Nordic Gravel Series team member, rider and coach Joonas Henttala gives his essential tips for a successful gravel race. Joonas Henttala, a coach and a Nordic Gravel Series team member, has more than 10 years of experience in the professional peloton. In 2023, after ending his road cycling career, he turned to coaching and gravel event organizing, took up trail running as his personal challenge while also riding gravel. We got in touch with Joonas to get some tips for a gravel race. Read on and be ready for a big, fun day out! Progressively build your fitness Gravel races are long and require a strong, aerobic base, which is built by spending quality time in zone 2 and later layering higher intensities and race spesific efforts on top. Joonas says that consistency and progressively adding training load are the keys to successful endurance training. “Riding one hour five times weekly is a better start than a five-hour smash-fest once a week. After your body starts to adapt, you can progressively add more training load. It does not make sense to do a huge hero ride way beyond your limits on the weekend and then recover from it the entire following week. The body simply can’t assimilate that and progress will be slow. The aerobic needs required in a long event or race need consistent stimulus over long periods of time.” The slower speeds and smaller groups make the power output on gravel slightly different from the road. “On the road there’s often more coasting and higher power peaks, while gravel riding is more grinding, keeping constant pressure on the pedals,” Joonas explains.  Get comfortable riding in a group. (Image: NGS/Falling Leaves Lahti) Practice your bike handling Solid bike handling skills are essential as gravel riding can get technical, almost like mountain biking. Especially if your background is in road cycling, practicing your bike handling can be very beneficial. “If you come from the road, you may assume there’s grip everywhere. But gravel is different. You must learn to find the grip on a surface that’s moving underneath you. Practice different kinds of turns on different surfaces.” Mountain bikers are comfortable with the varied terrain. For them, Joonas recommends getting comfortable riding in a big group. The first hour of a gravel race can be especially hectic. Still, you should be able to stay relaxed and not get intimidated by leaning on one another or touching handlebars with someone. “Joining a few group rides before taking part in a gravel race is definitely a good idea. After a few of them, you will start to feel more comfortable,” he promises. “Solid bike handling skills and experience from group riding help you save energy, too.” Get to know the course Knowing the course well is definitely beneficial. However, pre-riding the entire course is often not an option as the distances of gravel events are so long. That’s when the Suunto app comes in handy: Import the route GPX file to the Suunto app (or sync it from a compatible partner service, like Strava or Komoot) and study the course. Look at the altitude profile to identify the big climbs – and descents. “Try to save some energy for the big climbs. That’s where the strong riders will make their moves,” Joonas instructs. “That same applies to other parts of the course as well: Try to save energy when riding easy sections, like roads. When the riding gets more technical and the speeds slower, be prepared to hammer.” The map in the Suunto app is a great way to identify those key sections: Look at the roads, tracks and trails. How wide are they? When is it getting technical? If, for example, a road narrows to a single track, you don’t want to be in the back of the group and stuck in a traffic jam. Take your positions early. The fun is about to get real! (Image: NGS/Falling Leaves Lahti) Refuel early In a long endurance event, a steady pace would be optimal – but often far from reality in gravel races. If you want to stay in the front, the first hour is decisive: You must weigh whether you can afford to ride a little too fast in the beginning to stay with the group without bonking. Try to also conserve energy: Draft in the group and remember to start refueling already at the beginning of the long race. If you don’t refuel during the first hour, you will have to pay for the consequences later. “Riding should feel hard, but not so hard that after the first hour, you’ll start to question if you’ll be able to finish the race,” Joonas says. Having the necessary energy in the bottle for the first hour might be a good idea. This way you don’t need to mess with gels and bars in the heat of the early part of the race. Remember what’s important People take part in gravel events with quite different approaches: some are there to win, others to test their own limits. Some simply want to have a good time on the bike and make new friends. “Gravel races are quite different from road races. Even in the lead group people chat and have smiles on their faces. I certainly hope it stays this way,” says Joonas. Whatever your goal, ride hard but be polite and considerate of others.  “If you cross the finish line with emptly legs and a big muddy smile on your face, the day has been successful – whatever your goal!” Coach Henttala himself after Traka 360 in Girona in May 2024.   Learn more about the Nordic Gravel Series

We asked the Suunto community for your favorite training music. Here’s what you listen to as two Spotify playlists! In the pursuit of peak performance, the right playlist can be just as essential as the perfect pair of sneakers or a well-balanced meal. Understanding the profound impact music has on our workouts, we turned to the Suunto community for their ultimate training anthems.  The result? Two electrifying compilations curated directly from their recommendations: one pulsating with fast, energetic rhythms to fuel the most intense workouts, and the other, a collection of smooth, easy-listening melodies crafted to accompany moments of serene focus and recovery.  Dive into the beats that inspire, motivate, and elevate our training sessions below!   Fast-paced training music by Suunto Community We asked you delivered: These power songs get the Suunto community through the tough workouts.   Easy-paced training music by Suunto Community We asked you delivered: These chill songs get the Suunto community's workouts to flow smoothly.

