So I have been attending a few "beginner" criteriums, and have been doing pretty well in that I haven't been dropped and I usually finish somewhere in the middle.

I swam for my school in college - I think I read that a few of you did that as well, so you'd know that for a Div. I NCAA college team requires you to practice about 20 hours a week, and on top of that you'd lift weights, etc. I graduated about two years ago.

With my swimming background and recent success with criteriums, I thought that a Time Trial would be a piece of cake. I read from a few articles that you're supposed to pace yourself, while other people had said that you should feel close to throwing up through the whole race. The TT I chose was 10 miles long, and my commute to work is about 12 miles, so distance shouldn't be too much of a problem. On my commutes, my average speed's about 16 mph with hills, stops, etc. This TT is supposedly pretty flat, so I figured 18 mph average speed would get me a top 3 finish.

First someone held up my bicycle at the start, which was a little unnerving, then as he let go, I thought I was going to fall. No matter, I spun right up to 18... then it became 20... and I couldn't slow down. After 2.5 miles, I'm still holding 22mph comfortably, but 2 people have passed me by now (we're spaced 1 minute apart). At 4.5 miles I'm desperately looking around for the turn around cone. At 5 I finally find it, spin around, nearly crash, and speed back up. At 6 I had to grab a drink of water, and 3 more rides pass me with relative ease. At 8 I considered pulling off to the side and riding back home, I'm barely holding 19 mph. At 9 miles I remembered an article which mentionned you should give it all you have at the last mile, but I really didn't feel like I had anything left. At the last half kilometer, one last person passed me and I could see the finish line. And I finally finish, average speed of 21.5 mph.

I was positive no one could've gone faster, I was as pleased as punch at my average speed. I walked up to the results sheet.

Ahem. Dead last. By a good 30 seconds. The first place-er came in 5 minutes faster.

So in light of this educational experience, how was your first times? I'm wondering if I should've gone faster during my first few miles. What did you do to improve your times, (i.e. changed your warm up routine, learned from experience, etc)? What drills should I be doing to increase my speed? Do cycling teams practice time trials and how often? I obviously need all the help I can get.