Originally Posted by
MoAlpha
The relevant question is, is your training making you faster or are you accumulating fatigue and bogging down? If you’re making progress, feeling good, and recovering, your intensity is appropriate for your volume. That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
I have no zone discipline at all, but I’m only putting in 12-15 hrs a week.
That's actually a pretty high volume that could potentially dial up a lot of unhelpful fatigue without discipline. I've just been re-reading "The Midlife Cyclist" by Phil Cavell and he strongly recommends staying in Z2 (60-70% of max HR) for at least 80% of the time at this kind of volume. I'm trying this approach myself now as I feel that I've been digging a bit of a fatigue hole over the last few months with too many hard efforts, although at only around half your volume.