Beginner Swimming Questions

Hey all, just getting into training for swimming somewhat seriously (current goal is Olympic tri) and I have a couple questions.

Equipment

I realize that improving for swimming is largely focused on improving technique, so I'm trying to do some more focused sets and workouts. Although, without knowing if this is something I really enjoy and want to continue doing after the race, I'm hesitant to start buying a whole bunch of gear to go along with it (fins, paddles, kickboard, etc..). It seems like so many workouts I see have kick sets and pull sets and rarely talk about doing drills without extra equipment.

Do I really need to buy these things to improve, or are there drills I can do to improve if all I have is a cap, goggles, and watch?

Kicking

Also, I've noticed a lot of sets that say something like 25 kick/25 pull or 25 kick/25 swim, etc.. If I do a 25 kick and then a 25 drill, how am I supposed to do another 25 kick if the kickboard is at the other end of the pool now? Is it implied that I should somehow be kicking without a board? (In this case, I can borrow a board from the pool, but the pool I'm switching to doesn't allow you to borrow)

Breathing

The first few weeks, I could barely swim 200s/400s and then one day I swam 1,000 and the next day I swam 1,500. But since that "breakthrough", it feels like there's been no improvement. I see people talking about breathing every 5/7/9 strokes, etc... but that seems nearly impossible to me. I can mostly stick to every 3 strokes, but after the first couple hundred yards or so, sometimes I have to drop down to every 2 strokes and try really hard to keep my breathing under control. What makes me even more confused is that my heart rate almost never gets above ~155, so I'm spending nearly the entire time in my lower heart rate zones.

Does breathing ever get easier and what can I do to improve it?

Workout distances

This is more just a curiosity - but almost every swim workout I see, the specific interval distances are rarely ever above say, 600 or 800. If I'm focusing more on long distance swims (maybe one day I want to do a 70.3 or Ironman, for example), does it make sense to be doing a bunch of 100/200/400 distance intervals? Why don't I see more long distance interval workouts?

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