My commute home was always faster, depite the precieved effort being lower and work was ~50m lower than home.
My reasoning was:
*The 5 miles closest to work were flood plain and the steepest hills were in the other 10 miles nearer home so I was always fighting myself up the hills in the morning without properly warming up.
*I ate bucket loads of crap all day to compensate for burning 900-1000 calories each morning/evening so the morning was probably done on healthy food, the afternon was regulalry powered by a family bag of Harribo, a packet of jammy dodgers and a few ice creams.
*I’m not a morning person, so was generaly more ‘awake’ in the evenings.
This was back in the days when I was fit and had no idea about training so did every ride balls out and never got any faster as a result 🙁