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

[Cyclewizz]

Unfortunately you asking too much of them.

To keep your streak you'll have to do a little training in order to meet your goal.
3 or 4hs of training should get you to your goal, so you can have 3 or 4 days completely off.

Good luck with your 70.3 !!!

[Andymann]

It's going to be tight - I need 1200 of which I should get 600 for the Bike or the Run on the Sunday. That means I'll need to do at least three runs of 200 each before Friday.  Monday won't happen and most likely not Tuesday. So three consecutive runs of 40mins on Wed, Thurs and Friday. It's doable I guess.....

[shaper]

26 minutes ago, Andymann said:

I'm on a 211 week exercise goal streak and doing a 70.3 in the Philippines on the 21st.  I plan to recover for a week after in the Philippines, so dropped a mail to Discovery to see if I could pause training for that week while I recover. 

No chance said the Lady.  Who then tried to get me to join Discovery Bank, where, if I did, I would be able to take a rest week. 

I did in passing, ask the question that as a Medical Aid company, didn't they think is was risky expecting someone who has done an extreme event, like the Comrades, or Iron-man to not take a rest week to recover if they would like to keep their streak going, and offer no alternative, other than to exercise on a smashed immune system and risk getting sick?

Silence of course is also an answer.....

 

You don't need to ask them if you know the system.

Log your race as a timed outdoor sporting event https://www.discovery.co.za/portal/individual/vit-partner-outdoor-sporting-events (this has been in place since almost inception of the points system)

Supply the relevant info, race name, finish time, link to website to verify time and finisher certificate.  You will then get I think it is 1500 points (use to be 3000 and may well still be and at one point a full IM was 9000).  I will be able to tell you after racing 70.3PE next week what the point allocation is for this year.  Irrespective it will be more than the 900/1200 weekly requirement (depending on what you are on)

You will then be able to take the week off as a recovery week, or an easy week as you would have raced on the weekend and been able to claim the points for the following week.  

You can do this for single discipline events, I do especially if running an ultra distance and need the following week to recover.

See page 4 https://www.discovery.co.za/assets/discoverycoza/vitality/how-to-join/points-and-partners.pdf

Any race I do whether a single discipline or multi, I log the race for firstly extra points to my yearly total, as well as giving me the option to have an easy week following the event if I feel I need it.

Currently sitting 435 week streak (with 20 x 70.3s logged this way)

Edited April 10 by shaper

[lechatnoir]

23 minutes ago, Andymann said:

I'm on a 211 week exercise goal streak and doing a 70.3 in the Philippines on the 21st.  I plan to recover for a week after in the Philippines, so dropped a mail to Discovery to see if I could pause training for that week while I recover. 

No chance said the Lady.  Who then tried to get me to join Discovery Bank, where, if I did, I would be able to take a rest week. 

I did in passing, ask the question that as a Medical Aid company, didn't they think is was risky expecting someone who has done an extreme event, like the Comrades, or Iron-man to not take a rest week to recover if they would like to keep their streak going, and offer no alternative, other than to exercise on a smashed immune system and risk getting sick?

Silence of course is also an answer.....

 

roolz izz roolz my bru...  

of course, your argument makes perfect sense. sadly, their system does not accommodate common sense. round peg into a square hole. are you having fun yet?

[Andymann]

1 minute ago, shaper said:

Log your race as a timed outdoor sporting event https://www.discovery.co.za/portal/individual/vit-partner-outdoor-sporting-events (this has been in place since almost inception of the points system)

Yup - except I am in the Philippines with no Laptop and limited Wifi.  No way to take a snip of the results which you need to mail them as a jpg to accompany the link to the official results.  I am familiar with that process.

I will only also only be getting back after the cut-off on Wednesday the 1st May.

In fact, I am not even 100% certain that my Watch will download the points in time.

[shaper]

2 minutes ago, Andymann said:

Yup - except I am in the Philippines with no Laptop and limited Wifi.  No way to take a snip of the results which you need to mail them as a jpg to accompany the link to the official results.  I am familiar with that process.

I will only also only be getting back after the cut-off on Wednesday the 1st May.

In fact, I am not even 100% certain that my Watch will download the points in time.

Do it on your phone, you can screenshot everything and send when you have wifi, else if your phone can do esim, buy an esim for your trip. I recommend Airlo and then you can get cheap data. for USD4:50, 1GB data for 7 days https://www.airalo.com/philippines-esim

The only time I had issue doing this was back in 2020, when Dubai 70.3 was raced on the Friday (weekend was Fri/Sat), so could not log the points for the following week.

[Bub Marley]

16 minutes ago, Andymann said:

Yup - except I am in the Philippines with no Laptop and limited Wifi.  No way to take a snip of the results which you need to mail them as a jpg to accompany the link to the official results.  I am familiar with that process.

I will only also only be getting back after the cut-off on Wednesday the 1st May.

In fact, I am not even 100% certain that my Watch will download the points in time.

Mate, you’re just meaning for the sake of moaning. It’s not discovery’s problem if you don’t have Wi-Fi. Do you want them to give you free Wi-Fi as well as a reward.

 

Shaper told you exactly what you need to do and then you can take the rest of the week off. You also claim to know that as well so not really sure what’s the issue then?

 

You also qualify for a rest week after 25 consecutive weeks achieved.

[dave303e]

50 minutes ago, Andymann said:

I'm on a 211 week exercise goal streak and doing a 70.3 in the Philippines on the 21st.  I plan to recover for a week after in the Philippines, so dropped a mail to Discovery to see if I could pause training for that week while I recover. 

No chance said the Lady.  Who then tried to get me to join Discovery Bank, where, if I did, I would be able to take a rest week. 

