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My missus can get on her bike and just ride around, exploring. I hate that
I love a bit of exploring, and would not enjoy riding nearly as much without it, yet often ( less often recently ) try to ride a familiar route a bit faster, or do unpleasant intervals on the turbo. I've entered a total of three races in my life and have been distinctly mid-pack in each of them
My main motivations currently seem to be:
1-Having been a fat, inactive kid. I'd like to never return to feeling that way about myself
2-Leading the Epping Forest Badger rides with people who are sometimes half my age, and not wanting to completely embarrass myself by feeling knackered all the time
3-Daydreaming about entering future endurance events, like last year's 24hr attempt
BareNecessities-
I've always been active. But even as a kid I would sprint around the house on my BMX with a stopwatch running, trying to beat my time. I guess some people just get born competitive. I wonder if it had something to do with being first born followed a couple of years later by brothers.
The only time my missus did formal training was before the team 24hr we did. She would much rather do random loops outside and tackle some QOMs than sit on a turbo, whereas I would much rather sit on the turbo then ride aimlessly around town.
I don't know what this means, other than different strokes for different folks.
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distinctly mid-pack in each of them
You're still lapping yourself who would have been sat on the sofa, as the saying goes. I think modern times set extremely a high bar for what people should be achieving, most of us don't get there and beat ourselves up because of it. Strava, Instagram etc. are the culprits. Sounds like you have the right balance there anyway; do what you enjoy, keep active, push yourself a little, don't get too wrapped up in the numbers. It's all good. :)
hippy
Squaredisk
Yeah, there's lots of reasons to train, but obviously 'trying to win a race' is the bestest.
Even if I'm not racing I would likely do what people consider 'training' vs. just riding, because I like the structure and I like having a good habit to balance the bad habits.
My missus can get on her bike and just ride around, exploring. I hate that. 95% of the time I can't do that. I need a goal. No goal. No ride.