My training comes full circle

I've gone through many phases of training, none of them working particularly well. In chronological order, they are:

The "Just Ride" phase: I was a newbie, so the fact that I was turning the pedals over seemed to have a positive effect. This is a common occurrence in almost every athletic pursuit. I probably could have experienced a similar progression in my fishing abilities had I spent a corresponding amount of time on it.

The "Just Ride Hard" phase: Ride hard. Every ride. Every day. Try to do the same loop as yesterday, but do it faster. Same the next day. I got fast in a hurry, and burned out almost as fast.

Fast-Forward through 5-6 months of "Why do I do this"

The "Just Ride Slow" phase: I may have mis-interpreted some advice I was given. "Go slow to go fast" does not work for me. I just got slow. Granted, I could ride slow for a long time, but I became complacent and wasn't pushing myself. I also got skinny (read: scrawny). My wife was unimpressed.

The "Structured Workouts" phase: In theory this would have been great, but I do not the the foresight to plan out an entire year of training. I know this was the most effective form of training in terms of how my body responded, but still wasn't quite right. I did not plan around my important events, and had lackluster performances.

Went to the track. Decided I wanna be a trackie.

Back to the "Just Ride" phase, because I have no flippin' idea how to train for this.

I'm now starting the "Get a Coach" phase: The goal was to hire someone with a proven track record of success who will plan out my year for me, apply the most current training techniques, monitor my progress, adjust workouts based on my feedback, and keep my on track (no pun intended). So far this seems to be money well spent.

This is the year I rock the 'drome.