Suunto Blog

Right now 28-year-old Cody Beals is doing the thing he finds hardest in the world: nothing. The Canadian triathlete, from Guelph, Ontario, is chilling at the seaside on vacation, recovering from his best season ever as a pro. In August, he came to the startline of Ironman Mont Tremblant, his first ever full distance race. He won it in style, setting the bike and overall course records in the process. Then six weeks later, he competed at Ironman Chattanooga, and won that too. He has won three 70.3 Ironman races this year. Fans and followers have been pressuring Beals to strike while the iron is hot and smash another full distance Ironman this fall. Once upon a time, he might try just that. But he knows better now and says he is in no rush. “I’m not going to get greedy,” he says. “It's been a great season, I've won five races. It's time for a good break right now. The reality is I'm still barely sleeping five hours a night, I'm still jittery and strung out, so it's time to call it a season. Doing those two races in six weeks really beats you up.” © Bliiq Beals is big believer in having balance and self kindness, both things he had to learn the hard way. Back in his university days he had neither. When he graduated high school in 2008, he was top of his class and a District All Star in cross country. He began university with high aspirations. And, problematically, the impossibly high standards of a perfectionist. He was top of his class in physics at Queen’s University, yet he isn’t proud of his academic performance because of the toll it took on him. “I studied with a totally compulsive mentality,” Beals says. “It wasn't a worthy trade off because I had no balance. I was a hermit that trained and studied. I was beating up on myself.” He also stopped dating, no longer able to feign interest in women, but not yet ready to accept his sexual orientation as a gay man. His social life disappeared and he sought the cold comfort of isolation. Anxiety began creeping into his body and mind, then disordered eating habits, low testosterone and insomnia all ensued. His response to this? Study and train even harder. “I abused training as a way to self medicate,” he says. “And that led to overtraining because, like any drug, there is a dose-response effect; a little bit of training relaxes you, but too much is toxic.” © Cody Beals He battled on like this throughout his four years at university. After graduation, totally exhausted and frail, he realised something had to change. While still at university, Beals decided to makel his life as an athlete transparent. He shared training data on his blog, wrote about his struggles, failures, ambitions and systems. He made his life naked for the public to see. His story caught the attention of someone who would prove to be a crucial figure in helping him transform his life. “Realising I'd been a complete moron, I stopped self coaching, and hired a world class coach, ” Beals says. It wasn't really a decision I made; David Tilbury-Davis, a British coach, had to court me aggressively to convince me that he could help. With some trepidation I gave him the reins.” It was one of the best decisions he’s ever made. With Tilbury-Davis’s counsel, he began finding balance. He overcame his eating disorder, regained good sleep habits, and stopped overtraining. More recently he came out as gay, something he says is not easy as an elite athlete. © Craig Taylor Now, with his life in balance, Beals ticks in a different way. Rather than being obsessed with results, chasing an illusory image of perfection, he revels in the process itself. “Now what I love about this sport and the lifestyle of being a pro is my day in day out process,” he says. “I'm obsessed with finding enjoyment on a daily basis, and not hanging all my hope on some hypothetical accomplishment in the future, like the world champs or something.” This is why he’s going to take his own sweet time in entering full distance Ironmans in the future. While he enjoys the training and tactical nature of 70.3 races more, Beals says he will build the rest of his career around full distance races. Just with a lot of respect for the sport and while keeping a balance. “I'm going to make all my Ironmans ‘A’ races. If I show up on an Ironman startline it's because I'm trying to win. It will just be a couple a year, and I'll be doing a lot of 70.3 racing.” Lead image: © Ventum

Ask any freediver to explain what the experience of freediving is like and they will tell you words cannot do it justice. It's a transcendent sport – one that transforms our experience of the mind and our limits – and the subtlety of poetry is better suited to communicate what this unique experience is like. “There’s nothing happening in your body that resembles any other sport or activity,” Suunto ambassador William Trubridge says in the video below. “What you are doing is perhaps the most alien thing the human body can do. Sure, if you went on a space walk, you are off the planet and weightless, but a free dive transforms you into another creature altogether.” In the TEDx Talk below, Trubridge, who holds the world record for the deepest dive, guides his audience on a free dive, riffing poetically about the experience, how it feels, what happens to body and mind, and why he and other free divers are drawn away from the surface and into the deep. Lead images: © Alex St Jean / Vertical Blue Read more about freediving here: How deep can we go? You haven't understood free diving until you've read this. William Trubridge talks record attempts and the art of freediving.

