We made it
to Norway on June 27th after a long 20-hour trip. The alarm clock was
set for 5:30 in the morning on the 26th to make it to the airport in time
for all the necessary security checks. My wife was already in Europe on
business so I was escorting our two girls (ages 6 and 10) by myself. Kris
left me with quite a checklist, ranging from feeding the pets to unplugging
the toaster (which I forgot) and scouting the house for flushed toilets.
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The
local club let Torbjorn use one of their sea kayaks. Not the fastest but very stable. |
Once at the
airport, we cleared without problems – fortunately the airlines
do seem to be back to their "old self." Our flight out of Salt
Lake City was at 9 and took us to Chicago, then Stockholm, Sweden and
finally Sandefjord, Norway. My 87-year-old Dad picked us up in his 17-year-old
Toyota, after visiting his 102-year-old aunt who is still living at home!
He let me drive our precious cargo the last leg of the trip — a one-hour
drive by car to my hometown, Langesund. We arrived here at two o’clock
in the afternoon. My six year old daughter proudly announced that we had
been served breakfast five times in a row on the planes. She determined
that from being offered bread rolls at every meal. We were all quite tired
by now but eager to do something after sitting for the last 20 hours.
My kids went
to the beach and I went for a one-hour easy run/walk in the nearby forest.
It felt good to finally do something but I felt sluggish and tired and
my legs were very heavy. By seven that evening my kids were exhausted
due to the long travel and the eight-hour time change and went to bed.
I had decided to not nap during the day and forced myself to stay up late
to better adjust by sleeping at normal Norway hours. I sat up to one in
the morning and talked with old friends.
Well the plan might have worked but my kids woke up at 3 am that night
and decided that it was time for me to get up as well. They had not set
their clocks to Norway time yet and were quite confused when they looked
outside and determined by the almost daylight (it doesn’t get dark
as it does home in Utah) that yes, it was probably early but about the
right time to get up. Wrong.
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| Langesund's old customs house St. Helena. Is it possible that that some of the officers was annoyed at being stationed here? |
So a little
tired the next day I went to the local training studio a few towns over.
The walk-in charge was about $20. The price had not increased from last
year when the price was $15 – but the decline in the value of the
dollar had brought the price up considerably. I did a solid 1-hour workout
doing 16 reps per set and 3-5 sets per exercise. I finished the workout
with good stretching, sauna and steam room.
The next day I was ready for a little quality session. Bike intervals
were on the agenda. I did a 20-minute easy warm-up that took me to the
longest hill in the neighborhood. I opted for a "build-up" session
consisting of four intervals from the bottom of the hill to the top. I
used 4 minutes and 26 seconds to the top on the first interval with a
max heart rate of 144. The effort was increased on the next one and the
time was 4.02 with a max heart rate of 161. On the third interval I reached
a heart rate of 166 half way up the hill and backed off a little and reduced
the heart rate to 163. My time was 3.59. I felt very good on the last
interval, got the heart rate quickly up above 170, reached 174 and held
it there for the last 2 minutes. The time was 3.41. My max heart rate
is about 182. My heart rate between the intervals dropped to 85 since
all I did was roll down the hill for a 2.5-minute recovery.
I felt in retrospect that I should have pushed a little harder on the
third interval but I didn’t want too high lactate levels since I
wanted to make sure that the last interval was the fastest. I was probably
a little too
conservative
but happy with how I felt considering the travel and time-change.
The next
day I finished up the week with a 7 K run in the morning and a one-hour
very easy bike ride in the evening.
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A
great workout. |
The following
day I borrowed a kayak from the local kayak club and cruised the fjord.
I have not kayaked for many years so I limited my first day to two hours.
I hope to get in several longer sessions since this is one of the most
relaxing and beneficial workouts you can do as alternative training.
Hjelmseth wins 100 meter Sprint in 15.1 seconds.
In the local papers I read on Monday morning that National team skier
Odd-Bjorn Hjelmseth won a 100 meter sprint ski race in the nearby costal
town Kragero in 75 degree weather. The organizers brought in snow from
the mountains and all the best Norwegian skiers were there to the enjoyment
of thousands of shrimp eating tourists coming in by boat to watch the
winter heroes.
The race was done in heats of three where the best skier in each heat
advanced. In the final it was Hjelmseth that won the sprint (15.1 seconds)
in front of Jens Arne Svartdal in 15.5 seconds
A longer race was won by Anders Aukland ahead Svartdal.
The women’s sprint race was won by Vibeke Skofterud 16.9 ahead of
Hilde Gjermundshaug in 17.4.
Skofterud also won the longer race ahead of Tina Bay.
VG, one of the tabloid papers from Oslo had no photos from the race itself
but two full pages of the competitors eating ice cream! Great journalism.
