Originally Posted by
krazygl00
What I've found is that riding the same route over and over results in a kind of repetitive boredom in which I stop noticing the ride, and only think about getting to work as quickly as possible, the meetings I have to go to, my projects, etc, so I wind up riding with a fair amount of intensity without noticing and just wind up in a daily rut. I've also found that if I cut my intensity in half, I only ride a little bit slower....So my suggestion to anyone hitting this commuter's fatigue is instead of taking a day or two off, just start budgeting an extra five or ten minutes for your commute and really relax on your rides. In a few days you'll feel like ramping up the effort again.
There is truth in this. A pace that gets me in even 10 minutes later seems crazy slow -- which makes sense because that has the effect of leaving me about 3 miles behind. To subtract 2 minutes from an already brisk pace, I have to absolutely kill myself (which is equivalent to leaving myself a full km behind).
It takes some discipline to not ride too hard when your legs feel good. Junk miles at a reasonably high effort level are some of the most fun miles.