Vitality Life Insurance - Cycling tracking

Vitality Life Insurance - Cycling tracking

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Discussion

TheFungle

Original Poster:

4,074 posts

206 months

Saturday 12th January 2019
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I've been a member with Vitality for two years, happily tracking my rides via Moves on iPhone.

It transpires that since Moves is no longer supported, my rides haven't been tracked despite linking Strava to Apple Health.

I'm now faced with forking out for a pricey HR monitor that have no real interest in utilising, it would simply be to accrue Vitality points.

Has anyone faced the same problem and how did you overcome the lack of iPhone support?

andy-ski

80 posts

190 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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I’m with Vitality and collect points with a Garmin from cycling.
You can also collect points if you have the Apple Watch and record your ride as an activity.
So long as its a reasonable pace a 30 min ride will get you the 8 points for the day

idiotgap

2,112 posts

133 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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I have vitality and get points in two ways, we have amazon prime so I need 160 points a month, ie. the full max of 40 per week to avoid paying.
1. Garmin 520 bike computer with a heart rate strap. This way you clock up up the daily 8 points in 30 mins.
2. fitbit alta fitness tracker, need 12,500 steps in a day to get the full 8 points (I think 7000 = 3 points, 10,000 = 5 points)

I usually cycle to work, about 2 hrs round trip so probably 4 days a week this gets me the 8 points without a problem. On non cycling days I try and do enough steps to get what I need.

I already had the garmin so there was no outlay for me for that, appreciate that they're not cheap if the sole aim is to get points. They are good for strava too though and you get a discount on garmin via vitality.

My wife bought me a used fitbit flex2 for £20 on facebook, this does clock up points while cycling too, though this morning's hour on the bike equated to about 5k steps, so you need to cycle a fair distance to get 12.5k and 8 vitality points. That worked fine, but I gave it to her just before Christmas because she wanted a fitbit that can go in a jewellery type bracelet and bought myself a fitbit alta from argos.

Another option. My wife uses a polar running watch, you can pick up an m200 quite cheap used or again vitality give you a discount. She mislaid it a few weeks ago and we managed to get the M400 for about £70 combining the black-friday deal and vitality discount. This would do GPS tracking, steps and heart rate for you for much less than a garmin.

TheFungle

Original Poster:

4,074 posts

206 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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All valid points.

I currently use an Edge 200 and upload to Strava via iPhone, a system which flawlessly for me and gives me all the data I want.

If I was to invest in technology to train by my money would be going to a Power Meter, HR does not a lot for me and I'm confident in training to RPE (if I'm feeling so inclined).

And being perfectly honest, I HATE wearing a watch style device whilst cycling which leaves me very few options.


Solocle

3,272 posts

84 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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TheFungle said:
All valid points.

I currently use an Edge 200 and upload to Strava via iPhone, a system which flawlessly for me and gives me all the data I want.

If I was to invest in technology to train by my money would be going to a Power Meter, HR does not a lot for me and I'm confident in training to RPE (if I'm feeling so inclined).

And being perfectly honest, I HATE wearing a watch style device whilst cycling which leaves me very few options.
I got a heart rate monitor for £30 at Decathlon. Sure, not a top end device, but it's a chest strap (I barely notice I'm wearing it) and it works perfectly well.

Scabutz

7,587 posts

80 months

Friday 14th February 2020
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I now get Vitality through work. I cycle to and from the station both ends. Its 20 mins at each end so 1:20 a day, but I am not getting any points. I assume this is because each workout is less than 30 minutes.

My Garmin Fenix has a resume later feature, so it saves the workout in an unfinished state to re start and sync later. Should I combine the 2 x morning and evening rides in to 1 so they are 40 mins and then get my max points? Or is that going to be considered cheating the system?

Once I start training properly it wouldn't be an issue anyway but when I am not it would be good to get the points for the commute.

paulwf

107 posts

170 months

Saturday 15th February 2020
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Scabutz said:
I
My Garmin Fenix has a resume later feature, so it saves the workout in an unfinished state to re start and sync later. Should I combine the 2 x morning and evening rides in to 1 so they are 40 mins and then get my max points? Or is that going to be considered cheating the system?
I used to do that, I wouldn't consider it cheating