Ok guys, so I know the juniors section of the forum isn't getting any love at the moment, so I think it is my duty as a junior to get the ball rolling. The topic you may ask? The ever controversial "Off-season".

So, before I get your guys's inputs/suggestions/guides-to-worlddomination, let me first give you guys an idea of where I stand and what my vague plan is.

Next season:
-I am hoping to attract the attention of a dev team/ junior squad / u23 squad(any tips are appreciated)
-The roadrace season in Texas starts in early February. I start out the season as a cat 4 so the first half or more of my roadraces will be roughly 60ish miles, but cat 3 RRs are 100ish miles.
-I plan on having a midyear break between RR season and crit season
-Not having (m)any junior teammates, I think I'll stick to category RRs because I may actually have teammates, plus other juniors race so recklessly and childishly it is pretty scary.
-I also recently got a tt bike, so I definitely want to incorporate it so I can perform well in TT's and stage races
-I have to use junior gears for one more year since next year i will be racing age of 18 and you are required to use junior gears till racing age of 19 (I really hate that 14t when the sprint comes around or we are flying around corners in a crit & i am spinning @ 120rpm)

Personal stuff:
-I favor breakaways
-Noootttt the best sprinter in the world (need to work on that). Junior gears are part of the problem, but I accept that I am also a pretty lousy sprinter
-I have the body composition of a more Andy Schleck (or Bradley Wiggins) figure than Greipel the Gorilla (or Tony Martin)
-My high-end big gear mashing (if a 14t is a big gear??) is lacking, which probably contributes to why on our flat Tuesday Nighter I very often get dropped when I have to hammer that 14t for 3 laps straight (damn those cat 1s & 2s and their ungodly strength)

The vague plan so far:
-Base miles till about 1 1/2 months from first race (till mid-December) doing about 12ish hours a week zone 2ish (high end of 235ish watts)
-Biggear-lowcadence drills while on these base mile rides
-Weight lifting & core muscle work
-A weekly sprint workout to try and build my higher end and acceleration (using an 11t)

-After base miles
- start doing 3 minute, 5 minute, and 20 minute intervals. Problem being that most of the roads around me are rolly and/or undulating so it is hard (if not impossible) to do a flat 20 minute interval
- Doing the weekly group rides/ training rides that occur on the weekends aswell as the fake races that happen every year in January
- One long distance ride a week (could be a group ride)

I'm not to good about tapering before races, so opinions and advice about that is always helpful

Lastly, thanks for reading all my rambling and if you decide to give me your advice/ knowledgy-wisdom-stuff I much appreciate your input.