Suunto Blog

Jonathan Wyatt needs no introduction in mountain running circles. He's the eight time winner of the world mountain running grand prix series. Below, he offers seven tips to help road runners transition to trail. Running on changing, uneven terrain develops muscles that road running doesn’t really reach. The body responds to the terrain by using stabilizing muscles, balance and core. But transitioning from road to trail requires care. These seven tips will help you make the change. 1. Start progressively Following Killian Jornet up the Matterhorn might look like fun, but you’ll enjoy it more when you move up the technical scale over time, adding more technical and longer runs as your confidence and trail fitness increase. If a normal run for you is one hour on city streets then start by running 30 minutes road and 30 minutes trail to make a gradual transition. Start on easier trails before hitting the mountains, Wyatt says. ©Jonathan Wyatt 2. Shorter stride A soft and slippery trail will give a greater workout sometimes resulting in fatigue or strain in the hamstring area. Don’t fight against a slippery uphill or downhill, instead reduce your stride length and increase your leg speed (turnover) so you’re putting less power down through your feet on each step. This reduces slipping. Running on sand is a good way to train this. 3. Scan ahead Read the trail ahead and don’t just react to what’s immediately below you. With road running you can look at your feet, but not so out on the trails. You want to scan ahead rather than looking down at where your feet are going to land. By instead reading the terrain ahead, your feet will follow where your eyes are leading. 4. Learn to play the trail Look for good lines to find the most efficient part of the trail and use banking on corners for smooth, fast entry and exit speeds – especially downhill. Learn to play on the trail where you can use terrain features to slingshot out of corners, accelerate from downhill into ascents and, most importantly, to have fun! Trail running reduces overuse injuries common with roadrunners. ©Droz Photo 5. Care for your ankles Roadrunners often twist an ankle when they take on more technical running terrain. To improve ankle proprioception – eye-foot coordination – trying using a wobble board or practice standing on one foot, making sure the knee is centered over your second toe as you look down. Tendons and foot muscles can take a pounding if you’re not used to uneven terrain and these exercises strengthen them. Close your eyes and do slow knee bends to spice it up too. 6. Find local trails for your level Finding the best trails is not always easy so if you’re new to off-road running, talk to trail runners, go online or find popular routes in your area on Suunto App's heat maps to find suitable running trails. Remember safety is first, so you’ll need more equipment, preparation and common sense when running in the great outdoors. Jono Wyatt is an eight time winner of the world mountain running grand prix series. ©zooom.at/Markus Berger 7. Remember, hills are your friends The changing terrain will help you avoid overuse injuries that can occur when running on repetitive flat surfaces. Add more hills as you grow stronger off road. Remember too, the softer ground and grass on many trails also help to reduce the impact of downhill running on joints and muscles.

In the second episode of #SuuntoAdventure Video Series you will meet Canadian ski mountaineer Greg Hill. As one of the world’s leading ski mountaineers, Greg has pioneered first descents, summited over 190 mountains and climbed and skied millions of meters. Along the way he has broken records, like skied two million vertical feet in a calendar year and 100.000 meters in a month. Read Greg's profile here.    Next episode of #SuuntoAdventure Video Series will be out in two weeks. Stay tuned!Watch also: Face to Face with Emelie Forsberg – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 1 Face to Face with Kilian Jornet – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 3 Face to Face with William Trubridge – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 4 Face to Face with Conrad Stoltz – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 5

Make no mistake, Greg Hill is fit. Super-human fit. As one of the world’s leading ski mountaineers, he has pioneered first descents, summited over 190 mountains and climbed and skied millions of meters. For Greg, winter isn’t complete without pushing himself. Which is why he spent March 2014 tackling 100,000 m of vertical in deep in his native Canada’s backcountry Why? “I've always been curious about my human potential and to see what I can do,” says Greg. The March Madness campaign saw him skiing for up to 10 hours a day to cover between 3,000m to 4,000m of vertical. And if that wasn’t tricky enough, he never skied the same place twice and summited 11 mountains on the way. “It was as hard as anything I've done, waking up every morning and getting out there,” says Greg, but the long climbs were rewarded with stunning powder runs: “It was the best human-powered powder month ever! It was ridiculous. This was 97% great skiing!” Believe it or not, that’s not Revelstoke-based Greg’s biggest vertical achievement. Back in 2010 he dedicated a year of his life to climbing and skiing two million feet (609,600 m). The challenge took him to four different countries and saw him climb 114 km and ski 1,039 days. 77 of those days saw him tackle over 3,000 meters of vertical, and his toughest day involved a 7,000m climb and ski. After reaching his target, Greg celebrated the way he knows best; by putting his skins back on and doing one more lap. “My legs felt light, my pace free and the turns great of course,” blogged Greg afterwards. He’s clocked in a few records over the years as well. He was the first North American to climb and ski 40,000 ft (12,200m) in 24 hours, set the Spearhead traverse record in an impressive four hours one minute and was once climbed and skied Mont Blanc in a day. No wonder he was labeled one of the Top 25 fittest men in the world by Men’s Fitness in 2011. What led Greg to these super-human feats? Trees! One million of them. His former summer job was planting spruce and pine trees. As he was paid per tree, he pushed himself to plant around 1,500 a day and discovered a talent for logging hours in the backcountry. “It taught me a lot about how to persevere,” says Greg.

