On May 23 we're going to commence a new "challenge". It's the Toyota Cup Challenge, in honor of, and leading up to, the Life Time Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis.

More on this below, but, what you need to know first is this: Challenges are a feature of our online Training Log; there will be a lot of GREAT prizes given away in concert with this challenge; you do NOT have to be in or near the lead in this challenge to win prizes; you don't have to be entered in the LTF Triathlon nor do you need to live anywhere around it; and you'll get all the technical help you need to take part in this challenge if you're training log "challenged."

For some background...

The Life Time Fitness Triathlon race will take place on July 9. This challenge will start this upcoming Monday, so, you have a week (roughly) to clear your decks and get ready. The challenge will end on the Sunday prior to the race—it will last six weeks on all—so you can commence your taper (if you're racing the Life Time Fitness Triathlon) without the conflict of "losing" a challenge!

The Toyota Cup Challenge is special in a couple of ways. First, there will be quite a few prizes given away to contestants. But, not necessarily for the person who generates the most "points" in this challenge. Because our challenges are all contested on the honor system—no Slowtwitcher would unfairly pads his totals to win, right?—we're not going to tell you with great precision who earns the prizes based on his or her performances. You'll find out who won what when we're all done with the challenge.

This challenge is based on "aerobic points", which means an accumulation of swim, bike and run activity translated into "work" determines your placement versus your compatriots.

Our challenges are a feature tied to our online Training Log. If you're not familiar with our log, it's easy to use, it accepts downloads from many or most of your microelectronic devices or, if you're a Luddite (like me), your totals are easy to type in. You can create training "routes"—there are plenty of up-to-date features on our training log.

You can see and use the training log, and the challenges, if you're logged in. We have one log-in at Slowtwitch—for the reader forum, to list races or stores on our calendar and databases, a user account is free, quick, and non-intrusive—so, go to our Reader Forum, create an account, and you're ready for launch.

You'll be surprised by the number of really good, quite valuable, prizes given away during the Toyota Cup Challenge—which we'll announce during the challenge—and you may also be surprised by some of the folks taking part in the challenge.

You don't have to be in the Twin Cities area to take part in the challenge nor do you need to enter the Life Time Fitness event. You can be a non-racer in Nairobi, a duathlete in Denmark, a triathlete in Tauranga, or an aquathlete in Altadena. You just plunk down your mileage/yardage for each workout into your training log and you're in.

We start next Monday, but you can start typing in your totals now, for the training you do now. Just, your training won't accrue to the "challenge" table until the day the challenge commences.

We'll give you further prompts, on our weekly newsletter as well as in our reader forum, as the challenge is about to begin. There will be a thread (a discussion) on our reader forum—you'll see it later this wee—so that you can all brag, talk smack, and ask questions of each other.