I did in passing, ask the question that as a Medical Aid company, didn't they think is was risky expecting someone who has done an extreme event, like the Comrades, or Iron-man to not take a rest week to recover if they would like to keep their streak going, and offer no alternative, other than to exercise on a smashed immune system and risk getting sick?

Silence of course is also an answer.....

 

this is the flaw in their whole strategy, it doesn't account for real athletes...

 

Run an 18min 5km run any day of the week and get 0 points, walk that 5km in an hour as parkrun on saturday and get 300.

Ironman is 9000 points, a 100 mile trail run gets you a marathons worth.

Ironman is 9000 points, an adventure race is 0 points because it is 'not healthy'

 

[Andymann]

4 minutes ago, shaper said:

Do it on your phone, you can screenshot everything and send when you have wifi, else if your phone can do esim, buy an esim for your trip. I recommend Airlo and then you can get cheap data. for USD4:50, 1GB data for 7 days https://www.airalo.com/philippines-esim

The only time I had issue doing this was back in 2020, when Dubai 70.3 was raced on the Friday (weekend was Fri/Sat), so could not log the points for the following week.

That sounds like a lot of hard work while lying on the beach holding a cocktail 🙂

Jokes aside I realised a long time ago I that I am not Discovery's target market for exercise, and to be honest the only cool thing I get from me reaching my targets is UCook every 4 months or so, depending how lucky I am.  So I'll try what I can, but if I lose my streak I guess its just one of those things!

[Andymann]

Just now, Bub Marley said:

Mate, you’re just meaning for the sake of moaning. It’s not discovery’s problem if you don’t have Wi-Fi. Do you want them to give you free Wi-Fi as well as a reward.

 

Shaper told you exactly what you need to do and then you can take the rest of the week off. You also claim to know that as well so not really sure what’s the issue then?

 

You also qualify for a rest week after 25 consecutive weeks achieved.

If you are part of Discovery Bank,  I did mention that in my first post.

[Andymann]

1 minute ago, dave303e said:

this is the flaw in their whole strategy, it doesn't account for real athletes...

 

Run an 18min 5km run any day of the week and get 0 points, walk that 5km in an hour as parkrun on saturday and get 300.

Ironman is 9000 points, a 100 mile trail run gets you a marathons worth.

Ironman is 9000 points, an adventure race is 0 points because it is 'not healthy'

 

I know right.  I did a 40min run yesterday which included a 5km TT to get power figures for the run.

2km Warm up.

5km TT

2km Cool down.

Logged the 5km as a separate exercise because I needed accurate power.

Zero points

[Dexter-morgan]

33 minutes ago, Andymann said:

I know right.  I did a 40min run yesterday which included a 5km TT to get power figures for the run.

2km Warm up.

5km TT

2km Cool down.

Logged the 5km as a separate exercise because I needed accurate power.

Zero points

Go to fitfiletools and "stich" the files together and upload to Garmin again then you will get the point.

[Zeffer]

I have 2 free weeks on the app - can you not use those?

 

[shaper]

22 minutes ago, Andymann said:

I know right.  I did a 40min run yesterday which included a 5km TT to get power figures for the run.

2km Warm up.

5km TT

2km Cool down.

Logged the 5km as a separate exercise because I needed accurate power.

Zero points

Why did you need to log the TT separately? 

I also run to power (STRYD) and can extrapolate the TT information as required from the STRYD app/Power Centre (even if you are using one of the others, garmin/polar/coros, you can do this). 

And if you are using Stryd and auto-cp then it will update automatically for a power figure for future race analysis, if there was a change in CP. Else you can use CP information manually once extrapolated, if not using auto-cp.

You could have run the 40mins as one without separating.  Even if the workout was not a structured workout, you could have used the watch lap function to exactly log the start and finish of the 5km TT.

I believe you are coached, in which case the TT info can also be looked at in isolation by your coach using software like WKO5 (paid) or even Golden Cheetah if not using a paid version.

So there is no reason to do separate warm-up, cool down from the TT.

I coach many athletes both runners and triathletes and I am also a registered STRYD coach, so know how to extrapolate power figures whether doing a TT or a STRYD CP test protocol workout

You make your own problems with Discovery it seems and are easily sorted.

[Vaultboy]

38 minutes ago, dave303e said:

this is the flaw in their whole strategy, it doesn't account for real athletes...

 

Its not a flaw. You're just not the target market. Vitality isn't aimed at rewarding 'real athletes'. Its designed to reduce Discovery's potential payouts by getting their members to be reasonably healthy and reasonably fit. .  

[Andymann]

6 minutes ago, shaper said:

Why did you need to log the TT separately? 

I also run to power (STRYD) and can extrapolate the TT information as required from the STRYD app/Power Centre (even if you are using one of the others, garmin/polar/coros, you can do this). 

And if you are using Stryd and auto-cp then it will update automatically for a power figure for future race analysis, if there was a change in CP. Else you can use CP information manually once extrapolated, if not using auto-cp.

You could have run the 40mins as one without separating.  Even if the workout was not a structured workout, you could have used the watch lap function to exactly log the start and finish of the 5km TT.

I believe you are coached, in which case the TT info can also be looked at in isolation by your coach using software like WKO5 (paid) or even Golden Cheetah if not using a paid version.

So there is no reason to do separate warm-up, cool down from the TT.

I coach many athletes both runners and triathletes and I am also a registered STRYD coach, so know how to extrapolate power figures whether doing a TT or a STRYD CP test protocol workout

You make your own problems with Discovery it seems and are easily sorted.

I do my runs in bike mode so I can set upper and lower power targets.