OP here - Responding to "build your base" suggestions -

I feel like I've done the big miles with little results.

• Big Miles
  • 4,700 miles in my first year (I started in June, so that's 7 months)
  • I did almost 6,ooo miles the next year (prostate cancer cut me down at the end of the year)
  • I might have logged 6,000 miles last year if it hadn't been for breast cancer.
  • This year I am varying the length of my rides but including long rides (64 ten days ago at 14 MPH, 63 in 3 days, numerous 40-45 mile rides at about 15 MPH). And I am trying to alternate ride days with rest days.
• Little Results
  • I did two centuries in month 4 of my first year - 2 different routes, 2 different bikes, 8 days apart - both were 15.3 MPH average - both were hard efforts!
  • Today I anticipate I may (!) be able to duplicate one of those centuries at the same speed (after a LOT of additional miles)

In other words, I don't think more miles is a likely solution.

When I was running, I did hard miles (only runs over 12 miles would average 8 minutes a mile). Most miles were between 6:30 and 7:30 which felt good to me. I only did about 30-35 miles a week except when I was ramping up for a marathon (I think I hit 70 miles once).

Cadence

I just disagree with you cadence aficionados. I don't have any problem whatsoever because my W-I-D-E gearing causes a 10% change in cadence when I shift. Maybe I will change my opinion some day, but I just have not observed it causing me any problem whatsoever. And I've ridden 11-27 and 12-28 cassettes, I've ridden compact cranks, and my original triple was 50/39/30.