Suunto Blog

With Suunto World Vertical Week 2022 around the corner (March 14-20), we reached out to Austrian ski mountaineer, sport scientist and coach Susi Kraft and asked about what goes into getting faster vertically. Susi is one half of the Berghasen, an awesome German-language blog covering everything you need to know about ski touring: training tips, tours, gear and so on. Like many Austrians, Susi grew up in the mountains, began skiing as a child and got into ski touring at university, and more recently trail running. Now the 29-year-old can’t stop. “With sports science I got deep insights into how training really works,” she says. “It made me rethink my own training.” The tendency, Susi says, among endurance athletes is to slip into doing too much high intensity training, even when they know they shouldn’t. And this is further compounded by vertical speed training because climbing steep gradients radically elevates heart rate. Why improving vertical speed is hard “It’s hard to train your aerobic base when you go uphill,” she says. “When your body isn’t used to endurance efforts, your heart rate increases quickly, the intensity gets turned up, your lactate levels start to max, which means the pH value in the body starts to fall. If it gets too low, the muscles and respiration don’t work economically anymore.” On top of this, while doing a lot of high intensity hill training can give short term gains, in the long term it can actually worsen your performance. So how to improve your vertical speed without blowing yourself out? Read on for Susi’s four tips and three training plans below! Susi trains in the mountains around Salzburg. © Berghasen Good things take time Suunto ambassador and mountain athlete Kilian Jornet is the Rolls Royce engine of vertical speed. We’d all like to be able to power uphill like he does. But Susi points something out we easily forget; Kilian got to where he is because he spent a decade or more training his base fitness, and that is achieved through low intensity training, not going overboard on hill repeats. “It takes patience to train your base,” Susi says. “You need a year, five years, or even longer to really accomplish that. The better your training, the better your base, the better your body will be able to handle intense exercise. So take the time to train your body to work economically. When you have a good base, you will be better able to do uphill training!” Embrace the flat This sounds counterintuitive, right? You might be thinking how you’ll ever get better sticking to flat terrain. Susi has a reply: “Flat training is important because it’s not that intense,” she explains. “You should combine terrain – half on flat, half in the hills. World class athletes never stop training their base, they just carefully combine it with more intense sessions.” Build strength If you’re really serious about wanting to improve vertical speed, then there’s no skipping legs day at the gym. Strength training for the lower and upper body are essential to getting faster. “The stronger you are, the easier it becomes,” Susi says. “If you can keep your upper body stable, your legs and arms can work more efficiently. This is really important for pushing uphill for a long time.” Improve your technique “Technique is really important for any sport you’re doing uphill. “You need to find the most economic way to move your body. I suggest practicing your technique on the flat so you can really focus on it without feeling exhausted.” Beginner, advanced and expert training plans Susi suggests following one of these plans for two weeks, then have a rest week with one to two additional rest days. Repeat the plan for several weeks with slowly increasing the length of the sessions after week six. Beginner Monday: Off day Tuesday: Core and mobility training Wednesday: 30 min run before breakfast at low intensity (70 % of your max heart rate). Thursday: Off day Friday: Strength training: legs and upper body Saturday: 30 min running or 40 min cycling at low intensity (70 % of your max heart rate). Sunday: 1,5h biking or 2 h hiking/skimo at low intensity Advanced Monday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Tuesday: Fartlek (interval) workout: 1 km at 60 % of your max heart rate then 1 km at 85 % of your max heart rate. Repeat five times. 10 min easy jog cool down. Wednesday: 45 min run before breakfast at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Thursday: Off day Friday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Saturday: 60 min running or 2 h cycling at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Sunday: 2,5h biking or 3 h hiking/skimo at low intensity Expert Monday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Tuesday: Fartlek (interval) workout: 1 km at 70 % of your max heart rate then 1 km at 85 % of your max heart rate. Repeat five times. 10 min easy jog cool down. Wednesday: 50 min run before breakfast at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Thursday: Off day Friday: Core stability followed by general strength training (hypertrophy) for legs and upper body. Flexibility exercises for cool down. Saturday: 80 min running or 2 h cycling at low intensity (70 % of you max heart rate). Sunday: 2,5h biking or 3 h hiking/skimo at low intensity. During the workout: 5x3 min. at 90 % of your maximum heart rate with at least 3 min. of easy jog between the 3 min. intervals Lead images: © Berghasen

