Suunto Blog

GPS is just one of many. It stands for Global Positioning System and is a US based global navigation satellite system (GNSS). There are four other GNSS and counting. With more of them connecting to your navigation device you’ll get better accuracy, more often, than with one only. That’s because it’s more likely a satellite will be directly above your position and able to send and receive clear, fast, unobstructed signals. How GNSS work It almost seems like science fiction: hundreds of satellites in orbit around the planet sending and receiving signals from billions of devices. But how does it all work? A GNSS system is a group of satellites strategically placed in orbit to generate and relay geospatial data via radio signals to connected sensors on the earth – including your Suunto watch. GNSS satellites orbit the planet once every 11 hours, 58 minutes and two seconds. Each satellite transmits coded signals containing the satellite’s precise orbit details and a very stable time stamp from an atomic clock. GNSS systems have three parts: Space: the satellites orbiting our planet. Control: This part includes ground stations located around the equator to control, monitor, track and communicate with all the satellites. Users: That’s you and your Suunto watch. Or your mobile phone. Your car’s navigation system. The entire IoT! Each device includes a GNSS receiver which comprises an antenna and a processor. The former receives the signal, while the latter decodes it. Five systems is better than one With the release of the Suunto 9 Peak Pro, navigating with a Suunto watch and accurately tracking the route of your activity has never been better. The GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou and the QZSS global navigation satellite systems all work with the new sleek and versatile watch. Moreover, the watch’s navigation system is controlled by a new Sony chip that requires less power, resulting in less drain on the battery. “The increased number of visible satellites that can be utilized simultaneously will improve the likelihood your watch positions you accurately,” says Markus Kemetter, product manager at Suunto. “This is especially the case when you’re in areas with obstacles, such as a city with skyscrapers or between steep mountains where part of the sky is blocked. “In addition to being more accurate, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro’s navigation system consumes less power giving the user longer battery life.” “Another super important thing affecting your tracking accuracy is the assistant data coming from Suunto app every time you sync,” Markus continues. “Keeping that up to date is crucial for accuracy – so sync regularly.” They work together by default With all those satellites orbiting the planet and connecting to your watch, it doesn’t matter whether you’re running in Manhattan or mountaineering in the Himalayas. You can count on the best accuracy of any Suunto device we’ve ever made. And there’s no need to fiddle with the settings to make any selections. In the Suunto 9 Peak Pro all five GNSS are simultaneously active by default. You don't need to do anything" Change your navigation settings to extend your battery life You can change the Suunto 9 Peak Pro’s navigation settings to extend its battery life. Performance mode This is the setting for optimal accuracy. In Performance modem, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro’s battery can last for 40 hours before requiring a charge. Endurance mode Selecting Endurance mode in your Suunto 9 Peak Pro puts the watch’s navigation chip into “duty cycle mode” – it sleeps half a second and switches on for half a second to get a fix. This extends the battery life and provides a less accurate, but still reliable track. The accuracy will, however, become poorer in more difficult terrain. Tour mode In this mode, the watch’s battery can last up to 300 hours. The mode extends the battery life by having the navigation chip on for 1–2 minutes every 30 minutes. This reduces the accuracy and is usually used by people who are traveling light and fast, can't regularly access a charge and don’t want to carry a battery pack with them. Lead image: © Philipp Reiter

Complex training sessions just got a bit easier – at least to plan and follow. The rest is up to you and your coach! You can build structured workouts in Suunto app. This is especially useful with complex sessions, like intervals. Use Suunto app to build the workout step by step from warm-up to cool-down. You can find the Workout builder under the Watch section in Suunto app. When starting to create a new workout you can set a target date for it or save it in your app’s workout library. If you have set a target date, your watch will suggest the right workout on the right day. Your workouts can be based on distance, duration, lap button press or a mix of them. You can, for example, have a warm-up that ends with a lap button press followed by 1 km intervals with a five minute recovery. The target intensity for your workout can be based on heart rate, power, pace or speed. Created workouts are synced as SuuntoPlus guides to your watch. Select the correct workout guide before starting the exercise. So, select the activity type and before hitting ‘Start’ go down to Options > Suunto Plus > Guides and you will see your planned session there. Select that one and go. During the exercise SuuntoPlus will notify you about upcoming steps in your workout and provide real-time guidance for your interval training. Happy training! NOTE: You can also sync structured workouts to your Suunto from our partner services, like TrainingPeaks. Learn more about SuuntoPlus here. Learn more about building structured workouts with Suunto app Learn more about training zones

