I had something very odd happen today. I had every intention of putting in 25 miles this afternoon – even as of clipping in my second shoe!
Alas, my legs were feeling absolutely wrecked after a quarter of a mile. This is normally about the time I start mashing the pedals, miles (and legs) be damned…but that just didn’t feel like the bright thing to do. The wind had picked up considerably, contrasted with this morning where you could have thrown up dandilion fluff and had it come straight down. When taking both factors into account, balanced against yesterday’s effort, going hard again tonight just didn’t seem wise.
I held my speed way down – 16.8 mph to be exact and cut my route down to 16 miles. Come to think about it, that’s the slowest I’ve ever ridden that bike.
I took it really easy and just enjoyed the sweet spring smells… Of cow poo fertilizer, dear God, the farmers were out spraying the fields and it was all kinds of gnarly for a couple of miles – ahh, the sweet smell of home (one of my friends from grade school lived on a dairy farm, we used to ride the three miles to his house and play in the hay barn and help milk the cows).
In any event, I had a nice, slow ride and arrived home with fresher legs than when I left (thank you fast cadence).
So I’ll have to see how that affects my standing in my cycling challenge – I have a solid 7th place in points and I’ve got tomorrow, but I just didn’t have that extra nine in me today.
So I’m sticking with wise, in lieu of a little lazy, with my course selection and pace this evening.
Fit Recovery 
I know how you feel! I went out this morning for a Century ride, but about two miles into it I just didn’t feel right, but I kept on riding. At about 16 miles into the ride I gave up and and turned around to go home. I really don’t understand what happened — I didn’t even ride yesterday and I slept well last night.