It may sound strange, but getting off the bike can help make you stronger, fitter and faster, as well as decrease your risk of injury. It’s a chance to develop muscles that get neglected while on the bike and address any weaknesses. Check out the suggestions below that will have you ready for your spring cycling. 1. Cross-country skiing  Cross Country Skiing is the perfect cross-training sport for cyling. It uses the muscles in ranges of motion that are very similar to cycling, while giving your mind and muscles a much-needed break from pedaling. You’ll enhance strength in your hips, quads and abdomen – the key sources of power you use to drive the pedals, as well as give your heart and lungs a good workout.It's also great fun. 2. Work on your coreIf you've ever left spin class or a long ride with a sore back, a weak core is to blame. Cycling's tripod position, in which the saddle, pedals and handlebar support your weight, relies on core strength but doesn't build it. Try performing long sets of exercises like the plank and side plank—holding for up to three minutes. Emelie Forsberg demonstrates the plank 3. Swimming Swimming is also a great way to improve your upper body strength and balance and can improve flexibility as well as offering some additional cardiovascular fitness. It forces you to use your upper body at a relatively low impact. Try to vary the strokes between front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke.   We recommend you swim indoors during winter! ©zooom.at/Markus Berger 4. Weight trainingDoing the same activity everyday can lead to imbalances in the body, and this can lead to injury. And your time on the bike needs more than just quad strength—your core, low back, triceps, and even your neck take a lot of strain from long bouts of pedaling. Weight training will increase both your cycling strength and efficiency. Try lunges, dumbbell squats, single-leg deadlift, swiss ball hamstring curls and bent over row with high reps and moderate resistance that develop muscular endurance.  4. Yoga and Pilates You’re more than likely tight, stiff or imbalanced from too-many months of cycling without other physical activity. Yoga and Pilates can do wonderful things for cyclists because they lengthen and strengthen a whole host of muscles. They also teach you how to activate and strengthen your core muscles. Will Trubridge practises yoga for his freediving

Adventures take us to new experiences and out of the everyday. Kilian Jornet says that exploring is human; Greg Hill that adventure is a mindset. Watch the Suunto Adventure video and hear what Kilian Jornet, Greg Hill, Jill Heinerth and Conrad Stoltz think of adventure. Top image: © Bruno Long

Sandra Koblmüller is the star of our recent Suunto Ambit3 Sport Sapphire shoot and you'll see her in the current campaign. But the 24-year-old is also an athlete in her own right and recently competed in the XTERRA world championships in Maui, the premier off-road triathlon, where she came 14th. Amazingly she only started swimming a few years ago. So how did she do it? How did you get to become a pro triathlete? In secondary school our class took part in a cross-country running competition. Without any serious training I came second and my passion for running was born. I started to regularly take part in running competitions. When I went to university a colleague asked me to do the running part in a triathlon relay. I was so impressed from the combination of the three disciplines that I wanted to try a whole triathlon on my own and started to train for swimming. And then? One year later I won the Austrian Championship for Crosstriathlon and the Austrian federation sent me to the European Championships. Because of this, I was allowed to become a professional athlete this year. In my first year as a “pro“ I came second at the XTERRA Portugal, which qualifies you for the World Championship in Maui (Hawaii). Tell us about your training routine?Normally I wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning. After a short breakfast I usually start my day in the swimming pool with a 3-5 km swim. I am not always motivated to jump into the cold water in the morning, but after some lanes I get my motivation and enjoy it. After the swim I take a second breakfast and do something for university then at noon or in the evening I usually do my second workout – either I go for a run or I ride my bike. At the weekend I normally do some longer bike workouts (about 4 hours). Then Monday is my rest day, where I do relaxing things like sauna, massages, stretching…How do you monitor your progress? I have my own trainer and I usually get a training plan for a week. With the help of the Suunto Ambit3 Sport Sapphire we are able to control my training. Are there any areas of your training that you are struggling with?As I started stroke swimming very late at the age of 20, my swimming technique is not the best. If you want to be a good swimmer/triathlete you have to start swimming in your childhood to get the water feeling. However I’m working hard to improve this. What are your dreams and goals?One of my biggest goals is to become one of the best XTERRA athletes in the world. A goal in the near future is a victory in one of the XTERRA World Tour races. What inspires and motivates you? One thing that inspires me is the improvement you make if you train hard for your goals. For example, when I started to swim, it took me about 1:45 for the 100 meters intervals (10 x 100m intervals of swimming). Now I am able to swim the 100m in 1:25 and I am sure that one day I will swim my 100m intervals under 1:20.What are your fears?I have a fear of failure, especially just before a competition. So the most important thing I have to learn is to believe in my strengths and myself.  

