ltmark, I think you've probably got it right. A racer friend of mine told me, "In order to get fast, you have to ride slow." I definitely wonder if I should rest more. I ride 5-6 days/week, but at least one and sometimes two of the rides are recovery rides.

My general plan is ride Saturday and Sunday, take Monday off, Ride Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday off. Sometimes I will do very easy (small-chain ring only, 15-25 miles, <15 MPH) rides on M or F.

My biggest problem is that I want to do ambitious on Saturday AND on Sunday. This past weekend I rode 80 hard miles on Saturday, with lots of hill climbing. I intended to take it easy on Sunday, but ended up on a fun club ride that was a little faster than I exptected it to be. 45 miles in all, with some hammering. And while I was hammering, I was thinking "Maybe I'm sacrificing the gain from yesterday's workout, by not taking it easy today?" similarly, I do a hard hill-climbing ride on Tuesday and generally try to make Wednesday an easy day, but sometimes I ride hard on Wednesday when I probably shouldn't.