A group of friends and I are doing an event next year and we’re training together using Group Workouts. One one level, it’s probably a bit suboptimal as we’re all doing the same training plan as opposed to having our own individual custom one. However, other levels, it’s a game changer for us all:
1 - On those days when you wouldn’t haul your arse out of bed to do a solo session, knowing there will be others waiting makes it happen every time.
2 - During those sessions where you’re on the cusp of giving up and probably would if you were solo, having others suffering just as much makes you carry and complete the session.
I’d recommend to anyone who struggles to start or complete sessions to get togehter with some mates and train together with Group Workouts. It’s truly brilliant.
However, there is one thing that we miss - and that’s the “workout instructions”. If this could be added it would be icing on the cake.
Way back in the Before Times (i.e. pre-COVID), there was a local training center that had Computrainers, etc set up and we’d all converge at 5-dark-30 to train together.
As noted, the peer pressure of knowing there were 15 other people waiting there was a huge motivator to drag yourself out of bed. This was doubly-true when I was doing tri’s and we would have swim sessions.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the training being “sub-optimal”. The advantages of the group motivation far outweigh the possible sub-optimization of a general plan that doesn’t adapt.
Pre-Covid, I used to do this with five friends in our gym’s spin class studio room. We even did ramp tests every six weeks to reset our FTP. The hooting and hollering to cheer the last person or two still going was amazing.
Time for trainerroad to redo some more promotion for the group workouts. I do my trainerroad workouts from my iphone and didn’t know group workouts were an option (only available on pc and mac).
I remember to see trainerroad team doing some group workouts on youtube but i thought it was done with some teams or zoom like software.
I’m on a bit of a mission to be more sociable with cycling, group workouts would hit that mark but it’s hard to coordinate here as we have people across the world.
Consistency is so good though, it’s worth another effort. I’m changing my office working routine too so more time available at home.
How can we put together a schedule so the community can join Group Workouts?
Being in the centre of the time-verse I’m on GMT, starting a plan on Monday and I could schedule my 1hr indoor workouts for other to join e.g;
Seems that group workouts feature has taken a side step for now. If only it was easier to find/offer/match group workouts on the TR platform (also for non identical workouts). Any concrete plans on this point for the next 12 months @Nate_Pearson ?
Remember now that it requires a desktop/laptop, which is a bit of a constraint for me. If I get that sorted I’ll fire up some sessions and see who joins.