HYROX WC 2026 - The Ultimate Stockholm Guide

[Music] [Music] Fitness Racing Podcasts be brought to you by UKHECDAR. We bring you news, reviews and interviews with everyone's favourite presenter, Ian K. [Music] So hello listeners and welcome ones again to the Fitness Racing Podcast. I'm your horse Ian K and we are well and truly on the countdown to Stockholm. We've got some great content planned both on the Instagram and on the podcast. We are going to do our usual snake draft with Emma and with Dave. That will be out next Wednesday. But before that, I am aware that a lot of you are on probably planes or automobiles on your way to Stockholm as we speak or maybe you plan it in a few days. So far, it would be a great idea to get online with someone who is a native of the country to get a little bit more information of certain things and to answer some of the questions that we may have because I don't know about you listener, I've never visited Sweden and I know it's a lovely country but I also know that sometimes when you head to another country, there's certain things you just want to know. So to help me, I've got Douglas Rooze. Douglas, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for taking me on your show. Thank you. The pleasure is absolutely all mine. Before we get into discussing your beautiful country, can you just give a little bit of your background when it comes to high rocks and fitness generally? Well, I have always exercised a lot. I work as an entrepreneur so I've been running my own company, my whole life and for me, exercise and working out has been my way of surviving I would almost say. I always did lots of different kinds of sports, martial arts, soccer or football, a long distance running I did for like 15 years when the children were young and small because it worked out really well. I was running to work and from work, etc. Then I started doing CrossFit for a number of years and when one of the owners of that CrossFit gym sold his shares, we started to speak about doing something together and this is now three years ago. He said in the summer, three years ago, like, "Hey Douglas, maybe we should start like a high rocks gym." I never heard of high rocks at the time and I was like, "Hmm, high rocks, no, I don't believe in high rocks. Let's do a like-start a CrossFit gym box." Then I looked into it and after a couple of days I told him, "Hey, and his name is Ulrich. Hey Ulrich, that's an amazing idea. Let's do it." Then I actually started to run more because basically, you know, hybrid training is strength and endurance and I was going back into running and I continued doing the strength and that's basically the beginning of my high rocks career and I started to compete a little bit. I managed to qualify for the Worlds last year in Chicago and I didn't do a very good race. I don't know, many of your listeners probably were there competing and the sleds were heavy and bad and, you know, there were a lot of complaints about that. But I loved it and Ulrich and I would qualify now for Worlds here in Stockholm in Oslo last year in doubles. So yeah, I'm looking forward to competing but for me, high rocks is not only competition, it's hybrid training. That's my big thing. Both, I want to be strong, I want to be fast and I want to be able to work out for a long time so endurance. I love it. Then you've got that community as well, you mention your gym and I'm aware from people who go over that you've fostered such community over there. Yeah, well, I'm so proud. As I said, I've been working as an entrepreneur in my whole life but only media and tech and the properties and different kinds of industries, esports, etc. But I always wanted to get into this to health and longevity, basically, in training. So we started the gym together, Ulrich and I and two others, Michael and Emilia. It's called LifeLab. It's located in the center of Stockholm, 1,200 square meters. It's an amazing place. We started six months ago. We opened it six months ago and we are, I'm so happy. It's the best thing I ever did. We have the cold plunge. We have the recovery zone, the compression boots and everything and we have an amazing hyrex and hybrid area with all the sleds, all the wallboards, everything. We're actually with only hyrex performance center in the Nordics. So we've seen now during the words here when all the athletes are coming to Sweden and they are visiting our gym and I'm so proud of it. It's an amazing community and so many nice people. I'm going to ask the first question that the listeners probably want to know, which is you do day passes. Yeah, we do. We do day passes and you can buy different kinds of passes for one day, three days or ten days. It's getting like sort of cheaper per day if you buy more. So yeah, so we have day passes and you can find us on LifeLab.se. You can see all the prices there and where we are located. Amazing. I'll drop that in the show notes for you listeners because I know that was a question. Lots of you had concerning what to find a gym. Obviously other gyms are available but Douglas has mentioned they are the best in Nordics when he comes to high rocks and vast. So definitely give his gym a lot. I am biased obviously. But it's not only me who says that actually. You can check our Instagram. It's a LifeLab Stockholm on Instagram and we get a lot of credit from a lot of people actually. So I'm bragging a little bit. I'm so sorry about that. I should be humble. But I'm actually actually extremely proud of this establishment. LifeLab. You don't have to be humble when it's true for you. It's all I'll say. It's kind of. Right. Moving on. Douglas, I apologize in advance because some of these questions will probably get you to think, well, of course, that's the case. