Originally Posted by
mattm
Fun, excitement, pain.
Start with group rides, if you surive then sign up, line up, and see how it goes. You don't need a carbon bike, any bike and a helmet is all you need.
Good luck!
You forgot humiliation, self loathing, and the suitcase of courage.
OP, if you want to race then race. I've seen guys in jeans on single speeds in Cat 5 races. Honestly we thought it funny for the first few laps we were watching as they were not in the main group, but the guys kept pushing it. They didn't give up and we started cheering like hell for them to finish.
Don't over think things. Get comfortable riding in a pack. Don't move around like a squirrel on the hunt for nuts. If you can hang with people you know who race on group rides then just do it. The only way to know if you are training to the best of your abilities is to go out and see how you stack up in a race. That will let you know real quick what you need to work on.
I haven't looked at your training plan yet, but if you plan on racing crits, make sure to include lots of very hard short intervals with limited recovery time. And by recovery I don't mean coast I mean back to your pre interval effort. Something like 15 second near sprints every 1 minute and 45 seconds for 30 minutes would be a good start. That can help simulate the intensity of a race. And if you coast to recover, consider that being dropped from the race.