Suunto Blog

By Jill Heinerth Deep beneath our feet lies a mesmerizing world that remains largely unknown: a network of water-filled caves winding through the darkness, carrying the lifeblood of our planet. As a cave diver, I have dedicated my life to exploring these mysterious subterranean passages. I invite you to join me on a captivating journey into the depths, where fear and discovery converge, and where the delicate balance of survival and exploration unfolds. The Hidden Pathways These underground tunnels, sculpted by the gentle touch of rainwater permeating the Earth's surface, act as conduits that transport precious freshwater from deep aquifers to springs, rivers, and estuaries. Ultimately, this water embarks on a journey to the vast ocean, sustaining a thriving plankton community that generates the very oxygen we breathe. The caves I explore serve as the life-supporting veins of our planet, nurturing the lungs that allow life to flourish. The Thrill of Exploration While most people recoil at the thought of descending into the darkness of caves, I am irresistibly drawn to their constricted corridors. Equipped with cutting-edge technology and relying on each measured breath, I embrace the unknown depths. In the remoteness of my office, the boundaries between fear and discovery blur, and a single misstep could spell disaster. The exploration of these caves is not without risk, but the reward is an unparalleled sense of fulfillment and a chance to educate others about the fragility of our water planet. A Perilous Pursuit Cave diving has rightfully earned its reputation as a dangerous activity, but it also represents the frontier of scientific exploration. Aquanauts, including passionate enthusiasts, daring researchers, and scientists, push the limits of human capability as they navigate through the eternal darkness of labyrinthine limestone networks spanning the globe. Armed with multiple scuba tanks, advanced rebreathers, and swift diver propulsion vehicles, they boldly venture deep into these treacherous passageways, pushing the boundaries of exploration in terms of both distance and knowledge. Unleashing Art and Science As a filmmaker and photographer, I find myself balancing the creation of art with the meticulous monitoring of life support equipment in demanding circumstances. Whether I embark on solo adventures or join scientific expeditions, self-sufficiency becomes paramount. There is no Mission Control to solve my problems when I find myself blindly searching for a broken safety line in a cloud of silt with zero visibility. The challenges are immense, but so are the rewards. Unveiling Hidden Wonders Through my explorations, I have had the privilege of becoming the eyes and hands of scientists, unveiling a world that has never before been witnessed. Underwater caves serve as virtual museums of natural history, where I collaborate with biologists to uncover new species, assist physicists in studying climate change, and aid hydrogeologists in examining our precious freshwater reserves. These subterranean pathways have led me to grim sources of pollution, vibrant life thriving within Antarctic icebergs, and even ancient skeletal remains of the Maya civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula. Connecting to the Source By venturing into the world beneath our feet, I glide through limestone, passing beneath homes, golf courses, and restaurants. I delve into the ancient conduits of volcanoes and navigate crevices within colossal bodies of ice. Following the trail of water, I am guided from mountain creeks to resplendent blue springs, each emitting its life-sustaining bounty from within the heart of our planet. Even when the passages pinch and my dive is forced to come to an end, the water continues to flow from some enigmatic source. The journey is endless, beckoning me forward to explore the caverns, immeasurable to my imagination. It is a privilege to uncover these hidden shrines and share concealed mysteries from deep inside our planet. I want to connect humanity to where their water comes from and show people that what we do on the land’s surface will eventually be returned to us to drink. More people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the remote places Jill Heinerth has explored on Earth. Jill Heinerth is a veteran of over thirty years of scientific diving, filming/photography, and exploration. Her expeditions include the first dives inside Antarctica icebergs and record-breaking scientific missions in deep underwater caves worldwide. Jill’s book INTO THE PLANET – My Life as a Cave Diver has drawn wide acclaim from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and even Oprah magazine. Her children’s book, THE AQUANAUT, has been selected by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library as a part of her inspirational initiative. Jill bought her first Suunto gear in 1988 and still dives with Suunto. For more info: www.IntoThePlanet.com

