Ultracycling

Reverse periodisation. Hard, horrible type 2 turbo fun when the weather is shite in winter. Long, sunny sausage rolled filled rides in Spring to build in some conditioning for bike position. Throw in a bit of gym and stretching.

I think this is definitely the way to do it and is my plan now - having tried most of the alternatives.

I used to just do long rides and not bother with turbo at all. That worked ok but I probably could have been faster if I'd done some harder sessions.

Then - after we had a baby = much less time for long rides, I tried to do much more turbo and far fewer long rides. I actually got fitter that way but lack of long rides meant my conditioning wasn't there which led to issues and a DNF in TCR.

EDIT I actually tried a third method which was basically hardly ride at all and just rock up at the start and rely on experience and long term base fitness. That worked, but it was a bit painful and clearly sub-optimal.

Hard, horrible type 2 turbo fun when the weather is shite in winter. Long, sunny sausage rolled filled rides in Spring to build in some conditioning for bike position

You had me at sausage rolls... I guess I better do some sort of miserable turbo session once I've finished my work then