Discovery Health - Vitality & Team Vitality plus everything else you need to know

[The Ouzo]

I'm sure it ahs been covered before but as I am newly back on Vitality, I need advice.

 

I get 300 points for a ride at >70% of max HR for an hour, but my typical morning road ride is 90 mins of which the first 25 or so minutes is level and downhill (Saxonwold, Rosebank, Dunkeld, down Bompas and Buckingham) before kicking up to take in Conrad, Norhcliff, Hill road, Wicklow and Jan Smuts. 

 

I end up with an ave HR of well over 70% for the last hour but because of the first 20-25 minutes, somewhere between 60 and 70 for the entire ride, giving me only 100 points.

 

Short of starting my watch at the bottom of Conrad or breaking the ride in two separate activities, how does one deal with the fact that a ride may consist of a warm-up, effort piece and then cool down ?

3 options

1) forget about vitality, just ride

2) ride harder

3) split the ride up

[RobertWhitehead]

Ok, so last week I had a question and decided to give Disc a shout to explain something to me, that did not really answer my question so I will pose it here: 

 

On the Drive side: 

They track / allocate points from Friday evening at 00:00 until the next Friday eve at 00:00, now lets say my goal is 100km for the whole week and I go and drive somewhere on the Saturday morning and fill my goal in two trips on the Saturday morning. 

 

Now I have already reached my goal of 100km but still have the rest of the weeks worth of driving to go (to and from the station / work). I get it that I have reached my goal for the week already and that I have already reached my goal for the week and I have already received the miles reward but why does the app not push me over the goal like on the fitness side? And then my second question does the km's carry over (Probably not - I'm just taking a chance here  )

[RobertWhitehead]

Will splitting it help? Mine normally tells me that it only takes one training session. 

 

the only way would be to split the ride into two parts. Or cycle harder

[Twaatie]

Will splitting it help? Mine normally tells me that it only takes one training session.

Yes. It will take the higher point scoring activity of the 2 splits

[lechatnoir]

Ok, so last week I had a question and decided to give Disc a shout to explain something to me, that did not really answer my question so I will pose it here: 

 

On the Drive side: 

They track / allocate points from Friday evening at 00:00 until the next Friday eve at 00:00, now lets say my goal is 100km for the whole week and I go and drive somewhere on the Saturday morning and fill my goal in two trips on the Saturday morning. 

 

Now I have already reached my goal of 100km but still have the rest of the weeks worth of driving to go (to and from the station / work). I get it that I have reached my goal for the week already and that I have already reached my goal for the week and I have already received the miles reward but why does the app not push me over the goal like on the fitness side? And then my second question does the km's carry over (Probably not - I'm just taking a chance here  )

 

I've had situations where I've gotten my goal by Monday, then have it routinely reset during the week (probably my commute driving) and end the week with no goal reached...

 

that said, the new system will let you hit the goal and cha-ching the 100pts as soon as you reach the goal. what happens after that, who knows? i'm guessing you can only hit the goal once per week...

 

seems like a dark art to me... c'est la vie

[Frosty]

I'm sure it ahs been covered before but as I am newly back on Vitality, I need advice.

 

I get 300 points for a ride at >70% of max HR for an hour, but my typical morning road ride is 90 mins of which the first 25 or so minutes is level and downhill (Saxonwold, Rosebank, Dunkeld, down Bompas and Buckingham) before kicking up to take in Conrad, Norhcliff, Hill road, Wicklow and Jan Smuts. 

 

I end up with an ave HR of well over 70% for the last hour but because of the first 20-25 minutes, somewhere between 60 and 70 for the entire ride, giving me only 100 points.

 

Short of starting my watch at the bottom of Conrad or breaking the ride in two separate activities, how does one deal with the fact that a ride may consist of a warm-up, effort piece and then cool down ?

First up is Eddy:

1. Vitality is best played as a game, don't take it too serious;
2. Best option is to split your ride in two, but don't crop the single ride thinking that you will get the >70% average HR after cropping it - it won't work as Discovery don't accept amended workouts); 
3. Assuming you use a Garmin and you want to view your ride as one complete workout:
   • Get a second Garmin account if you use other apps (like Strava, TrainingPeaks, etc,) as you will be able to merge the files into one using the web-based feature called FITfileTools.  