KEEP UP WITH THE SUUNTO COMMUNITY The app has many ways in which it keeps you and our community engaged, helps you connect with people with similar interests and allows you to create everlasting training memories and to share relevant content with your friends or on social media. But, first things first: We value your privacy It's always up to you to decide how much you want to share. By default, after you have created your account in the app, your activities are private. Nevertheless, you can change that to any of the other two privacy options: show your activities to your followers or make them public for all the Suunto app users. Additionally, you can change that setting for every exercise individually. In the app's privacy settings, you can also define if you want to approve people before they can start following you. Read more about adjusting privacy settings with iOS and Android. Then: Create long-lasting training memories Edit your activities to make them memorable: write stories, add comments and comment on your friends' training, add photos and even videos taken during your activity. It matters even if you have a private account. This way, you create a visual diary for your activities and experiences. Share a data overlay image of your training After adding photos to your activities, you can share (or save) them with data overlays. You can add elements like altitude graph, total distance, the highest point and many more. You can also add a custom title text on top of the image. Share them with your friends, your social media, or save them for later in your files. Tap the "Share" button on your activity. Tap the information you have displayed to change it. Change the photo by choosing another one from your gallery. You can even share your training week, month, or year Want to show your friends your training days, duration per sports, distance, ascent and the active kcal? We have the best way for you to do that. On the app's main screen, tap the calendar or sports/h square and then choose what you want to share. You can send it directly to your friends, post it on your social media channels or save the image for later. Connect with your friends even if they aren't using our app (yet) You can sync your Suunto app account with our partner services, like Strava, Training Peaks, Relive and Fatmap, and reach your friends there, too. To connect your Suunto app with other services. Enable the automatic sync from under your Profile. Select the Partner services option and find the apps you want to connect your Suunto app to. Happy training!

Suunto athlete Lucy Bartholomew has published a book of her favourite recipes. Called Sustain your Ability, available in print and as an ebook, the plant based cookbook is loaded with delicious meals and treats designed to keep active people fuelled and thriving. “These are all recipes I’ve used to pursue my athletic pursuits from the age of 15 when I started, says Lucy, now 24. “I made the book for people who are trying to sustain an active lifestyle. I was going to call it ‘sustain’ which means to nourish, to thrive, to continue to live, and ‘sustainability’ is the ability to do that for yourself. So it’s for people who want to live a consistently sustainable life. This isn’t a book with some sort of dietary fad – like ‘follow this diet for one month and you'll reach peak fitness’ – it’s for those who are passionately dedicated to being active in the outdoors.” Now available for download, the book was three years in the making. A self described foodie, Lucy initially posted her favourite recipes on her blog and shared them via social media. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the Melbourne based runner suddenly found herself in lockdown, and prohibited from travelling more than five kilometers from her home. “I was thinking I’ve got to have a goal during this time otherwise I will lose motivation,” Lucy says. “COVID gave me time at home with a kitchen, it gave me time because I wasn’t training as much which also gave me a lot of energy. It was a nice distraction. It kept my dad and I very full.” While all the recipes are plant based or vegan, Lucy says they are easily adaptable for people who eat dairy products or meat. “The recipes have been inspired by my travels,” she says. “After Western States in 2018 I went to Mexico where I learned about the culture and the way they make things. Then I went to Nepal and that’s where the dal recipes came from. The meals these places produce are made with ingredients that aren’t super rare or expensive, they normally consist of rice and beans. “They are all meals I enjoy before, during and after runs,” Lucy continues. “It really shows how after nine years in the sport and the fact I still love it is because I’m able to be sustainable in the way I approach it, just like the way I eat.” Read more articles 9 bits of positivity from a crazy year 10 must-read Suunto articles from 2020 7 tips for running in the rain

If you love adventure like we do we want you to show it by sharing an awesome image from one of your recent trips on Instagram. Share your adventure pride, and you have a chance to get kitted out for your next trip: we have five Adventure Starter Packs to give away, each worth over 1350 euros!   Each starter pack includes a Suunto 9 GPS watch, an Arcteryx Alpha AR 20 backpack, an Insta360 action camera, a Jetboil portable stove and Oakley Clifden sunglasses. You’ll be ready to hit the trail!  How to enter:  1. Post an adventure image with text explaining what your best outdoor adventure has been or what your dream outdoor adventure would be. 2. Tag #adventurestartshere and #suunto, #arcteryx, #insta360, #jetboil, #oakley in your copy text. 3. Follow @suunto  We’ll choose the 5 most inspiring posts among those tagged with #adventurestartshere plus #suunto #arcteryx #insta360 #jetboil and #oakley, and send the adventure gear their way soon after. Contest ends on November 23 at 8 am GMT. The most inspiring posts will win. Good luck! Terms and conditions apply. Read them here. 

