Suunto Blog

Top triathlete Åsa Lundström shares 7 tips to help you get the most from your spring training camp. © OrcaSuunto athlete Åsa Lundström has been putting in 35-hour training weeks at a spring training camp at the Playitas Resort on the Canary Islands. She came fourth at the recent South Africa Ironman, qualifying herself for the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii this October – her main goal this year. Åsa says going to a spring training camp somewhere warm allows people from colder climes to boost their training volume to prepare for the coming season. “Most long distance triathletes have the Kona Ironman as their main goal and in order to elevate our base level we need to have a big training block and a spring camp is a really good way to achieve that,” Åsa says. “Most triathletes want to boost their cycling at spring camps because that's the hardest discipline to train at home during the winter months.”© Orca Don’t overdo it When you’re at a camp there are so many motivated people and groups it’s easy to get carried away. If you plan to start out with a three-hour ride and you go with someone who wants to do a four or five hour ride, it's very easy to get pulled along with them. Unsurprisingly, it’s not uncommon for people to train too hard and crash their immune system and then go home, catch a cold and not be able to train for two weeks. Being patient and not getting carried away is probably the hardest part of being on a camp.© Orca Stick to your plan Create a training plan for the camp with your coach before you leave so you have a clear idea of what you’re going to do. This helps you to avoid overdoing it. Of course if you feel fresh and you feel strong it’s important to push a bit harder. You need that to stay motivated and to get the endorphins. But still don't get carried away and overdo it. The risk is you will hit the wall. Rest and eat well Most people train a lot more at a camp than they do at home. They go to boost their training. It's important to remember then that you need more sleep and to take good care of your nutritional intake by eating good quality food. At the beginning of a camp you are so filled with endorphins and energy and you’re in the warm sunshine, it’s easy to feel like you don’t need so much sleep. Even if you’re only on a one-week training camp it’s important to get eight or nine hours of sleep every night even when you feel you don’t need it.© Åsa Lundström Take your nutrition If you’re going to a training camp where you haven’t been before it can be difficult finding the sports nutrition you use for your training. So if you don't know what you can get there, make sure to bring enough of your own. Find a buddy Training with a buddy, or even just around other triathletes, means you can push yourself to a higher level. If you train for many hours it’s always good to have a partner. If you have someone who is at your level, it’s a constant source of motivation because you will be racing against these people. © Åsa Lundström Foam roll and stretch I go to the gym to workout, stretch properly and do foam rolling. I do it as prevention. A light massage half way through a camp is a good thing. Avoid deep massage because that can make your muscles sorer and they might need a rest afterwards. Focus on volume Most people go on a spring training camp because they can’t get the volume in at home because it’s too cold. So the natural thing is to do the volume training, which is cycling and running. Take the opportunity to do longer sessions. It’s also a good time to practice open water swimming if you’re somewhere where the water temperature is nice. Don’t focus on technique, but build strength and practice navigating. Lead image: © Orca/Gines Diaz

“Scuba diving saved my life,” says cancer survivor Leo Morales. He’s living proof that diving is for everyone.Flying underwater – Leo's happy place. On the shore of Mexico’s Playa del Carmen, 43-year-old Leo Morales does what he lives for: sharing the joy of scuba diving. But his scuba school has a particular focus.“We’re making diving accessible for everyone,” he says. “We focus on teaching people with disabilities, people who use wheelchairs, and also the visually impaired. We want to break the old concept that you have to be tough for scuba, that it’s better for men. “The most incredible reward is the look in their eyes when they discover they’re free from the wheelchair, from the crutches, from having to drag their weight. You show people they are able to fly. They’re always so grateful.”Leo aims to show people with disabilities can do amazing things. Leo’s passion for diving began after a close call with cancer. He was 28 years old, enjoying a successful career as a bank manager. At the office one day he felt a strange pain in his back and went to the doctor. The diagnosis rocked him: he had a cancerous tumor growing on the inside of his right leg and buttock – it weighed 3kg and was two years old. Having the leg amputated was his only chance of survival. And even then, doctors said he would only live for another five years. After 12 hours of surgery, Leo woke up and looked down and saw flat bed sheets where his right leg had once been. Out of hospital he had to learn to walk again, how to use the toilet, get in and out of bed – everything was hard work. After losing his job for simply having a disability, Leo fell into depression. He felt like his life was over. But then a friend invited Leo to join him on a scuba dive. The first dive was “a nightmare”. Leo sunk to the bottom and fought with the water. On the second dive, his friend grabbed him underwater and swam along with Leo until he worked out how to propel himself. “That moment changed my life,” Leo says. “After that experience I became addicted to the ocean.”Now Leo is a dive master, scuba instructor and technical diver. And he also holds two world records: for the deepest dive (125 m) by a person with a disability and the longest dive (16km in 8h16m) for a person with a disability. His next goal is to set a world record for the deepest cave dive by a person with a disability. “The main point is to send a powerful message that people with disabilities are no different than people who are physically normal,” Leo says. “We can achieve amazing things with the proper training and equipment.”

