small group rides

after reading replies from my few previous posts, i thing i am getting a bit fitter doing the prescribed 20 minute very hard tempo on my trainer once a week.
i still cant pull thru going into the wind on my sunday hard ride, but i can hold wheels no matter how fast we go. 35 mph at some points today, and 23mph into a strong head wind.. i can climb with my 2 young fast training partners , but still lack the strength to pull thru in a cross wind , or a head wind. i guess the few guys i ride with are just better than me and they are 15 years younger, but that aint no excuse. i plan on training my tail off so i'll be able to pull thru in the wind. we had a lot of cross wind today and i stayed on the full 3.25 hours. felt good on the hills, and felt good when the hammer was dropped in a few tail wind sections..
i guess the 20 minute very hard tempo ride i do on my trainer is helping me. i will keep that up on wednesdays. and my hard long sunday ride will always be tough, i look forward to this ride..
2 days a week hard this time of year isnt too much i dont think.
i have 4 full months to build my strength back up for the 2010 season.
it'll be here before i know it.
any other pointers?increase the 20 minute hard trainer ride? or make it longer? build up to 2 of them? my hr on these is 88-90% max..
like i said i'll be racing age 55 so i'm doing all i can to just hang in on these cat 1-2 races. the masters races are only 10-11-12 guys so i rather go all out and suffer like a dog for 3 hours instead of riding 1.5 hours at a average pace..90% of the time i am in the lead group with 200 meters to go then the sprinters blow me away.i'm happy to finish a 65 mile race and be in there 64.9 milesbefore the sprint..
any more training tips will be appreciated. i do plan on upping my sunday ride 30 minutes every 2 weeks. i do 3:15 hours now so in 2 weeks i'll be at 3:45, then get up to 4:15 for my longest hard sunday training ride.
thanks alot

It sounds like you need a real pro coach. I've had a state sprint champ ask me to help him get ready for Olympic trials and I'm not sure I could help even with more information about what you do now and (seeing)what your technique is like

pat5319
thanks for the comment, but there's no way i can afford a coach....trial and error, or asking some advice, maybe reading certain workouts and trying them is the way i go about it.
i took up this sport cause i got hurt running. this is one expensive sport. i have a aluminum bike 6 years old with 50,000 miles on it.. maybe more. my wheels are junk, but thats all i can afford. no power meters and hr monitors. just cant affort that stuff..
so a coach is out of the question.
thanks for your comment.
lots of good guys on this board commenting and helping others out.

you can almost afford a complete second hand bike for the price of a power meter !
A nice set of wheels is a good investment. Simple heart rate monitors are cheap.
Remember how much money you invested and depreciated it against those 6 years and 50,000 miles and you'll find out it was all worth it

more exercise ,and need a coach ,i think.huh!