End of Season De-Brief: Question 3 through 7

As promised in my previous post, here I tackle the remaining questions from the excellent podcast at semiprocycling.com where the creator recommends evaluation your previous season's results and training:

3. What else worked this year?
   Things that I found to be especially helpful were:
   
   1. WTF Wednesdays, a very "spirited" ride where the gloves came off early and it really simulated a race effort.
   2. Dedicated training sessions with 'cross racers more experienced that I. In my previous season, and even WAY back when when I was racing MTB's exclusively, it was often hard to focus exclusively on skills sessions. They often got blown off because it seemed they weren't targeted enough and there were other things, like fitness, that needed to be improved. Having someone with more experience lead and encourage these sessions -- as well as understanding the true value of not always going hard -- helped make sure these sessions happened and were valuable.
4. Did you meet your training goals?
   By and large, yes, but there were some weeks were I fell short of my time goals, and a block in the summer where I got a little bit off-track. Having a coach this year should help rectify this.
5. Did you meet your fitness goals?
   Tough to say, having not trained with a power meter last year, I didn't really make any really measurable goals. Will work with coach to improve on the goal-making this year.
6. Did you miss any large chunks from your original program?
   Yes, family vacation in early July and again in early August contributed to some down weeks that may have hampered early season results and performance.
7. How quickly did you recover from hard workouts or heavy periods of training?
   Pretty quickly -- especially for an old man Masters 45+ racer. I hope to keep this up.

There you have it. A pretty honest assessment of some of the things that worked and some that didn't. Feel free to share what worked for you, as well as pose any questions that you may have about improving your performance. I'm no pro, but together -- and with other commenters on here -- we may find some worthwhile solutions. Cheers!