TOPIC: Workout Challenge

This idea is still in the proto-stages, I'm mostly trying to gauge interest.

Throughout 2020 and into 2021 I've been extremely physically idle. I've stayed home, I've stayed indoors, and due to a variety of reasons I've had very little physical activity. That's been awful for my health and well being, and I'm sure I'm not even close to alone there. I need to get into a less round, out of breath shape, and there's no better motivation than gamifying it.

Here's what I'd like to do. Whomever wants to participate in this contest would kick in $10 to a prize pot. I'll add in a Golden Fleece from my collection. Then we have a race, total distance to be determined. If the distance from the Sweetwoods to Shyport is long enough we'll use that, if it's not I'll pick another long distance from a fantasy world. I want something that's at least a few hundred miles. Distance is eaten by using a rowing machine, treadmill, eliptical, or running in real life using a distance tracker. You can send in screenshots with your distance, which I'll add daily to a Google Sheets so we know where everyone is in the race. Whomever finishes first gets to pick their price, whoever finishes second gets the other prize.

Who would be interested in a competition like this?

I'd be in for a weight loss challenge, or exercise challengie, but am far less interested in something with specific activities mandated.

I'd be up for a exercise challenge. Things like this are always fun. I do walk alot now though. I use MapMyWalk to track my miles. If everyone uses the app you can set up a challenge and then it auto updates the leaderboard.

Wade Schwendemann (Dr. Uid) wrote: I'd be in for a weight loss challenge, or exercise challengie, but am far less interested in something with specific activities mandated.

If there's more interest in a straight weight loss or exercise challenge I can switch to that instead. Figured a virtual race would allow TD players that aren't carrying extra weight to participate and have fun with it too. I'm not interested really in mandating specific activities, more making things fair and trackable. Like, I wouldn't want to allow exercise bikes because it's a lot easier and faster to bike a distance than it is to run or row it.

Rob F wrote: I'd be up for a exercise challenge. Things like this are always fun. I do walk alot now though. I use MapMyWalk to track my miles. If everyone uses the app you can set up a challenge and then it auto updates the leaderboard.

Something like that would be easier, but I'd like to keep it open to people that can't/won't workout outside for whatever reason. That's why I listed distance trackers for running/walking, but also treadmills and rowing machines.

I had thought about posting something similar!

I do all my tracking pretty much through Strava:
www.strava.com/athletes/5967488

You can easily set up clubs/groups there to track distance. It’s mostly targeted at cycling, but it can do other activities like running and walking.

Other apps don’t play as well with Garmin, which is a major requirement for me

I would participate in something like this. Distance would be my preference as I am a runner for my exercise. I don't do super long runs, I do 3 miles at a time 2-3 days a week. I've been slacking as of late so a little motivation would help.

Maybe just consider minutes of exercise as a base to calculate distance. That way it's a bit more comparable from person to person. 1 mile for every 10 minutes of exercise logged or something? My Fitbit tracks active minutes per day based on movement and cardio rate and active lifestyle so it's a bit more balanced of a calculation.

Buy more tokens. Mail more transmutes. Carry those large flat rate boxes. That's exercise.

Josh M. wrote: This idea is still in the proto-stages, I'm mostly trying to gauge interest.

Throughout 2020 and into 2021 I've been extremely physically idle. I've stayed home, I've stayed indoors, and due to a variety of reasons I've had very little physical activity. That's been awful for my health and well being, and I'm sure I'm not even close to alone there. I need to get into a less round, out of breath shape, and there's no better motivation than gamifying it.

Here's what I'd like to do. Whomever wants to participate in this contest would kick in $10 to a prize pot. I'll add in a Golden Fleece from my collection. Then we have a race, total distance to be determined. If the distance from the Sweetwoods to Shyport is long enough we'll use that, if it's not I'll pick another long distance from a fantasy world. I want something that's at least a few hundred miles. Distance is eaten by using a rowing machine, treadmill, eliptical, or running in real life using a distance tracker. You can send in screenshots with your distance, which I'll add daily to a Google Sheets so we know where everyone is in the race. Whomever finishes first gets to pick their price, whoever finishes second gets the other prize.

Who would be interested in a competition like this?

I would say that you would have to have a different medium than distance as I am a marathon runner and I doubt in the only runner on the forums.
I do like this idea if it is the motivation that is needed, it’s the only reason I sign up for races because if I don’t I make excuses not to get outside

For what it is worth, my office has done two voluntary virtual exercise challenges during the pandemic. We used active minutes as the relevant metric largely due to the variations in distance among walking/running/swimming/biking, etc. Shoveling snow and walking your dog counted, folding laundry didn’t.

Based on the feedback I think active minutes is going to be the best bet. I'm going to say that every 10 minutes of activity is going to be equal to a mile. Bilbo Baggins found the one ring after traveling approximately 510 miles, so that's how far we'll go to get our own precious. I'll make a spreadsheet and track progress as people send theirs into me, and we'll be on the honor system...there''s really not way to stop someone from cheating, so just please don't. The goal is to get into better shape as we come out of the pandemic, the rewards are pretty much just there to be shiny and provide motivation.

If anyone has a better way to track/manage things I'm all ears. I looked at Strava, but that's only free for the first month and I don't want anyone to have to pay for an app or a subscription to participate in this. I'll start a new thread to track signups and communicate progress, keeping this one for discussions about the best way to do it. Still open to any ideas, I'll post the actual signup thread Wednesday and finalize the rules then.

I may not be marathon runner, but I have a decent sized park a few blocks away and a whole bunch of audible credits that have been piling up this past year. I'm ready to party.