Suunto Blog

Suunto UK has partnered up with the Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds in England. Amongst the 5,000 professionals and amateur triathletes competing, there is one that caught our eye – Jim McKellar – who just so happens to be the same age as us. Both Jim and Suunto turned 80 this year! We got in touch and found out a little more about what makes him tick. As a veteran of 120 marathons and ultras alongside being a member of the Great Britain Age-Group Team at the ITU World Championships, Jim McKellar, or ‘Old Bullet’ as he is known by his running friends after his multiple exploits at the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of our self-imposed limitations. But what makes his achievements particularly impressive is that he only took up running at 51 after being made redundant from his workplace of 25 years. “I lost my pride and became a bit of a mess,” Jim tells us. “My doctor told me that if I carried on like I was, I’d be dead in five years. So I entered the London Marathon. That was back in 1992.” Twenty consecutive London marathons later, and it’s fair to say he'd got the bug. You’re never too old to take up triathlon But it wasn’t until the ripe old age of 74, shortly after completing his 120th marathon, which happened to be the 89 km long Comrades (for the third time), that he took up triathlon and in the following year entered the 2012 Windsor Triathlon, even though he didn’t know how to swim. “Triathlon training is horrendous,” he laughs, “but I’m getting there”. The following year, in 2013, he qualified for the ITU World Championship at Hyde Park and competed in the 75–79 age group, coming 3rd in the country and 10th in the world, one of his proudest achievements. He had hoped to return the following year, but it wasn’t meant to be. Overcoming setbacks Sadly, not long afterwards Jim suffered a major setback. Out cycling with his club, he was involved in a collision with a car, suffering injuries to his pelvis and a chipped bone in his right leg that required specialist treatment and skin grafts. For 18 months walking was hard enough, let alone running or cycling. Now, most people under the circumstances might decide to call it quits, but not Jim. Indeed, if ever a man embodied the spirit of Suunto, a determination to win and to never give up, Jim is it. “I need that challenge of getting up in the morning,” he continues. “My wife had myeloma cancer and for the past three years, I looked after her 24/7. We battled on. I’m battling on now – I will not give up.” Sadly, his wife passed away in March, making him even more resolved to compete in this year’s Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds. However, Leeds won’t be without its challenges if Jim is to achieve his goal of winning gold in his age group (M80-84) as a tribute to his late wife Lily – and in the process raise money for MacMillan. “My leg injuries have curtailed my training a little,” he says with a wry smile. “I’m not bothered about the swim or bike – I’m riding a hundred miles a week – and my swimming’s come on a treat, but I’ve had to adopt a let’s get round job in the run element.” “Every morning I do exercises up lampposts to get rid of all the stiffness in my leg. But I’m up to six to eight miles of fast walking and jogging, which I’m pleased with considering three months ago I couldn’t go 100 yards.” And so he should be pleased. Because as Jim points out, people don’t use their full potential and simply compete in their comfort zone. So perhaps we should follow his example, and learn to push ourselves beyond the norm. We never know, we might just surprise ourselves. Images by James Carnegie   Read more triathlon stories: 10 Ambit3 hacks for triathletes How to use the power of commitment 7 spring training camp tips for triathletes

Jill exploring the Bell Island mine. © Cas Dobbin 2016 Today there are no barriers to entry for shooting underwater video. GoPro cameras have put awesome potential within easy reach both physically and financially. Even with this compact camera, 4K video can be shot, edited and uploaded to social media sites. However, with video capability in everyone’s hands, there are some key things you need to do to separate yourself from the pack. First things first General diving skills are critical with good buoyancy control being at the top of the list. Master this first! Watch Jill's video of devil rays off the coast of Azores Islands. The gear Shooting underwater means you are filming through a filter. Colour and light are gradually absorbed the deeper you go. In many cases, visibility can be minimal. You need good quality, wide-angle video lights to help illuminate the scene and increase colour saturation. The closer you can get to your subject, the less filtering water between you and a great shot. Use a wide-angle lens for shooting or try macro work with a tripod – only if you can avoid damaging the environment.Watch Jill exploring Devil's Ear cave system, Ginnie Springs. Shoot for easy editing Don’t try to edit in the camera. That means you should shoot long sequences with a long “tail” after the action has passed. This gives you room to edit and use transitions. Slowly, slowly! Move very slowly and deliberately and consider holding long stationary shots to let the environment and marine life flow around you. Most beginners get overly enthusiastic and move the camera around too much. They are eager to film the next shot rather than patiently working on the current encounter. That type of footage is not just tough to edit but can give your viewers seasickness!Press play to see the shipwrecks of Bell Island. Capture variety When you shoot, try to capture a wide range of shot types. You need wide establishing shots that show context. You will want to capture things like jumping off the boat or preparing gear. You'll also need an endless supply of shots called cutaways. These short clips of a few seconds in length are the glue that holds longer shots together. When a diver is prepping gear we might see a cutaway of the pressure gauge needle popping up as the tank is turned on. We might see a quick okay signal close up on a hand. You can never have enough cutaway shots in the edit. You will use every single one you shoot. Press play to watch Jill talk about her diving career. Show the tranquillity Remember, the beauty of the underwater world is best enjoyed drifting along rather than frenetically bouncing around from view to view. Let your shots breathe and allow your viewers to enjoy the same peace and tranquillity that you do on a swim along a perfect reef. The marine life will be more likely to cooperate and gracefully participate in your sequence too. Keep it short And finally, when you get into the postproduction phase, keep your edit short. Try to tell a story in less than three minutes. That is about the attention span of most viewers. Nobody wants to see the entire dive and the things you missed. If you only have 90 seconds of great footage, then keep your edit even tighter. You’ll get more hits and shares and enjoy watching your own masterpiece again and again.

