Great Ways to Support Friends on BT

author : Team BT
comments : 1

Do you know all the ways to send inspires, comment on logs and be friends on BT?

Have you ever run across someone on the forums on Beginner Triathlete and wanted to stay connected? Or do you wish it felt like someone was looking over your shoulder at your Training Log to make sure you were really doing your workouts?

Maybe it's time to visit (or revisit) the Friend features on BT.

One of the defining characteristics of BT is the friendly sense of community that has been built here by people freely sharing knowledge and supporting and encouraging new users as well as veteran members.

While the forums and articles are easy to notice, you may not be as familiar with the Friends interface. Even if you think you are, it's like your smartphone: there's always some cool feature available that you didn't know was there until someone else showed you.


Where are Friends?


In the Community menu, right under "Forums" you'll see Friends, which takes you to a page that displays your BT friends. If there is no one there, start adding people! Also, be sure to click "Who Has Friended Me?" at the bottom of the Friends page. Make sure you add those people as friends, too, if you like.


Adding and Removing Friends


This is easiest if you know someone's BT username. Just copy and paste it into the Search bar on the Friends page, and click the magnifying glass icon. You'll see their profile image pop up in the search results. From there, click on the tiny arrow at the top-right of their profile image. This will display details about the user, and allow you to add them as a Friend. (If there are already in your Friend list, you will be able to remove them from this screen.) You can now send this person a message, or better yet, visit their training log and send them an "inspire" (the BT version of a like) or write an encouraging comment about the workout they logged.


Keeping up With Friends


Once you have a few (or many) friends on your list, it becomes easy to keep up with them. Head to the Friends page anytime to see the most recent posts by your friends, as well as recently logged workouts by your friends. Most recently logged workouts is a great feature, because it makes it easy to send inspires to people you know who have recently updated their training logs. It's also helpful if you're just returning to the Friends page after some time away, and you don't want to click on friends one by one to see who has an active training log.


If you are in the forums and see a friend you want to inspire, you can click on their username (top left above their picture) and you'll see an option to go to their training log.


Tip: Make sure that your training logs are in use and viewable by other users. If no one can see your training log, they certainly can't comment on it. Training logs are easy to keep updated, simply by connecting your log with the device you use when you are working out. For example, if you wear a Garmin for all of your workouts and you use Garmin Express, your workouts will upload to BT effortlessly, once you link your Garmin Express account.


Organizing Friends List


So, you're a triathlete. Which means you're an overachiever, probably. So if you found the Friends page, maybe (just maybe) you went a little overboard and now you have dozens of friends and you have to scroll to see them all. Not to worry! There are several ways to sort friends.



  • Alphabetical (default view)

  • Favorites (this is automatically calculated by your number of interactions)

  • Recent Inspires (users who have inspired you)

  • My State (users in your state -- note, you need to have entered your state in your profile)

  • Groups (this is defined by you, and is the next column to the right)


The first four are built-in. Groups are something you need to create. First click on someone you want to add to a group. Underneath their profile picture, and the links where you can send them a message or add/remove them as a friend, you will see a white dropdown option bar. If you already have groups set up, you can add this person to an existing group. If not, you can type in the name of a new group and add that user. Examples of groups could be "morning running club," or "Ironman Louisville," for example. It's entirely up to you.


So, go forth! Make friends, and stay in touch with them. Keep each other motivated.

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date: November 28, 2015

Team BT