yeah, last year I completed 3 years of incremental increases in volume. Very little workout progression, just enough for adaptations. Focused on consistency and the highest quality intervals… no “get it done even if pedaling ugly” - all highest quality, always leaving an intervals the road, except for the all-out test efforts and even those were high quality. And 2 or 3 short breaks a year. And remarkably stable yet increasing fitness, posted a summary here:
FWIW, and in response to some of the “progressive overload” comments. While I believe in progressive overload, I also believe in frequency, consistency, small increases in duration, and focus on recovery. All to allow the magic of compounding to deliver fitness increases gradually over time. At a time of my life when I’m suppose to be thinking of retirement and seeing my aerobic ceiling decrease. Defying aging and doing it while averaging under 8 hours/week and mostly easy endurance riding.