DO YOU WANT TO MOVE MORE IN 2024?

At Gruppo we want to provide something more.  We all know that consistent movement helps us both physically and mentally.  Last year our Gruppo Great Canadian Cycling Challenge helped many cyclists move more than they have ever in the past - 33 people cycling more than 12500 km in the year.

This year we wanted to create a movement challenge that would appeal to the dedicated athletes that were with us in 2023, but we would also like to invite folks that are just getting started to the party.  In order to appeal to a larger audience, the challenge has expanded to include various forms of movement: we are aiming to meet folks where they are.  You want to walk, hike, run, paddle, cycling, ski - we have you covered.  We also know the importance of stretching and doing some resistance/strength work each week - all of these elements are worked in to the challenge, and as you complete them, you will be propelled virtually across this great country.  Move enough, you will enter the US and who knows where you will end up!

How do you participate?

1. Email darcy@grupponutrition.com - we will make sure you are updated by email of any new developments or functionality.
2. As soon as you decide that you want to join this group of movement warriors, all you have to do is start logging your exercise as it happens or once a week.  Go to www.2024gruppomove.com to log your activities.  Logging your data is easy (see below).  Just a few easy steps:
1. Enter your name, ensure going forward you always enter it exactly the same, e.g. John Doe
2. Select the date and press next.
3. Select your exercise using the drop down menu and press next.
4. Enter the number of kilometres or minutes and press next.
5. Select Yes or No, that you are achieving your protein requirement or not.  Select submit and you are done.
3. The course can be seen here.  No matter how far you plan to ride this year, we all start in St John's, NL.  Below are some possible goals to consider: remember all movement will propel you along the route.  Basic math is for every hour of movement, you will travel 28 km.

Rules/FAQs:

• You can sign up anytime during the year; for folks signing up part way through the year, it is possible to take data from other tracking programs to recognize the year-to-date movement.
• Whenever you log your data at www.2024gruppomove.com your activities will be converted to cycling kilometre equivalents (cke).  Cycling km completed will equal the number of kilometres completed.  All other activities will be converted using factors to cke.  Essentially an hour of any activity will be approximately equal to 28 km.

• Weekly updates will be provided through Gruppo Move dashboards - you will be able to see your progress towards your goal, and perhaps, someone you are chasing or looking to stay ahead of!
• We encourage folks to log data for a week or two to see how their kilometres are accumulating so then you can set a realistic but challenging goal.  Goals should push you a bit.  What we are looking for is daily movement towards your year long goal.  You will be amazed how daily activity adds up and how well you can feel.
• There are some bonuses for stretching and performing resistance training.  If you stretch >60 minutes in a week, you will have a 5% distance bonus. The same is true for >60 minutes of strength work.  These are really important to total body health, so we are giving you a bonus to encourage you to work them into your daily/weekly habits. 
• We also give a 5% bonus if you ingest the right amount of protein in a week.  If you are >40 years old or doing a fair amount of activity, you should aim to get a minimum of 1.6 g protein/kg of body weight/day.  The majority of this protein should come from real food and should be spaced out over 3-4 doses a day. 
• You can use any means at all to collect your data.  If you are on a court, stretching, climbing or performing some resistance exercise - just enter the number of minutes you completed.  For exercise measured in distance, you can enter the data from a machine, from a watch, a Garmin, or captured through Strava.  Strava is a popular free app that allows you to measure your distance outside through a smart phone and is capable of collecting all of your movement data.
• We have set up 4 Strava Leadboards for those utilizing Strava.  It is not a requirement to be part of Strava, but the Strava leaderboards can be very motivating, it is nice to see how you are doing on a given movement as compared to the group. 

We will do our best to support this year-long challenge, providing updates and inspiration to keep you going all year.  If you have suggestions or questions email me directly at darcy@grupponutrition.com