The weather is more than just a topic for small talk for outdoor people. It can directly impact our safety, or less dramatically, the awesomeness of an activity or adventure. How many of you have ever been caught out by an April snowstorm when you were up in the mountains? Or how about running out of light before you made it to shelter or back to the road end? These can sometimes be alarming experiences. The good news is Suunto has solutions for these scenarios and more. Read on for some of our tools for weather intel.   © wisthaler.com SuuntoPlus Weather Whether you’re out hiking, trekking, ultra running, climbing or mountain biking, it’s wise to track the weather and environmental changes. That way there will be no unpleasant surprises. The Weather insights SuuntoPlus feature on Suunto 9 Baro helps you to do just this. It gives you a heads up on the conditions while you’re out there. A combination of functions – storm alarms, temperature readings, barometric trends, sun and moon phases and more – give you the intel you need to make smart and safe decisions in the outdoors. Here’s an overview of the weather insights you’ll get: Sunrise / Sunset The upcoming sunrise or sunset, depending on which is next. This tells you when to pack up and get going, for example, or how much daylight you have left to finish your activity for the day. Temperature Take your watch off to avoid your body heat skewing the results, and place it on something to get an accurate temperature reading. To get a water temperature reading, place it underwater (below 10 cm/ 4 inches). After you remove the watch the temperature is shown for 30 seconds, and is indicated with a separate temperature icon.NOTE: Measuring the water temperature will affect the ascent/descent values as these are pressure based. Estimated time of arrival (ETA) If the estimated time of arrival goes past sunset, it will be shown in red. This gives you heads up on how you are doing for time, whether you need to speed up or have enough slack to cruise. Barometric trend and storm alarm The barometric trend is shown on the bottom of the screen, with the current barometric value. The Suunto storm alarm is automatically shown if the pressure drops 4 hPa (0.12 inHg) or more during a three hour period. Oxygen level If you are above 2000 m (6 561 ft) your watch will give you a reading on the oxygen % compared to sea level. Read how to use Weather on your Suunto 9 Baro here. New outdoor watch face The new Outdoor watch face on Suunto 9 and Suunto 5 gives you a heads up at a glance. No need to press any buttons; basic info is displayed right on the face in bright colours, including – depending on your watch – sunset and sunrise times, barometric trend, and more. Read more about it here.    MyRadar Get sophisticated weather forecasts on your Suunto 7 with MyRadar, a free Wear OS app. MyRadar has two components; conventional weather forecasting and also an impressive high definition radar display of your location with time lapse shots of the weather fronts moving around your location, as these two pictures illustrate. The weather forecasting offers hour by hour updates, lightning and weather alerts, precipitation predictions, and conventional daily and hourly forecasting. The high definition view and the accuracy of MyRadar has made it the go to weather app for many outdoors people. Get the app here. Klimat This cool little service automatically adds the weather conditions from the beginning of your activity to your training log. No need to install anything on your phone; just sign up online and you’re in business. It allows you to look back and see when you braved the rain, or were out in that last horrendous storm. You can choose the data and style, including emoji preferences, set the format and label it according to your purpose or aim. For an extra $5 a year, you get everything the free membership offers, plus some useful additional features such as air quality data, location info, and the removal of branding. Start using Klimat here.   