for a sprint race and to a leser extent OLY you can get through them without any training plans. When you start getting into distances like a HIM you really need to work on doing workouts geared toward specific goals. I recommend you purchase a book like "The Triathlete's training bible" or "Going Long". They will give you a much better idea of what your body is going to need to finish that HIM. Just doing workouts till you max distance everytime is going to help you very little after you hit a certain point, and, more importantly is going to be quite dangerous.

Thanks, i'll utilizer a couple plans and coordinate them into my schedule. The thing is, in my "novice-ness" I have to get over the fact that swimming all out every time isn't the wisest decision and trust training plans that whoever made them new what they were talking about.
Thanks!
I'll let you know how training is going in a couple months!