The general roadie community at my LBS (I'd call them hybridies?) look at me like I'm nuts when I talk about how much I ride. I had one guy call me an outright lier when I said I got up at 4am, cycled 125km, rode some tracks, came home, rode across the esturary, and then went on with a normal day after my wife and kids got back from church. I thought perhaps commuting oriented people might have more of a handle on how to ride a sensible (read midrange and not super light etc) bike hard.
As you can see neither of bikes are what many would call high end. But I can outpace just about anyone I meet on the road/path and keep up the pace until they are well off in the distance so I figure they can't be working very hard. Interestingly they are all riding bikes that cost 4-5 times more than my carefully selected (and perfect for my body) toys.