Originally Posted by
pdlamb
What do you want to do?
As Planofuji notes, you can do easy commute days. (Yes, you really can! It's possible!) Make an effort not to push hard, just tootle along. You'll get to ride your bike 5 minutes extra those days, and your body gets a chance to recoup from the hard days.
Gotta agree with this... Even on long tours with no days off you find that you work up to a certain level of being able to just keep going without any issues... but what it takes is not being in a sprint mindset all the time.