Director of coaching at trainright.com, Jason Koop has been guiding elite athletes for decades. His book Training Essentials for Ultrarunning is a veritable goldmine of training knowledge. We caught up with coach Koop to talk about the book, which he says disproves widely held beliefs about ultrarunning.   Training for an ultramarathon demands high volume and time The first myth, says Koop, is really bad for the sport of ultrarunning; the widespread, and discouraging, belief that to run one you need to clock in a seemingly insurmountable number of kilometers or miles and hours each week. “It creates a barrier to entry for a lot of people because they think they have to train 18 or 24 hours a week,” Koop says. “The fact of the matter is you don’t need that much time and that much volume. While more is better, there’s a point of diminishing returns. After about nine hours per week, every additional 10% of volume doesn't correlate to a 10% improvement in performance or capability. It might only be 5 or 1% you get back. For a 100 mile race, Koop says doing 10 to 12 hour training weeks for eight to 10 weeks is enough. For the 50 km or 50-mile distance, it’s about nine hours for about six to eight weeks.© Philipp Reiter You need mountains to properly train for an ultramarathon While living and training in the mountains is helpful, it’s not essential. “Consider Kaci Lickteig,” Koop says. “She was second at the Western States 100 in 2015, yet she lives in Omaha, Nebraska and only does about 305 m of vertical a week. It takes her 20 weeks to accumulate the amount of vertical that’s in the Western States 100. But yet she has been really successful. It’s nice to train in the mountains if you can, but most normal people can be successful without them. The more important priority is improving your cardiovascular engine.”© Philipp Reiter You have to be freakishly talented to run an ultramarathon Koop says a lot of people believe you need to be genetically endowed with a sky-high vo2 max to be a good ultra runner. “I really haven’t found that to be the case,” he says. “Most of the guys and the girls we test, they’re not even close to an Olympic caliber marathon runner or even to a national caliber marathon runner. An ultra runner’s aerobic engine isn’t the sole determinant of performance in the way as it is for a marathoner. There is a lot of other factors that play more of a role in an ultramarathon – strategy, mental toughness and nutrition, for example. You have to be able to do a big mix of things and don’t have to be the biggest aerobic powerhouse on the planet.”© Philipp Reiter I would never be able to finish in time “Most ultra marathon cut off times are really generous,” Koop says. “The physiological talent or aerobic power that it takes to run at the pace to make cut off is actually within reach of most people. A typical cut off time for a 100 miler, for example, is 30 hours – that’s 18 minutes a mile. Just about everybody walks one mile in 18 minutes and 30 seconds. What that indicates is the fitness required to complete the task isn’t very high. So it’s an accessible sport from this standpoint.” Lead image: © Philipp Reiter

Basking Shark, UK. © Alex Mustard Alex Mustard has been taking underwater photos since he was nine years old and began diving when he was 13. He’s the author of Underwater Photography Masterclass, which distils his know-how on this challenging form of photography. “It’s the diversity of diving I love,” Alex says. “One week I might be aiming my lens at a great white, and the following week I am just as excited to be framing up sea slugs back home. Then it’s on to shooting in caverns, with cathedral-like light beams spilling in through gaps in the ceiling. And next, diving deep inside a wreck, searching for secrets nobody has noticed before. It’s all those things that I love.”Kittiwake Shipwreck, Cayman Islands. © Alex Mustard First things first The most important first step is to make sure you are as comfortable and as competent in the water as possible before you take a camera diving. Cameras take a lot of your attention underwater and you may not pay enough attention to your buddy, to your dive computer and remaining air pressure. If you're an experienced diver you will be used to paying attention to all those things. By being a better diver you get better pictures. Get a feeling for it Buoyancy and manoeuvrability are two of the biggest challenges to diving. Taking a camera down totally changes these two things. It’s good to know beforehand how this is going to feel. I always suggest people take an empty camera housing down as a good way to get used to it. Wrap a diving weight in bubble wrap or in a cloth and stuff it inside the underwater housing so it sinks. Then experiment with it in the shallows or in a pool.Kelp Forest, USA. © Alex Mustard The camera isn’t so important The camera is one of the least important parts of an underwater photography set up. It’s actually the lenses and the underwater flashguns that make far more of a difference to your photos than the camera. An expensive camera that’s not being adapted properly to underwater photography will always take poorer