Buying good quality and diverse produce and preparing nutritious meals is as important for our training as time spent running, cycling, swimming or at the gym. Yet, for many of us – especially for those of us with full time jobs and families – it’s tempting to cut corners when it comes to diet. We tell ourselves “next time”, and whip up a fast meal that fills the hole, but doesn’t fuel the engine. Training is all about consistency and honesty. We shouldn’t try to fool ourselves; when we cut corners we don’t really gain in the long run. Instead, the training lifestyle is all about dedication to our sport, and the truth is, at the heart of that is caring for our bodies. In this series of posts we explore how Suunto ambassadors and athletes keep their tanks fuelled. In this second instalment, we meet another Australian athlete, Melissa Hauschildt, an Ironman champion who recently set a new world record for fastest time (8:31:04) at the Ironman North American Championships, Texas in April. The long term outlook Good nutrition is a major part of Hauschildt’s life. Racing in Ironmans all over the planet, as the 35-year-old does, demands she feeds her engine with only the best fuel. “To be the best athlete I can I need to fuel my body correctly, but it's also important for life after sport,” she says. “I want to stay fit and healthy so I eat a healthy balanced diet.” Maintaining good diet in busy times Eating healthy can easily go out the window in busy times – how does Hauschildt maintain it? She prepares ahead of time. “I always have a healthy snack ready to go – nuts are always in abundance in my house, as well as bananas and apples,” she says. “I make almond butter and buckwheat bread at the start of the week so that’s always provides for great quick and easy snacks – almond butter and banana on toast or almond butter on apple. “I also use Megaburn products. They make the best protein bars, with all natural ingredients, and so delicious! I always have a stack of them in the house. If I know it’ll take a while to make a meal after training, I will have a Megaburn protein shake immediately after so I can then take my time making a nutritious meal and not snack on junk.” Natural is best “I try to eat foods in their most natural form. I eat a lot of salad and vegetables, meat, nuts and eggs. I only eat full fat dairy. I make my own healthy treats as well, as my own bread and almond butter. I try to avoid packaged foods and refined sugar. I avoid soy, lentils, anything labeled ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’ and limit grains. I eat a lot of good fats - butter, olive and coconut oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, eggs.” Easy, go-to meals “My easy go-to meals tend to be a large salad with some meat. If I don't have any meat in the fridge I always have canned tuna and sardines in the cupboard or eggs. Another quick and easy go to meal for me is an omelette loaded with salad and left over meat or tuna.” Kangaroo rice bowl Ingredients:Wild riceKangaroo filletsRocketRed onionSnow peasTomatoShallotsCorianderAvocadoBlue cheeseOlive oilLime Directions: 1. Cook rice to packet instructions. BBQ kangaroo fillets to medium/rare. Kangaroo gets very tough if overcooked. 2. Pre cut salads.3. Mix some olive oil and lime juice together for dressing. Grate some lime rind.4. Place cooked rice in bowl then arrange cut salads over it. Crumble some blue cheese on top. Sprinkle with lime rind. Pour over dressing. Lead image: Photo by Ive Erhard on Unsplash. READ MORE Fuelling the engine: Talking nutrition with trail runner Lucy Bartholomew

Karsten Madsen started out in road triathlon and cross-country mountain bike racing, and later progressed to off-road triathlon, where he is now competing in XTERRA's Pan American Tour. Since going pro in 2014, the 26-year-old has become a four-time XTERRA major title winner and three-time national champion, and finished third overall in the XTERRA Pam Am Tour Point Series in both 2016 and 2018. In 2017, he finished eighth at his first elite ITU Cross World Championships. Madsen now has set his sights on becoming the 2019 ITU Cross World Champion. When he's not racing or training, you can find him taking in mountain views with a coffee. To bring everyone up to speed with your XTERRA history, how many times have you been to Maui for the World Championships, and what's the brief take on your performance each year? I have been to Maui two times, in 2016 and 2017, and both years crushed me for different reasons. But both years resulted in DNFs (did not finish). I have changed a lot of things since then to better