[bgschwin]

Hey,

I have completed first year of riding and getting accustomed to the basics such as riding in group, increase distances, and proper gear.

With this being the winter months, I would like insight on steps to prep for upcoming year and procedures I need to take to be able to compete in the next cycle season for beginner road races?

Thanks

[Rit]

Weights, leg presses, squats, upper body strength without bulk. Three days per week and try to gradually increase resistance. Ride the trainer maybe 2X per week until mid January fairly easy, to stay loose, 30 min. each time increase your saddle time later. I'm a believer in weight training for off season.

I'm in the northeast so not much chance to get on the road until end of Feb. and it's sloppy at best. I was mostly crits and track so my workouts (road) were pretty intense 2X per week. Our races would start around May with June being the goal. Use your early traning races for training , don't worry about winning. We would start our training races in Cental Park (NYC) beginning of March with some big name racers, mostly they would just sit in and get their legs used to chaging in speed while riding in a pack. It's much different to be forced into chaging speed than doing when you feel like it.

I'm afraid this is not very spacific but I don't know your circumstances.

[bgschwin]

Rit,

I appreciate any advice. I recently participated in a 32mile ride and used it as a training gauge and finished it in 1:45 min with terrain of slight climbs to one major hill in the middle of the ride. I ride in the southeast and probably able to get back on the road early march. I have my eye on an event in April and would like to be in decent preparation for the event.

What distance should I look for to compete since my max distance is 30mile?

[rola643]

What event are you looking to do?

[Merlincustom]

Cat 5 races are fairly short. You can likely get by with a weekly long base mileage ride of 3 hours, and other more structured workouts of 1-2 hours. I recommend joe Friel's training bible, or something similar. First, you need to figure out how many hours a week you can train and then work from there. You don't want junk miles. When I was racing I was Cat 4 pack fodder at about 6 to 8 hours a week.

[bgschwin]

Rola643

Planning on doing gran fondo in Ga and start off with 30 miles. It starts April.

[synack]

Originally Posted by bgschwin

Rit,

I appreciate any advice. I recently participated in a 32mile ride and used it as a training gauge and finished it in 1:45 min with terrain of slight climbs to one major hill in the middle of the ride. I ride in the southeast and probably able to get back on the road early march. I have my eye on an event in April and would like to be in decent preparation for the event.

What distance should I look for to compete since my max distance is 30mile?

What part of the southeast are you in?

[rola643]

Originally Posted by bgschwin

Rola643

Planning on doing gran fondo in Ga and start off with 30 miles. It starts April.

Gotcha, that won't be to bad.

[synack]

Originally Posted by bgschwin

Rola643

Planning on doing gran fondo in Ga and start off with 30 miles. It starts April.

I live in GA, what gran fondo?

[bgschwin]

Synack,

Georgia, South of Atlanta