Janick Lemieux and Pierre Bouchard are on the first leg of an epic cycle journey NOMADS² from northern Europe to the southern tip of South Africa in search of indigenous nomadic peoples. Janick Lemieux and Pierre Bouchard are no strangers to long cycle journeys. The Canadian couple previously spent six years on a 60,000 km 'cyclovolcanic' quest around the Pacific. For this trip, their plan is to cycle 35,000 km from Nordkapp Norway to Cape Agulhas, South Africa via 50 countries and dozens of nomadic groups.  “We're embarking on an epic ride and a true voyage of exploration!”So far they've already cycled across Norway and encountered the Sami reindeer herders.  “We snaked our way up north amidst its jaw-dropping fjords and celestial plateaus jutted with glaciated peaks and entered Sami (Lapland), traditional territory of the first nomads on our list, and were riding on the lookout for reindeer, their summer pastures and their herders,” the pair say in their latest dispatch. Besides Norway, they've also cycled across Finland's wilderness. “It's a land of magnificent taiga forests speckled with a multitude of lakes, vital marshes, and vast expanses of tundra covering summits and upper reaches of tunturis or fells. Reaching some 800 m above sea level, the venerable bald ridges are the sole survivors of billion of years old lofty mountain ranges. With their abundant lichens and few mosquitoes, they provide ideal summer grounds for reindeer. It's been a real immersion in this amazing land,” they add. It's not just remote indigenous peoples whom the pair have met. They also managed time for an encounter with an equally engaging team of individuals – the workforce at Suunto's HQ in Vantaa, Finland. We wished them the best of luck in their onward journey.   Images: © Pierre Bouchard

We're all familiar with training rides. Sometimes you go hard and aim for a big distance day. On others it's more about the intensity and quality. But what if you're ice climbers Matthias Scherer and Tanja Schmitt and you're looking for the perfect training for ice climbing? Well, naturally you go for a non-stop 24 hour mountain bike challenge and try for as much distance and elevation as possible! Check the video below for a little teaser on how they got on: “It worked out great,” Matthias tells us. “It was a perfect test and training for our 24h ice challenge coming this winter.” This is a project to ice-climb non stop for 24 hours. “The night was quite cold and that was exactly what we wanted to have – winter like conditions on the descents. We both achieved our goals – me by cycling over 8,000 m of vertical and Tanja by passing 7,000 m. He adds: “The circuit we cycled was a true MTB circuit – 75% rough mountain roads with loose rocks, gravel and mud!” All images ©Matthias Scherer. Location: Urtier Valley, Cogne, Italy

Three men, two 8,000ers, 7 days and 170km. Mode of transport? Bike and skis only. Welcome to the quest of ski mountaineers Benedikt Böhm, Sebastian Haag and Andrea Zambaldi. The German and Italian trio have just embarked on an epic mission to climb Shisha Pangma (8,013 m) then ride their bikes the 170 km to Cho Oyu (8,201 m) where they hope to make another speed ascent, all within a week. They've spent the last week acclimatising up to 7,000 m and were all set to make their first summit attempt on Thursday September 18. However, bad weather and avalanche risk forced them to turn around. They're now back in base camp, preparing for a second summit bid.“Another attempt to climb Shisha Pangma is being planned and scheduled to happen within the next few days,” they blogged. Big surprise of the trip so far? Bumping into Suunto ambassador Ueli Steck at base camp, no stranger to speed ascents himself.“Ueli gave many useful tips,” the guys said. Ueli climbed Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu in 2011. The three ski mountaineers, who are supported by Suunto, can be followed online here. All images © Elias Lefas