I am getting nervous - .5 mile OW swim in 7 weeks

Matt, if you were dumped .5 mile from shore in a lake you would be able to get to shore right? You may not do just freestyle but combination of freestyle other strokes, maybe some back stroke maybe resting some.

I was in  your position before my first Oly distance race and was so distraught about the swim I thought about not doing the race. My coach used the dropped off from shore analogy and it really stuck with me. I had to give up my idea that I'd do freestyle the whole time, but rather do what I felt comfortable doing and getting through it. I lined up and did the race, I was last out of the water, but it was a huge growth thing for me.

Some suggestions are to slow down when doing freestlye.; combine strokes to see if you can continue to move forward without stopping every 100 yards as that will be a big boast mentally...even if you do dog paddle or side stroke or back stroke, whatever.

I know you can do it...keep going to the pool, let go of any expectations on how you will swim, and just work on moving forward the distance needed. 

Take a deep breath...

Can you float on your back? 
Can you turn over to float on your back? 
Can you relax while floating on your back? 

If you answer "yes" to all three, you can survive the swim. 

When you swim 100 yards in practice, how long does it take?
How long do you "rest" before swimming another 100 yards?
How would you describe your swimming?  (Relaxed?  Splashy?  ??)
Why do you have to stop to rest?  (Are you panting, gasping, arms tired, or what?) 

Can you swim sidestroke?  Breastroke?  How far can you swim with either of these? 

Approach the half-mile swim like a "walk in the park."  When you started running, you didn't go run 3 miles at a full sprint (did you?).  If you knew you had to cover 3 miles, how fast would you go?  Slow enough to make sure you get to the end (right?).  Swim the same way.  Instead of "racing" for a lap or two--the hundred yards--slow down to the swimming equivalent of a walk.  (This of course assumes you swim with your face in the water...)  What you'll probably find is you could swim at that "walking" pace f-o-r-e-v-e-r (or at least until you're bored silly).  You might even find out you can swim the half mile at a "jogging" pace, but start really, really slow first. 

Yall are great. 

I can answer yes to all 3.  At this point, I get completely out of breath and have to stop for maybe 15-30 seconds.  Musle fatigue is definately not the issue at this point.  It may be with more yards but not yet.  I have not really kept track yet other than the total yards I do in a swim session.

I got a little help from friend that is a HS swim coach on Sat but she was enforcing that I had to stop rotating my hips to breath since it was taking me off course but then when I don't do that, it takes so much effort/strain to get my head over enough to breath that I get panicky and then loose any rythum I had.  I have been looking at videos online and it seems to me that at least the triathlon way is to rotate the hips alot.  It even looks like some pool olympic swimmers rotate their hips.  Was this bad advice? 

If I can just get the breathing down a little bit, I think I will make some significant progress. 

I started with a run of 5 minutes to the point of exhaustion about 6 months ago, so I understand your point.  I had a personal long run last Fri of 53 minutes. 

I agree with the advice above.

Other recommendations:

1.  Swim your own race.  DO NOT let anyone dictate how you're going to swim your race.  Don't worry about if people think you're slow.  It's your FIRST TRI!  START OUT slow.  Concentrate on form and being fluid in the water (Total Immersion www.totalimmersion.net).  If you keep your heart rate down at the start, you'll be able to swim for longer distances without fatigue.  Practice that in the pool too.

2.  You're allowed to rest.  If it's a pool swim, you can rest at the wall.  If it's an open water swim (OWS), you're allowed to hang onto a float and chat with the lifeguard.  I did it my 1st tri.  It's legal as long as you don't make any forward movement holding onto the float.  Was it embarrassing?  Yes.  Did I end up with a DNF and have to get pulled out of the water?  No.  I finished the race.  It gave me confidence to keep training.  I'll be doing a half ironman this spring.

3.  If it's an OWS, get some OWS practice, but be safe.  You can get experience sighting and building confidence by swimming ALONG the shore.  For practice, I used to swim in a lake, back and forth from buoy to buoy along the shore.  Since the water was slightly murky, I was forced to sight to get to each buoy.  I was only a few yards away from being able to stand up and rest if I needed to.  Swim with a buddy, or with other people around.

4.  Line up at the back and towards the outside during the swim start.  Let the pummelers get out first and duel it out with each other before you even get into the water.  Walk to the water if you want.  Keep that heart rate down.  You can start lining up at the front and running to the water once you get more experience.

5.  If you feel like your breathing is getting out of control at any point (hyperventilation), just relax, stick your head back in the water and pretend like you're swimming to the other end of the pool underwater and empty your lungs.  This will expel your CO2 and get you back on track.

Good luck to you.  Just finish the distance.  Don't stress yourself out by trying to meet a time goal.  There will be many more triathlons in your future...

Thanks, I am planning at least a few OWS in salt water and a few in my neighborhood lake.   I do have a wetsuit and am training in it due to the cold right now as I don't have a heated pool to go to and it is much more convienient to use my neighborhood lap pool.  I do need to measure it but it is at least 20 yards and may be 25. 

Swimmers don't roate their HIPS they rotate their shoulders and the hips follow.  Think of swimming as though you have a steel rod that connects your head all the way down to your spine.  You rotate your body around the rod.  Left arm comes over and into the water and you rotate to the left following your arm/shoulder.  Left arm/shoulder in the water, right shoulder OUT of the water (you're rotated to the left and starting recovery on the right side.)

To breathe, you should then just need turn your head to the right.