To get faster and loose more weight in less time while still enjoying food. I'd like to be as fast as I was at 25 where 20 miles was a lunch hour ride and 5:45 riding was a nice hilly century instead of 8 rides totaling 96 miles over 4 days.

That comes from riding as hard as possible over various intervals with enough easy days/weeks mixed in to make the load sustainable.

Data makes it easier to figure out where my current limits are for planning and what I can tweak to make things work better. For instance, I found out I could ride hard two days in a row if I tended to ride at 90-100 RPM instead of 80-90 RPM although I'm equally comfortable at either cadence range.

While riding power numbers tell me how hard I'm working within seconds, regardless of how fresh or tired I feel and what's happened to heart rate from overheating and dehydration.

It's motivating to see quantifiable results. Looking at time doesn't work because of hitting different traffic lights. Speed isn't even relevant over the same course due to changing winds. Watts over the same time interval are pretty representative of performance on different roads regardless of whether the hills and wind are working for or against me.

I'm also an incorrigible geek who likes gadgets and mechanical toys.

It's typical for cyclists training seriously. Most probably don't try to get quality miles commuting, but I don't want to spend an additional 2.5 hours a week in my car or 7-8 hours commuting at a recovery pace so I can do those 5-6 hours on other routes.

What a coincidence that the OP has the same distance and completes the distance in the same time bracket as me too! I normally have to book it because i procrastinate towards the last minute and leave around 1030 when class is at 1050. Then again I can't stand the thought of riding slow, it just doesn't work for me.

I'm pretty sure I could do it faster if I rode lighter and harder, but ehh. I'm all right, riding how I am. I'd like to take the time to enjoy the ride but pushing myself can be fun sometimes.

That's cool, dude. Wish I had the dedication to train that much. I just try to ride as many miles as I can a week, in preparation for my upcoming summer tour. You got any quick and simple tips for me?

i race pretty much everywhere unless there is a stiff headwind and then i just suffer slowly. i don't know, just something about fast cadence and a tall gear makes me happy.

Don't ride hard every day because you'll stay slow and be tired. Ride intervals - 10 minutes as hard as you can sustain, 5 easy, repeat 3-4X is nice to increase sustainable power and not too psychologically taxing. Slowly add distance or intensity. Take time to recover - an easy week out of 4, an easy month out of 4. Exploit the opportunities you have on your commute - making a traffic light is a good time for a 15-20 second sprint.

There are good books and articles on this, like _The Time-Crunched Cyclist: Fit, Fast, and Powerful in 6 Hours a Week_. While you might not go with one of the canned plans, the principles are useful.