Elite South African trail runner and Suunto athlete Meg MacKenzie also works as a coach, helping runners to develop the mental skills required to achieve their dreams. She writes below about drawing on the power of commitment.© Sven Musica As the trail running season gets closer runners sometimes overcommit to too many events or don't fully commit to any. Both result in half-hearted goals that may or may not be reached. My advice is to think carefully and commit to one or two really important goal races with 100% whole heartedness. Here’s how! IMT (inspiring, moving and touching) Choose an event that is inspiring, moving and touching. Choosing an event to commit to 100% requires that it’s an exciting for you. Otherwise your discipline is bound to waver; you will begin to look at other races. Choose wisely and dream big! Make sure it is out of your comfort zone by about 20%. More than this and you may be overwhelmed. Less than this, and it’ll be too easy. Click to read Meg's tips on how to bring mindfulness to the trail!© Sven Musica Use the power of speech There is very real power in our words when we talk with others. We have the ability to create what we desire through our word by using it as an action. A speech act is a verbal declaration of what one is committing to, and by when. For it to be effective, it should be a clear, strong and specific commitment: “I promise to …” “I commit to …” “I shall …” Avoid weak sentences: “I’ll try…” “I want to …” “I would like to …” Whatever you verbally commit to must be followed by a clear goal about by when it will become a reality. For example: “I commit to running a sub 3h30m marathon on October 12, 2016.” This is much clearer, and more specific than: “I’ll try to do my best at the marathon.” Another good example might be: “I will lose 3kg by May 30 this year” as opposed to: “I’ll try to lose weight.” Be specific! © Sven Musica Take responsibility As people, we constantly try to find reasons as to why things happen to us. Perhaps we keep getting injured, and we look for something to blame. Or our running buddy keeps bailing and then we feel our lack of fitness is his or her fault. The more A type personalities out there might find a convenient reason to justify why they didn’t stick to a rest day. The list is endless! It’s crucial to simply accept and take responsibility for your actions, whatever they are. When you can do this fully, imagine the power your commitments have!© Sven Musica Watch the little things Your subconscious mind is a super powerful recording device that remembers all the times you have or haven’t done what you said you would do. It doesn’t record the excuses, and whether they are legit or not. If you promised to go to gym at 6am but you press snooze and go at 6.30 this is recorded and your integrity is compromised. Likewise, if you promise to meet a friend for coffee at 11am and you get there at 11:05, it’s recorded as a time when you broke your word. These add up and impact your overall integrity or character. The gist is, how can you expect yourself to reach your BIG goals if you cannot trust yourself with little ones? They are directly related, so keep a check on your integrity. It’s the fuel behind the power of your word.

Kate Middleton lives on a tiny island in the Indonesian archipelago and spends her days exploring the ocean and doing yoga. The two “conscious practices” completely changed her life and her relationship with herself. Now she has nothing to prove.Kate teaches yoga and freediving on Gili Trawangan. © Kate Middleton Before visiting the sun-spoilt shores of Indonesia, Kate Middleton was a hard driving overachiever. But there she became a yoga teacher and freediver, and it changed everything. “Before, I had this drive to prove I was worthy enough by achieving different things,” says the 27-year-old. “It was super exhausting and it’s a vicious cycle because even when you do achieve things you always feel it isn’t enough and you need to do more. “Now, I don’t do anything out of force or out of striving.” Most days Kate trains and plays in the ocean. © Kate Middleton With parents from Canada and New Zealand, Kate grew up between the rugged wilderness of Victoria, BC and the peaceful east coast of Auckland. As a teen, she struggled with eating disorders and low self-esteem, which led her to yoga as form of self-therapy. “It was my own secret practice,” she says, “and gave me a connection back to myself.” After finishing high school, Kate went travelling and while in Bali she trained as a yoga teacher. She also trained as a scuba instructor, but soon found scuba didn’t satisfy a longing for a close connection to the ocean.Press play to listen to Kate's poem about why she freedives! While in Bali, she visited Gili Trawangan, a tiny two by three kilometre island 35 km to the east. It was there she discovered freediving – and love. She met her business partner and boyfriend, fellow freediver and 13-time British record holder Mike Board. Kate expected to stay a few weeks, but eight years later they’re still there, running a retreat center, an organic café and a yoga and freediving school.Partner Mike Board is also a competitive freediver. © Kate Middleton Kate likes to think of yoga and freediving as two among a number of “conscious practices” that are growing in popularity, along with an increasing interest in holistic, healthy living. For her, teaching both is a privilege. “When teaching either there is a lot that comes up for students in terms of thoughts, beliefs and emotions, it's very psychological, so it creates an intimate connection between a teacher and a student,” she says. “Helping someone to learn to trust their body is such a special thing.”© Kate MiddletonKate is currently in the Bahamas competing in Suunto Vertical Blue 2016, perhaps the highest profile depth diving competition in the world. This week she set a new national record for New Zealand in the Constant Weight discipline by diving to 85 m, beating her last record by 10 m. In 2015, she won silver at the AIDA Individual Depth World Championships. Hit play to find out more about Suunto Vertical Blue! It might sound like she’s still an overachiever, but her motivation comes from a different place now.“I still enjoy progressing and challenging myself, but I’m also happy with where I’m at now,” she says. “Freediving and yoga are transformational. Both are tools that teach us to observe and return to the simplicity of the here and now, the fact there’s just one breath in this moment and you can always come back to it when you’re stressed. “It’s amazing to witness how they both completely transform people’s lives.”