match myself for the demands of the course so I'm looking for big things in 2018! Which of your competitors is going to give you the biggest challenge, and what elements of the course have you been preparing for most? Going into Maui, I think Josiah Middaugh is the man to beat this year. His form is very good right now, and he bikes to another level. So really, it will come down to how well he swims. I’ve been working a lot on power-to-weight ratio. I’ve dropped some weight this year and am still biking with more power. Also, I do targeted workouts to fit the demands of steep climbing on the course in Maui. What's your nutrition plan, and is it different for an off-road triathlon like XTERRA versus a road triathlon of similar duration? My nutrition plan is somewhat straightforward: a bottle on the bike with 320 calories, three CLIF Shot gels (raspberry flavor is my go-to) taken just before aid stations to wash down with water. Then another half gel starting the run, washed down with water again. For XTERRA, I have usually one more gel than I would for a road triathlon of a similar duration. But my nutrition plan really flexes most around weather. How about pre-race conditioning? How do you hold your fitness together, not taper too much, nor let travel take away from being ready? What metrics are you monitoring? XTERRA World Champs is just a monster – everything about it is hard! The crazy waves in the swim, the steep, and hot climbs on the bike, and then if that's not enough, more of the same on the run. In XTERRA, you really earn every stroke, pedal and step you take. You just grind and suffer so much versus a road triathlon. The taper can really be the hard part, but I err on the side of "less is more" once I'm about 12 days out, always asking myself, "Does this help or hinder my race?” Travel is also a tricky part, but some easy tips: hydrate, eat clean, put down some extra vitamin C and D, stay stress-free, and relax! What advice do you have for age groupers coming to XTERRA World Championships? If you come any later than Wednesday before the race, don’t ride the full course! Save it for the race! Don’t give away all your hard work to fatigue. Less is more on race week. Also, stay hydrated! How has this season gone, and what are your ambitions for the rest of this year? This year by far has been my best season yet. It's been a year that has seen me race the most and travel the farthest. I had a lot of success on the Pan American Xterra tour, earning a third place overall finish in the tour standings. The real ambitions I set for myself this year were to race with intensity and find the joy of racing. I knew if I could nail those two things the rest would take care of itself. Looking back now on this year so far, which setbacks seemed to have had the biggest impact, and what did you do to push through and get your season back on track? Coming back from the bacterial infection at ITU Cross Worlds was my biggest setback. I got myself into great shape and had a fantastic opportunity to have success on that course. The illness really impacted me for the whole month of July — I was pretty useless! I rallied behind the idea that when I'm healthy I still have more opportunities to prove to myself that I'm one of the world's best. Having a positive outlook helped, and my parents and family really helped me through that rough patch. When the Suunto 9 launched, you picked white instead of the classic black. Does that say something about your personality? Typically I’ve always done everything in black so it was time for a change! White is just crisp and clean looking. I guess I like to think my style is pretty crisp. What do you envision for 2019? What's on your schedule? You’ll see me around more XTERRA looking to build on this successful year. Thanks, Karsten, and good luck in Maui! READ MORE ABOUT XTERRA 6 reality checks for XTERRA warriors from a champion Just getting started – and already full beast mode 8 essential running form drills

