#velofixGive30 Final Results!

The results are in, no more waiting! Now that March is over and April has started, it’s time to say goodbye to the #velofixGive30 Challenge – however, I have a sneaky suspicion that we’ll see it again in the future.

Ottawa is such a great city for anyone who likes to exercise. We have no shortage of bike paths, multi-use trails, wide shoulders, swimming pools, yoga studio, hiking trails – etc! Regardless of your sport-of-choice, Ottawa seems to have something for everyone.

With that in mind, we wanted to help encourage people in Ottawa to exercise for 30 minutes, every day, for the month of March. We decided to name it the #velofixGive30 Challenge. After a post on social media, we had 14 people step forward, wanting to part-take. Throughout the month, they were able to check a box for every day that they got their exercise in. If they felt so inclined, they could also leave a note saying what they did that day. After a full month, I see over a dozen different types of exercise, which really speaks to what Ottawa has to offer:

The most popular:

-Commuting to work: we had a couple of winter cyclists in the group and a few others who were able to walk to work (or a combination of bus & walk)

Popular Indoor Sports:

-Zwift (indoor cycling) was the most popular. This “video-game” style exercise is a fun way to make the most of our indoor cycling.

-Yoga: we had a few yogies in the group and we saw that pop up a few times on the list.

Popular Outdoor Sports:

-XC Skiing

-Snowshoeing

-Running

A lot of our participants live in the Westboro (or surrounding) area). It was really common to see a post about exercising along the Sir John A MacDonald Path – aka SJAM. This summer bike-lane is transformed into a trail in the winter that can accommodate skate-skiing, classic skiing, fat biking and snowshoeing. There were even a few days where some of the participants crossed paths and were able to validate the other’s 30 minutes of exercise.

The #velofixGive30 Challenge was a huge success, by our standards. Most people were able to exercise every day! Most of us missed a day or two throughout the month but looking back – it looks like everyone made a big effort.

Social media: over 500 uses of the #velofixGive30 tag on facebook, twitter and Instagram! Some participants would share their expereinces on local pages, while others made daily posts showing what they did every day. If you want to go back and see some great examples of what types of activities were done, check out the #velofixGive30 history on social media.