I've been in Step challenges for a couple of months now. I got bumped up each week, except at the 100k Challenge level, which I remained in for two successive weeks. This was followed by one week in the 125k Challenge and two weeks in the 150k Challenge. Then during the 150k Challenge, I injured my right instep with a strained something or other resulting in some swelling. So I relented on the second 150k Challenge half way through. Thankfully, I got busted back to the 85k Step Challenge this past week which has been much more manageable since I also want to fit in higher effort activities like cycling and swimming. I finished out this past week with about 94,000 steps.

The Step Challenges kept me on my toes and moving. But if you get too wrapped up in winning or even placing in the top 3 during the Step Challenges, this really has the potential to make your active lifestyle rather one dimensional. So, I decided to accrue a bunch of connections from my Step Challenges as well as from this MFP group, and use my own leaderboard as a surrogate Step Challenge by referencing my GC friends list. I'm rather happy with this strategy as the 85k Step Challenge participants weren't syncing daily, so my leaderboard became the pacing influence in my daily and weekly steps effort.

I'm leaning toward removing myself from the formal Step Challenges so I can balance out my personal cycling events and hiking adventures while referencing my own leaderboard as the competitive metric. This will ensure variety while establishing a bit of commentary and maintaining communication with my 15 GC friends.

If anyone likes this idea for using your own personal leaderboard as an informal challenge venue and wants connections, I invite you to send me an invite on MFP and GC. My GC nickname is mikeyrs. Good luck on your future Step Challenges!

EDIT: To answer your question, a quarter of my group remained with me while the rest of the group was assigned elsewhere. I guess Garmin likes to mix it up a bit. And there appears to be no causal pattern that I've noticed. Some folks who did not meet the weekly challenge were advanced to the next level with me.

692ecs, it's always a pleasure to share my experiences and insights with anyone who is interested to know. ;-)

I've just recently started using the Vivofit. Out of curiosity, how do you guys manage to get 90k+ steps per week? I try and get a 40-60 minute walk most days, but usually end up around the 40-45k steps by the end of it. Now my job has me sitting at my computer ALL DAY, and when I get home, I might be lucky to have had 2,000 steps in one day, but I can't even imagine doubling up the number of steps I do now!

I also have a desk based job, but I walk to work (about 1.5 miles each way), and I tend to walk a circuit of the hospital on my lunch with a collegue here. I also gain steps from my runs that I do 3x a week. Other than that, if i'm having an inactive day I try to make a conscious effort to go for a walk to hit my step target for the day (on my days off I tend to just sit all day and watch movies or something, so I always have to go out of my way to get the steps up..otherwise I would be on 1000 a day!).