I know that it isn’t quite the end of the month, but I wanted to give a quick update on the new Garmin badges that were released at the beginning of October.
Of the eleven new badges, I have completed four of them, or will have in a couple of days. I will admit that I did cheat to complete two of them.
The ones that I have completed are the Runner Graduate, as I have managed ten coached running sessions. The 30 day walk streak I can’t see me not completing. The other two badges, Pickleball and Disc Golf I technically completed. In other words, I cheated by uploading a short walk to the local Spar and changing the activity type.
Of the other seven badges, I would expect to complete New Heights as soon as our new puppy is old enough for a walk in the fells. The 30 day run streak will be difficult for me to complete unless I upload the odd walk as a run. Fins On is possible, although that would involve going for a swim. The 30 day swim streak I can’t ever see me completing, much the same for the Hydration badge. Mythical sleep I came as close as I’m ever likely to as I managed three consecutive days with a sleep score above 75. Rise and Grind is another possible, although at least one or two days a week it is nice not to be out running or walking before 7 am.
Anyway, have you completed any of the new badges and will Garmin create even more new badges for November?
I started using Strava back in 2012, and within a few months I had paid for the premium version. I have continued to pay each year up until this month. Three years ago I bought a Garmin smart watch and started to use the Garmin App. 18 months ago I bought a new bike which came with a power meter. I have found that the Garmin App provides all of the analysis I could ever want, with heart rate zones and power analysis. It made me think, what am I actually paying for when it comes to the Strava premium version.
Now that I’m not paying I had a look at what I will be missing out on. Segment filtering seems to be the main one. The advanced training is all replicated in the Garmin App and is easier to access. Route exploration and group challenges are also available in the Garmin App. I know that the Strava subscription isn’t a huge amount of money when spread over the year, but I really don’t think I’m going to miss it.
I will still upload everything to Strava, naturally via the Garmin App, and I will still give friends kudos, but for more serious training, Garmin wins out. A couple of days ago I set up a virtual training plan to improve my 10km time, something that I couldn’t do with Strava.
Strava has been a game changer with regards to training, but I find that the additional stats available from Veloviewer to be more exciting than Strava itself. If I worked for Strava, I would find this worrying. How many other people have stopped paying? Do you pay for Strava? If you don’t, what features would make you think about paying?
So many new badges! Back in September I blogged about three new Garmin badges, and then at the start of October I revisited it as I had obtained two of the new badges. Read about my blogs here.
Anyway, I hadn’t noticed that Garmin have introduced a veritable hatful of new badges at the start of October.
Fins On– 2 points
Record a swimming activity at an average pace of 100m in two minutes. It doesn’t say how long the swim has to be, so even I could probably manage 100m in less than two minutes. I used to be able to swim 1500m at a pace quicker than two minutes per 100m, but that was many years ago. This is a non-repeatable badge, and one that I should be able to obtain.
New Heights – 2 points
Record a hiking activity with at least 2,000 feet of ascent, or 610 meters, if you prefer. Most of the hikes that me and my lovely wife complete in the Lake District when ticking off Wainwrights will exceed this ascent without too much difficulty. Any easy two points and another non-repeatable badge.
Hydration Streak – 1 point
Track at least 64 oz of water every day for 30 consecutive days. That’s almost two liters of water. I tried to add water drank to the Garmin App a while ago and found it to be almost useless, as it was calibrated in ml, resulting in endless scrolling to simply add a small drink. Not a badge that I will bothering with, even though it is repeatable.
Mythical Sleep – 2 points
Record a sleep score of 100. This is definitely one badge that I will never obtain, seeing as my highest ever sleep score is in the low 80s. I can’t even imagine how this is even possible. Non-repeatable.
Pickleball Rookie – 1 point
Simply record a Pickleball activity, which is a game played primarily in America, consisting of large plastic rackets and a wiffle ball. Not a game that I’m likely to play, although I could run around the garden playing with our dog and pretend. Non-repeatable.
Rise and Grind – 2 points
Record an activity between 4 am and 7 am, on seven consecutive days. It doesn’t state if the start and finish times both have to be before 7 am, or only the start. Our older pointer always used to be up and awake before 6 am, so it was fairly common for me to be out running before 7 am. Not so much nowadays as we like our lie ins. Repeatable challenge.
Run Streak – 1 point
Record a run of at least 1 mile every day for 30 consecutive days. I have tried a few times to run every day for a month, but there’s always a couple of days where we go for a long walk instead, or I have to go into the office. I suppose I could go for a 1 mile walk ad upload it as a run! Repeatable challenge.
Runner Graduate – 2 points
Complete 10 workouts in a Garmin coach work out plan. If this includes running coached plans then this is something I have done in the past, although that doesn’t count. I’m fairly sure that at some point in the future I will begin a new coached plan. Non-repeatable.
Swim Streak – 4 points
This is a tough one. Record a swimming activity every day for 30 consecutive days. Even when I was swimming at my best I only ever swam three or four days a week at the most. For me, this badge is pretty much unobtainable, even though it is worth 4 points, and it is repeatable.
Walk Streak – 1 point
Walk at least 1 mile every day for 30 consecutive days. This is one badge that I am already at day 11. I can’t imagine a day where I don’t walk at least one mile, unless I have Covid again. This challenge is also repeatable.
I thought that that was all of the new badges released in October, but I missed one.
Disc Golf Rookie – 1 point
Another sport alongside Pickleball that I think will be unlikely for me to try. I’m not very good at throwing a frisbee at the best of times, although it might be fun to spend an hour attempting the first hole of a disc golf course. There is a five hole course in Poulton-le-Fylde, less than an hour away. Our pointer puppy had a frisbee, until I threw it over next doors fence, never to be seen again. To be fair to our lovely neighbours, there are children living in the house on the other side of them, which is where they returned the frisbee to. Anyway, another non-repeatable badge.
As far as I can tell Garmin have introduced 11 new badges this month. How many have you obtained?
At the beginning of September I wrote about three new Garmin virtual badges that were available. (Read my blog here).
One month later and I have successfully ticked off two of the badges, namely Sleep Savant and 30 for 30. What is interesting is that neither badge has a limit on the number of times they can be completed, unlike all other repeatable badges.
Also interesting was that I completed the 30 in 30 in the morning of the 30th of September when I went for a run. Later that day I went for a dog walk, again just slightly over 30 minutes. For some reason this gave me the first day for the next repeated badge, meaning that in theory, 30 in 30, could actually be 30 activities of 30 minutes in 29 days. I suppose it doesn’t make a huge difference, although you could possibly obtain 12.59 badges each year, as opposed to 12.16 if it was 30 in 30. Hopefully my explanation isn’t too confusing.
Have you completed new Garmin virtual badges, or can’t you really be bothered?
Beards and Triathlons 
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