Hello, I currently started cycling as a new sport. Before, i was really into Football ( Soccer) but i started riding for fun and rented city bikes and cruised around the city ( Chicago) but nothing serious. I always saw serious riders and decided to give cycling a try. I've gotten really into Cycling in the past 2 months. I bought a Caad10 with 105 components and not the ultegra components since i was recommended to buy a power meter instead. I've been riding for about 2 months with rest days of course. Currently I can ride 194 watts for an hour comfortably. I weigh 64 kilograms and I am 19. I want to improve on my fitness bt i want to know in what level is my fitness on? If i start racing where would i start? If i continue training would i see a lot of improvement in my power? Any insight would be helpful
Cheers

I don't know anything about Chicago, but if you were local to me I would recommend you join my team. Find a team/club that's local to you and willing to take new cyclists. Go on every group ride you can, even the ones that are too fast or too slow, and learn as much as you can about riding safely and efficiently in a group. When you feel comfortable, do every race you can. Race safely and have fun.

If you start racing, you start as Category 5 (beginner)
First, get some experience with local fast groups to learn to ride comfortably, elbow-to-elbow and wheel-to-wheel in a variety of situations.

There should be plenty of clubs/groups to choose from in Chicago.

You can use this chart to figure out 'where you stand' but I wouldn't look too much into it. As to where would you start, you would start where everyone does, in cat5, but I would do what others have told you (group rides) before diving headfirst into that. The whole purpose of training is to improve, whether it is your skills or endurance or power output. How much improvement you will see will depend on how smart you train. For best improvements, you will need a structured plan. For that you can get a coach, buy some books, or ask help from others.

find a club/team/coach

Agree with above and also agree with the order of importance. Start with a club to do some group rides. If you like you can find a team and possibly a coach to work with.

From what i've read, that's a whole lota bike for a beginer.
As many have said, find a local club if you can but this would depend on where you live. I started cycling 2013 and rode Tue, Thur solo then saturdays with a local group that meets at a local gym Sat 7am. None of these guys raced but the rides helped in learning to draft, pull but importantly how not to get dropped, wind sheltering etc. After 1 year i joined a racing club and yes i got dropped by guys twice my age but these were racers. I did get yelled sometimes for little mistakes but the experience is invaluable.
I would recommend you put in base miles first before you think of racing. Once you get solid miles in then you can start intervals. When you are new to racing, you will get dropped, ALOT and it can be mentaly tasking.

How many base miles should i put? Im thinking of starting to race next year during the spring. Is that enough time for base miles?

In all honesty, especially since you're new and likely not going to be racing in events that last longer than a few hours at most as I'm assuming you're targeting criteriums... base miles are a waste. That is unless you've got more than 20 hours a week to dedicate toward bike specific training. If you do, go ahead and put in some base miles but otherwise substitute that for tempo, interval, sprint/fartlek, and group rides. Throw on some base miles if you start to feel tired. There's a lot of discussion about this, search something like time crunched cyclist and you'll see a ton of discussion about it on here or other boards.

Yes, plenty of time, easily!

Base miles are good, and not a waste. Some intensity while forming a base is wise.

Chicago Bike Racing

"Base miles" can be normal rides for fun. Do a few interval type rides once in a while, but don't get too carried away with 'training" at this point.
Give racing a try next year. You might like it, you might not. If you like it, then you can decide to take training more seriously.

Ride as much and as long as you can but dont' forget rest days. You get stronger during rest days not while on the bike. Keep a good diet, hydrate during rides and aim for high cadence (I used music to train from 80rpm av to 110rpm during winter). If you can invest in a coach, i say do it. There is a lot to learn about how your body responds but at your age i assume recovering will be faster. I've noticed that it takes 2/3 months before you can see fitness improvement but again i'm 36 so that's different
Here is an example of my current schedule: On my commute (flat) i ride slow at 18-20mphr and enjoy my bike, keep it fun. Last year the slow would have been zone 3
Mon: 40 miles commute Tue: 40 miles commute plus four 15 sec intervals/openers Wed. Crit race CAT4/5 Th: 40 miles commute Frid: off Sat:3/4 hr group hammerfest Sun: off

3 watts / kg for an hour is quite impressive. Get some experience with group riding and you'll shoot up the CAT rankings in no time.

