Does your group workout suffer from group think?

I love group workouts. I honestly believe that its easier to find your "fast" with the help of others. Group workouts provide a sense of camaraderie but they are also about pushing others and being pushed yourself.  I've had some of my biggest training break throughs during group workouts. But I have also bonked really bad during group workouts by succumbing to a little bit of peer pressure and not understanding the consequences of pushing beyond my training limits. And oh, wow, man that sucks.

On most Saturday mornings during the pre-season you will find me at masters swim at my gym. Mostly because I drag major a$$ in the water and swimming with "swimmers" challenges me. This past Saturday the group decided that we would do 4000 (yards). I just sort of laughed and told them that I was good for an hour. And from that point on I was kind of kept separate. I was the one not doing the full workout. As if the work that I was putting in wasn't enough. Mind you, I was really tempted to do the full workout. For nothing more than it would sound cool in a tweet ("@jschmit: Boom! Did 4000 in the pool this morning. I wreak of chlorine and kick ass!") However within the context of my current training, this workout made no sense. So I swallowed my pride, bit off the good parts of the workout and after 60 minutes and 2700 yards that was it. I know I could have finished and I know it would have sounded cool to my social media  endurance circle. But I've learned this hard lesson in the past where I've blindly gone into group workouts and wrecked myself for the next week, missing out on meaningful training. In fact I can think of one group workout in particular where I let myself get pushed and ended up injured and on the shelf for two months.

Again. I love group workouts. The positives far outweigh the negatives. I just do it now without losing myself or letting the group think for me - looking out for number one and all that.

- Him