Some reservations about training in groups

Running in groups can be very motivating to keep training. People are group animals and generally like to be in each other's company. So training in groups is a good thing, isn't it. Yes it is...

there is a big disadvantage to training in groups. The problem is that people like to conform to the group. This means that runners whot are less fit than the average runner of the group run too fast, and runners who are fitter run too slow. Both slow and fast runners have less benefit from such training sessions. So while it seems to be a good idea to always run in groups, there is a real benefit to running alone, especially if you want to improve your fitness level (read: run faster).

So the best form of training seems to be to sometimes run in a group for motivation, and other times run on your own.