This Pride Month, we are calling all LGBTQIA+ trail runners to participate in the 2nd Annual LGBTQ+ Running Retreat in the North Cascades this October, hosted by Queer Pro Ultra-Runner, Suunto ambassador Ryan Montgomery and Aspire Adventure Running! Ryan having a blast at the Javelina Jundred 100-miler. (Image by Nick Danielson) ”A couple of years ago when I started becoming more visible as a queer-identifying elite athlete, I recognized that the opportunity to compete at an elite level also comes with the opportunity to make an inclusive impact in the sport,” says Ryan. “Running has been my conduit and my catalyst for really helping me understand who I am — to come out of my own closet and to be comfortable with my own identity. Part of the genesis of the Out Trails LGBTQ+ Running Retreat is to help other queer-identifying athletes have an opportunity to push themselves physically and mentally, alongside a supportive community, to learn something new about the outdoors or themselves.” All experience levels are welcome The LGBTQ+ Running Retreat is inviting 40 runners to Mt. Baker Ski Area, Washington, USA for 3 nights and 2 full days of running/hiking. If you are a member of the LGBTQ+ running community, we encourage you to sign-up for the running retreat now! And to help eliminate the barrier for some members of the LGBTQ+ community, this Pride Month, Suunto is supporting the event with scholarships for 25 LGBTQ-identifying runners! Also the scholarship applications are now open. Register for the running retreat here, or apply for the scholarship here!   To learn more about the trip, visit the Out Trails LGBTQ+ Running Retreat Course Page.   READ MORE The importance of diversity in the outdoors Allyship in the outdoors: what is it and how to be a good ally for others? A native runner's perspective on inclusivity

This summer, we want to inspire you to take a new, unknown route and have built Weekend Adventure route collections around major European hubs. We kicked off in June with gravel adventures around Munich and Paris and hiking adventures around Milan and our hometown of Helsinki. For July we have added four more exciting route collections: hikes in Madrid and Berlin and gravel rides in London and Rome! Most routes are within an hour from the city centre and long enough to be split into two day adventures. Adventuring close to home is not only practical and time-efficient; it’s also good for the environment. You don’t always need to travel far to experience something new. So, pack your tent, get your gear and start exploring – the adventure starts here! Scroll down for hikes in Berlin, Helsinki, Madrid and Milan or gravel bike rides in London, Munich, Paris and Rome! Connect with Komoot to get the Weekend Adventure routes on your Suunto The Weekend Adventure collections are hosted by our partner Komoot. Komoot is a platform that lets you find, plan, and share adventures. Personalized route recommendations and inspiration are in the core of Komoot. Suunto is fully compatible with Komoot: Once you have connected the two accounts (go to Suunto app’s “Partner services” section and select “Connect with Komoot”) routes planned with Komoot flow automatically to your Suunto app’s route library and your activities tracked with Suunto go to Komoot. Turn-by-turn guidance and all is included in the sync. Learn more about the various Komoot packages Find tranquility on these hikes in Berlin Just a few kilometres beyond Berlin's city limits, you'll find tranquillity, magnificent landscapes, sparkling lakes and rivers, but also some thrills. In this Collection, we present three hiking Tours that take you to three regions around Berlin. You'll hike along clear waters, discover mystical wetlands and unique, mangrove-like forests. The Tours all have one thing in common: water plays a major role. Two of the hikes can be completed in a day, an overnight stay is recommended for the third one. Enjoy the English countryside on a gravel bike You don’t need to live in the countryside to find fantastic gravel trails. London has a vast network of off-road cycling, with some excellent tracks radiating from the city and transporting you to the serene landscapes of the home counties. The three tours in the London collection can be covered in a day or two: All of them include a convenient midpoint accommodation option, allowing you the flexibility to extend the adventure over two days if desired. Hike in vast forests less than an hour north of Madrid The hiking routes in Madrid take you to the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park and the Sierra Norte region less than an hour north of the city. The area boasts vast expanses of lush forests, fantastic granite formations, mountains that tower over 2,000 metres, important rivers, and impressive limestone ravines. You can complete all the routes in a day if you wish. Otherwise, you can also spread the distance