Back in to cycling and racing of course
 

Good to see some familiar names still hear!

Typical story for those that don't know. Got burnt out racing and competing trying to go from Cat4 to Cat3. I have not been riding at all recently.

Moving to Madison WI and will probably get an indoor setup like a wahoo and compete in a local crit race I found during the summer as well as a few road races.

That said, I am probably not in shape to compete this year pending on how quickly I get my butt on the bike.

Welcome back @thechemist. Start training! For a lot of guys with 5-10 years of consistent training in their past, I'll bet you could put 2 months of training in and be most of the way back fitness wise.

yep, pretty much this

may take slightly longer than 2 months, but it won't be too long to reel back the gains

welcome back!

1) 1 month of ~2-hour rides 5-6 days a week
2) 1 easy week
3)Three weeks of Mon/Wed/Thurs/Sat 2+hour rides, Tues/Fri medium-intensity rides with Tabata intervals
4)1 easy week
5)Three weeks of Mon/Wed/Thurs 2+hour rides (hopefully a few 3+hour rides), Tabata Tuesdays (fav day of the week), active recovery Friday, FAST group ride Saturday with you attacking and sustaining 5-10 minute hard efforts.
6)1 easy week

Repeat steps 3-6 if you're only planning on crit racing. Road racing would require longer intervals (hard climbs) mixed in on your long rides.

That'll set you up to come into the spring racing season with a strong engine. Pending tactical errors and race schedule, if a cat-4 rider followed this plan, they'd make cat-3 in a month or less. Tabatas are you best friend if you want to own the crit scene. Just don't overdo them.

Welcome back!

Welcome back.

Nice - Madison is good stuff and great race community. If you start racing regionally we'll cross paths for sure. Yeah base season here is indoors. sucks.

Hi, never rode in Madison, but I left riding for a spell. You need to build a foundation before you take on the world. I did a great deal of long rides, then I started focusing on intense 3 and a half hour rides. It worked for me.

For strong spirited group rides check into Capital breweries ride. Think it's a Tuesday night in the summer. Some strong riders I hear.

What's the ITT scene in Madison / Wisconsin like? Will be relocating there for the next four years or so
For better or for worse, I'm done with road racing, though I do miss it... Also, is there a MTB scene?

Well you picked an awful place and time to try to come back to racing!
The racing scene here in Wisconsin has been pretty clicky and exclusive as long as I've been racing, don't get me started. There's a reason I'm on an Illinois team. I'll try to help out if I can, so feel free to ask me anything if you see me around.
We used to have a good series, but the WCA did an excellent job murdering that! Someone had the idea that if we had fewer races that they would be better attended, so the WCA schedule had a lot less races this year, and they have been canceling those like crazy. We went from having 2 races nearly every weekend from the beginning of April up to ToAD, to what's looking like a total of 4 races spread out over that time. The only crit in the Madison area is the State Championships in Fitchburg, Saturday July 13th, that's always a fun race, I'll be there for it. The only road race in the area is the next day on Sunday July 14th south of Madison by New Glarus. It's a pure climbers course, I'm not a climber so I doubt I'll bother with that one.
The one bit of good news is that if you are still wanting that cat.3 upgrade, Heidi has been pretty generous with giving early upgrades.
There is a Hollander ride on the weekends from the Madison Café Hollander, Saturday usually, but sometimes and/or sunday. On Wednesday's the Brazen Dropouts are running practice crits at the speedway in Oregon.
WCA Website wicycling.org | Wisconsin Cycling Association
Madison Practice Crits Even Page https://www.facebook.com/events/2403...03580946565929
Fitchburg Festival of Speed Website (State Championships) http://fitchburgfestivalofspeed.com/
State RR New Glarus Road Race ? Brazen Dropouts

Time Trials? Almost non-existent. WiSport does put on a couple, they are not sanctioned by anyone.
State Championship TT https://legacy.usacycling.org/events...ermit=2019-652
WiSport Website WiSport

I'm pretty much a roadie, so I don't know much about Mountain biking, but I do know that the talk is that there is a good MTB scene, and good MTB races.
Wisconsin Off Road Series - Wisconsin Off Road Series - America's largest state MTB race series

@cyclinganomaly, thanks for taking the time to respond