I'm preparing for my first race season, and I'm unsure of what I should be doing training-wise. I've only been riding for about 6-7 months. The first race I'll be going to is the first or second weekend of march(its a collegiate race)
Being in school, I ride whenever my schedule permits, but usually I get out 5 days a week, 6 if I'm lucky. I do as many training races/fast group rides as possible, and recently I've been training for the Rouge Roubaix (
http://www.rougeroubaix.com/), so about once a week I'm doing rolling hills and gravel with faster guys and holding on for dear life.
I feel like I need to be doing more than just going on long rides. I looked through the "workout recipe book," but I don't have have a power meter or heart-rate monitor. Am I still able to follow some of those interval workouts, substituting percentages of ftp or zones with a general hard effort? I'm just looking to get the most out of my time in the saddle and I feel like I might need to work on my speed/power more so than endurance.
I really appreciate any help and advice BF can offer me. I can't wait to start racing.