Underwater photographer Daan Verhoeven specializes in capturing freedivers exploring the boundaries of human potential as they drop into the deep and return on single breath. Under the surface, it’s a quiet, meditative journey freedivers go on and Daan is one of the foremost photographers at bringing this beautiful essence of the sport to the world. We’re proud to announce Daan is taking over the @suuntodive Instagram account starting Monday, April 25. He is documenting the Suunto Vertical Blue 2016 freediving competition in the Bahamas and will share images and stories to give us an inside view. Get to know Daan and make sure to follow @suuntodive this week. It’ll be beautiful and exciting! Daan Verhoeven's underwater selfie Who is Daan Verhoeven? I'm an underwater photographer and freedive instructor from the Netherlands, living in the UK. Where do you dive? Wherever there is water! I've freedived in tiny pools, medium rivers, big lakes, huge oceans, in a fjord in Sweden, in holes in Dahab and Bahamas. Now that I've moved to Cornwall, I dive a lot there, in beautiful gullies and with fantastic kelp and seals and sharks. What is it about the underwater world that inspires you? The freedom and diversity. I love the sensation of being free of gravity, exploring subjects much more three-dimensionally. And the diversity, as in the countless shades of blue and green and yellow water can become, the wild abundance of fish and creatures that live there, and how people from babies to geriatrics can play in water. Daan Verhoeven's view of Stig Pryds during Vertical Blue training earlier this week. How would you describe your photography style? Wet, mostly. My father was a philosopher and said a wonderful thing about style: "Style is a voluntary restriction of available means." So I chose to photograph while freediving – that's already a restriction that influences my style. I think I frame in a fairly classical way. I like clean compositions with strong leading lines. And I edit to bring back skin colors, which is actually not something you really see at depth, so there's a hyper-reality to it. So wet, classical, hyper-realism?   Is there a story you wish to tell with your images? One of the things I love about freediving is how it shows people their aquatic potential – with a bit of knowledge and instruction suddenly they can do things they never thought possible. It's not just the realm of some super humans – humans ARE super. With my photography I like to celebrate the beauty and the joy of people in water, and document the grace and poetry of freediving.   Follow @SuuntoDive and @daanverhoevenfreediver to see more of Daan’s work. Check out also daanverhoeven.com and go dive with him at Aqua City Freediving All images: ©Daan Verhoeven MORE TO READ FREEDIVERS READY TO TAKE THE PLUNGE AT SUUNTO VERTICAL BLUE 2016 BRAD HOLLAND TAKES OVER @SUUNTODIVE FOR A WEEK COMPETITION FREEDIVING: THE SECRET TO DOING WELL

36 freedivers from 20 countries are preparing for Vertical Blue 2016, the elite freediving competition held at the world’s deepest blue hole in the Bahamas. It starts on April 22 and runs for 11 days. Get a view from the inside here. Dean's Blue Hole has a depth of 202 m. © samovidic.com/ zooom.at On the white sandy shores surrounding the deep, still waters of Dean’s Blue Hole waves of activity come and go. Under the warm tropical sun, freedivers, competition judges, safety staff, photographers, media and organizers are preparing for Suunto Vertical Blue 2016, the most important depth diving competition of the year. The athletes are putting the finishing touches on their training, or resting up and preparing their bodies with yoga and relaxation exercises. Diving down into the murky depths on a single breath requires total relaxation, which is more difficult to maintain under competition conditions. Click here to learn about the different disciplines of competition freediving Spectators look on as the competition gets underway. © samovidic.com/ zooom.at Safety staff are busy finalizing protocols. Organisers are testing underwater cameras, including a new underwater drone that will follow each diver down and back again – a world first for a freediving competition. We caught up with some of the players to give you a sneak peak behind the scenes. The world champ William is the first and only person to freedive to 101 m with no assistance. © samovidic.com/ zooom.at Suunto athlete, world champion freediver, and competition host William Trubridge usually wins the top spot, which is more likely this year as his friend and rival Alex Molchanov isn’t competing this year. The competition might still prove challenging for William. “I've had a lot of recent injuries and sickness, so I am still not in top form,” he explains. “I'm treating this more as a warm-up competition for the season, but if I start doing good dives during the 11 days of the event then who knows?”  