Working out at the right intensity is the key to systematic and effective training. To get the benefits, you first need to set up your intensity zones. With Suunto watches you can set up running specific intensity zones based on all three; heart rate, pace and running power. Adjust your intensity zones at Settings > Training > Intensity zones > Advanced zones. Running power is very useful during ups and downs as it takes into account elevation gain and this way helps you maintain a steady effort in changing terrain. It is also valuable for interval sessions as it reacts quicker than heart rate to changes in intensity. Suunto 9 Peak Pro measures running power from the wrist combining GPS and barometric data. Ensure your weight is correct in the watch settings for the algorithm to work properly. Your weight is set at Settings > General > Personal > Weight. Use a sport mode with power – or create your own To see your power during your run, select a sport mode that shows running power on your screen. You can use for example sport modes like Trail running power or Running power. This is how power – 265W in this case – is shown in the default Trail running power sport mode. You can also use the Running power sport mode – or customize your own with Suunto app.   Running power is one of the data fields you can add in your custom sport modes. You can select data like current power (Power 3 sec, Power 10 sec, Power 30 sec), average power and max power. You can also select to see Lap average power, Lap max power and Interval average power on your custom screens.   After the run you can analyze your power in Suunto app.

Living just below the Arctic Circle in 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic Freya Orban, from southern Sweden, was missing sunshine and isolated due to social distancing restrictions. Unable to do the things she loved — train with her cross-country skiing team, go trail running or to the gym to train — she became depressed. All the signs of stress and strain were showing, and then her dog died. “That was the trigger for everything,” the 25 year Suunto athlete says. “Then I got shingles and couldn't get out of bed for a month.” Piling on the pressure At the worst low of her life, Freya started to question everything she was doing. Reflecting in this way allowed her to see what is important in her life, and what is superfluous. Like with so many competitive athletes, she used to pile too much pressure on herself. Going to races, managing her social media accounts, pleasing sponsors, pursuing academic excellence — she had become so busy and future-focused she had lost touch with the freedom and joy of running and being outdoors had always given her since she was a child. She had lost her presence. The simplicity of being in the here and now, senses open, taking in the beauty of the world. Light at the end of the tunnel Her journey into a dark place and into the light at the other end of the tunnel has led to massive change. She logged out of her social accounts, turned off her smartphone, stopped planning and instead focused on savoring simple presence in the outdoors and growing food in her garden. The sound of wolves howling in the distance (that’s Sweden!), the taste of wild blueberries, the feeling of wind on her face. Coming back to moment by moment experience, Freya healed herself and is now in the best place ever. Leaving it all behind and running hut to hut Watch the short film Presence below and follow Freya and her friend and photographer Lukas Dürnegger as they go on a fast packing hut to hut trip in the mountains of Jämtland in central Sweden. Over six days they ran 155 km with 5242 m of elevation gain. They left their smartphones at home and really tuned into the living world around them. Along the way they took time to stop a lot and ate handfuls of juicy blueberries and cloudberries. Freya’s 3 tips to find presence Rethink how you use social media Freya’s approach to social media has changed. During some periods, she might sign in only once a month. And she posts only what she wants to look back on in a few years. It’s about keeping magical memories, not about sponsor-collaborations or gaining followers. Freya says being busy with screens and social media can make our senses dull and tuned out. Pay attention to the little things “A lot of people are caught in hamster wheels,” Freya says. “We go to work and tick off boxes on our to-do lists. But by the end of the day we can’t even remember what was happening. We rush through everything and miss things.” To reverse this condition, Freya suggests going out into nature and opening up all the senses. “Try to use all your senses,” she says. “Not just your vision. Use your hearing, sense of smell, even taste, touch — the raindrops on your forehead. Everything you encounter out there, really try to feel it.” Leave the tech at home Once a week, leave all your technology at home and go out into nature for a run or a hike. Leave your earbuds, smartphone, GPS sports watch at home and be in the here and now. “Make it about being in nature and running for the joy of it,” Freya says. All images by Lukas Dürnegger

