Fake it till you make it

I have read multiple people saying, yes I swim in a lane(or ride or whatever) with these people but they are kind of out of my league so I just hang on for my dear live and fake it till I make it.

And since I have been to one Masters swim session and 4 swim workouts with H96 team I am a swim expert now and I tell you, faking it till you make it is the worst thing a not-so-good/efficient swimmer can do.
We (not so good efficient swimmers) should learn first how to swim well and efficiently. But if we are with fast swimmers all the good technique goes out the window and we do whatever we can just to hang for a dear life and get to the other side of a pool as fast as we can. I do that and I am sure that I am not the only one!
When I want to swim nicely concentrating on my technique I need not to be in a hurry. I am not necessarily slower but I want to have the feeling that I can be slow if I need to.
Not possible if I swim with other people. And if they are faster, than it is a completele disaster. Because then you really "fake it" and although you might eventually "make it" it will probably take you longer or you just become fitter and therefore you "make it" not because you become a better swimmer.

I have been kind of doing this faking thing in those swim workouts with H96 team, and also with CH team but he at least used to stop me to tell me to swim nicely and that it was ok if someone laps me:)
Now I am ot really hanging for my dear life because they are not faster than I am but still when we do intervals I "fake it" because I am worried that maybe someone behind me wants to swim faster and then I am jeopardizing his workout. And I do not want that. Thus I rather sacrifise my workout. Not good.
Therefore I am deliberately trying to swim as a last person in a lane, then I can swim nicely and not do-whatever-just-get-to-the-other-side-asap.

OK, enough of my expert swimming advice, I better go to bed because my sister is getting married tomorrow and I need to get up in less than 5 hours. I hope they do not run late and that it lasts only 15min and than I can go back to sleep:)

PS: 40min run (ok, 39min really)+ Swim workout + 2x5min run to catch buses when I was late (that does not really count in training but in counts in my ITB chronicles)