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You can always substitute MOTTIV training app workouts for a group workout. Training with friends or training partners is a huge part of staying motivated and keeping triathlon fun.

This applies to group rides, group runs, and group swims.

We encourage you to do workouts with others, even if it means you're not doing exactly what was prescribed in your MOTTIV training plan that day. As long as you've done 80% of your MOTTIV workouts to the best of your ability at any given time, you're going to be making excellent progress -- so go have fun with your friends, and do whatever workout they're doing!

Below are some tips on how to maximize your benefit from doing workouts with others.

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TIPS FOR GROUP WORKOUTS
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Ideally, you don't want to lose the progress you're making through your MOTTIV workouts, by getting bad advice from well-meaning folks on your local team who may not actually be the most knowledgeable in triathlon-specific training):

1. Make sure to assign yourself a MOTTIV workout which matches the speed/tempo of the workout with the group.
   
   To do this, just drag and drop your workouts to move them around on your "TRAINING PLAN" calendar page.
   
   The reason for this is if, for example, you're assigned a Zone 2 run on our training app but your group is doing a short fast run, you don't want to miss out on important elements of what you've been assigned by our coaches in your own plan. Just make sure you still get your Zone 2 run in on another day that week.
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2. When swimming with a local (often Masters) swim group, one thing to note is that Masters swims often don’t follow a structured plan, and they rarely have coaching designed for amateur triathletes. So, they may not be optimized to make improvements for you.
   
   Masters coaches are often former elite swimmers who tend not to realize that amateur triathletes have different requirements than pure swimmers.
   
   As an example, you may see Masters coaches provide drills and guidance to the swimmers on how to keep their legs at the surface of the water when the reality is that most age-groupers who are physically incapable of doing that drill, not to mention, this is not relevant to the triathlon swim. Plus, most age-groupers don't have the flexibility to do it anyway.
   
   You can politely thank them for the advice, and keep doing what you know is appropriate for yourself as an age-group triathlete.  
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3. Master swim groups don’t always perform just freestyle swimming, they mix in all the different strokes. While this is good for maybe the first five or six months of learning how to swim and developing a feel for the water in all different body positions, it is a low return on investment in regards to time training for the purpose of triathlons. We don't need to practice a variety of different strokes, we need to build endurance and good form in the water.  
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4. Because there are so many individuals in a Masters's swim workout, the workouts have to cater to the lowest capable swimmer rather than being tailored to the capabilities of each swimmer themselves.
   
   ‍What you'll often see at Masters workouts is the fastest couple of athletes will take the workout and alter it so they can actually get something out of it; they do this because they know that what's been prescribed is not actually the most beneficial workout for themselves.
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You can always feel free to join Masters swim workouts, group rides, or group runs. If doing this means that you will get another workout and that you wouldn’t otherwise do if you were only working out on your own, by all means, do it!