"When one is trying to recover from OTS, one does not increase intensity! Good grief. What one does is stop riding for a few months. If it's just normal overreaching, do zone 1 rides of 30'-60' every day or every other day depending on how bad it is. In any case, doesn't sound like OTS. Unexplained weight loss is a more usual symptom. HR not coming up normally is an overreaching symptom, one which is actually sought after, indicating max stress and time to ease off to allow fitness to increase.
One thing I would recommend for sure is to start taking your resting and standing-resting HR (MRHR & MSHR) every morning, recording same in your training diary. For the MRHR, lie down with your HRM after getting up and peeing. When your HR stops dropping, watch it for 3 minutes. Note the average HR for the last 30". For the MSHR, when you're done with the MRHR, stand up and watch your HR until it settles down. Watch it for the next 3 minutes and note the average of the last 30". Your MSHR - MRHR is your orthostatic HR. Write that down too. Big increases, like 6-8 beats in MRHR or in orthostatic HR mean that you're pushing it, back off. A 10 beat increase in your orthostatic means you might be getting into OTS.."
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Very helpful. I had not been tracking those metrics but will start to do so.
Regarding the intensity, I suppose I was thinking I'd recover through tapering. I know better; not sure what I was thinking, actually.