Its amazing what 1 swim lesson will do

As many of you know, swimming has been my most challenging event. Well NOW I know why. My new tri coach was great and extremely patient with me. I had no clue that I was swimming basiclly with my head out of the water which caused my hips and legs to be pointing down. I am amazed I ever got anywhere in the pool. We worked on several drills breaking things down. At the end of our hour session, I felt so much better about my stroke and technique. I am still having trouble with breathing. All the books I have read and videos I have seen are quite lacking when it comes to total breathing. They all seem to focus solely on the inhale. I am having most trouble with the exhale. I tend to hold my breath while my face is in the water and then exhale after I lift my head and then do a quick inhale. This is actually causing me to hyperventilate. Now that my technique is geting better, I hope to really work on breathing. She says I need to work on rythemic breathing. I only have 1 1/2 weeks to get this down.

good for you!  i breathe out right before i tilt my head out of the water, this allows you to do a quick inhale only and minimize how long your face is out of the water, same goes for the flip turn, i breathe out when i duck my head down for the flip, this minimizes water going up my nose.  your coach will be able to help a great deal with that.  i need to have my stroke assessed and worked on as well, i've not seen much improvement in my longer distance swims and i think i need some re-tooling myself....