Want to know what gears you use and monitor the battery on your electronic shifting? Read on and learn how – and why – to connect your Suunto with Shimano Di2 electronic shifting. The new Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app connects your Suunto sports watch with Shimano’s electronic shifting for real-time guidance and saves data for after-ride analysis. See the gears you are using and the status of your Di2 battery on your Suunto.   Through the Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app, developed in partnership with Shimano, you can monitor crucial data such as gear positions and Di2 battery status directly on your Suunto. You can view details of your shifting after your ride in Suunto app.  The SuuntoPlus sports app also saves Shimano Di2 data in Suunto app for later analyzes. It can be viewed in relation to power and speed, for example.   What gear I am on (and why should I care) Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app offers clear benefits both during and after the ride. During the ride, you will easily see how much battery you have left in your electronic shifting system and the gears you are on. The gears you use, are also saved as part of the activity in Suunto app. Taking a moment to study these, may give you some interesting insights. Firstly, you will learn what gears you mostly use. Did you mostly use the higher or the lower gears or was the use well in balance? This can lead to two findings: is your gearing right for the terrain and how’s your chainline. If you spend most of the time on the lower gears and hardly ever touch the higher ones, you may want to consider a smaller chainring. Or if you are a lot on the hardest gear and spinning out, a bigger chainring might be a good option. Another consideration is the chainline. The word ‘chainline’ refers to how straight your chain runs between the front chainring(s) and the rear sprockets. A straigt chainline is more effective and stresses the components less. So, spending more time on rear sprockets that offer a straight, “perfect” chainline is smart. This data can be collected with the Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app.   How to use SHIMANO Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app Sync the Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app to your watch from Suunto app’s SuuntoPlus Store. Select the Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app in the exercise settings before starting your workout. During activity, scroll with the middle button to view the SuuntoPlus screen. Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sport apps stores data for after analysis in Suunto app. Next time you start your ride with the same sport mode, your Shimano Di2 SuuntoPlus sports app is selected as default and connects with your Shimano Di2. Happy riding!   Lead image: Philipp Reiter / The Adventure Bakery

Are you riding an e-bike with your Suunto? Now you can connect your watch with SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS bicycles. Learn how to do it! Cycling is one of the key sports within the Suunto community, with enthusiasts leveraging Suunto's advanced GPS watches to monitor and optimize their performance and explore new terrain. Suunto’s compatibility with SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS equipped e-bikes is a new addition to meet the diverse needs of cyclists. So, whether you are hitting the trails or commuting on a bike path on your e-bike, read on! SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS SuuntoPlus sports app, a feature developed in collaboration with SHIMANO, shows you the assistant mode (Eco, Boost, Trail), power assistance level, e-bike battery status, speed and heart rate directly on your Suunto watch in real-time during your ride. The sports app also stores that data for after-ride analysis: You can, for example, see the assistant percentage along with the other data you tracked with your Suunto watch in Suunto app.   How to use SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS SuuntoPlus sport app Sync the SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS SuuntoPlus sports app to your watch from Suunto app’s SuuntoPlus Store. Select the SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS SuuntoPlus sports app in the exercise settings before starting your workout. During activity, scroll with the middle button to view the SuuntoPlus screen. SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS SuuntoPlus sports app stores data for after analysis in Suunto app. Next time you start your ride with the same sport mode, your SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS SuuntoPlus sports app is selected as default and connects with your SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS bicycle. SuuntoPlus sports app is compatible with the SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS equipped with SHIMANO Wireless Units. SHIMANO Wireless Units can be equipped with following SHIMANO E-BIKE SYSTEMS Drive Unit Models: EP801, EP6 EP800 / E6100/E6180/E5000/E5080 E7000 E8000 / E8080 (Only E6000 cannot be equipped for SHIMANO Wireless Units)

We've conquered all the territories above 0m and under. In this article, we set out to show you and explain what happens in your body as you descend into the big blue world.  Diving is an excellent activity with the potential for one-of-a-kind experiences you can only get in an aquatic environment. Our land-loving bodies, however, can react negatively to diving if we are not careful. We are drilling down the essential know-how of diving so you can enjoy it to the fullest.  Pressure changes; your body needs to adapt.Diving is made easy to understand and more accessible: dive algorithms Pressure changes; your body needs to adapt.  There are constant fluctuations in the surrounding pressure while we hike or dive into the ocean. Pressure changes 1bar/14.7 PSI for every 10 meters and it increases much faster underwater because water is denser than air. The pressure we face underwater, also called ambient pressure, is caused by the water's weight.  