what should you be doing to improve but not doing
 

yes, everyone has demons that prevent them from doing their best.
either being on the forums when you should be sleeping/resting
stretching
eating properly (not eating a 1/2 gallon of ice cream at a sitting)
pushing too hard
not doing enough
increasing your days in saddle
increasing intensity

that kind of thing.

Staying young!

This getting older every second certainly has its downfalls.

Any suggestions?

hills, hills, hills.

Odd you should post this topic, I was thinking last night (sometimes dangerous for me) while reading 'Cycling past 50' by John Friel. I ned to ber more consistent with my exercising.

Cardinal Rules of training.
1. Ride consistently
2. Ride Moderately
3. Rest frequently
He states ' Rule 1 is based on the premise that nothing does more to limit or reduce fitness than missed rides'.
He goes on to explain that rides may be replaced by exercise.
Sooooo this time of year, I miss sure skip alot of exercising and try to catch up on 'good days', usually overdoing it and creating body problems. Thus I'm doing alot of rule 3 at the sacrifice of rule 1 & 2.

i need to eat a lot more, and drink more water.
also need to not let other ppls concepts of what the weather means to cycling put a damper on my rides... literally.

did only 73k this morning- my excuse? i ran 10k first, then headed out as the blizzard headed inward.

Stretching! How hard would that be? But I don't. My tensor fasciae femoris (the upper extension of the ilio-tibial band) is like a banjo string. Just stupid, I guess.

I can vouch for the fact that this one pays off in spades. Doesn't have to be hard, doesn't have to be long. Do it and you'll be amazed.