Some advice

[montage]

200miles a week minimum in base period. 10-12 hours. You will get better the more you ride. Even at a low intensity

so 200 miles a week at 20mph average at low intensity?



To the opening post - you do not need to do 200 miles a week by any means, better to think in terms of hours available to you.
Low intensity has a place in training - but the traditional advice of lots of miles at low intensity is bollox. If you're aiming at doing hour long crits, being comfy on 4+ hour rides at a slow place will not do all that much for you.

Quality > Quantity every single time - be as specific as you can to your racing demands

 

[50000tears]

Join a club, get some serious mileage in your legs over the winter period and learn how to ride safely in a group.
When I switched from recreational riding to racing 3 or so years ago, my endurance/base fitness was great and I could tick over all day between 18-20 mph for hours. However, I found the increases in effort difficult to deal with (e.g., sprinting out of corners, up short hills etc).

The Training Bible by Joe Friel is a decent read.

If you are serious about race training then I second the advise to get Joe Friel's book. It will have all you need on learning to structure your training over the year to allow you to build towards racing fitness.

 

[Niall Mattinson]

Thanks all for the advice! Really am thinking about just using the rest of this year and next year as prep for 2015. I don't think I will be anywhere near ready for next year!

 

[50000tears]

Thanks all for the advice! Really am thinking about just using the rest of this year and next year as prep for 2015. I don't think I will be anywhere near ready for next year!

Do you see what you did there?