pictures than a very simple camera that has the right accessories. Invest in the accessories rather than the camera. The lenses that counts We use two types of lenses almost all the time. One is a close focusing macro lens for taking close ups from within touching distance and the other is an ultra wide-angle lens that focuses very close. Typically we use fish eye lenses a lot because they give us the widest possible view from as close as possible.Jellyfish Lake, Palau. © Alex Mustard Lights, camera … Almost every underwater photo is taken with a flash. We use flashguns on short, adjustable arms on either side of the camera to light up a subject. Water as you go deeper absorbs all the colour so if you don’t use a flash you’ll end up with blue or green pictures. Flashguns take time and skill to get used to. That’s really where the art of underwater photography lies. Up close and personal Almost every underwater photo is taken from within touching distance of the subject. This means you need to be able to maneuverer around a subject and in a way that doesn’t scare it away. If you’re thrashing about or racing around, you’re only ever going to see the tails of marine life. If you’re calm and at one with the environment you will get all the great encounters and that’s what gives you the good pictures.World War II Motorbike On Wreck, Egypt. © Alex Mustard Plan ahead of the dive If you go and speak to whomever is organising a dive ahead of time, they will tell you what you’ll see and where. There’s a huge amount of local knowledge you can benefit from just by asking people a few questions. Sometimes an advertisement will say it’s a great shark dive, but in reality they don’t come within five meters. But the coral scenery might be nice so you set up for that. One dive, one lens The only way to change your camera lens is to come up to the surface, change it and then go back down and that’s not very convenient. Usually it’s one lens for one dive. One of the big steps you make as an underwater photographer is when you realise the best photos come by realising the strengths and weaknesses of the particular lens your diving with and focusing your attention on the subjects that suit it.Diving Between The Continents, Iceland. © Alex Mustard Don’t be rude Underwater most marine life doesn't fear man. However you need to get within touching distance of it. Most wildlife doesn’t like heavy eye contact so try not to stare. Most wildlife doesn’t like you approaching fast so take your time to approach a subject. Don’t just race in as fast as you can because that’s bound to scare things away. If you see a subject slowly swimming along, swim parallel to it, and slowly close the gap. Dive with a photographer Diving with another photographer is a really good way to dive. You’ve got twice as many eyes. If you’re shooting scenery you can pose for each other. After the dive you have a friend who will be interested to see your pictures and talk about photography. For more incredible images by Alex Mustard, like his Facebook page. Lead image: © Alex Mustard

In this third part of our series* about them, nomadic globe-pedalling cyclists Pierre Bouchard and Janick Lemieux tell us which countries were the most bicycle friendly!© nomadesxnomades.com After cycling the equivalent distance of four times around the planet, Canadians Pierre Bouchard and Janick Lemieux are in a unique position to say which countries are the most bicycle-friendly. They’ve cycled across Asia, around the Pacific Rim of Fire, down and across Europe, through Africa, all around North America, even through tiny Pacific Islands – about 60 countries in total. Click for part one and part two of the series! © nomadesxnomades.com Mostly their nomadic journeys have been enjoyable, with few negative experiences. They did, however, get held up at gunpoint by a bandit in Mexico. Crossing from Tibet to Nepal, they were blocked in a narrow gorge by a 15 km avalanche. Roasting in 45° C in Sudan also proved threatening! It’s important to pay attention to potential safety issues before and during the journey, Pierre says.Which people in the world were the most friendly and helpful? For a long time, Russians topped our list of the most hospitable people until we set wheels in the archipelago of Vanuatu. More recently, Jordanians went regularly out of their way to support us, meet our needs and accommodate us. © nomadesxnomades.com Which places were the most bicycle-friendly? Japan: it's go to be be international bike touring’s best kept secret!Western USA’s Pacific Coast Highway: incredible cycling infrastructure, from exclusive and cheap campsites to a simple and clever flashing light safety system warning motorists upon entering a tunnel there is a cyclist inside – this should be standard everywhere!Rwanda: with its low traffic roads lined by wide shoulders and filled with legions of cyclists, most of them carrying huge loads!Norway: for its exquisite road network and very friendly “Allemansrett” law that allows travellers to camp for free virtually anywhere. Besides respecting private properties and observing the leave-no-trace code of ethics, this bill stipulates that campsites have to be at least 150 m from any inhabited building and that two consecutive nights is the maximum time allowed. It opens quite a realm of possibilities!This map shows the NOMADS² cycling odyssey. © nomadesxnomades.com What have been challenging places to ride through?   