A word of advice I would give you is to at least practice one swim directly into a run. I am a water swallower, so when I swim I get a lot of either pool water or lake water in my gut. It never bothers me on the bike, but for some reason when I get out there to run, it just kills me. The more I practice running after a swim, the better I feel. I would just suggest that if you are doing shorter distance races you at least try it once to see how your system reacts.

Once you establish competency in each the areas, it's helpful to do bricks in two of the events that span the duration of your expected race effort (this loses some meaning when you get to the ironman range, but for now, it's a decent start). Save these 'bricks' to do once a week.

Swim to bike, or swim to run, run-to-bike, etc. Like Kylie said, having done a triathlon before really boosts your confidence, when you go to do the next triathlon.

For that reason alone, I encourage you to do your first sprint with minimal reading on how to approach it. Make mistakes, learn from it, the experience will be much richer.

And don't forget the 4th sport - transitions. Those things can change a race outcome.

Thanks. I think for me its really more of a matter of knowing I will survive. It sounds so lame for just a sprint, but I think its a confidence builder.