Originally Posted by
Creatre
You are probably beginning to plateau. Basically though, if you ride the same route every day your body will eventually get used to it, and you will stop making gains and will jsut maintain. You need to change your training to incorporate other routes and variations of distances/effort. I would recommend spending some time researching different methods of training for something, maybe even setting a goal for a metric century or century in the fall so you have some motivation and something to look forward to.
+1, notice how effortless that route has become now? it's time to up it a bit. i went from doing 18 mile loops, to 30, to 50, then i was doing 80 milers once or twice a week. this was over the course of about 9 months, i wasn't terribly overweight (210lb @ 5'10) but i dropped down to 165ish very very fast. the biggest thing was the fuel. eat right, even when you don't ride as much. and don't forget to rest.