The double summer time debate rumbles on with another piece on the beeb web site looking at the arguments for variable time zones in the UK. Whilst reading this I was reminded of my times in Sweden and how the swedes cope with short winter days and their addiction to exercise.
Sweden is up north. A long way north. The southern most large city of Malmo aligns to Newcastle while Gothenburg is level with Aberdeen and Stockholm is on a par with Lerwick in the Shetland isles. Sweden is also on central european time.
I have visited both Gothenburg and Stockholm in winter and yes it is dark. But the swedes seem more able to use floodlighting to enable sport and exercise in the dark winter. And this is at all levels - not just large city sports arenas. I was amazed to see a small football pitch in a tiny village just outside Gothenburg full floodlit one evening.
I also had the pleasure of running 10k on purpose laid trails at a fantastic community sports complex on the Gothenburg outskirts which has fully lit trails of 2.5, 5 and 8km. After the run there was the chance for sauna and then an outdoor plunge pool at a bracing 11C. At that point I switched from swedish to more basic anglo-saxon! Apparently, when it snows, the routes are also used for cross county skiing, again under floodlights: and I bet they clear the ice off the plunge pool
So it is possible to exercise in the dark north. But how many UK cities, towns an villages can boast any kind of floodlit facilities let alone running trails? I would hazard a guess at not many. If anyone knows of any, let me know.
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