10 minutes is the difference between heaven and hell.

When I started my longer, 17 mile commute, I pretty quickly settled in at an average ride time of about an hour and ten minutes. To achieve that, I was busy.... pushing up the hills, maximizing the speed on the other side, pushing on the flats. Not fast as such, but never totally letting up, either.

Last week I got caught in the rain. It was warm, so I figured I would just enjoy it. And I did... enjoy the relaxed pace. So I'm using that kind of pace now and guess what? I don't feel whooped when I get to the other end of the commute. Kicking back and relaxing costs me about 10 minutes, so now it takes me 1:20 to do the trip. I can live with that. The heck with trying to beat the one hour mark.

At least for now.