Training tips and getting the most out of your available time.

There is a sub 30 minute session I read about somewhere called Tabata (or something).

It is simply a warm up and warm down with 6 twenty second flat our sprints in the middle (with 6 twenty second rest in between).

There is apparently a 12% increase in performance after regular use.

sounds like pretty good advice DaSy. Jon - you sound like you've got a decent power to weight ratio (quick on the climbs) but your peak power isn't high, which is what you need on the flat as weight's less of an issue. It'd be worth doing a RAMP test or similar to see what the maximum power you can sustain is, and then do some work to try and get your max power up. High intensity work is good for this, like DaSy says. High resistance work is good too: do some hill reps but instead of spinning a high cadence or standing up, sit down and push a bigger gear than normal. If you can get your peak sustainable power up you'll be quicker up the hills too, assuming you don't put on too much weight from all that extra muscle

Not knowing what sort of time you have available and what training you do at present, this advice may or may not help.

I would say that adding interval training sessions to your routine will help. They are quick and the payback is good. The downside is they hurt and you need to be disciplined to get the most out of them.

If you have ever time trialed you should have a good idea of your max sustainable power for an hour, use this to gauge your exertion level and try 2x20min intervals with a 5 min rest between and a 10 min warm up and warm down either end. You should aim to sustain your max 1 hour power for the entire interval, so use cadence etc to make sure you stay on target.

This is a good session for building sustainable high level output. One of these sessions a week should start to show improvement over time.