over two days and stay halfway at a refuge or hostel. We’ve included more information in each route description. Ride ancient roads in Rome The gravel cycling routes around Rome venture through the Italian countryside and take you on compacted dirt tracks, ancient paved roads, fast singletrack, and rolling lanes with little traffic. Discover the woods around Lake Bracciano, trace historic routes like the Via Appia Antica, explore the wonders of the Castelli Romani, and pedal along the Regina Ciclarum – the most beautiful cycle path in Lazio – until you reach the seafront and the pine forests of the Roman coast. These Tours are real adventures that require decent fitness and plenty of determination to complete in a day – the distances are between 97 and 179 km. You can also take it easy and split the route so you have more time to fully enjoy these rich natural and historic places. Gravel rides just outside of Munich Get out of the city, leave your stressful week in the city behind with only a few pedal strokes and start your weekend adventure in nature. The green surroundings of Munich are diverse – you circle crystal-clear lakes, dive into bubbling river valleys, enjoy Bavarian country life or taste the specialties of Salzburg. Best of all: A large part of these three journeys take you away from the paved roads on fine gravel paths or exciting single tracks. Mountain hikes close to Milan In this Collection we offer you three truly epic hiking adventures a stone's throw from Milan. Just head north by train or car to quickly reach the foot of the mountains – and what mountains! These three treks are as spectacular as they are demanding. They will take you to some of the most beautiful places outside of Lecco, close to Lake Como. In each tour we point out refuges or other accommodations where you can stop to eat or spend the night, as well as options to shorten the route, if you wish. Explore Paris on a gravel bike In this Collection, you discover the surroundings of Paris in adventure mode. The surroundings of the French capital offer a superb playground for gravel cyclists – this Weekend Adventures Collection is a proof of that! These three cycling routes are rather long, but you can split them in two stages. Two of them make a loop and one is a point to point. However, that is not an issue as you can get back by train. Hike in the national parks just outside of Helsinki Our Helsinki Weekend Adventure Collection features three beautiful hikes accessible from the city. It doesn’t take long to escape the buzz of the city and find yourself immersed in archetypal Finnish landscapes, where the right to roam enables you to explore freely. Two of the hikes explore parts of the spellbinding Nuuksio National Park, with its glistening lakes, serene woodland and rugged terrain. The third hike discovers the quieter Sipoonkorpi National Park and its nature-rich boardwalks. Images by Philipp Reiter

Suunto Vertical comes with detailed outdoor offline maps that are globally free of charge. The new maps build on Suunto’s already advanced route navigation in the Suunto app. Discovering and creating routes is easy with the Suunto app's heatmaps, 3D maps and road surface-type layers and syncing them into a watch is effortless. Now, users have offline maps to consult no matter where they are, offering them greater safety and confidence! In this article, you will learn how to get started with the maps. Getting the maps on your watch You can download the maps on your Suunto Vertical watch using the Suunto app. You don’t need to pay any extra for the maps: simply select the right area for your adventure and download it. The watch has plenty of storage capacity, too: You can download 32GB of maps. As a reference the entire France is 7,47 GB and the entire Canada 15,17GB. Naturally large maps take longer to download so being a bit more specific helps you get the maps on the watch faster. Add wireless network to watch To install offline maps on the watch, connect your watch to a wireless network using the Suunto app: Pair your Suunto Vertical with Suunto app In the Suunto app go to the watch settings (select the watch icon on the top left and then the settings symbol on the top right) Select ‘Wireless networks’ and add a network You can add multiple wireless networks (like home and work) Select the offline map area Go to the map view in the Suunto app and tap ‘+’, the same “plus” you use to create a new route. That will allow you to download new offline maps. Search for the correct map or select it in the country menu. You can still review the selected area on the map before downloading. Connect the watch to the charger Once you have established the connection with a wireless network and selected your preferred map area, you can download the maps on the watch. To start the download, connect the watch to a charger. Using the offline maps on Suunto Vertical Top buttonShort press: Zoom inLong press: Zoom out Middle buttonShort press: Next screenLong press: Zoom/pan options Lower buttonShort press: Navigation options You can use the terrain maps during an activity with a preplanned route or simply see the breadcrumb trail, the path you have already traveled, on the map. Happy adventures! READ MORE Six ways to plan a route for your next adventure How to use avalanche terrain maps Lead image by Maximillian Gierl