Correct, I am targeting criteriums. Road races would be nice but i live in the city and there might not be alot of races here in Chicago as in other places ( at least that is what i assume). I do have time ( 20+) to ride during some months but not all the time though

That is exactly what i have been doing so far! I ride around 15 hours a week and while not intense i try to do some minutes were it is intense and then go back and maintain the rhythm i was in.

I dont get this chart what is it implying??

Oh you lol. I will most likely get dropped either way bc of the lack of experience. Im having a hard time searching for a Club/team in Chicago( I know lol.. big city)

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Now would be a good time to get some group rides in. That will build lies, get you experience, give you a chance to meet more experienced riders and get a feel for how far you have yo go and what to work on.

Base miles are primarily for those looking for performance lasting more than 2-3 hours. There's tons of recent research that shows this and you should go read up. Long and slow is the first thing you chuck out of your training book if you're on a limited time schedule as it's very little bang for your buck if training for criteriums. Why waste more than half your training time going Z1 or Z2 when you only have 10 hours a week to train? You shouldn't, as you don't need the endurance for 2-3 hour events.

Most areas within the US you'll likely only see criteriums. I wouldn't even be concerned with road racing until you sign up with a team (you'll likely pair up with a criterium team anyway if you become serious about it). Since you have 20+ hours a week to train you'll be putting in some base miles but it's more important for you to find some nice group rides for you not only to learn pack riding skills but to build some comradery and help keep you motivated to keeping up. There's plenty of generic training programs available on the net if you enjoy structure but with 20+ hours a week there's plenty of time to just ride for the fun of it and work in some specific intensity workouts.

It just tells you, based on your watts/kg at given efforts, how do you compare to cyclist at different categories according to the author. It of course doesn't mean that if you are in a certain category power wise you'll do well, since skills also come into play, but it can at least serve as a guideline to know how 'strong' you are.

+1

First para -1
Second part of Para 2 +1

Considering you don't give any basis... it's terribly hard to believe what you're saying as anything other than some regurgitation of something you've read in the past, without any understanding of it. Think about it, what good does it do a criterium racer having 5+ hour endurance? Not much. Base miles have to be a huge majority of your time on the bike if you're only got 5-12 hours a week to train a week. Spending 60-80% of that going long and slow doesn't benefit you much at all. Worry about your TSS score (if you're going to bother calculating it) and/or fatigue levels. All your training you want to thoroughly stress yourself without over training. With tons and tons of base miles on a 5-12 hour/wk workload you're not taking on much stress at all and not going to see much gains. Now, with the OP, who's got 20+ hours a week, base miles are essential to prevent over training. Again, we're talking CRITERIUMS here, which tend to be less than 20 miles if not half of that. The person having a FTP of 350 but doesn't have the kick after 3+ hours is going to beat the pants off the guy who's got an FTP of 275 but can call on that power after 4 hours in the saddle.

And since people seem to like videos...

Or read "Time Crunched Cyclist" by Chris Carmichael or any of the forum discussion regarding it, or any of the lab testing that's been done. Base miles are a waste of time on condensed schedules, train for the event that you're targeting. Your idea is like telling a 5k runner to go walk marathons in Z1 to train, it doesn't make sense at all as you're getting very little return for the precious hours available.

So the best training to do both. High intensity and long slow rides. Maybe as a CAT5 someone can get away with short rides high intensity but i think as they progress to 3,2,1 you are going to need those long rides.

Also given how Carmichael got where he is I'm apt to ignore anything he says on principle.