Better to keep building engine or sharpen the knife for racing?

[bhrylski]

I started a thread about my experience making a very similar decision when it comes to the direction of my training. Check it out and see if you can get some ideas from it. In the end It’s not as simple as one or the other and you might be surprised about the similarities between the two directions and some small things you might do differently. In my opinion, it’s always better to look farther into the future, but eventually you will need to sharpen for racing, so the ultimate decision will be up to you.

Prioritizing long term improvement over this season's race results?

I am a 20 y/o cat2 road and track rider with the ambition to go pro. For the last couple of years, my race schedule has been 90%+ crits and track races with the occasional RR or TT (this is super typical for the midwest). The conventional approach to this season would be something like SSB->Short Power Build-> Crit specialty. As crits extend in duration from 60 to 90 minutes and road races are commonly 80-100+ miles in the upper categories It seems like my training should change to accommodate …