Maybe my last post wasn't specific enough...

Maybe my last post had too much "backstory", I'm Irish after all...

I can train 5/6 days a week. For Mon- to Frid I have 1 hr to 1 Hr 10mins available.
Sat/Sun I usually do about 1 and 1/2 hrs.

My current training is: 2/3 of days of straight distance, doing about 2 1/1 miles per hour. I use a tempo trainer for pacing so that helps me keep to a time target and ouch myself. I can swim steadily at about 43secs per 50 m for 40 to 45 mins before I start to slow slightly, dropping to 44 to 45 secs per 50m by the end. So it's EN-1 training. Recently I've started adding 200m VO2 Max sprints about every 8 mins into this, at about 80% of max effort. This hurts but is designed to help distance speed.
Usually the first 10/15 mins is pull & technique training. I can hold 16 strokes per 25m for about the 40/45 mins period when it'll drop to 18 strokes per 25m by the end.
I'll also have a day or two of slow EN-1 training.
I also try to do 2 days of harder EN-2 based off sets/intervals. Distance will still be the same, about 5,000, but with the intervals it'll take up the 1 1/2 hours.

These days are all mixed to allow recovery.
EN-2 day followed by EN-1, etc.
When possible I'll train 5 days then take a day off. Work sometimes means I have to take 2 to 3 days off however.
All this type of training is recent, last 2 months, based on reading Maglischo's Swimming Faster huge tome.

Prior to that for 3 months I was doing the straight 1 hr distance but swimming to a pace. Prior to that training was all over the place usually around 45 mins per day.

I can comfortably swim unbroken for an hour, sure I could 2 hours but I'd prob. need to be in the sea to avoid the pool boredom.
I'm aiming for a 6 mile open water race (Ireland NW coast, even colder than where I live in the South). Expected entries, less than 10...
I don't want to just "do" it, I want to do it well, i.e I don't want to be last, though I expect to be the most inexperienced and therefore likely the slowest! If conditions are ok, I think I can hold about a similar pace in the sea, at least for the first hour, and my one previous 4 mile test last autumn on a calm day was about 1 hr 50 for 4 miles.
Any advice for growing distance training but not neglecting pace.? Or am I on the right track?
I have no one to bounce my training ideas off so I'm doing it from a book at the moment. Anyone got any advice, or even any discussion?
Any response appreciated?
Regards
Donal

Thanks very much Barbara, I was hoping to hear something positive, as I've been changing the training based on what I've been reading.
I don't do much 100s but I think the 1.20 pace is fine for sets of 10 or so, but with a longer interval so I'll add those also.
Two supplementary questions are:
Given what I've been doing, I've gone into overtraining a few times, and often get very very tired. I can't imagine how "real" swimmers train twice a day. Maglischo had tests showing more than a week's break could be counterproductive so I haven't had more than 5 days off in the last 7 or 8 months. How then do I increase my training time as I get closer?
Also, can you advice roughly as to what I should be doing time/distance per day for the big event (which as it turns out I discovered last night, is actually 8 miles).

Thanks again very much for your response and assistance, it's deeply appreciated.

Regards
Donal
Ireland