HappyMartin

My Fitbit packed up and was exchanged under warranty. The new one is now not accepted as a HR monitor by vitality. Yesterday's hard 12km hike at Suikerbosrand netted me 100 points. The day before a easy 2 hour cycle n pretty much recovery mode gave me 600 points. The upcoming 5 day Fishriver hike will get me 500 points I guess. What with the drive the day before and the day after I wont hit my target for that week. Unless I cough for a new Garmn tracker I suppose. So it goes.

If Mug and Bean survive I see no reason why Starbucks won't. If you want to know about SA coffee culture find out how many tins of Ricoffee are sold monthly.

It would have to lick itself clean at that price.

Again good points Myles and I have been guilty of complaining without real cause. Don't care for smoothies and no desire to own an IWatch. But I want Vitality to work. That's the thing. I want achievable goals that will provoke me to improve my lifestyle. I want the system to be logical. I want it to help me and inspire me to improve myself and I want to feel the accomplishment of succeeding and and having the achievement recognized. Silly sure. Childish and immature to a degree I know. When as an aging amateur cyclist I can see major flaws in the system then I get disappointed and irritated. It could be amazing. It could be a motivator and training aid. At the moment it's non of those things and nothing Vitality is saying or doing makes me believe they wish to move it in that direction.

That's simply wrong dude. Joe Friel even put a number to it. MHR can decline as much as 7% after an extended period of base training. You can expect at least a 3% decline in MHR. It's just the way it is. If MHR declines stands to reason it will get harder to get above Vitalities 80% goal. I even heard Dr Jeroen mention this effect of training on HR.

I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is the nonsensical methodology. Day one of Panorama was one of the hardest days I have ever had on a bike. I got 600 points. Fair enough. Day two was a little longer but not as extreme. I got 3000 points. That's an example of what people are complaining about. It's just plain wrong.

I am successfully using my tacx and recording the session to my Garmin 800 at the same time using a tacx HR strap that transmits on ant+ which the Garmin picks up and BT which the tacx uses. Then it's Garmin exercise file to Garmin connect and to vitality. Works flawlessly so far. I feel it's an honest work around. Really am doing the exercise. I figure that as it gets more and more difficult to get vitality points I may as well record all I can. I'm not too put out about the new points system. Easy for me to say since I have a small advantage being 55 and having a MX HR of 195 and a threshold of 175. Even an easy day qualifies as vigorous. Strange that hitting 185 repeatedly on a Tabata session doesn't get alarm bells ringing though. It's 20 beats over my supposed max. What is annoying is only being able to use one exercise session a day. If the aim is to get us off our couches that doesn't make sense.

Good game for the Lions. Very nice vibe at the stadium. Some of the chirps had me in stitches.

It has a hopper. A very big machine. I use a scale and measure out an exact amount of beans and just chuck that in. It is fairly stable and has a stepless adjuster. I do tend to slowly make adjustments over time and even make quite accurate changes depending on humidity.

Slayer very pretty. Anything is pretty after the Oscar. I have a dog bowl that is better looking than the Oscar.

And it's even more expensive. Nope. Linea mini it is. More than enough money. Actually way too much.

Is that the GS3 on the left? It's a commercial machine I think if I'm correct. It sure is pretty. Does it need to be plumbed?

I have a Simonelli MDX grinder. Had it as long as I have had the Oscar. It's been very reliable and gets very good reviews. I paid 12k for it three years ago. In your opinion will it be suitable? Thanks for the advice.

I have read quite a few reviews. I was keen to upgrade to a machine in the 30k range. To be honest V12man kind of talked me out of it. I have gone from instant to plunger to Russel Hobbs to Oscar over the past 6 years. I have tried to upgrade only when I feel I have learnt all I can from each device and method. To me the next step was a 30k machine but V12 had a valid point when he said hold off and just go for broke. Don't waste money on the 30k machine wait until you can afford the Linea Mini. I will save 30K by doing that. I think it makes sense. I'm no great expert and would never try to teach anyone about coffee but it's insane how much I love the dam stuff. I wake up at three in the morning and when I see the time I'm all pleased that in just three hours I can make a cup of coffee. It's the entire process. The grinding tamping and everything. Reminds me a bit of working in a darkroom.

Thanks. Yes I was thinking 5k for the Oscar so your price seems right to me. She is a good friend I'm very fond of so I will let it go for 5. My partner says she has seen the Linea online for 58k. It's a lot of money for coffee is it not. I will try contact Koldserve and see what they say.

I could use a little advice at this point. My girlfriend has been away on a job for two months in the Northern Cape. She has made herself a tidy bonus and wants to buy us a Linea Mini. A bit pricey at almost 60K but who am I to argue. She didn't even drink coffee three years ago when we met. So first question a tone have any idea of the best place to go to buy such a machine. Second question is a friend wants to buy our Oscar. It's three years old. Serviced last year. Runs well. Good condition. Makes about three cappuccinos a day and about two espressos. Any idea what a fair price would be? Just a ball park will do. Thanks very much

It's a funny thing this Vitality and we react to it. as far as Myles's point of view and input he makes a lot of sense. It was really easy to get the points. Being able to get 30000 points in three weeks was pretty silly and so yes changes had to be made. No doubt more changes will follow. I am not going to try to speak for others but I am curious about how others feel on these issues and if anyone feels as I do. I don't mind that the points are now harder to achieve. Actually I'm good with that. More of a challenge. What rankles is the systems changing and making us change old habits. I don't mean exercise habits. I mean how we record and upload data. Cyclists love Strava. I know people were abusing that platform but it annoyed many people when Strava was removed from the system. Also having to buy new different devices because the ones we use are no longer supported. But the big one is the unfairness I see. Why do I get 600 points for a 2:20 Emperors when someone riding next to me gets 1500. Why is my target going up so fast? Why does a person get 100 points for going to gym for a shower and I get the same for a lung busting Tabata session on my IDT? Then we start noticing a pro cyclist gets 100 points for a ride that would kill 99% of the population and it is game on. We start looking for trouble. Things like the HR zones are easy to pick on so we go after that. And so on and so on and so on. In weeks all the good will created by Vitality is squandered and the piss poor communication coming from them does little to help. Good people like Myles are left to do the work that Vitality should be doing. What ever the fairness or unfairness of it the one thing beyond question is that this is a poorly handled PR disaster. A text book case that could be studied in marketing on how to destroy your relationship with a loyal client base.

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