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

Spending time on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands for the last few months has given Sami Sauri the outlet she needs. Staying at a friend’s retreat centre, she’s been out surfing and cycling whenever she can. Life indoors doesn’t come easily to her. “Normally I escape from thinking and being alone with myself and that’s why I do big trips because at least you’re sitting on a bike and not sitting in your apartment looking at the ceiling,” Sami says. “Stuck at home in Girona during the lockdown my head just exploded. So I took leave from work and escaped to the mountains in summer 2020. That didn’t make much difference so I went back to what I love most, the sea. So I’m travelling back and forward between Girona and Fuerteventura.” The new Suunto ambassador is at her best on epic adventure rides, like the one she did with a crew of friends in 2018 across the US via Route 66, or, that same year, the 1500 km ride of the Trans Labrador Highway in Canada. The 29-year-old Spainard has adventure cycled all over the place, and has her sights set on riding in Kenya and France next – when life returns to normal. “The trips I’ve been on have helped me a lot,” Sami says. “You’re sitting on a bike and seeing life go by and you have a lot of time to think about things. Sometimes it’s so monotonous that it’s harder mentally than physically. It taught me a lot about how to be and move forward in life.” Sami is a self admitted “wild child” who skipped school whenever she could, and left home when she was 17 to lead her own life. She changed styles with the seasons, and landed her first job at a skate and surf shop. Things really changed for the better in 2010 when Sami laid her eyes upon a friend’s fixed gear bike. They were out in Barcelona, her hometown, meeting for a drink and her friend rolled up on the bike. Impressed that it didn’t have brakes, Sami had a try and instantly fell in love. She saved up and bought her own. “It was the shittest bike ever, but I loved it,” she says. “Every single night after school I’d go out riding to learn how to skid, which is how to brake without brakes. I’d ride through the traffic like crazy. Thanks to that bike I discovered so many places in my city. I would have never seen them without a bike. It really opened my eyes.” Now on Fuerteventura, waiting for the pandemic to pass, heading out surfing, trail running or cycling whenever she can, Sami tracks all her activities with her Suunto 9. “Suunto has every single sport mode you can imagine,” she says. “Now I take my bike and go to the beach, track my cycling, jump in the water, track my surfing, it’s perfect. For someone like me who combines sports, Suunto is the way to go. I have it with me all the time.” All images: © Sergio Villalba

The Austrian management guru Peter F. Drucker said it well: “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” Put another way, without a clear plan, there’s no real commitment. It’s the same with training. We need a goal and a plan to reach it. Otherwise, the risk is we keep on doing the same old thing. If we do aim to improve our performance, we must know where we’re going and how to get there. “A training plan doesn’t have to start directly at the beginning of a year, but it’s a good time for making plans and setting new goals,” says Austrian sport scientist, coach and athlete Susi Kraft. 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. We caught up with the passionate mountain lover and asked what goes into a good training plan. Read on for Susi’s six tips. Susi works and plays in the stunning mountains around Salzburg. © Berghasen Take the long view You might be wondering whether you really need to have a plan for the whole year. The answer is yes if you want to have an optimal training year and achieve your goals. Susi explains why: “When designing a training plan you normally define one or two personal highlights in the training year,” she says. “At those events your physical performance should be at the highest level.” Once the highlights are decided you then distribute every single workout/training session across your calendar. Sport scientists like Susi call this process training periodization, which has three phases: 1. Base period2. Pre-competition period3. Competition period “A smart training periodization is only possible if you have an overview of the whole year and the athlete highlights factored in,” Susi says. “Besides that you also have to factor in your personal life, like family, holidays, work, weddings, kids and so on.” Select your highlights Without a goal, it’s easy to lose direction. When thinking about your next goal, use the acronym as a guide, SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. Specific: Well defined, clear, and unambiguousMeasurable: With specific criteria that measure your progress toward the accomplishment of the goalAchievable: Attainable and not impossible to achieveRealistic: Within reach, realistic, and relevant to your life purposeTimely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date. The purpose is to create urgency. “The training plan itself should always be orientated around a goal you want to achieve,” Susi says. “That goal could be a trail running competition, finishing your first triathlon, climbing Mont Blanc or losing weight. Setting new goals and working with a specific training plan keeps motivation high. That’s what I see when working with my athletes.” Consider this “The no pain, no gain approach to training is really outdated, “ Susi says. “30 years ago experts in sports science didn’t always know how to train right. What we know now is that the best endurance athletes don’t train so hard – most of their training is at low intensity.” Take a moment to think about that before creating a plan to achieve your goal. This is especially important if you have a tendency to push yourself hard. A gentler approach may serve you better. “A lot of people I see try to get better really fast,” Susi says. “They train really hard, really long distances. You may get better quickly, but in the long term that’s really bad for the body and for the training programme. Some people actually get worse, become overtrained or are prone to injuries.” Don’t copy and paste Oh, the internet. We can find countless training plans and make them our own. Thing is, cutting corners like that might not give you the results you wish for. “If you just copy last year’s or someone else’s training plan it won’t account for possible improvements in your training status,” Susi says. “Your plan should always be built on your current endurance, strength and other skills. That’s why it is so important to do performance diagnostics regularly and before you start working with a new training plan or coach.” Avoid these classic mistakes Susi says people tend to fall into two camps. Those that go overboard and do too much high intensity training too soon, and those that like routine and do the same workouts every week. “Really think about intensity distribution in your plan,” Susi says. “The risk is, that you do the same stuff every week. That mistake may lead to slower progress, monotony or even overtraining because you didn’t consider rest day and rest weeks. Most people tend to train too hard over several weeks or months. Over a whole year this may lead to chronic exhaustion.” Don’t be that guy. Follow this planning flow Set goals / highlights Analyze your current physical status – endurance, strength, stability, speed, balance – by doing physical performance tests. The outcome is influenced by your training history. Also consider how much experience a person has and determine your training age, meaning how many years of endurance training, strength training you’ve done and how many years of specific training in the sport you want to compete in. How often and what exactly is your training programme (hours, km, what kind of sports etc.) Which weaknesses do you have? What are the main factors we need to approve? How much time do you have to achieve your goal? Determine the training periodization over the time window you have available. Carefully and realistically distribute the training intensity across the calendar Plan single blocks or training sessions 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!

