HappyMartin

I'm sure Vitality is basing all of this on the best practices as determined by a medical institute currently supervising the obesity epedemic in the US. What does Daryl know about exercise anyway. The actuaries in Sandton obviously know much more.

You are joking right? Please tell me you are joking.

Odd. I got 600 points for Emperors today.

If I don't at least use Vitality for a cheap flight or something this year I will can it. So far it's a waste of money. Never used a single feature that it offers in the almost 18 months I have been on it.

I was born and educated in KZN but have lived in Joburg since 1994. Lions supporter now. Well pleased with that result.

No Panorama. That's unfortunate.

Was just watching Eddie Izzard and the 27 consecutive marathons he ran. I wonder if he would have made his target points on Vitality. I mean he ran twice a day, morning and evening so only one would count. Then his HR would have been low with such an endurance effort. I don't think he would have got his smoothie to be honest. He would have had to mix it up with a park run, a pregnancy class, a gym session, that type of thing.

Just buy the new Tacx strap that works with ANT+ and Bluetooth. Only cost a grand. Just think. It will pay for itself in smoothies in only 6 months. What a deal. As long as vitality don't change everything again. Hahahahahaha. I swear the new F1 rules are simpler and more logical than this stuff

I was messaged to say my target is now 300. It was on 1200 from the beginning.. Since I maxed out my fitness points months ago I think I will just upload enough exercise sessions to get exactly three hundred points. That way it should stay nice and low I think. I will load all my other exercise sessions to Strava which they don't allow anymore. No problem. The Tacx trainer is working well with the new HR belt that transmits on Bluetooth and ANT+. I control the trainer with my iPad and at the same time record the session to my Garmin 800. It would be easy to only start the Garmin once warmed up and stop it before cooling down to give a nice high average HR. It's now gotten to the point that gaming the system is almost a second hobby. No idea why. I don't claim any benefits at all. No watch no coffee no pond slime from Kauai. I just can't help myself. It's all so stupid.

I got 12000 points last week for my cycling. Need 1200 so I was 10 times over. Recorded on a Garmin 800 on my bike. Easy to record. Easy to upload. No problems. But, and for me it's a big but, I spend more time than I should dealing with this stuff and planning things for it. By that I mean it now influences what devices I buy and what software I use to upload to. I spend time checking things are all working and being recorded. I have dumped the fitness tracker and put my rather nice watch back on my wrist. I will exercise as I see fit at a heart rate and intensity that suits my current training plan. I can easily get my 30000 fitness points and don't need crappy coffee or free smoothies to spur me on. If I want a fitness device I will buy the one I need and want not the one vitality see fit to offer me. I will set my own goals and reach them or not and I'm good with that.

Lots of people here with the IWatch I assume. Up front I will say I have two mac pros. Two MacBook pros. And iPad and an iPhone. However the watch looks like a rubbish fitness tracker to me. Not properly waterproof. No built in gps. Bad battery life. Perhaps as a smart watch it's great but I think there are several better fitness trackers such as Garmin, Fitbit, polar and so on. Am I wrong. Anyone else have any opinion on this? I am keen to get a fitness tracker to all sorts of things with including the vitality stuff but don't think the apple device will suit me.

I see that tacx makes a HR monitor that transmits on ANT + and Blutooth. I might use that with my Garmin and a speed sensor on the back wheel for my IDT sessions which I do three times a week and don't currently log. Allow me to run the tacx as normal and save the session to the Garmin for upload to Garmin connect which is linked to Vitality. If vitality get stricter then I will get more careful about logging all my exercise. I currently just log what I need to get by.

Sorry about that but....... It was always a risk. Only accept the offer if you can afford to pay for the watch if you don't make the target. That way it's a bonus if Vitality pay for it and no biggie if you have to pay for it.

My rewards requirement was at 1200 the moment I signed up. I signed up because I was under the impression that me reaching my target would enable me to donate Teddy Bears to under privileged children. It's a long story, don't ask. Any way I hit my target easily in a day but have no need or interest in any of the rewards. Still I check and am always pleased when I hit the target. Watching the unclaimed smoothies accumulate and then expire. More fun than Facebook but not by much.

Can't wait for the Lions to come home. I have season tickets again. Lunch at the Troyville and then walk down to the stadium. Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

It's a sock. Good grief. All the hype. Thought it must be a new Mars rover. Load of bollocks.

Activity points should decay. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. I don't upload any of my IDT sessions of which I do three a week and still I managed to max out my activity points weeks ago. Now I can sit on my butt for the rest of the year if I wanted to. Pointless. The idea has to be to keep you regularly active. If my points decayed at say 500 or even a thousand a week I would have to keep active all year. As for the weekly rewards thing it's a nice idea and I had a go at it before working out I would rather have a warm glass of tap water than another Vida E coffee. I'm kind of indifferent to Kauai. Not worth finding one to claim the drink no Im not really a shopping mall person. I have Mac computers and laptops. Also iPad and iPhone. Useful as a photographer. I have no interest in the watch at all. Now if it was a Garmin or top range Firbit with a gps I would be there. The HR thing is a joke. They are using those tables and it's meaningless for me. According to Vitality my maz HR is 165. Actually my tested threshold is 175 and my max is 195. I can knock off a 3000 point ride without breaking a sweat. The entire vitality has become an amusing exercise in futility for me.

I'm not even slightly surprised at this. And I don't believe all cyclists dope.

Did a crit once. That zoo lake thing. It was flipping awful. Heart rate went to 190 in about 60 seconds and stayed there for about 10 minutes and I was shelled out the back. Almost vomited. Was humiliated and embarrassed. I will give it a go. How can you say no to that level of pain combined with a high chance of a spectacular, painful and very public accident. Great fun

Birthday gift. A Porlex for my Aeropress. Also got one of those permanent filters for the Aeropress. Haven't tried it out yet. Looks like very well made kit.

I tend to use left over emergency beans such as the Woolies beans for making stuff like Gelato or coffee sorbet. Sometimes I get given beans by well meaning friends which I then grind quite course and donate to a friend with one of those office drip machines.

You seriously need to get some decent beans though.

Woolies beans come from Tribeca. I buy them if I run out of my regular stuff. I think they are pretty good and very consistent. Just not very interesting.

HR at the moment. It is my intention to move to power next year. I wanted to find some software I could cope with before buying a meter and TP seems to fit the bill for me.

I pulled the trigger on this yesterday and bought a subscription. It has become a big part of how I train.