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The ridiculous challenge of this month is Apple mess it up again with no special new year challenge and newly achieved rewards taking 2-3 days to show up. Its the way Apple wants to motivate us!
 
Just got my watch last weekend. So how do you find out/setup monthly challenges? I'm still learning.

You just have to wait till the watch gives you a challenge. If you got your watch before the 1st, you should have one. But there's no guarantees. I got my watch last year around December 27th and didn't get my first personal challenge until March. So if you don't have one yet, cross your fingers that one will show up next month.

Meanwhile, you can double check in the Activity app on your phone. Under the Awards tab, mine is listed under the Go For It heading.
 
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You just have to wait till the watch gives you a challenge. If you got your watch before the 1st, you should have one. But there's no guarantees. I got my watch last year around December 27th and didn't get my first personal challenge until March. So if you don't have one yet, cross your fingers that one will show up next month.

Meanwhile, you can double check in the Activity app on your phone. Under the Awards tab, mine is listed under the Go For It heading.

Thanks for that information. Last question, I was looking to see if I could increase my Standing or Exercise or Move. But I only see that I can increase move goal. Does changing that goal also affect/increase the other two goals as well?
 
If you haven't moved around in the last hour, the watch will prompt you 10 minutes before the hour to stand up and move around for at least a minute.
It’s closer to 40 seconds, but the point is to move around every waking hour. Just be sure to move your watch hand, too. If you have your coffee mug, put it in your off hand.
 
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Thank you! How's the standing goal work? Is it stand for 10 minutes every hour or something?
And if you have insomnia like me, you will see this on your watch at the end of the day. :D

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...Anyone else receive an absolutely ludicrous Activity challenge to start the year?...

Got off easy this month (coming from 60 minutes a day of exercise) to get 200% your move goal at least 4 times. My current move goal is 930, but on days I go for medium to long runs that’ll not be an issue keeping that move goal where it is now.

Me too. I have to double my move goal 8 times. Last month I had 77 exercise minutes per day.

View attachment 813484 This month I have to complete 115 minutes of working out a day.

Another ridiculous goal here (to my standards). I have to double the move goal (currently at 1060 cal/day) at least 11 times this month, my december average was 1,176 calories per day and the most cals I burnt in a day previously were 1,614.
 
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My monthly challenge changed this morning. From crazy high move goal to easy 9 days of fill all my rings
 
Mine is 13 days where I close all my rings, reasonably possible and I’m well on my way. I’m no slouch but the monthly challenges are never too tough for me, sounds like they’ll get to be that way though.
 
Hmmm...mine’s pretty easy. Not sure how they determine the challenge.

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I usually work out 5 days a week.

Today was HIIT.

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My other days are weight training.

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Sometimes I wonder if Apple did a "set and forget" challenge algorithm. Some of the challenges are ridiculous, especially for people who are already at the high end of the scale (1K calorie goals, for example). Really, imho, just maintaining this is pretty laudable. I understand people who have goals at the lower end of the scale could use more encouragement, but I don't understand how people who exercise 90-120 minutes a day can realistically stretch to more (and then next month, even more).
 
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Sometimes I wonder if Apple did a "set and forget" challenge algorithm. Some of the challenges are ridiculous, especially for people who are already at the high end of the scale (1K calorie goals, for example). Really, imho, just maintaining this is pretty laudable. I understand people who have goals at the lower end of the scale could use more encouragement, but I don't understand how people who exercise 90-120 minutes a day can realistically stretch to more (and then next month, even more).
They do need to get ahold of this. They’ve got me exercising over two hours everyday on average. I love working out, but the challenges are getting too high. I’d like to see more variety of them too
 
For 2018, I averaged 210 miles of exercise per month. For January 2019, Apple has challenged me to log 333.6 miles. I don't even know if a sudden increase to that degree is even safe. :eek:

Anyone else receive an absolutely ludicrous Activity challenge to start the year?


OP, as a Track and Field Coach I am going to look at this from a runners perspective. That type of increase for a runner I would say is not safe. Basically the runner would be going from ~53 miles per week to ~83 miles per week. Very Bad! However, at ~53 miles per week my hypothetical runner would be in shape for a decent half marathon. If I found it nececarry to reach this, otherwise ludicrous, goal I would have the athlete in question switch from running to biking for 2 of his weekly workouts. A half marathoner could get much more mileage in on the bike than on foot and expend, relatively, the same energy; even if a few muscles not use to the biking screams at her.

Perhaps WatchOS is suggesting some sort of cross-training. ijs, I guess it could work.
 
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To win January, I need to go 222 miles. Compared to many of you, this doesn’t sound at all extreme, but at 75 (and one hip replacement under my belt) I thought I was doing well averaging about 150 a month! Unfortunately, 222 is high enough not to be doable, so I’m not trying, knowing that next month will be something worse. I love challenges, but need it to be reasonable, not discouraging.
 
OP, as a Track and Field Coach I am going to look at this from a runners perspective. That type of increase for a runner I would say is not safe. Basically the runner would be going from ~53 miles per week to ~83 miles per week. Very Bad! However, at ~53 miles per week my hypothetical runner would be in shape for a decent half marathon. If I found it nececarry to reach this, otherwise ludicrous, goal I would have the athlete in question switch from running to biking for 2 of his weekly workouts. A half marathoner could get much more mileage in on the bike than on foot and expend, relatively, the same energy; even if a few muscles not use to the biking screams at her.

Perhaps WatchOS is suggesting some sort of cross-training. ijs, I guess it could work.
I hadn't thought of it that way. The challenge might indeed be suggesting increasing my miles by biking. Not a bad idea, actually. Thanks for putting it into perspective for me!
 
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Update: In the first 15 days of the month I just got 2 days that went over 200% of my move goal, and on those days I devoted at least 3 hours to exercise (e.g., I went swimming in the morning and running in the afternoon), in addition to keep walking most of the rest of the day.

So, in order to at least keep trying, I cheated and just lowered my move goal to 80%, so my new 200% is 160% of my "real" goal. That I can do another 9 days over 2 weeks to accomplish the challenge.
 
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Completion, two days ago. But just showed up today. No watch notification (as expected).

Still frustrated about my December one that didn’t register.
 
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I have to close all 3 rings 18 times in January. Should be a no brainer. Did it 26 times last month.

So it is now January 21. Just after 9:30 pm local time. I have closed the move and stand rings. Exercise is at 28 minutes from some general movement throughout the day and 2 basketball games I refereed tonight. I will likely get on the elliptical for a minimum of 30 minutes before bed sometime tonight. That will close the exercise ring. And by morning I should have my January challenge award.
 
Here’s mine, burn 21,000 calories (done 16,681 so far), should make it seeing I cycle 15 miles to work and 15 miles home everyday.
 

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