If you were a teammate of mine I'd offer the following suggestions:
1. Do group rides, hopefully with other (more experienced) racers or with a group that has at least a couple (more experienced) racers. Benefit: learn a bit more on how to ride in a group, pick up tips and tricks, learn stuff the hard way (like not letting gaps go etc), learn some of the subtleties of the season etc ("that first set of races is great for upgrading, then there's a bunch of hard road races, then blah blah blah"). Also learn to ride harder than comfortable. I've done two rides with the club I race with and I got shelled both times (most of the group were Cat 4s, 5s, and non-racers; I'm a Cat 3). A group will be naturally competitive and as long as it's not too crazy it'll benefit you as a racer.

2. I'd do some longer rides, esp if your schedule allows it. I would do some small training cycles, like bigger hours for a week or so in Sept, Nov, Dec, Jan. Since I promote races in Mar/Apr I rarely get more than 8-10 hours in all of Feb. I try to do well in Mar/Apr and even when I can't ride a lot in Feb if I can get a big month in Jan then it all works out. Pretty much all my rides are JRA rides ("just riding along") but I'll do efforts here and there, chase a truck or two, etc. I typically average 12-15 mph on my 2+ hour rides during the winter, maybe 16-17 mph if it's a fast hour. My peak speeds might be nothing or if I'm feeling it I might have hit 30-35 mph on a flat (not a sprint, typically surging hard to stay with traffic passing me). No specifics because I don't think specifics are really necessary. I rode when I had time, I didn't when I didn't, and I did JRA rides for all of them. I would try to do several FTP tests (20 minute efforts) and usually only complete one or two a winter - the rest I sit up after 3-4-5 minutes because I don't feel like pushing beyond that.

3. Remember that the limiter for newer racers isn't the actual fitness in a crit (climbs in RR are different, fitness is key there, as well as base genetic traits/talent). The limiter is knowing how to ride/race in a group, using the draft, and dealing with peak speeds.

4. With a winter where I'm doing a peak of maybe 40-50 hours (Jan) with an average of more like 15-20 hours (Oct-Dec), and a "recovery" 8-10 hour month (Feb), I'll be pretty good in March/April, good enough to win Cat 3-4 races. In 2010 I did 150 hours between mid Oct (when I started riding after my first ever bad crash in early Aug) and end of Feb, and I barely rode in Feb. I upgraded to Cat 2 by Aug of that year, using points I earned between March and June. I raced into September but I upgraded because we wanted to start a family and so my focus switched to prepping the house for that.

5. I've almost never "burnt out" or blew up after a peak. My season has a couple natural breaks (mid/late April, a week in July or Aug, then end of season) so I work those 1-2 weeks of "life getting in the way of racing" into my schedule. When I tried to peak for March/April I only started feeling a bit toasted in late September, debating whether I should race in early October or not. The critical thing here is that I pretty much never do mentally taxing training, i.e. intervals. I race for my speed work and do base/aerobic stuff when I'm training. This way I don't expend a lot of mental energy.

6. Even with only 2-2.5 hours of training a week this year and last I've won a number of field sprints and one training race (M45 or Cat 3, training race was a Cat 3-4-5 where my teammates were recently upgraded 3s and they wanted to help me in return for helping them get their Cat 3 upgrades). This spring I placed in one sprint pretty highly (4th in the race) and ironically I never got to sprint because I was so boxed in (tactics > strength, per usual). I pretty much rode to the line without sprinting, trying to thread my way through slowing riders, but unable to really unleash a sprint.

So go out and do whatever this winter. A new rider will gain fitness in leaps and bounds. Adjust your position as you get more fit and more able to ride longer/lower on the bike (typically as your core, legs, glutes get stronger you'll move your bars out and down).

Get your 10 race finishes as a 5. You can even upgrade to Cat 3 without placing, although I think it's better to do well in a few Cat 4 races before upgrading to 3.

A teammate of mine started racing this year. He thinks about how to race, not just training stuff, and he upgraded to Cat 4 by May or so. In July he upgraded to Cat 3 although he hadn't placed in a true Cat 4 race (he won a training race that was mainly Cat 4-5s). Just last week he got a strong 3rd in his first race as a Cat 3. He's strong, yes, but he also races smart. He wants to learn race craft, he thinks about how he could have raced differently, he tries different things (he won a training race in a break but he also directed an experienced Cat 3 leadout teammate and got 3rd in the race), he's willing to work for his teammates to learn what it's like to do other things in a race.

Don't worry about equipment except making sure you have good fit on the bike, clipless pedals, and reasonable tires. Gearing, if it's not weird, shouldn't be a problem (11-25 should get you through most stuff, regardless of cranks). If you want to splurge get a powermeter or light+aero wheels.