Australian triathlete Melissa Hauschildt exudes a quiet, determined confidence. Staying true to the “Aussie battler” mentality – an Australian colloquialism referring to ordinary people who tough out adversity to see through their commitments – she has persevered a series of mishaps and setbacks that have dashed her hopes at the Ironman World Championship at Kona, Hawaii over the last couple of years. In 2017, Hauschildt underwent an operation – turned horror show – on one of her iliac arteries. The surgeon accidentally snipped a major artery and blood spurted everywhere. She lost a lot of blood, and had post-surgery complications that weakened her and caused her to struggle at that year’s Kona. In 2016 she had an injury that needed surgery. She had a broken rib in 2015, and a torn pectoral in 2014. “The biggest race for Ironman is Kona and that’s the one I haven’t ticked off yet,” she says. Endofibrosis struck again and forced Mel to pull out of Kona.   She hoped this year at Kona would be different. After that dramatic surgery only one year ago, recovery, and a plenty of patience, she has been having one of the best years of her triathlon career, setting the world record (8:31:04) at the Ironman North American Championships, Texas in April. Just as she thought she would be able to give her absolute best at Kona this year, the same physical condition as last year – endofibrosis – struck again. “Two months ago I raced in the Ironman 70.3 Philippines in Cebu and my right leg shut down on the bike and I was forced to walk/jog/drag my leg across the line for third place,” Hauschildt says. “I got home and tried to get back into training but my leg would not cooperate. I had many tests done at home in Noosa and was told it was not endofibrosis so I continued on as best I could. But it got to the point that I could not even kick in the pool without my leg shutting down. I went back to my surgeon in Melbourne and unfortunately it is iliac artery endofibrosis and I need surgery.” Disappointed as Hauschildt is, there is only one response befitting an athlete of her stature: keep training anyway possible. She has been swimming with a pull buoy, doing lots of strength work. Her plan is to come back stronger and faster than ever. “The surgeon said it is most common for endofibrosis to come in both legs and that it comes on over years so this means I have been racing with restricted blood flow to this leg for quite a while now,” Hauschildt says. “If I can break a world record with only one healthy leg I can’t wait to see what I can do with two. I will be unstoppable!” Mel set the Ironman world record (8:31:04) at the Ironman North American Championships in Texas in April.   Hauschildt has been ticking off all the other biggest triathlons in the world. She won the Ironman 70.3 European Championship in June, the Ironman 70.3 North American Championship in April, and the Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship in 2017, along with a string of other victories at less significant races. Kona, and the Ironman South American and African Championships remain in her sights. Her operation is in October, and the whole Suunto team wishes her well and a speedy recovery.   READ MORE ABOUT MELISSA HAUSCHILDT: Meet Mel Hauschildt: one of the world’s best triathletes Elite runner to pro triathlete: how to make the transition  

Ultra cyclist Omar Di Felice is back in Italy taking a well-earned break before he begins preparations for his annual journey into the icy reaches of the winter Arctic. He is conditioned to the cold, which is why the Transiberica Bike Race in Portugal and Spain gave him a run for his money. What were the highlights of the race? Riding for so long unsupported in this bike race without a mandatory route was a new challenge for me. I didn’t know Spain and Portugal, which is why I had to stay attentive to the way ahead instead of focusing on “eat, sleep and drink” as is usual in normal ultracycling races. What were the toughest moments? I really love winter and Arctic conditions: unfortunately in Spain I found completely opposite weather conditions! The toughest thing was to ride in such hot conditions (temperature from 30 to 41°C!). The toughest moment, for sure, was when I had to stop after intense heat and an allergic attack while passing through Andalucia region. When I was back on my bike I understood if I could push through that difficult moment I would be able to end the race. Where were the nicest roads to ride? The last 300 km was the nicest! Both because the end got closer and closer, and because the Asturias region was one of the best, with easy climbs, green hills and the perfect temperature to ride. How many kilometers have you already ridden this year? This year has had plenty of cycling! From my Arctic adventures in Iceland and Canada, to this last extreme challenge competing in ultracycling races all over Europe, I have clocked up 30,000 kilometers and 450.000 m of ascent. I have earned a deserved rest period before the start of my favorite season: the winter.      READ MORE ABOUT OMAR DI FELICE During a 3,380km ride you don’t know what will hurt the most Meet the Italian guy who cycles insane distances What you really need to know about winter cycling adventures