The deeper we dive, the greater the ambient pressure will become. Ten meters down is already twice the pressure at the surface. Discomfort in the ears when taking off in an airplane is also felt just diving down to the bottom of a pool that is three meters deep. When a diver descends, the surrounding water pressure grows. The pressure change underwater will affect spaces that contain air, such as your ears, sinuses, BCD, and mask. But the most significant impact is on your circulatory and respiratory systems and the latter need to be taken seriously because they can lead to major health risks. What happens after you immerse into water or hike up a mountain?  Our bodies are full of dissolved gases from the air we breathe. Our bodies actively use oxygen for us to function. Other gases, the so-called inert gases like nitrogen, are not used by our bodies but are stored in blood and tissues. While diving, the pressure increases, and our body is exposed to a higher absorption rate of nitrogen stored in our tissues. The amount of inert gas dissolved in our bodies depends on the ambient pressure. Why is it that e don't feel this effect? Because our body is mainly made up of liquids, we are not exposed to pressure. Nevertheless, we feel it in our ears and sinuses because of the air trapped in them.  When we ascend from a dive, the ambient pressure is reduced and the dissolved nitrogen needs to come out (off-gas). We have no problems as long as nitrogen comes out slowly and in a controlled manner without significant pressure differences. If thepressure is released too fast; the nitrogen will come out too fast and cause DCS, also known as decompression sickness, or "the bends."  The amount of gases dissolved in our bodies depends on the ambient pressure around us. That means that every gas has a specific partial pressure, and the combined pressures of the gases in our bodies stay in equilibrium with our environment. Your body is fully saturated with gases at the elevation where you can be found for an extended time. Here are two scenarios that will explain the changes in your body:   If you hike up a mountain, air pressure drops, making your body hold less gas. Your tissues are at this point supersaturated relative to the new ambient pressure. Our bodies release gas through diffusion and breathing to get back to equilibrium, also known as off-gassing. When you go down to sea level and then underwater, you increase your bodies' pressure, allowing more gas to be carried by blood and tissues. Again, to equalize the pressures, your body takes on more dissolved gas from the air you breathe. This is called on-gassing. Does the same thing happen when you ascend from a dive?  If we come up from a dive too quickly (therefore, dropping ambient pressure), the natural off-gassing mechanisms are overloaded. The dissolved gas in our bodies comes out of the solution too fast, forming bubbles that can cause decompression sickness or DCS. There are different stages and forms of DCS, and symptoms can range from minor joint pain and skin irritation to severe nerve damage and death. For a diver with DCS, the symptoms may already start while still underwater, or it may take several hours after surfacing. In some cases, the symptoms may not show for several days. Nevertheless, most cases are treatable with, for example, recompression chamber treatment (hyperbaric oxygen treatment). Diving is made easy to understand and more accessible.  Over the decades, dive algorithms were incorporated into dive computers to calculate how long we can stay underwater with a limited risk of getting DCS. A dive computer knows your dive history and calculates the safety limits in real-time by considering the following metrics: depth, time, gas mix, and personal factors (if applicable).  What is a dive algorithm? A dive algorithm is a theoretical mathematical formula and does not measure your body's actual physical state while diving. Everybody is different and no dive computer (to this day) can measure the amount of inert gas in every body tissue. Every dive computer has a level of conservatism built in to minimize the risk of DCS and by changing your personal settings, you can add or remove safety margins to your dive algorithm. What does a dive algorithm do?  Algorithms are designed to give you a safe estimate of how long you can stay at different depths without developing the risk of DCS by considering time/depth/dissolved gas. Some algorithms provide longer dive times at the cost of a higher likelihood of DCS, while others limit the dive time to add a safety margin to your dive.They are used in dive computers based on how inert gases are absorbed and dissolved into and from the diver’s tissues. There are two decompression models most commonly used: the gas model, or the Haldane model, and then the bubble model, known as VPM and RGBM.  The first one is based on J.S Haldane's work and according to his theory, the body is grouped into theoretical tissue compartments, absorbing and releasing inert gas at different rates. This theory is based on avoiding bubble formation by controlling the absorption and release in different theoretical tissue compartments. One commonly used algorithm following the principles of the gas model is the Bühlmann ZHL- 16C. The second commonly used decompression model is based on the assumption that bubble formation will always be present and the key is to control the size of the formed bubbles. Suunto Fused™ RGBM 2 has been developed with Dr. Bruce Wienke to combine the benefits of the VPM model with Dr. Wienke’s latest full RGBM work.  What should you do?  The important takeaway of this introduction is that every diver and dive are different, so are the underlying assumptions for this incredible sport. In the end, you as a diver will decide what your safety margins are and what theoretical model you want to use for your dives, and those choices will be based on your training, your experience, and eventually, your preferences. Take your time to discover the underworld safely and you will not be disappointed. 