South African ultra runner Ryan Sandes was right on the money when asked about races being cancelled in 2020: “Sure, it’s a little disappointing,” he said. “But at the end of the day it’s just a race. I’ve still got my health, I’ve still got my family. When you look at it more holistically like that it gives you peace of mind and you become a better athlete, a better human, you’re more relaxed. For running ultras you need this, you need to be calm and in a good headspace.” Whatever your sport, having a positive, calm headspace is optimal. It hasn’t always been easy maintaining that this year. But the reverse is also true; training, pursuing the sports we love, helped to keep us on an even keel. Each reinforces the other. The data we’ve collected and crunched from 2020 user activity shows staying active, finding ways to train, and even taking the opportunity to rest more, have been key in helping us ride out this crazy year. We’ve found ways to keep ourselves pumped. Let us walk you through the data.   Spain on top The first wave of COVID-19 hit Spain hard. The lockdowns were strict, sudden and shocking. But that didn’t stop Spaniards from continuing to train and find ways to challenge themselves. Our data shows Suunto’s users in Spain clocked the highest total minutes per user, averaging 5,965 minutes on average. Spanish Suunto athlete Joaquin Perez also looked out for community initiatives to help his community cope. Back in April he told us: “A good source of inspiration and motivation for the community are the multiple solidarity initiatives that exist, for example in Spain last Saturday there was an initiative to raise funds for COVID-19 research where more than 7,300 athletes ran in their homes and raised almost €83,000,” he says. Click to read more about how Suunto athletes adapted to life in lockdown.   Go France! Respect to Suunto users in France for having the highest total ascent numbers! They also had the highest total meters for all workouts combined in both running and cycling. And, just like in 2019, the French had the highest "adventure running ratio": our French community ran 15 times more on the trails than on the treadmill!   We stayed upbeat Even with tough times the average mood our users selected after each workout was "very good". This is slightly higher than the year before in spring 2019. By the time autumn arrived in the northern hemisphere it was about the same as 2019. Check out our article about making your best workout playlist ever, and give your mood a boost on your next workout!   The most active countries were … Take your hats off to Finland, South Africa, Sweden, Russian and Poland for having the most active Suunto users. It’s interesting South Africa is the only country in the southern hemisphere to make the list. It also went into lockdown early.   These places caught more Zs Finland, New Zealand, Netherlands, Estonia, Belgium came out on tops for getting the most sleep. Respect to Finland for having the most active users and also the users that got the most sleep. The Finns were also the only ones sleeping more than seven hours a night on average. Impressive! Learn how sleep can make you a better athlete!   You sport freaks mix it up In 2020, the average number of different activity types per user was 4,2. This means an average Suunto user enjoys more than four different sports, with running the most popular. On average, our users tracked 66.5 total workouts of any given type during 2020. Click for 12 ways to change up your training over winter   Walking booms When things get tough, conventional wisdom says to take a nice, long walk. Somehow Suunto users must have got the memo because there was a massive 70% increase in that activity among our users. What does this tell us? It could be that because so many of us were doing home office we found more time to take walks. Maybe with family at home, too, we took more walks together. Whatever the reasons, it can only be a good thing. Read our articles on walking: How to walk your way to good health How to improve your walking technique How to walk mindfully and its benefits   Other increases Hiking amongst our users also had a big increase, by 37%. Mountain biking increased by nearly 20%. Unsurprisingly, there was a big increase in indoor cycling.   Swimming drops off With pools closed, swimming dropped off with our users. Even with vaccinations available, this trend will probably continue into 2021. Our solution? We recommend you triathletes and swimmers pivot to open and cold water swimming. Read our articles on how to do them safely. 10 reasons to enjoy open water swimming with Suunto What you need to know about cold water swimming   Diving booms! Put your fins together for the divers! Landlocked lockdowns didn’t stop our community of explorers from venturing underwater with an average of 15.5 m depth for divers and 6 m for freedivers. In a year of backyard adventures when divers explored what treasures their local sites have to offer, August was the busiest month on record.   Lead image: © Philipp Reiter     Read more articles 10 must-read Suunto articles from 2020 7 tips for running in the rain 14 tips for backcountry skiing this winter

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