six weeks.  For what it's worth, we could still use your support.