> Under other circumstances, I would say your endurance is off, but with all the mileage you've done, endurance is not necessarily the problem. <

This may be crazy, but sometimes I wonder if my brain and muscles convince me to back off when I actually could push them harder (for an interval or whatever). I know such psychological issues do come up in many areas. For example, as a band director, I'll often tell my students to take the biggest breath they can, but I can tell when I watch them they really aren't doing that. They ARE taking a much bigger breath than normal, but not all they can - but they think they are, at least until I work with them for awhile.

> It's taking it all-or-nothing for your rides for so long that your body is finally just slowing down and letting you know it's time to take some time off. <

I assume the "all-or-nothing" must include distance, not just pushing really hard, because I haven't been pushing hard lately

Since I don't have a car, laying off riding completely would be a problem. I have also found in the past that a layoff (from vacation) of several weeks could really cause me to loose speed for some time. But I can certainly take it easy and, as mentioned, my plan it just to ride 3 days a week anyway