AgileTD Fitness Challenge: the SAGA continues.

Last November the AgileTD Fitness Challenge 2022 ended at the Agile Testing Days. In total 20 people joined the cycling challenge, 17 people joined the running challenge and 11 people joined the walking challenge. When we introduced the fitness challenge in 2022 we did not expect to have so many people joining. We covered over 95.000 km, so Kudo’s to us all. Krispin Hable, Ash Winter and Anja Pnielsen have won the respective challenges: congratulations. However we would also want to give special praise to all of you that have participated.

Of course we are going to continue the AgileTD Fitness Challenge in 2023! For the poly-athletes (people that are participating in multiple sports) we are going to set up a special categorie, where all sports are being included. So lets make 2023 a sporty year again!

If you want to join please find in this blog post the answers to all your questions and instructions.

At first we want to give you an overview of all the current groups and challenges:

- Cycling (includes e-bikes, handwheels, wheelchair, velomobil, virtual & indoor cycling) - most kilometres made from January 1 till November 12, 2023

- Running (includes running, virtual running and treadmill as well) - most kilometres made from January 1 till November 12, 2023

- Walking (includes: walks, hikes and snowshoe hikes) - most kilometres made from January 1 till November 12, 2023

- General (includes anything that is not listed in the groups/challenges above, here we combine all kinds of water-, winter- and team-sports, also any kind of gym related sports such as weightlifting, yoga, general cardio sessions, cross fit, ...) - most hours spent from January 1 till November 12, 2023

We may add more groups or form further certain groups out of the general group in case we find 10 or more people doing for example a certain sport (e.g. swimming) on a regular basis.

We track for the general group the most time (hours) you have spent or tracked, because for some sports in the general group you do not make any kilometres, also you cannot compare kilometers you swam with kilometers you made during downhill skiing. So we thought it is fair and a better way to track the time you spend doing your favorite sports. 

How to join a challenge?

First of all you need the Strava App installed on your mobile phone. Without the Strava app you will not be able to join the challenges, because the desktop version of Strava does not support the group challenge feature.

Furthermore, if you want to join multiple groups or challenges it seems you need to have a Strava (paid) pro account (at least this was what I discovered). Means, if you are already part of a group you might not be able to join one of our groups. Or if you are for example a triathlete and you want to join the running, cycling and general group (for swimming) you need to have a pro account. If you don't have a pro account and you don't want to have a pro account you need to decide for one group only - here just let me know your prefered group you want to join.

And now the detailed steps to join our group challenges:

1) Download the Strava app

2) Create a personal account

3) follow the Agile Testing Days Fitness Challenge Strava account (https://www.strava.com/athletes/95999485)

4) Once you follow us we will follow you back and we will be able to invite you to our challenges

5) Send a clear email to uwe@trendig.com with all the sports you track in case you want to be part of multiple groups. Or just tell your main sport you do and tell me which challenge you want to join.

6) We will invite you via the app to the certain challenge/s

7) You will get notified in the app about the invitation

8)  You need to accept the invitation

9) You are ready to start and compete with other AgileTD athletes

Please note: You can track your activities with your mobile or with a smart watch. The smart watch needs to be connected with your Strava account and/or Strava app. It doesn't matter when or at which point or time of the year you join the challenge/s, if you have already tracked activities since January 1st, all the tracked activities already count and will be shown and loaded into the challenge/s automatically.

Another limit or restriction that comes with Strava is the group size of a challenge. We cannot exceed the number of 25 people per group, which means, for example if we have 26 cyclists we may split the group in two groups with 13 athletes in each. In case we need to split a group and move you to another you will get notified. Also, when we split we will split in a smart way to keep you all motivated: we may create a group 1 and group 2 and you will have the chance to climb up from group 2 to group 1 and vice versa. Here is a concrete example, for the above mentioned scenario: with 26 cyclists we exceed the group limit and the 13 cyclists with the most kilometres at this point will stay in group 1, the other 13 cyclists will get invited to group 2. If the athlete on place 13 in group 1 has for example 1.000 kilometers and the 1st one in group 2 will continuously put on more kilometers we will swap both athletes. We will see how practical this becomes.

Last but not least, the prizes. 

We believe the prizes are just some kind of "nice-to-have". We still need to find sponsors to put in some prizes for the group winners. You can count on things like ATD free tickets, Smart Watches, Sports Gear or anything else that our sponsors may be able to offer.

Like said, the prizes are less important than the fun you will have to get motivated by other athletes to reach your own goals or do even more than your goal is. You don't need to be the leader of the challenge. Orient yourself with the athletes close in front and behind you and stay motivated to chase the athlete right in front of you and stay in front of the one close behind you!

Many happy activities!!!

RELATED & RECOMMENDED BLOG POSTS ABOUT THE "AgileTD Fitness Chalenge":

How it began: https://agiletestingdays.com/blog/the-atd-fitness-challenge/

The Journey: https://agiletestingdays.com/blog/my-journey-to-agiletd-open-air-2022/