Training time for the time poor

@Johnnyvee I have a bank of roller sessions which I print off and follow, if you're interested I can send them to you. There's plenty online, the BC website has some good resources.  Mine are mainly edited versions, shorter versions of what's found online or leftover sessions from our old club coach.  

At home when I can't be bothered to do a structured session, I just watch the last hour of bike races on yourtube.. my efforts just follow the attacks on screen.. 

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I can average around 17mph over 50 miles but I don't seem to have gotten any faster despite shedding around 6 kilos in the last 4 months through trying to be good with food etc.  I've also dropped my stem by 10 mm in an attempt to, dare I say, get more aero.  Comparing to where I was last year the average speeds more or less the same but my HR has dropped for the same speed so I'm just wondering if or how the speed can increase.

sounds to me that you're doing the right things and your fitness and power-to-weight are probably increasing, but the rides you're measuring yourself on aren't necessarily testing you to your limit. try mixing it up by finding something that gets you out of your comfort zone more. a local chaingang maybe, or some 'cross or crit racing, or even racing on zwift. getting your ass kicked is the best way to learn to go faster, i find

If you have a dog then why not try running with him/her as an extra bit of cross training?

I think the idea of building base fitness with long slow rides is one that comes from pro training schedules and those guys are doing lots of high intensity workouts to increase speed as well as the base miles to improve endurance.

...and also, to add a not particularly scientific observation, you don't have to cycle to get some benefit of low impact aerobic style training.  I've been surprised this year by how regular brisk dog walks maintained my weight and fitness, in between 'proper' training sessions.

So, if you are out walking Junior in a buggy, say, then that's all aerobic time on the clock!

Yep all good stuff written above which I echo..

I'm also time poor (and not a morning person and I'm lazy) but I am fortunate that most of the rides/sessions I do are HIIT or training style rides.

With that in mind, personally, my own pin the tail on a donkey fitness guide is that, two sessions a week I'm maintaining fitness, three sessions a week  and I'm gaining fitness and I can do just one session a week now and again and not loose out too much.

Sessions I do indoors are, HR based and done on rollers, they last normally between 45mins and 1 hour - quality not quantity. 

Just to add to what people are saying - if there's one thing long, slow distance (LSD) is good for it's training you for long, slow distance. Thing is, it's very inefficient time-wise at that and there's not really anything more you'd get out of it that you couldn't get, and more, from a more structured and sometimes higher intensity set of activities bar the mental side and getting more used to just spending more time in the saddle. Sure it'll keep you fit, but there's definitely more effective ways to do that especially if you want a more rounded fitness and ability on the bike (which I guess you might if you're already on TrainerRoad). 

Speaking of TR, if you haven't already (which you probably have) then you could far worse than trying one of their training plans and also having a look at their blog

http://blog.trainerroad.com

.. lots of good stuff there. Here's some more links to things that might interest you as well, mainly about the mis-conceptions about base miles but also some good training tips and a heap of further references

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-myth-of-winter-base-training-for-...

http://endurancenerd.com/the-base-training-myth/

https://roadcyclinguk.com/how-to/should-you-do-high-intensity-training-r...

https://thesufferfest.com/blogs/training-resources/dropping-lsd-why-base...

HTH, good luck with whatever you're aiming for.
 

The TrainerRoad plans are excellent.  I did the Sweetspot 'Base' 1&2, sustained power 'build', came on in leaps and bounds just doing two 1hr TR sessions a week and substituting the long TR session for a nice outdoor ride, plus one shorter more intense outdoor ride if I had time.

Its tought fitting it around family life, particularly in the dark cold winter months.... don't forget its supposed to be fun!

Can recommend have a read of Chris Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist book, lots of good stuff in there for people that have limited time. There are also a lot of studies that show shorter higher intensity efforts are more beneficial if you are time poor compared to long slow base rides

If you want to get faster, you have to train at riding faster, which means intervals and short fast rides. Long slow rides just make you good at riding slowly

Very much depends on what your objectives are, and then tailoring your limited training time so that it's more specific to those objectives, rather than just putting in time on the bike.
You might find that 3x1h on the turbo to be more effective than 2x1.5h, especially if those sessions include some chunky interval work, e.g. the famous 2x20 sweet spot intervals.

Another thing I have (slowly) learned is the importance of sleep - getting up earlier means going to bed earlier too. And eating real food. When you're running around like a headless chicken looking after the little monsters, it's all too easy to try and get by on less sleep, and eat whatever is to hand. Doesn't work. Eat well and sleep well - you'll not only be a better cyclist but a better parent too.

This is worth a read: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Crunched-Cyclist-Racing-Winning-Fitness-Athlete/dp/1937715507/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Finally: "do I fail by admitting that the family comes first?" That sounds like the exact opposite of failure to me.

That's more than enough but every session needs to be good quality.

I do between 5-10 hours a week depending on it being a hard week or an easy week. That's a longer weekend ride and 3 or 4 x 1 hour turbo sessions in the week. Its just about enough to hang in the bunch in 3/4 road racing and do 23mins for a 10mile TT.

Should be steady base miles, not necessarily slow - i.e. not easy but not hammering. Its got its place but the reality is, not many people have that kind of time to do purely that - and you don't need to if you make sure every session is focussed.

Training to power makes it easier to ensure a quality session but you can do it with heart rate too, or even perceived effort.