Aside from planning your training season, it's easy to get carried away with doing group workouts that are not specific to your race goals. In group environments, it's difficult to do specific work unless everyone is generally around the same fitness level and speed. This is somewhat rare in age group training, so chances are you need to approach a group training environment with a level head.
If you have a group workout that involves doing a handful of bike to run repeats, make sure you are mimicking your race specific intensities. Most of us age groupers do non-drafting triathlons and if you're drafting in a group bike workout, what specific benefit is that to help you in your next race? If you're drafting on the bike during training what's going to happen come race day? Chances are it won't go as well as you think! Most triathlons are a steady-state type of effort, and if you don't spend enough time training that way specifically, you certainly could be doing things better.
If you are doing short course triathlons, you'll want to spend a good ratio of your training time in what's called zone 4 (power, heart rate, or effort). This is typically where you'd be racing at for sprint or olympic distance events. If you don't spend a whole lot of time in zone 4 in training, then on race day, you will be less prepared than the athletes that specifically train that way.
Having confidence in your fitness will allow you to specifically train for your race. If you lack confidence you can be easily convinced to train in ways that won't help your race results.
Train like you race!
Good luck.
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