There are some adventure sports that have only been around for a matter of years, sports like ice-climbing, kiteboarding. Then there are others that have existed for only hundreds of years, like skiing and running. But there's one sport that has been around since the dawn of time itself – freediving. Humans have been holding their breath and diving in water for thousands of years – to fish, and more recently, to have fun and compete. In fact, humans are so uniquely adapted to going underwater it's possible to argue that we've freediving before we even became human. What happens during a dive? Check the infographic below: Graphic: ©zooom.at/Adi Sumic What are those special attributes that we share with other aquatic beings that make freediving possible? It all comes down to the so-called 'dive reflex'. The main feature of this is the slowing of the heart which automatically occurs once the face is submerged in water. This has the effect of reducing oxygen consumption so you can hold your breath for longer. The dive reflex kicks in again after approximately 25 m: the heart rate slows by as much as 50% and vasoconstriction takes place. This is where warm blood retreats from the body's extremities to protect core organs. Again, this has the effect of lengthening the time we can spend underwater. Will Trubridge competing at the 2014 Suunto Vertical Blue ©Daan Verhoeven At this depth most divers can stop swimming – and just freefall to the depths below. It is this part of the dive that can induce the most pleasant feelings. Many freedivers feel euphoric as they enter an almost trance-like state. Descent can be as fast as a meter a second so a world class freediver can expect to reach a depth of 100 m after approximately 1m 30s. At this depth lung volume will have shrunk from approximately 6 lt to 500 ml. The ascent is then the most psychologically challenging part of the dive as divers fight the urge to breathe. Stomach contractions kick in. Hallucinations are not uncommon. The most dangerous part of the dive is then the last 10 m to the surface – this is where the pressure difference is at its greatest and O2 supplies at their lowest – and divers are at risk of blacking out. But it's not just about the depth. Competition diving and its many disciplines are only one aspect of the sport. For most freedivers, the sport is just about hanging out with friends and exploring the underwater world. Main image ©zooom.at/Agustin Munoz

Tech diving means going deeper for longer and requires, as the name suggests, a more technical understanding of what's going on with your gases. In this second part on Suunto algorithms, we go deeper into Suunto's RGBM. For technical divers, there are two key reasons Suunto’s Reduced Gradient Bubble Model, or RGBM, algorithm stands out. The first is microbubbles. No other brand of dive computer takes into account the accumulation of inert gases on this level. At any given point, even when you’re on dry land, your veins and arteries have microbubbles filled with these inert gases. When small, they’re of no consequence. But when they expand from time at depth, they begin to limit off-gassing. The deeper you dive, the greater a risk factor microbubbles potentially become. Suunto’s computers will force you to decrease your ascent rate when microbubbles start to become an issue. Second, Suunto is the only brand whose computers factor in the risk of isobaric counterdiffusion (ICD), which can potentially occur on ascent. Normally, as you breathe while making your way back to the surface, you’re off-gassing; however, depending on your gas blend, these inert gases could travel further into your system as opposed to out, due to the increasing partial pressures of gases upon ascent. Suunto’s computers will alert you when you’re at risk of ICD, and will alter your ascent plan as necessary to keep you safe. How does ICD affect divers? Hear Dr Wienke explain below and check out our other video guides to our algorithms here.

In the first episode of #SuuntoAdventure Video Series you will meet Swedish trail runner, ski mountaineer and mountain lover Emelie Forsberg.  Emelie is all smiles – but don't let that fool you: she is fiercely competitive, too. Read Emelie's profile here.  Watch also the other episodes in the series: Face to Face with Greg Hill – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 2 Face to Face with Kilian Jornet – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 3 Face to Face with William Trubridge – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 4 Face to Face with Conrad Stoltz – #SuuntoAdventure Video Series, Episode 5