How deep do they dive? Click for a visual guide! The island yogi Kate runs a freediving and yoga school on an island near Bali. © katemiddletonyoga.com Four weeks ago New Zealand record-holding freediver and yoga teacher Kate Middleton travelled from her tiny island home in Indonesia to tiny Long Island, the home of Dean’s Blue Hole, to focus on training for Vertical Blue 2016. The 27-year-old ocean lover is satisfied with her preparation. “I’ve done all of the training that I can do beforehand,” she says. “Now I will benefit most from staying dry and resting up.” For Kate, the competition is the pinnacle of the world’s freediving competitions. The professional organization, the robust safety system, the media attention and the level of competition make it special, she says. With no individual depth world championship in 2016, Vertical Blue is the most important competition of the year. Read: The secret to freediving – relaxation. Yoga helps freedivers to move fluidly and efficiently. © katemiddletonyoga.com “All the activity is centred around the blue hole,” Kate says. “Pre- dive, most people are very quiet and focused. Post-dive everyone is really social and chatty. Everyone understands each other in that way. There's a lot of respect for where someone is at.” Achieving her personal goals for the competition is one thing, but for Kate one of the main reasons she attends is for the community it offers. “Freediving is a small sport so it’s rare that you're around so many people who have also devoted their life to this and to share something like that you really develop strong friendships quickly. Freediving brings everyone together.” The judges CarlaSue Hanson says its going to be a big 11 days. © Francesca Koe President of AIDA International (Association for the Development of Apnea) CarlaSue Hanson is one of the judges at this year’s competition. To be a judge requires completing a specific AIDA course. Competition organizers pick judges according to their level of experience, something CarlaSue has in spades. “The main responsibility of the judge is to ensure that all requirements of the rules of AIDA International are upheld,” she explains. “Safety is the main concern above all else.” As AIDA president, CarlaSue knows many of the competitors. “It does help to know the divers when tracking the results and also watching for any indications of stress or possible injury. I have a little record in my head about the past dives and it gives me some indication of what I might expect to see.”  Click to learn how to become a freediver!William Trubridge resting before a dive. © samovidic.com/ zooom.at Like Kate, CarlaSue sees Vertical Blue as a prestigious event that attracts the world’s best freedivers. “The unique setting and calm water of the lagoon provide for consistent conditions without excessive wind and current,” she says. “It’s also easier for all of us, as the competition site is so close to the shore so we don’t have to take a boat out to the venue. “It is also one of the only competitions where we have spectators. The other athletes can watch their friends and rivals dive and we also have locals and tourists coming out to cheer and enjoy the competition.” Chief of safety Stephen Keenan runs a freediving school in Dahab, Egypt. © Francesca Koe Competitive freediver and freediving instructor trainer Stephen Keenan is chief of safety this year. In previous years he has performed the role of platform coordinator so he knows well how to run a tight operation. “My role is crucial to keep things running smoothly and to create a comfortable environment for the athletes to do their best,” he says. Freedivers to watch CarlaSue knows who’s who in the freediving world. She says there’s a lot of talent at this year’s event that she expects to do well. Sayuri Kinoshita, Japan “She won the overall women's gold medal at Vertical Blue 2015 and was also CNF gold medallist at the AIDA World Championship.” Sofia Gomez, Columbia At last year's competition she earned national records in the sport’s three disciplines: FIM, CNF, CWT. Marianna Krupnitskaya, Russia In 2014, Marianna was the world's number one ranked female freediver. Last year she became the Russian national depth champion. Johnny Sunnex, New Zealand Johnny won bronze at the AIDA World Depth Championship in 2013. He served as chief of safety at Vertical Blue 2014. New to Vertical Blue “We have some other athletes that are big names in freediving but are new to Vertical Blue: Aolin Wang and Jessea Lu of China, Italian Homar Leuci, Camilla Jaber from Mexico, Stephane Tourreau from France, American Ashleigh Baird and a local Bahamian Luke Maillis.” CarlaSue expects many national freediving records to fall. At last year's competition 29 national records were broken by 12 freedivers.  Click here to read about last year's results and here to see this year's athletes.