KSH, thanks...that's reassuring.

I am NOT a morning person so I doubt I'll be getting up an hour early to ride. I may try a spinning class again. So since I'll only be riding on the weekends what should I do to get the most out of those rides? So far I haven't been good at having a "plan." I ride with others so we just go as fast as we can over the route we decide to ride. Over the last month or so I've increased my avg. speed on our typical route from 14.x to 16.x mph. I have been so excited about that. Last night's ride avg. was 16.6 mph!!! Not long ago I was puzzled why I couldn't seem to get up to 15mph for an average. Then, all of a sudden I'm riding 15.x to 16.x mph as an average...18-24 mph on the flats. It's like I just peaked all of a sudden. The thought of losing that makes me sick since it took me all summer to get there.