The role of a coach is to provide guidance, support, and expertise to help athletes achieve their goals. A coach can be crucial for monitoring progress and providing feedback and adjustments as needed to ensure the athlete is training safely and effectively. A great coach is also a friend and a companion in your journey. A coach motivates you and requires accountability. Overall, a coach helps athletes improve their performance, avoid injury, and reach their full potential. This is also our goal when providing you with Suunto Coach. Suunto app’s Training zone has an AI-based coach that is an integral part of the service. It looks at hundreds of different parameters after each workout, learns how you train, and builds a normal training pattern that evolves from every workout you do. Based on this, it can give you the key highlights of your training, recovery, and progress. It provides insights and suggestions for the current week, so you can adjust your effort level as you go forward. The Suunto coach recognizes areas you are missing in your training this week that you normally are focusing on: Are you lacking volume in your swim workout? Do you push yourself too much with high-intensity runs? The Suunto coach is not trying to push your training in a direction that you are not used to. For example, if you usually do just high-intensity training, the Suunto coach is not going to ask you to focus more on lower-intensity sessions. Suunto coach doesn’t really know what is your goal or if you want to follow some specific training methodology. But what it does, is alert, highlight, and comment when you are exceeding healthy limits or just lacking some training aspects you are used to. Suunto coach is there to keep you on your selected path. Its recommendations and highlights are easy to digest without you needing to dig deep into the data. Now, go to the Suunto app and meet your new coach – the coach already knows you based on your training history!    Lead image by @rsalanova READ MORE Manage your training with Suunto app's Training zone  

If you’ve registered for one or more of the five races in the Nordic Gravel Series starting this June you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a series of articles that’ll help you compete and have a blast. With races held in Finland, Sweden and Norway, it’s the largest gravel series in the Nordics. With a focus on providing fun, inclusive events, each event is open to beginners and seasoned riders, alike. In this series, we’ll look at how to physically and mentally prepare for the race, some specific workouts and drills that will help you progress, race day tips, and more. This first article introduces the world of gravel racing and the base training phase. Christian competing at the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco, 2019. © Lian van Leeuwen/Atlas Mountain Race Your guide: the athlete-entrepreneur Suunto ambassador and former road cycling pro, Christian Meier fell in love with bikes as a teenager in Canada. Coming from a hardworking family, he put in long hours in the saddle and eventually competed in Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. Now he lives in Girona, Spain where he runs a handful of businesses and continues to push himself as an allround cyclist and ultra runner. Welcome to gravel Gravel cycling is a fast-growing discipline of cycling that takes riders off the tarmac and onto unpaved roads. It’s a hybrid of road and mountain biking, combining elements of speed, endurance, and technical riding. If you're looking for a new type of race to compete in, or simply want to try something new, the races offered by the Nordic Gravel Series will offer adventure, fun, community, competition and challenge. “Having spent time on the gravel in Norway I think the Nordics have probably some of the best gravel riding around,” Christian says. “There is so much diversity in topography and the people truly live for the outdoors, add in those never-ending summer nights and it adds up to something quite unique and special.” © Nordic Gravel Series Know why you’re entering Entering the Nordic Gravel Series doesn’t have to be about winning. In fact, gravel cycling races are often less competitive than traditional road races, making them a great opportunity for cyclists to connect with one another and have fun. “Gravel races tend to offer something for everyone as the scene tends to be more experiential than purely performance-based as you may get in road cycling,” Christian says. “Many of the