Thanks for the suggestion on hill sprints Josh. I suspect where I live that might draw a volume of funny looks that I could not handle :D.
The Z3 thing I’m wondering is more a theoretical question of whether you can infinitely build capacity (via ME) if you have no goal (race) at all. Or is it more of a staircase of building performance where each step requires building capacity, then cashing in with specific training before moving on to the next step?