The Arctic Post Road goes through one of Europe’s largest wilderness areas. You don’t have to ask Suunto ambassador and bikepacking maniac Sami Sauri twice if she’d like to go on an adventure. And sure enough, when fellow Suunto ambassador Henna Palosaari sent Sami an email asking if she’d like to join her on a summer bikepacking trip up above the Arctic Circle, the emojis she got as a reply said it all. Adventure starts here. The two had never ventured into this kind of territory before. At least not on bikes. The trail follows remnants of the old Kopenhagen-Alta post road. They had an incredible experience. Long days in the saddle without seeing another human being. Or anything for that matter. Just trees, hills and lakes. Apparently the most wild mushrooms in 60 years. Oh, and reindeer of course. Hundreds of them. Same with mosquitos. They also experienced the kindness of the locals. “Experiencing the simplicity of life up north and the local culture combined with the tranquility of the long wilderness sections creates a bikepacking experience that takes you miles away from the city hustle,” Henna says. Press play to watch their short film and see for yourself. The route By the numbers: 430 km distance 7215 m total ascent 749 m is the highest point 81 % is unpaved 45 % single track Duration: six to eight days All images by Mikko-Pekka Karlin

To motivate people to ride and run to work and to slash their CO₂ emissions (CO2e), we invited our community to join the first ever Suunto Commuting Day on September 22. The response was great: the community tracked nearly 380.000 km of human-powered commutes with their Suunto watches and Hammerhead bike computers. That’s just about the same distance as going from Earth to the moon! Impressive first time results The most popular commuting activity types were cycling, running and walking. Half of the commutes were cycling, a third was running and the rest walking – with some skateboarding, roller skiing and even swimming thrown in the mix. The most common commuting distance for cyclists was 8,4 km, for runners 6,1 km and walkers 2,9 km. When looked closer at the cycling distances the distribution is quite equal: Less than 5km commuting distance 26% 5–10 km commuting distance 32% 10–20 km commuting distance 25% More than 20 km commuting distance 17% Time-wise, runners had the longest duration commutes. The most common commuting durations were: Running 39 min Walking 37min Cycling 29min When looking at different nations, the Swedes were the most active bike commuters as the ratio between their bike commutes and bike rides in general was the highest. Other countries on the active commuter list were Germany, France, Finland and the UK.   Choosing human-powered travel Human-powered commutes are good for both you and the planet as transportation is one of the biggest sources of emissions worldwide. When comparing the distance the community traveled with driving that same distance in a combustion-powered car, the estimated CO2e savings were over 65.000 kg. That’s the equivalent of 260 one hour passenger flights. France, Japan, Finland, Spain and Germany accounted for the top 5 largest CO2e savings in total. “We are stoked that we got so much participation even though it was the first Suunto Commuting Day and we had very little lead in time,” says Suunto’s Sustainability manager Heidi Heikkinen. “This shows how much interest there is — we expect the CO2e savings to increase next time. “One single bike ride to work may not seem like a big commitment, but once you do that on a regular basis, you will start to see how it all adds up. And, when looking at the entire community, it is clear that thousands of people choosing human-powered commutes regularly can definitely make a difference.” Track your commutes In its increased focus on sustainability, Suunto has given its community the ability to track human-powered commutes and – as an extra motivation – see the estimated CO2e savings compared to driving that same distance. To get started, track your commutes with a Suunto watch or a Hammerhead bike computer and tag the activity as a commute in Suunto app. In Suunto app you will see how much CO2e you have saved. You don’t even need to have a Suunto watch or a Suunto compatible Hammerhead bike computer to track your human-powered commutes: you can also use Suunto app and track with it for free. You can download Suunto app for iOS here and for Android here. Committed to be a force for good Promoting sustainable everyday choices is part of Suunto’s commitment to being a more responsible company. Today, more than 90 % of Suunto products are made in its factory in Vantaa, Finland. Since 2021, its HQ and factory have used 100% renewable energy. And to keep things transparent, it has recently published its first annual sustainability report that you can read here.“Suunto’s approach to sustainability is to increase positive effects, not just to reduce the negative ones. These are called, respectively, our handprint and footprint. We aim to tread lightly, and be a force for good. We believe in the power of community. Together, we can affect change by raising our voices and taking real action. Our ambassadors and our community care as much as we do,” says Brand manager Antti Laiho.  Read more Learn more about tracking human-powered commutes and your CO2e savingsLearn more about Suunto’s approach to sustainabilityLearn more about Suunto’s comprehensive offering to cyclists