Not sure if you use strava or not, but I ride alone and often ride the same routes as you do. As a result I found creating "private segments" in strava and adding goals to those segments to be a very helpful motivator. Basically I identify certain climbs, flat sprint, or just sections on my route by streets or landmarks and create a segment. I have several segments setup along several routes for training purposes. For example I have a route that includes a lot of climbing and I have each and every climb setup from start to end. After a ride I can see if and when I’ve beat my PR (personal record) on each climb or not. I can also see a complete history of each segments time by date that also shows avg speed so if it was a really windy day and I didn’t get a new PR I don’t think twice about it. Keep in mind these are not the existing “public segments” that already exist in strava, but my own personal private segments with my own start and end points.

So when I hit a certain landmark or street I really crank up the speed on that “segment” and treat it as a time trial. Then when the segment is over I dial it back and catch my breath. If you setup segments based on distance or time it takes you to get from point A to B you are essentially setting up your own personal tracked intervals via strava. This is a huge plus for me as in the past I often got bored on the same route and found it hard to get motivated. Now that’s not a problem because when I hit a per-defined segment I hammer it and go for a new PR.

Here is a link on how to create your own segments in strava and goals.

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/2...eate-a-Segment

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/2...Power-Premium-