Has anyone been to Iceland and can comment on swimming pools for training around Reykjavik? Laugardalslaug looks like the premier facility with two 50 meter pools plus a water slide, but I see there's at least one other 50 meter pool in the metro area (in Kopavogur). Anyone know of any masters groups?
IGLA 2012 was held at the Laugardalslaug facility- It is very nice and I'd highly recommend it. The water slide was really fun, the various hot tubs were also cool. I was able to walk from the condo I was staying to the pool every day. I'm not familiar with the other pool you mentioned.
It looks like the Laugardalur pool is about a 15 minute bus ride from my hotel. I noticed the Reykjavik City Card includes both free bus fare and free entry to the city pools, so I'll definitely be getting one of those. I don't think I'll have much of an excuse not to swim while I'm there. :)
I was lucky enough to visit Iceland this past fall to research an article on why this country leads the world in life expectancy for men. A lot of reasons, though none of them are overwhelmingly persuasive, but I concluded that Icelandic swimming probably has a lot to do with it.
By Icelandic swimming, I don't mean the kind of swimming most of us here on the USMS forums are used to.
I mean 200-300 meters of leisurely back and forth in one of the country's ubiquitous swimming facilities, followed by 45 minutes plus of hanging out with your friends in the hot tub and sauna.
I think it's the camaraderie and incredibly close social ties that let guys here live longer than most places. Since coming back to the US, I have tried to promote "Icelandic swimming" to my friends here.
To more precisely answer your question, there was a really nice facility close to the university not far from downtown Reykjavik. It was a 25 meter pool, not 50 meters, but there were at least 4-5 hot tubs of different degrees of heat (including one extremely cold Danish plunge ice dip), plus a sauna and a steam room. The water jets in one of the hot tubs was by far the most forceful I have ever experienced.
And though everything (except the steam room and the lockers) is outside, it's open all year long. Check it out! But don't feel obligated to go hog wild with working out. You will be going it alone, I suspect, but the local people will be very welcoming in the hot tubs!
I was lucky enough to visit Iceland this past fall to research an article on why this country leads the world in life expectancy for men. A lot of reasons, though none of them are overwhelmingly persuasive, but I concluded that Icelandic swimming probably has a lot to do with it.
What about the fact they are living on a remote island that is powered by geothermal heat, hence very little pollution? Although I'm sure the lifestyle choices there are a factor, too!
Icelandic is more complicated than Swedish but they are mutually comprehensible if you use simple grammar and listen carefully.
Yes, just from looking at Icelandic web pages it's pretty clear the two languages have much in common. I don't think my Swedish is good enough to understand a normal conversation in Sweden, so I don't have a lot of confidence that I'd be able to comprehend spoken Icelandic!
Jim probably means the Vesturbaerlaugar ("West Town Baths"). I swam there several times a week in 1988 and 1989. Circle swimming mostly didn't happen but swimming in the snow is unbeatable. I wasn't a very serious swimmer at the time anyway. I don't think I ever went to Laugardalur ("bathing grounds," roughly) or any other indoor pool while I lived in Reykjavik.
Most urban Icelanders have excellent spoken and written English skills, so you probably can get a lot of advance information via email. If you just go to a municipal pool during lap swim hours, you definitely should hit the hot tub (heitipotturinn) and practice your Scandinavian with some of the occupants. Icelandic is more complicated than Swedish but they are mutually comprehensible if you use simple grammar and listen carefully. Even if all you said were "godan daginn, eg heiti Kirk fra Bandarikjunum" they would love it.
