Dog fooding is an expression in the software industry (perhaps beyond) that developers are forced to use their own products and APIs. For example, a company like Apple would use its cloud service products to sync notes and messages across devices. Usually that is desirable, because some pain points and design flaws only become apparent when you are actually trying to use the products. And that’s why products that haven’t been dog fooded are often of lower quality.
If you pay close attention, then @Jonathan is often mentioning that e. g. he’s trying to do most workouts outdoors (i. e. testing outdoor workouts) or that he prepped for nationals with the polarized plans. Also, the TR team has been switching between disciplines very often (e. g. @Nate_Pearson made an effort to improve his mountain biking skills), and while I don’t remember them saying that this is to dog food their product and gain experience, to me it is clear that this is what it is. (Nobody said that testing your own product can’t be fun!)
So true and this baffles me. While this doesn’t apply to everyone and cycling is an expensive sport, to a lot of people this is small potatoes — especially since proper training will have a far, far bigger impact on your performance than a pair of carbon wheels that is 150 g lighter and saves you 4 W at 50 km/h.