Based on the first 20 months of our most recent expedition, the NOMADS² cycling odyssey:Europe’s Schengen zone: only 90 days per six months to explore that zone? Come on!Egypt: security and police escorts.Sudan: In July – sooooooooo hot! 45°C and sometimes even hotter in the shade!Ethiopia: hostility towards visitors travelling slower than 10km/h. Every time we would climb – and there are some of the world's most beautiful mountain ranges there – locals, especially children, would follow us for a few kilometres, consistently begging and throwing stones at us for not giving. We were even ambushed a few times. This has also been widely reported by other “slow travellers” – we're still puzzled!© nomadesxnomades.com Tell us about cycle touring in Africa? Cycling in Africa has been a great adventure, exactly as one expects this continent to be. The roads have been better than anticipated as Chinese road building companies have been frantically paving Africa’s roads for more than 10 years. Of course, if one wants to leave the pavement, the continent offers tracks big and small. Away from Cairo and Nairobi, most roads have been surprisingly quiet with most users being on foot or bicycle. On top of breath-taking landscapes, busy rural life, age-old traditions and surreal animals, Africa is clean and peaceful, smiles and greetings never held back. *This concludes our three part series on the Pierre and Janick. In part one and part two they explain their efforts to learn about nomadic peoples and what it takes to cycle all over the world!

What equipment is needed to start orienteering? A map, a compass and sturdy shoes are the basic requirements. What’s the scale of an orienteering map usually? Maps are of scales 1:10000 or 1:15000, larger scales in urban events. That means that on the regular 1:10000 map 1 cm in the map depicts 100 m in the terrain. What advice can you give on the map symbols? Maps are drawn with same symbols worldwide and the colors on the map roughly resemble those you see in real life in front of you. Blue stands for water, white for normal forest, green for thick forest, black mostly for built objects and yellow depicts open areas. However, brown representing elevation contours is the most important color for navigation. How is an orienteering course presented on a map? Start from the purple triangle and follow the connecting lines to the numbered control circles. When you have reached the double circle you can stop running – you have reached the finish! How to hold a map? Fold the map so that you can point your thumb to your last known position. Make sure you can see the whole distance towards your next control. How to orient a map? Always keep the map oriented according to your direction of travel. This way you'll see the upcoming objects in the terrain as you move along your thumb on the map as you go. How to decide the best route to the next control point? Pick a route where you'll come across clear objects along the way all the way until the next control. It usually pays off to have a good plan and pick a route to suite ones navigational skills. Shortest is not always the safest way to find the control quickly... How to get the direction to the next control with a map and a compass? Place the compass' direction of travel line parallel to the control connecting line on your map. In the image above the line connects the start (marked with a triangle) with the first control (marked with a circle). Rotate the compass capsule so that the red orienting lines are aligned with the map meridians and pointing north. Keep the map horizontal while you turn yourself so that the compass north arrow and the map meridians pointing to the north line up. Now the line of travel points towards your next control! How to keep your direction? After getting the correct direction using the compass you should look up into the terrain and pick a distinguishable feature far ahead to aim for. Repeat glimpse at your compass often to make sure the map's meridians and your compass north arrow line up – and pick new features in the terrain to aim for. How do you know you are at the right control? Control description define the exact location of the control (e.g. on the northeast side of the southernmost boulder in the control circle). Code numbers found in the control descriptions reassure you're at the correct control. Bonus: How to run fast in the forest? Keeping your gaze constantly about 20 m in front of you making micro-routechoices through the terrain will help you smoothly glide across boulder fields and swamps alike. Orienteers develop a seventh sense to run fast through all kinds of environments while reading the map only through extensive training, so get out there! Learn more about Suunto compasses Meet the orienteer who runs a 2h 18m marathon Find your local orienteering organization through the International Orienteering Federation