     You keep the original account for Vitality, as you only get the points for one activity - the highest scoring one;

   • Once it's in the Garmin Connect account linked to your device, you can export the original file.
     • Unzip it,
     • upload to Fitfiletools,
     • Click on Combine Files and add the two two activities
     • Export as a .FIT file.
     • Upload to your second account. it then updates all your other accounts at the same time.
   • It's a laborious process, but I have been doing this ever since Discovery changed their scoring system a few years back. On most rides/runs I get my points without having to split the workout - I know upfront what the plan is, and can adapt to it.
   • There's no cheating, as it's all based on the workout I actually do, but because it's split in two the harder effort gets the points.

 

Ok, so last week I had a question and decided to give Disc a shout to explain something to me, that did not really answer my question so I will pose it here: 

 

On the Drive side: 

They track / allocate points from Friday evening at 00:00 until the next Friday eve at 00:00, now lets say my goal is 100km for the whole week and I go and drive somewhere on the Saturday morning and fill my goal in two trips on the Saturday morning. 

 

Now I have already reached my goal of 100km but still have the rest of the weeks worth of driving to go (to and from the station / work). I get it that I have reached my goal for the week already and that I have already reached my goal for the week and I have already received the miles reward but why does the app not push me over the goal like on the fitness side? And then my second question does the km's carry over (Probably not - I'm just taking a chance here  )

To answer your last question: the Km's don't carry over (unfortunately). The wife works from home, and doesn't always get to 100Km for the week. Although she occasionally loses out on the reward, she does have a lower risk, and I pay less for her as she drives less than 1000Km per month.

 

Not sure what your first question is asking, but from what I have seen, the goal stops once you reach 100Km on the specific trip that takes you over 100Km. Also, the app shows Rollover, but I think that relates to the cumulative drives before reaching the target.

 

I do 36-42Km per trip (depending on the route I take to avoid peak traffic). So excluding any weekend travel, I would reach my goal on the third trip, i.e. Tuesday morning's drive to work. My last 4 drives have been 131Km, 127Km, 117Km and 143Km.

[eddy]

3 options

1) forget about vitality, just ride Will do. I am getting to my weekly target in any event

2) ride harder         Not really feasible on that morning route in the dark. Road surface, intersections, traffic lights etc mitigate against getting HR up on certain sections. Don't want go flat out everywhere else on every ride.

3) split the ride up That will just stuff a lot of other reporting and analysis

 

Thanks. I thought as much. Bit silly if a 120km steady state ride is worth a third of a 60min 5 km Parkrun.....

 

I seem to recall before when I was on Vitality that I got points for long, slow rides. Seems not anymore.

[bertusras]

Thanks. I thought as much. Bit silly if a 120km steady state ride is worth a third of a 60min 5 km Parkrun.....

 

I seem to recall before when I was on Vitality that I got points for long, slow rides. Seems not anymore.

 

Are you signed up for the Endurance Athlete (or whatever it's called) option? You get points for lower HR activities in that event, but end up with a higher weekly points goal.

[eddy]

Are you signed up for the Endurance Athlete (or whatever it's called) option? You get points for lower HR activities in that event, but end up with a higher weekly points goal.

 

Ja. That is the kind of scheme.

 

Do you know how one signs up ?

[bertusras]

Ja. That is the kind of scheme.

 

Do you know how one signs up ?

 

I'm already signed up, so I'm not quite sure, but clicking this link might help: https://www.discovery.co.za/portal/individual/high-performance-athlete

 

Also, perhaps do some comparisons between the standard and HPA points based on your recent activities to see whether you'd actually be earning more, before you make the switch.

 

 

somewhere between 60 and 70 for the entire ride, giving me only 100 points

 

If you ride for 90+ mins at >60% you'll be getting 300 points, 450 if you keep the ticker above 70%.

