Stallionforce

...And what Cat are you?

I've only been in the sport a couple of years, and lucky to make Cat 3 last season; however, I'm wondering how much racing I'll need to do now to be competitive.

Last season I did about 25 races, including club RR's and TT's. I hope to do about 35 to 40 races this year.

Duke of Kent

Off the top of my head, 35+ races. So I'll put myself in the 40+ category because I know some random's will spring up.

Edit: 3 looking to move up to the 2s before the end of the year. I have to learn how to race this summer...

NomadVW 

hoping for the 15-19. we'll see

Lithuania

im hoping for at least 30 when you count training races and what not. I am a cat 5 and have already raced 8 times this season.

Cleave

Hi,

Well, I've already done 10 races this year including three Tuesday evening training series races. So I guess that my 30-34 may be a bit conservative. At least as long as I can stay healthy and upright. Oh, and I'm a Cat. 3, 50 year-old Master.

cmh

I'm a Cat 3. I only did 7 races last year, but I am hoping to get around 15 in this year, so I answered 15-19. I've done 4 so far, so I am well on my way.

DC Bruz

Season finished. Raced about ~50 times. Started off in D Grade, now in B.

Stallionforce

Thanks for the replies. It's obvious everyone has a different approach. I'm already getting the idea that solid training might be better than racing in some instances.

If you're doing two races per week, how is it possible to mix in intervals?

grebletie

Depends, are you looking to be fresh and do decently at the races?

For most of my races, I'm building long term, so I do my intervals during the week, and race on weekends. That leaves me with enough to stay with the pack and get in a workout, but not really enough to be my best. Whereas last weekend I just did endurance and tempo during the week, I could really feel the difference on the weekend.

bodaciousguy

I'm one of the better guys in my category so I race as much as possible (2 days a week consistently). I only do 1 interval session during the week that includes 3x5minute hard efforts. That is it. May sound easy but its important to keep myself fresh(mainly my mind) for the weekend that includes traveling and eating powerbars and apples for dinner.

My case is diifferent than most though because I'm not training for a certain goal but just chasing points in every race. I have yet to know of the long term benefits.

truckin

Just started racing seriously last fall in cyclocross and now road this winter/spring. I've raced almost 15 times so far in 2007, so my 25-29 is a bit low now that I think about it. It'll probably be more like 40 when all is said and done. I'm a 4 at the moment, just over halfway to upgrading to 3.

jfmckenna

I am a cat 2 cyclocross and cat 4 road. I do about 30 cross races a year and maybe 15-20 road/crit races. Many weekends I will race the Masters and CX Pro/1/2 races on the same day. So you can get a lot of races under your belt by doubling up.

wrote4luck

I'm a Cat4 and I've done 12 races so far this year, and I'll probably finish the season with 22.

LowCel 

I'm a cat 4 and have done 6 races so far. My goal is to make it to cat 3 this year, don't know if it will happen or not. In the next couple of weeks I will begin doing road races on Saturdays and mountain bike racing on Sundays. I'll either end up extremely strong or extremely burnt out, have to wait and see which.

Last year I did road races up until April and then just mountain bike races after that. I ended up doing 23 races and getting burnt out. I'm hoping that by mixing things up it will help a bit this year. I'm hoping to do 30 - 35 races this year. It would be so much easier if I didn't have to drive 300 - 400 miles for each road race.

danimal

i voted 25-29 which includes the weekly training crit series....out here there's not a ton of racing on the calendar so you have to travel to either AZ or CO to get more than 10-15 non-training races. -i'm a 4 on the road

not included in my above total is the 10 or so cyclocross races i do in a year. -i'm a 3 in cx

recneps

35 is my plan currently a cat 4.

Pizza Man

I voted for 30-34.
It may be more.

I'm a Cat 2 and have raced 10 times so far this year, but will be racing nearly every weekend until mid September with a few 2 and 3 race weekends. I plan to take a short break in late June.

MDcatV

Cat 3, picked 25 - 29, but will be on the low side of that or 20 - 24.

I've raced 3x this year, + 1 training race.

carpediemracing 

Due to time constraints, I'll probably do 10 or so this year. Six of them I'll do simply because I promote (or help promote) them.

For a long time (15 years?) I raced about 45-55 races a year - Tue (if possible), Sat, Sun (and double up on one of the weekend days). Somehow I still avoided most road races.

Been a Cat 3 forever. I'd race 3's and then 1/2/3's for training, or when younger the Juniors and then Seniors.

For the "How do I do intervals" question - I don't think you need to. Racing will do the trick. I train to race, not race to train. If my schedule allowed consistent races (and big 50+ rider group rides) and no solo/small-group training, I'd be very happy.

wishing I had that kind of time again,
cdr

marcelinyc

I voted 40+.
In 2006 I graduated from cat 5.
In 2007, a cat 4 now, I did 4 races . I'll do 1 or 2 road races on weekends and track series on wednesdays until October.

marin1

I raced a guy today and totally smoked him.
He might not have known we were racing though.

bassplayinbiker

I'm a cat-3 and I've already raced 20 races this year.

cacatfish

Im one of the "mighty-5's" and will probably race 10 or so races this year.
Racing is a relatively small part of my riding....just keeps it a bit more interesting.