8 to 12 hours per week is plenty for a beginner! My workout weeks for this year rarely went over 9 hours and I've been a very competitve racer this year. The secret is making the workouts targeted, rather than longer.

If you have weekends free any of the area teams that appeals to you should work out fine. Some of us (including my team) do ask that if you join you do 1 team ride/weekend during the winter training season (if you intend to race road, people who will do exclusively cross or mt. bike, can be excused from this). We believe that it not only lets you get to know your teammates, it give us the opportuntity to teach you and makes you a safer, stronger more confident racer when the season starts up.

Go to as many of the women's rides and meet the team rides as you can. You'll get to know the personality of each team - yes there definitely are different overall feelings and you'll find a team that feels like a good match.