Originally Posted by
hamster
Maybe everyone's different, but I used to commute to work by bike 5 days a week and it didn't work out too well for me. The furthest I ever got was on that schedule was, I think, 25 miles. No time for recovery means you're neither gaining performance nor endurance.
On the other hand, regular hard rides spaced 48-72 hours apart help you improve your fitness levels and eventually allow you to bring them closer together.
Much depends on the intensity. It's perfectly possible to recover adequately overnight if you're riding in zones 1 and 2 most of the time. My longest commute was 29 miles each way. i did it, on average, four days per week for a year and rode at the weekend too, so my average weekly mileage was c.300. I can assure you that I did gain both in speed and endurance. Had I been training for racing, though, I'd have increased the intensity and probably had three, rather than two, rest days per week.
On my last long tour I averaged 60 miles per day, 6 days per week, for two months. I was in great shape at the end and had no symptoms of fatigue. Of course, I wasn't in any great hurry.