Thought I'd stick this here as there's probably been some kind of comics-based answer over the years.

If you have super speed then presumably your preception is everything else is moving really slow, right? My question is that whenever you see someone with super speed powers do something like run great distances very fast or clean a really messy room in five seconds what do they experience? To themselves they're doing it all at normal speed, yes? They still have to run that distance or clean that room or dismantle that about-to-fire Doom Ray. They just have lots more time left after they've finished.
I was just walking home earlier and it was taking forever and I suddenly wished I had super speed. But then I realised I'd still have to run the distance and put one foot in front of the other to get home.
Sure it would be a great time-saver, but not actually reduce or ease the workload or effort.

Is all that correct? Has this been addressed in The Flash or Superman or other speedy characters?

 

I think so. It's partly one of the reasons I think that Wally West during the 80s, before the Speed Force explanation came about, explained why he had to eat so much.

 

I think in Age of Apocalypse stories for X-Men (don't quote me on that) Quicksilver was stuck because his powers burned him out, but he still perceived the world at super speed. So he basically conserved his energies in the library reading books really fast.

 

Yeah, it's been mentioned in the Flash books a few times. All of the speedsters perceive the world at super speed, and it's actually kind of difficult to deal with things in regular time, for long periods. The eating thing is actually due to speedsters having a super fast metabolism. But yeah, if you ran 20 miles at super speed, from your point of view, it would still take the same amount of time.

 

It's in the very first Barry Allen story, Showcase #4. They essentially ripped the relevant sequence off wholesale for the Spider-man movie- Barry sees a waitress spill a tray of food, and, to his eyes, it's as if the food is suspended in mid air.

 

That was mostly what I was wondering. But what others have said too is interesting. So super speed isn't really that great of a power for the lazy man. Maybe I'll have to try and develop my teleporting skills instead.