My first Time Trial
Last Friday was my first ever Time Trial as I mentioned (http://members.endurancenation.us/F...fault.aspx).
SO hot, at mid- to high-90s at the time of the event start. Did a good 20 minutes of warm-up efforts, mostly in 90%+ FTP range, with some VO2+ efforts thrown in for good measure. Then just sat in the shade for the pre-race briefing and waited for my time to go, with some frozen water bottles on my neck as well as in my jersey pockets.
Every 30 seconds, a rider would go off (standing start, no "helpers" to keep you stand up), chronologically ordered by registration, starting with #400. I was number 457, so I was to start about 27 minutes after the first rider, given that there were some DNSs.
An out-and-back on a lake dam (Joe Pool Lake, Grand Prairie TX), it was VERY flat, except for the first incline 1/8 of a mile to get you to the top of the dam itself. At the other end of the out, there was another little incline to get you to the turn around. Then chug it back in.
Texas sun, heat and humidity don't play nice with pavement, so there were lots of cracks and even grass growing up in the cracks - hiding all sorts of debris. I had to have seen at least 10 flats, with people walking back to the start before they sent out the race support John Deere golf cart to pick them up.
I had my Kuota tri bike, with Zipp 404 front and 808 rear/wheel cover on the rear; aero helmet w/ visor and a sleeveless jersey. Both wheels had the corsa evos with latex tubes.
Within the first two miles on the out, I passed both my :30 and 1:00 "minute man" (two women who most of their wasted time was trying to clip in at the beginning). Tried to settle into a good rhythm, with a good head/crosswind on the way out. The position of my hands on my aerobars prevents me from staring directly at my joule display (both good and bad), so my effort was mostly on RPE.
I started to fade a little at the turn around (thank goodness it was the turnaround), then hammered on the back as much as I could. About mile 6 my legs started to weaken, and my rear wheel felt like it was flattening (although not flat entirely, I could feel each bump even harder than the last). Turns out that it was indeed flatting, although I didn't acknowledge it until after the ride.
After that it was "horse to the barn" syndrome...finish strong. Drooling, spitting, snotting and generally just disgusting body functions ruled that last two miles.
As I was approaching the final 1/4 mile I pushed real hard, all to be held back by a woman who stopped pedaling entirely and coasted about 100m from the finish line and took up the entire chute - so I couldn't pass her. Wasted seconds! 
Waited to see all the finishers, to see the awards. My time never posted. Turns out my chip didn't pick up at ALL!
go to the chip timing folks and try to find out what happened, they couldn't tell either. But since I knew the guy that was running the timing mats that day, he told me to send him my race/computer file and he'd manually update the standings.
Here's my wko file:
Duration: 19:15
Work: 308 kJ
TSS: 25.6 (intensity factor 0.905)
Norm Power: 272
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: 3.98%
Pa:HR: 2.62%
Distance: 7.97 mi
Elevation Gain: 154 ft
Elevation Loss: 24 ft
Grade: 0.3 % (129 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 3 756 267 watts
Heart Rate: 101 161 156 bpm
Cadence: 9 112 91 rpm
Speed: 8 31.1 23.8 mph
Pace 1:56 7:33 2:31 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 410 25 lb-in
Altitude: -454 -311 -370 ft
Crank Torque: 5 1759 250 lb-in
Temperature: 95 96.8 96.5 Fahrenheit
This time would yield 17th overall, but not even top five in my AG!
The fastest guy, who started two minutes behind me, and screamed past me within the last mile, AVERAGED 27+mph! Holy cow! 
I'll probably go back again, just for fun and to use it as a benchmark/milestone "test". It was fun, but man oh man that heat was brutal! 
Comments
My last one I couldn't unclip and get off the bike I was so wasted at the end. I ended up rolling into the grass and just falling over.. lol