5.5cm in 3 years. That's a good job man, it's really hard in the end I know it. How was your program?
I had a speedrun on 6 months where I gained 4.5cm EL, then I worked for 2 months without no success.
So I stopped doing length and did only girth for 3-4 months, so I lost like 0,5cm of EL. But the other 4cm gains are solid.
My program was 0 days off. Did you have on and off days in your program?