jsirabella said:Your goals sound perfect for where I am...I told my trainer that my goal is to race next year and he is trying to get me to a fitness level that will work for me.
And don't get discouraged if you have a few bad races-- there's a lot more skill to racing than it first appears. Picking the right wheel, holding it, saving energy at the right times, burning energy like there's no tomorrow at the right times, etc. all takes practice. The thing that seems to surprise new racers a lot is that even if the average speed in a race isn't all that high, the peaks can be *really* high, and if you get popped out the back during one it's even more work to chase back up. Some skill, and the ability to suffer really hard for short periods, can save you a lot of chasing and keep you in the race.
And along with everyone else, no, 40 isn't too old to start racing. I just restarted again last year after about 8 years off, and my racing age this coming year is 40. I'm faster now than in my late 20's (I started racing at 26 ro 27) by a lot.
You should also keep an eye on the Cat 4/5 fields and the masters fields-- sometimes/places the old guys fields are more competitive than the 4/5 because they're full of Cat 2 racers who got older but not a lot slower. Other times the masters will be more civilized. It's nice to have a choice, and if you're doing mass start races, you should try to get in races where you'll be able to race to the end.
