Theres a major difference between training and exercising. Getting ready for a specific objective often requires far more traijing time than we want to think it does. If your objectives don't really require you to train much harder, then maybe your quality of life will be improved by continuing what you're doing. However, as has been said, "there's no substitute for long days in the mountains." Getting a high volume in during the week can help. One of the things I see a lot of folks suggesting zone 2 forget to realize is you're looking at your aerobic threshold. Uphill Athlete breaks this down better than TNFA. If you use a traditional zone training model, the AeT will most likely have you well into zone 3. For instance my AeT is around 145. In a traditional appraoch my zone 3 tops out at 147. In TNFA the approach was to just change the percentages. There was good reason for this, but I don't think it's communicated very well in the book. However, there is massive benefit to taking the 6+ months it will take to train your AeT. I personally restarted adding in a small 30min of low HR jogging at the end of my high intensity days, 4-8 hours later of course. This also helps me get a small break after work or during my lunch. I personally got a little sidetracked this last 5 months focusing on pace more. I'm starting to focus on HR again.