I did the high volume base and only gained 4w, same as you and now doing mid volume build. The mid volume workouts tend to be a lot harder than the longer volume plans, the vo2 stuff can be impossible if you’re not feeling great on the day.

Even when i was cycling only and doing 10hrs a week on trainer road i struggled with the vo2 workouts, i think you’re meant to fail. I find the 2min intervals are hard but repeatable, the 3min intervals wreck me.

Did the HIM mid base and was quite fine with it. The build is quite hard now though. Maybe the ftp measurement was slightly too high but I find myself tuning down 2% or so.

Interestingly it's not so much the Vo2max stuff, which hurts obviously, but even more so the over/unders and threshold work.

I love to tick boxes to a 100% but find myself getting too tired and I miss the recovered feeling of the base phase which makes me go hard when it's time to and stronger all around I guess. Hard to know what's too tired though.

I'd say TR works. It might be too hard though. Having 3 intensity sessions (counting sustained 80-85% as intensity) on the bike might be 1 too many, for me at least. I think I'd be better off with 2 intensity, 1 recovery and 1 long easy ride. Last year I overtrained and underperformed in races, then got hurt. I don't want to make this mistake again. But like I said, the struggle switching out workouts and not completing to 100% is hard.

My wife has had to do that many times. She has gotten to the point that unless she hears a scream or loud crash, she no longer checks on me. My son, on the other hand, seems to like trying to talk with me when I am breathing hard like that.