My two cents: I just did my first spring also and this is what I cam away with. The swim, at least for me, was miserable. I had never done an open water swim and my tri was a mass start out of a boat launch, so everyone was tightly packed. This meant, lots of gettin kicked in the head, which drained my energy very quickly. If I could give any advice, try to get a couple of open water swims in if you havent already. It is VERY differene than swimming in a pool and caused me some anxiety while in the water. I have a descent tri suit and love it. I couldnt imagine using seperate shorts and a top. probikekit.com has some pretty good deals on descent tri suites so you might want to check them out. I used my road bike with aero bars attached, and was very glad that I did. I found that coming out of the water, my back and shoulders were very fatigued, so getting into the aero position took some stress off of them, not to mention the fact that I find the aero position to be faster. Hope this helps some.