I signed up for my first triathlon................any good advice.............I am looking at the 16

I just looked at your log.  Not much in the way of rate.  Not just time spent running, swim etc but five swims of 50 yards each on the minute, etc.

Long distance swimming is really about slowing your HR down.  If you HR goes down, breathing needs go down and you can really go about any distance you want.

When you swim try to stretch out, enter the water at your centerline, pause for a second (yes I mean a half count), accelterate your arm and exit past your thigh.  You want as long of a stoke as possible.  Count them in the pool and keep reducing the number required to go across.

Depending on what Tri you do, this is not really that complicated.  Train and focus on your weakness and it will be a piece of cake.

Swimming is about getting you to the bike with as much left in the tank as possible - because you are going to have to run after that.

Great swim technique advice above.  One thing to add: when your arm enters the water and you stretch out ... pretend that you are trying to reach something about an 1" too far and you have to get on your tip toes and turn slightly to extend your arm that little extra distance.

This will cause you to rotate - which causes more forward momentum.  This will also allow you to pause + glide for that half count (thereby milking the momentum) before your catching and pull all the way back to your thigh. (One way to be sure that you are doing a full stroke is to have your fingers should brush your thigh to ensure a full stroke).

Good luck!