New photo mini-series: I grew up in a small sleepy town called Langesund, on the coast of Telemark, Norway. The population is roughly 3000 and I’m currently “back in the old country†on summer vacation for three weeks. Not much is putting this place on the nation’s map or in the headlines except the music scene. A few years ago, Bob Dylan performed a half a kilometer from my parent’s house and a few weeks ago, Elton John did the same — with 15,000 spectators eagerly watching. I heard tickets went in minutes — and I wish I had been part of the festivities.
Most of FasterSkier.com’s readers might associate Norway with snow and ski racing and less with what happens when the weather gets warm — sun-bathing, (including topless sun-bathing—sorry but our FasterSkier.com regulations preclude me from posting those…), ocean swimming and training in shorts and t-shirts. We just arrived to find the weather turning from coolish and rainy to sunny and beautiful. The Tour de France is on every day beginning at noon and that is quite a treat to watch. They show it from beginning to end — commercial free! And here is another piece of trivia about Norway that you can add to your knowledge base: Norwegians invented both the cheese-cutter and the paper-clip. It pays off reading Fasterskier.com!
Following a week of sunny and warm days, the ocean temperature in this part of Norway can warm up to a pleasant 23-24 degrees Celsius which is perfect for swimming. But, it can drop rather quickly to a “shrinkage inducing†15-16 degrees following a few days of rain (which is not unusual).
This mini-series of photos will be of some of the workouts I am doing while on vacation.. The first ones are from recreational kayaking with my 12 year-old daughter today. We were out in our inflatable kayaks for a couple of hours simply enjoying the waves, looking at sea birds, star and jellyfish and enjoying the scenery. Not much can be more relaxing than this.
