Age 10-30ish, I was a distance cyclist. At 40ish, I want to get back on my bike, and maybe race? This year?
Back in the day, my dad would drag me along rides. As an adult I didn't really "train" so much as ride fixed on short rides and geared on long rides whenever my dad called. I didn't really take pleasure in the rides except for climbing and my dad's company. So after he died, I kinda dropped it.
But last week, a coworker invited me to group-buy tickets for a hilly ride... but he said I couldn't keep up with him so we wouldn't be riding together. This stung straight to the roots of my gray hairs, despite the total validity of his assessment of the present situation. But I do live at the base of a mini-mountain. And I haven't actually lost muscle mass despite being a couch potato for a decade plus. And this skinny-calved whippersnapper isn't even planning to go much faster than I used to ride. Do I have a chance?
I've passed the first two hurdles; I've been on my bike, and I haven't burned out. I rode half-way up my mountain last week, a few short recovery / warmup rides, then the whole way up today; all 15km and 320 meters climb. What I know how to do is train for distance and elevation. I can gradually add more and more; another mountain to my weekend ride every month, I'll have overprepared for the ride.
But for the first time in my life I want to train for speed. How do I pace that, while also training up distance? My present thought is to add a mid-week sprint, do that 320m climb as fast as I can at lunch, in addition to the mountain-incrementing weekend rides. But I really don't know what people do to train speed.