[Fitbull]

Ok, so last week I had a question and decided to give Disc a shout to explain something to me, that did not really answer my question so I will pose it here: 

 

On the Drive side: 

They track / allocate points from Friday evening at 00:00 until the next Friday eve at 00:00, now lets say my goal is 100km for the whole week and I go and drive somewhere on the Saturday morning and fill my goal in two trips on the Saturday morning. 

 

Now I have already reached my goal of 100km but still have the rest of the weeks worth of driving to go (to and from the station / work). I get it that I have reached my goal for the week already and that I have already reached my goal for the week and I have already received the miles reward but why does the app not push me over the goal like on the fitness side? And then my second question does the km's carry over (Probably not - I'm just taking a chance here  )

A short breakdown,

 

Once you reach your goal for the week any further KM's for that week do not carry over.

If you havent reached your goal for the week and go into the new week any KM's that have not been reset from the week where you did not reach 100KM's will be carried over into the new week.

 

On a different note, does anyone have a good app to use for speed limits. What ever Discovery uses and the speed limits on the road are so out of tune it isnt even funny and there are just 1000's of missing speed limit signs. In order to reach my goal I have to travel one section at 60km/h when the speed limit sign clearly states 80..... Told them many times about it but they do nothing. IMHO if they want us to follow speed limits then they should develop their own app to assist with driving that gives you the limits. But anyway, takes me 1 trip to work to get my goal for the week and then I can hammer it around the rest of the time  

Edited February 4, 2020 by Fitbull

[eddy]

I'm already signed up, so I'm not quite sure, but clicking this link might help: https://www.discovery.co.za/portal/individual/high-performance-athlete

 

Also, perhaps do some comparisons between the standard and HPA points based on your recent activities to see whether you'd actually be earning more, before you make the switch.

 

 

If you ride for 90+ mins at >60% you'll be getting 300 points, 450 if you keep the ticker above 70%.

 

 

Thanks, I have sommer done this. It matches what I ride.

[Frosty]

A short breakdown,

 

Once you reach your goal for the week any further KM's for that week do not carry over.

If you havent reached your goal for the week and go into the new week any KM's that have not been reset from the week where you did not reach 100KM's will be carried over into the new week.

 

On a different note, does anyone have a good app to use for speed limits. What ever Discovery uses and the speed limits on the road are so out of tune it isnt even funny and there are just 1000's of missing speed limit signs. In order to reach my goal I have to travel one section at 60km/h when the speed limit sign clearly states 80..... Told them many times about it but they do nothing. IMHO if they want us to follow speed limits then they should develop their own app to assist with driving that gives you the limits. But anyway, takes me 1 trip to work to get my goal for the week and then I can hammer it around the rest of the time

I use Waze, as it works through the CarPlay system. I have the odd speeding problem where Waze says 80 and Discovery say 60. I rarely get less than 4 stars on my drives.

[Andymann]

Thanks. I thought as much. Bit silly if a 120km steady state ride is worth a third of a 60min 5 km Parkrun.....

 

I seem to recall before when I was on Vitality that I got points for long, slow rides. Seems not anymore.

 About as silly as eating a Big Mac and drinking a Supersize Coke on the couch in the gym and earning 100 points, while doing a Saturday Duathlon Race Prep  of 12min run with some strides up to race pace, 25min Bike with accelerations, and a 9min run off the bike getting you zero points. 

 

As the guys have mentioned many times, Vitality is not geared for athletes - I've given up worrying - I now subscribe to Ouzo's point 1 - forget about your points and do what your coach tells you to do.

[cat-i]

Does anyone know how to contact Vitality to resolve an issue? The website sends me in circles and the bot is very frustrating. Specifically with a makro voucher that is 'used' already

[bertusras]

Does anyone know how to contact Vitality to resolve an issue? The website sends me in circles and the bot is very frustrating. Specifically with a makro voucher that is 'used' already

 

Just check to see if you didn't receive an SMS with a new voucher. I claimed a Makro voucher late last year, but then got notified that I will be getting a new voucher number by SMS.

 

Also, I don't think they are valid for online use, just in case that's what you're trying to do.