"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Wasting my time?

I've trained mildly over the course of the winter, doing also some running indoors as well up until two weeks ago. Then I went on vacation for a week to a place where I really couldn't do any training and as soon as I got back got my 5th illness of the winter. Another week of delayed training now that the weather has finally gotten nice for riding. It's been a brutal winter here in the Northeast, almost depressing to a point.

Anyway, I'm supposed to do my first season with a club and these guys have been doing 40-70 miles on weekend rides. Their first club crit is on the 12th of April. My plan was to do a 7 week training program, putting me in position to start racing end of May or so. I wonder, with these guys ahead of my fitness by 'miles' am I wasting my time thinking of racing this year? I'm looking to do Cat5 and maybe get into Cat4 later in the season. What say you seasoned racers about my plight?

flyefisher: Go for it. Even though you're not trained as well as you'd like since you'll be starting out in Cat5 use the races as hard training days and to get more experience.

Zack
not a seasoned racer; someone with an opinion :)

I woudl definitely race. To move up to Cat 4 you need 10 mass start races. So the sooner you can get those out of the way, the sooner you can move up.

The worst that happens is you get dropped near the end. No big deal. I got dropped my first race, but I still had fun when I was leading a lap :)

Disclaimer: My first race is in a week, still I have opinions. ;)

First, have a long talk with your ego. Tell it that, based on circumstances, results may not be pretty, but things will improve. Then, do the races. If you think of them as workouts, you will probably be able to perform at a higher level than you ever could solo, or even a group training ride. And you'll learn. Tactics, pack riding in a competitive environment, bike handling, the whole deal. You can ride with the intent of being pack filler, and focus on the experience aspect. It is early in the season. When your conditioning starts to come on, you'll be way ahead. And maybe the other riders will start to recognize and remember you for the right reasons.

Racing is the best training. Train for races with racing. Do these races as training, and you'll be racing the races in the future better.

I just wanted to see how many times I could say 'race' 'races' or 'racing' in making my point. Six times.:D

I counted 9

Doctor Dick says: "time for a head check"......

When it quits being fun, time for a change. Take a look around, and decide what kind of "goal" will really satisfy or make you happy this year..... plenty of time left.....

ps: you can't have hard workouts, if you don't have easy ones"