Abu,
I'm like you. If I get more then 6-8 weeks of real workouts in, I start to get flat, peak too soon, etc. I didn't do any workouts until the week of 8/15. I ran 28:00 (5:36) in an all out 5M on 8/7 (off no workouts) and 1:20:19 in an all out 1/2 on 8/15 (that was the 2nd of 2 workouts that week... 6:07 pace was flat out). By Labor Day, 9/6, so 3 weeks and just 5 workouts later, I ran 5:43 pace for a 20k. Explain that one to me. In 3 weeks I went from not being able to race at 6:05 pace for a 1/2 to being able to run close to 5:40 pace. All because of 5 workouts. And 2 months later, I could run that 1:20:19 back to back.