gravel races these days have a festival feel with food, drinks and music around the events.” Before building your training plan, ask yourself what you want to achieve. Are you entering to race competitively or to have an awesome experience? Is it just about finishing the race or do you have a finishing time you’d like to achieve? The answer will determine how much training volume and intensity you’ll need to complete before race day. Base, build and taper phases Gravel cycling races can be physically demanding, with long hours in the saddle over rough terrain. To prepare for his races Christian follows a base, build and taper training structure. “For me, it’s all about having the biggest aerobic engine possible,” he says. “This engine is what allows you to push the big watts or to feel comfortable and have an enjoyable time if you are just there to enjoy with your friends.” © Nordic Gravel Series Design your training plan Ideally, you’ll allow yourself about five to six months of training before the race. Most of that will be the base training phase, then the build training phase, and finally two or three weeks to taper before the race. Sit down and write it down. Assess the following: Your fitness level Before you begin your training, take some time to assess your current fitness level. This will help you determine what type of training is necessary to help you reach your goals and prepare for the race. Your Suunto watch can help you assess your fitness and find the right training zones. Learn more about testing your fitness with Suunto here. Any work or family commitments It’s important to create a realistic, doable training plan that works with your circumstances and current fitness and experience level. Your goal and what level of training is required to achieve it Do you want to win it all, are you gunning for a particular time, or are you there for the experience? If you are working with a coach – or want to find a ready made training plan – check out TrainingPeaks. Workouts planned there are synced to your Suunto watch for real time guidance. Base phase The base training period is the foundation for your race preparation. This period lasts about eight to 12 weeks, and the focus is on increasing your endurance, stamina and overall fitness. During this time, aim to ride four to five times a week, with one or two of those sessions being longer, endurance rides about three hours if your motivation is to have fun and four or more if your aim is to compete. Focus on building your endurance and stamina. This can be done by doing long, steady-state rides (zone two training zone) on gravel roads, trails or on the tarmac if that’s what’s easily accessible. Build in longer rides on the weekend. Try to fit in two big base fitness days a week. During the week when you have less time Christian recommends focusing on quality sessions. On Tuesday and Thursday do some steady state work.Your effort should feel like you are pushing but can maintain the duration of the effort comfortably. Here's a starting suggestion: do a 15 min warmup, 2 x 20 minute intervals with a 10 minute recovery, then a 10- 15 minute cool down. "You want to feel like you have worked hard but that you could have done more" Christians says. "For the racer, make it 3 x 20 minutes. I would save any high intensity training for the build phase (covered in the second article of this series). Zone two training is the best bang for your buck for improving your aerobic engine.” Include hills in your training. But don’t overdo it at this point. Add in one session a week of off-the-bike strength training, such as core stability exercises and weight lifting, to build overall strength and prevent injury. Monitor your progress and recovery With a Suunto GPS sport watch, like the sleek and powerful Suunto 9 Peak Pro, you can record all your training sessions and monitor your progress. Are you hitting your targets? Are you giving enough time to recover between sessions? Is your power improving? Your watch will tell you and keep you on track. Prepare your bike During the base phase, take time to study the race course and prepare your bike. “Six months out from a race I like to get a good idea of what the course will be like: the amount of climbing, and surface conditions would be key to understand,” Christian says. “These will inform me of two important factors: gearing and tire selection. Both can have a huge effect on your race. Too small gearing on a flat course and you could find yourself spinning out when you’re in a group and pushing the pace. Likewise, too big gearing on a hilly course could find you pushing too hard on the climbs, sapping power from your legs over the course of a long day. Take time to think this through.” Look out for the second article in our series about preparing for the Nordic Gravel Series. We’ll dive into how to build power, improve your technical skills and more! Lead image: © Nordic Gravel Series