Sunrise and sunset alarms This helpful feature gives you alerts when sunrise or sunset is approaching Photographers and fishermen, for example, won’t miss the golden hour again! For Hikers, climbers and trekkers, an alarm will tell you when the sun is rising so you know it’s time to pack up and get going. Conversely, an alarm lets you know when sunset is coming, telling you how much daylight you have to play with before finding shelter. The alarms in your Suunto 9 and Suunto 5 are adaptive alarms based on your location. You decide when the alarm goes off, depending on how much in advance you want to be alerted before the sun rises or sets. Set Sunset/sunrise alarms in Settings -> Alarms. Learn more about alarms on Suunto 9 here and alarms on Suunto 5 here. Storm alarm A significant drop in barometric pressure typically means a storm is coming and you seek shelter. When the storm alarm is active, your Suunto 9 Baro sounds an alarm and displays a storm symbol when the pressure drops 4 hPa (0.12 inHg) or more during a three hour period. Activate Storm alarm in Settings -> Alarms -> Storm alarm. Learn more about storm alarm on Suunto 9 Baro here. When your storm alarm sounds, pressing any button dismisses the alarm. If no button is pressed, the alarm notification lasts for one minute. The storm symbol remains on the display until the weather conditions stabilize.  Moon phases In addition to sunrise and sunset times, your watch can track moon phases. Based on the date in your watch, this feature is particularly useful if you plan to be moving at night; it will indicate how much moon light you can count on for visibility. The moon phase is available as a view on the Outdoor watch face of Suunto 9 and Suunto 5 mentioned above. Tap on the screen to change the lower row until you see the moon icon and percentage. Outdoor insights Suunto 9 Baro constantly measures absolute air pressure using its built in pressure sensor. This sensor plays a key role in determining barometric trends, storm alarms, temperature and more. Based on this measurement and your altitude reference value, it calculates altitude, or air pressure. Swipe up or press the lower button to view the Outdoor insights including current altitude and barometric pressure, the current temperature and the altimeter and barometer trend graphs. To see barometric trends on a Suunto 7, you can use the Baro Trends Wear OS app.

The new Outdoor watch face for the Suunto 9 Baro, 9, 5 and 3 watches allows users to track conditions and daylight hours with just a quick glance. No need to press buttons or scroll – the essential info is presented on the screen. Suunto UX designer Jeanette Lau supported the development and says the motivation behind the watch face was to support users with their adventure planning. “We wanted to inspire and equip users for their outdoor adventures,” she says. “We conducted some research and we learned many of our users felt as if there wasn’t enough time in the day and wanted to know what the conditions were before embarking on their adventure.” Click to learn about 8 tools to track the weather with Suunto For all of the above watches, the Outdoor watch face features a sun gauge that displays the number of night and daylight hours before sunrise and sunset. Tap the screen once, and the watch face displays the number of hours until sunset or sunrise, plus the battery life remaining, or the moon phase, which is helpful because on a full moon night you know you’ll have extra light to stay out a little longer. “Most of the time we feel as if there isn’t enough time in the day,” Jeanette says. “But with this watch face, I can see exactly how much time I have for a run before the sun sets without having to do the math myself.” On the Suunto 9 Baro On Suunto 9 Baro watches – which have a barometer – the Outdoor watch face also displays an air pressure gauge along with current altitude. With two taps on the screen, a more detailed screen appears, displaying the barometric trend and, once they are 2000 m or higher, the oxygen percentage. On the Suunto 9, Suunto 5 and Suunto 3 Rather than extra barometric info, on the Suunto 9, 5, and 3 watches, the Outdoor watch face includes a steps gauge that quickly tells users where they’re at with their daily step goal and how many calories they have burned. To get the outdoor watch face on your Suunto 9 Baro, Suunto 9, Suunto 5 or Suunto 3, make sure you have the latest software version on your watch and then enter the watch face selection in your watch settings and choose the newly loaded face. Read more articles 8 tools for tracking the weather with Suunto