Million Mile Month Challenge

Triathlon Forum
1

The wellness folk at my company is taking part in Healthcode’s Million Mile Month Challenge this month. Exercises can be recorded via Fitbit (I use a different fitness watch for logging and then sync to Fitbit with RunGap App) or logged manually. Manually, as one might guess, is entirely on the honor system. My steps, for example, are logged manually after converting my steps-to-miles with a converter. I’m careful (and honest) enough to subtract steps logged on runs from my walked steps.

One of the top people at the company—and, indeed, overall—has logged over 400 miles, all through walking/running. This averages out to 17 miles and change per day; just in the past 24 hours, they logged more than 20 miles. I can’t help but think the person walking/running so much is cheating or otherwise gaming the system, yet I don’t want to whine to HR. Instead, I’d rather whine to you.

If you’re taking part in the Million Mile Month Challenge, too, what are your thoughts? I (and many others in my division) are busting ourselves to do as well as we are; we’d hate to “lose” to someone who’s cheating at something that’s designed to help us be better (healthier) people.

2

We had a similar program at my work several years ago, but it only tracked “miles” of exercise. So a swim mile was equal to a run mile which was equal to a bike mile… Stupid, I know… But I think they were just trying to get sedentary people moving. These “miles” got you discounts on your health insurance and entry into different lotteries, etc. and the minimums to be considered “healthy” were laughably low. I sync’ed my Strava account to one of their auto-upload programs and had my workouts just auto-upload into their tracking system. I then proceeded to forget about it for a couple of months while I continued my Ironman build.

Then I logged back on a few months later and saw that I accidentally had like 10x as many miles as anyone in my company of ~10,000+ employees. Within 2 months I had logged more “total” miles than pretty much everyone who had been uploading data for years.

So I’m not saying that they’re not cheating. But there’s a chance that somebody is logging “all” miles and not just run or walk miles. Probably worth at least reading the small print.

3

Find this person in your company via the global address book. E-mail them, and ask how their preparation for the U.S Marathon Olympic Trials is going.

4

But there’s a chance that somebody is logging “all” miles and not just run or walk miles. Probably worth at least reading the small print.

During this morning’s Sufferfest, I remembered that all activities on Fitbit default to running/walking. At least that’s what I’d been told by another Fitbit user via Strava when his bike rides were winning run segments.

Will see how things shake out as he competition winds down. Last day for activities is Tuesday.

5

I’ve had plenty of months where I ran 500 miles.

6

My wife’s company had a similar program. Top spot went to a large lady pushing an office supplies cart through the building. She counted that as exercise, and massively overestimated the mileage. (My wife BTW was number 3, legitimately, in a company of over 100K employees.)

7

Thank you for your conversation regarding the Million Mile Month and for your participation.

We appreciate your comments and will look into the issue.

Integrity of the activity data is important, which is one reason for the transparency provided by the leaderboards. We’ve seen folks are not shy in calling others out. 😊
https://events.healthcode.org/leaderboards/17

Sometimes “groups” get listed under the Individual Leaderboard. For example, an elementary school teacher puts all her kids activity under her name. Or some of our military participants put their squad under one name. So we work to address those issues.

Yes, we did start the Million Mile Month to help those who have a hard time just getting up and walking around the block.

Our nonprofit HealthCode’s mission is to empower people to live healthier, happier lives, free from preventable diseases.

We launched the Million Mile Month in 2014, after hearing at SXSW “sitting is the smoking”. We are headquartered in Austin, an active community. Yet almost 6 out of 10 (58%) of adults in our County are obese or over weight; sadly this is true for most US communities.

Changing behavior is really hard. Research shows a key to behavioral change is making and achieving personal goals within a positive community of support. So, HealthCode leverages “gamification of behavior” concepts to help engage people to start moving along their own health journey.

To help in continual improvement, HealthCode provides community-wide quarterly events. Designed to be fun and accessible, especially for folks struggling to maintain an active life-style. https://events.healthcode.org/events

For example, July’s event is Triathlon in a Month. Participants set their own total mileage goal and create their own triathlon – like kayaking, cycling or hiking on trails. Maybe learn a new activity and have fun in the summer time. A way to encourage people and families to get up, get outside and enjoy an active summer; explore parks, neighborhoods and new cities.

October’s Marathon in a Month provides a full 31 days to help folks be active, with a tongue in check “I’m a Marathoner” bragging rights. After the first year, we were asked by the running community to add a 100 mile goal option, along with the 26 and 50 miles, which we did. 😊

For employee challenges, we encourage recognition programs be set up to motivate people to get up and move, engaging people who need to exercise the most.

For example, which department or office location has the highest percentage of employees accomplishing maybe just 25 or 30 miles for the month, versus who does the most miles. The idea for the lower mile goals came from organizations who have a lot of very sedentary employees.

Folks who are already fit, are encouraged to reach out to their colleagues to join them on a walk, a light run, cycle or yoga. Celebrating with them in accomplishing each step along their personal goal.

HealthCode would like to work with leaders like you, as we improve HealthCode’s programs to help people and establish a culture of health and well-being within organizations and foster more connected communities.

If interested, let’s stay in touch and partner in the vision that everyone should enjoy the benefits of a healthier, happier life.

Feel free to reach out Steve@HealthCode.Org; HealthCode’s Executive Director/Founder.

THANK YOU!