Suunto World Vertical Week, the thrilling celebration of the uphill challenge, united outdoor enthusiasts from around the globe in a collective pursuit of elevation gain on March 18–24. All human-powered activities by the participants were counted and every hill was turned into an opportunity to conquer new heights.  We have now analyzed the data to see which country and activity type climbed the most!   The usual suspects were on top of the country rankings In the country rankings, the usual suspects – countries in the mountainous regions of Europe – were once again on top. This time Italy dethroned Austria for the number one spot with over 400 meters of ascent per activity on average. Switzerland also broke its way to the top three. The only non-European nation in the top 10 was South Africa in ninth place. Greece made it to the top 10 for the first time.   Average ascent meters by country   When looking at the total ascent, meaning adding up the ascent in all the activities in a nation for the Vertical Week, France took the top spot from Spain and Italy climbed past Austria on the third spot. Top 10 for total ascent meters France Spain Italy Austria Germany Switzerland USA Poland United Kingdom Czech Republic   Skiers – and the Japanese trail runners – were above the rest In the activity type rankings, there weren’t any major changes: ski touring activities had the biggest average ascent, followed by mountaineering and trail running. The average ascent for all the ski touring activities came close to the magical 1000-meter mark but was still a bit below the summit. Maybe next time!   Average ascent meters by activity type   While the skiers had the biggest days on average, when looking at individual activities with over 1000 meters of ascent, trail runners were in the lead. In 2023 the order was the other way round. In the individual performances, four people really stood out: They all had tracked over 20.000 meters of human-powered ascent during the Vertical Week. Impressive! And while looking at the big picture, many people seemed to push it more than last year: For a top 10% placing, you needed to climb 2275 meters during this year’s Vertical Week. That’s almost 373 meters more than in 2023. The same change is visible in the top of the top: To make it to the top 3% of the Vertical Week participants, you needed to climb 4062 meters, 472 meters more than in 2023. The country rankings winner Italy is very strong also in different activity type rankings. They earned a podium spot in six out of ten different categories! Ski touring Slovakia 1160m Switzerland 1062m Poland 1051m(Average for all countries 953 m) Whoop whoop, we have a new winner in the ski touring category! The Slovakian skiers ascended more than any other nation in any of the categories. It’s also clear that the 1000-meter mark is a clear goal for skiers, and the entire top 3 broke that limit. Trail running Japan 1076m Italy 674m Greece 600m(Average for all countries 457 m) This is amazing: The Japanese trail runners were the only ones breaking the 1000-meter mark in any other category than ski touring. They kept their well-deserved top spot in trail running for another year. Congratulations! Mountaineering Italy 865m Finland 838m France 799m(Average for all countries 633 m) Italy continued their dominancy, but the second place was a surprise: How did such a flat country as Finland make its way to second place? Mountain biking South Africa 645m Italy 547m Slovenia 540m(Average for all countries 393 m) The South Africans were active on the bike, climbed more than any other nation and ensured that also the African continent was presented in the rankings. Gravel cycling United Kingdom 656m United States 440m Italy 421m(Average for all countries 298 m) Gravel cycling was a new addition on the list this time. And, not surprisingly, the ascent meters for gravel cycling fell somewhere between mountain biking and cycling. The UK took the top spot in the activity ranking clearly. Cycling Spain 435m Italy 335m Slovenia 286m(Average for all countries 210 m) Everyone knows that cycling in Spain in the spring is great. And they seem to know it themselves, too! Trekking Japan 850m Switzerland 575m Austria 541m(Average for all countries 351 m) The Japanese took the top spot in two categories, trekking and trail running. Two category wins was only matched by Italy (number one in mountaineering and hiking). Hiking Italy 438m Slovakia 386m Slovenia 351m(Average for all countries 240 m) Yet another category with a strong Italian performance. Forza! Nordic skiing Switzerland 363m Austria 324m Norway 305m(Average for all countries 216 m) While the top three countries in the cross country skiing category were expected, what was surprising was the change in the podium lineup from the previous year: None of these three were on the podium last year. Running Czech Republic 152m Switzerland 138m South Africa 130m(Average for all countries 95 m) Running, the most popular Suunto activity in general, is not focused on the vert. Despite the smaller numbers, there still is a winner: Czech Republic took the number one spot!