I ask this question as it seems most of the podcasts and training plans are geared to Racing. Is TR just assuming thats the case or do yall know it. I dont race but do ride for fitness and group rides. I like the training principles and advice. All though I dont race, I do weeklong bikepacks and fondo stuff that require fitness. This year is RAGBRI as my A event. Definitely not a race but a 475mile week that requires some training. Seems like there is an untapped market for people who dont race but train. Maybe have us check a box on what exactly what we are training for every couple of months. Im sure there is some guessing on the TR staff based on what Training Plan athletes are currently using.
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Plenty of people train and don’t race. But here’s the thing: aside from some race specific stuff, training for racing and fitness (for me) is virtually the same. Same principles apply
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I don’t race. I train for fitness and long gravel/fondo rides.
This is part of plan builder. When you build your plan, it asks you when your goal event is and what type of riding you do. You can even say “I don’t have a target event” and it will then say something like, “ok, what kind of riding do you do?”, and you can pick fondo, gravel, XC mtb, etc.
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I have raced but dont actively, but my training is my racing. Getting after it and improving.
Got to be some point to getting old !!
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Just myself. Some events and hill climbs but never near the pointy end. So it’s always just for the experience and self improvement.
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- Plan Builder does this. You can say that you don’t have any events, and it asks you to select a training focus. Just set an end date and you can swap focus after that date for your next round of training. Rinse and repeat.
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At 55 I don’t race the pointy end. I do race myself and judge my performance against my age group, but with gravel they don’t just put ages on the number plates and if they did you can’t see them because they are on the front…
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Yup we’re all pros.
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racing against the ravages of time, and for Strava glory!
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I race.
I race Fondo’s
I race my mates on group rides
I race myself against previous PR’s.
I race.
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I swim, run and ride but have never taken part on a Triathlon or bike race, purely for fitness, although would love to complete a tri at some point
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And some days/months it really feels like I’m racing for second place!
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I do…don’t think I would bother with the pain otherwise 
…but then again everybody needs to do what they want to enjoy their hobby. I love race days for TT - not so much the riding but the social side of meeting friends who I race against all summer every year, standing around the results board, eating cake…looking at strava.
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You should do it…it is a fantastic experience. The Tri community is very welcoming and I really enjoyed all my races / experiences.
And don’t feel like you need to do an IM, either…just do a local sprint and see how you enjoy it.
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No racing here. Just do a couple of fun events throughout the year, charity rides, and a century or two. Which, all benefit from the TR training.
Like others have said, if your aim is to improve your fitness, you’re just racing yourself and that’s enough. 
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This 100%. IMs are rewarding, but the most fun I’ve had in tri are the seasons where I’ve done shorter races.
I only race against myself…
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I agree with the OP and would love to see more features geared towards people who want to be really fit but that don’t have maximum cycling performance/race as a goal. For example I would like to swap rides for runs whenever I want and have adaptive training take that into account. I would like to tell AT “you wanted me to do a VO2 Max ride today, but it was sunny outside so I went for a VO2Max run”, it might not be best for cycling training performance but it is best for me. And, of course, setting maximum workout length is long overdue. Again, I do understand that to really optimize my cycling performance some long rides would be needed, but that’s not important to me at all. For now, I need to select alternates of appropriate length almost every day. Finally, I personally don’t like rest days, so have an optionally suggested workout every day would be of value. Train Now doesn’t really work for me, it always suggests endurance and the range of suggested levels is way too wide. Also I would like this to be in the training plan not to be separated, like now.
This is about flexibility and what is best relative to one’s goals not about absolute best.
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I have signed up for a couple of gravel events that I want to do well at and I use those as my target events. Other than that, I don’t race anymore. Regardless, I still like to train like I do race as I like to have a goal to work on and a plan to follow.
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Race? No.
Ride the odd sportive and self-planned ultra endurance event? Yes.
Enjoy training for the sake of training? Absolutely!
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