Cycling daily requires a whole different kind of endurance than taking long rides a few times a week with days off in between.

Your body has to learn how to recover quickly--in hours rather than in days. And how to do it while you're at work instead of on the couch.

With the sudden onset of nice weather, I've been taking the long loop to work a lot. Since it's still early season, I haven't yet regained the ability to do those longer distances daily. Nice as it was this past weekend, I took Friday and Saturday off, except for a 4½ mile banking and grocery run on Saturday.

Sunday was a nice long ride in the country, and commuting starts again this week just after lunch. This week I'm going for shorter, more direct commuting so I have some gas in the tank for a couple of club rides this weekend. We'll see how that works.

I also have to remember that all those post-ride recovery things can be done after commuting too. Through winter I get out of the habit of treating a commute like a real bike ride.