Originally Posted by NomadVW

Last - you're probably going to see results just getting on the bike 12 hrs per week doing anything you want completely unstructured. It will be a year or more before you see a plateau on a totally unstructured training plan, so you can just continue doing what you're doing and have fun on the bike. A lot of people I have met in the last couple years have come and gone in bike racing because it got to be a chore long before it became a passion.