It’s the consistent volume without interruption that I lack. Reading The Uphill Athlete helped make that clear. Interestingly it’s also a key line In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, that’s liberation only comes after long, uninterrupted practice.
Historically I’ve taken quite a long off season in winter, hanging up the wheels. It used to be because I was skiing, lately I like to focus on strength over the winter. The problem is taking the time to rebuild lost aerobic fitness in spring, rather than building new and better fitness. Nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but with an objective goal, clearly I need to train differently.
It also hurt that we got over 4 feet of rain this season, most falling after the holidays. Too many days got shifted to the gym when base miles were needed. Of course, it would help if a I could move to Tucson for the winter and train every day on Mt. Lemmon like the pros, but that’s not happening.
If it’s all for fun, GPP, and health, then it doesn’t matter. It’s frustrating when so many others can get the results just doing it for fun, but it appears I need more structure. Or lowered expectations.