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we all human beings. It would be the same if I came to the UK. Just fire off, man. But yeah, it is some of these explain it like I'm 12 kind of thing. First, I'm going to ask about language. Of course, you're a fine English speaker, much better than my Swedish. I'm definitely. So a lot of people, well, particularly, have also listened to podcasts. English may be their only language. Are they going to be okay with navigating Sweden? They can only speak it. No, no, no, no. They have to learn Swedish. Otherwise, there's no reason coming here. No, listen here. Swedish is such a small language. No one cares about Swedish. We know that. And so we are, we are, everyone is English speaking in Sweden. I would say everyone, also, old people or young people, whatever. We know from very early years that no one is going to learn Swedish. We have to learn English at least and maybe one more language even. So you guys can just come here and speak your fantastic and beautiful language and we will be able to communicate very well. Say about I, I look, of course, because of where I grew up in the 80s where we had a little bit of a Nordic invasion. Shall we say Eureka Johnson and all of that. I do say, your Swedish is a wonderful language to listen to, even if I can't understand it. That's very kind. I don't know. I know it, but I like English very much. It's a beautiful language to you. I like your accent. It's really nice. It's, yeah. Thank you. It's very hard to play. So there's a lot of the listeners. It's kind of generic novel, and I think it's the tends to be what people call it. So obviously, speaking is fine. What about signs that are they mainly in Swedish? Are we going to have to use Google translate? No, I think the signs, no signs now. I mean, they're not, they are, they're signs. They're not, they're, they're, they're no things written on them, I think. So you, you will be able to figure out it's really, you know, the only thing now when I think of it, what you really should think of is that we drive on the right hand side of the street. Thus, when you are going to cross a road, you need to look at the different direction than you normally do. Always when I go to London for meetings or whatever, I, I'm so confused because I'm looking in the wrong direction where the cars come from. So you should think about that as well when you come here. We look at we drive on the right hand side of the street. So remember that. I don't want any accidents now, okay? No, well speaking of crossing the road. I'm gonna gonna ask Is this such a thing as J walking in your country because over in England as you know, we just we just walk If there's no if there's no cars we walk it's about the same with you. It's the same here. We just walk we have I mean the we look upon the The green and the red signs where you allow to walk or not more like an advice No, not a rule So if the road is empty just walking Perfect when it comes to paying for things of cash or card because obviously we've got Swedish Corona. Yeah, it's it's card Apple pay or or you know, you just use your phone everywhere for paying I don't think I use Swedish cash for I don't know maybe 10 years or something. I can't remember when I I have a boy who is five years old He's never he has never seen Swedish Swedish cash So it's really simple. Everything is digital There's Wi-Fi pretty much everywhere 5G available everywhere and Yeah, so so it's really simple just use your phone for payments everywhere also public transportation You don't need to buy a like a special card in a special booth or so you just put your your Apple pay telephone Or Google pay telephone on the in the machine and you enter public transportation through there. It's really simple Oh, wow that sounds really simple up in terms of cost Obviously you're living there, so it's a difficult question But Sweden particularly in the UK has a reputation for being a little bit more expensive it is that justified or Is it just that people from the UK are going to the wrong places? I think it used to be like that before We we always had it because I was traveling to the UK a lot like 15 years ago and we were then it was different We had a reputation of being really expensive now the currency has our currency has a really you know gone down the drain Which means that it's getting cheaper for you guys when you come here. So I don't think it's so expensive anymore Due to the currency so like buying or what should I say like a beer? I don't know maybe your listeners don't they don't drink beer, but you know it's It's maybe three or four pounds or so. I don't know if that is been expensive for you. Oh wow. What about a cup of coffee at like Starbucks? Yeah, that's a good one. I would say like a regular coffee is like three two pounds. Wow. It's almost parity So listen, no need to take out that second mortgage it appears Exactly. I think it's okay actually from that aspect. Yeah And you mentioned public transport in terms of getting to the airport to the city/venue and I put them separately because of course I'm aware the venue is several miles out from the main city So most people are probably heading to the venue because that's where their hotels will be. How do I or all my listeners get from the airport to where we're staying? I would I would take either the the fast train Going every 20 minutes from the airport to the center station Stockholm and from the center station you take the subway to To solve a centrum so you can ask anyone for the arena. It's called strawberry arena And they will guide you but it's it's really simple and It's really fast and you don't get stuck in traffic Then you can also also take a bus which which also leads every 15 minutes or something like that I think which is which is cheaper and you take that bus to the center station as well I think that's the easiest you can do it faster But then you need to change and take a walk here and there so maybe the easiest way is to take the bus to the center station and again from the center station take the subway to Solna Centrum which is like a 1015 minutes Subway ride from the center station. So the arena is yeah, it's a few miles outside of the center part of Stockholm But it's really easy to go there with with the subway That sounds great how much roughly is the train from the airport to the central? I would guess it's about 15 pounds or something like that Yeah, then you if you if you travel you can buy like a return ticket Then you get a little cheaper than that and then the bus is maybe five pounds or I wouldn't I'm not I'm not completely sure about exact amounts here But it's not it's not crazy expensive at least You can also take a taxi you can take a taxi there lots of loads of taxi cars outside You you and then you actually you can take any of those Taxes because they want they want they are regulated And there's there's a fixed price always ask for fixed price if you go from the airport to the airport When you take the taxi and you can take an Uber from From anywhere in Stockholm, you know, you can you you can use Uber or Bolt everywhere. It's really a Sophisticated network. I use it all the time. I think it's the best way of traveling actually Yeah, I have Uber I presume that my regular Uber that I use all here will just work I believe there's only one app so that's always an option I'm glad you mentioned about the train because I heard horror stories from friends that the the train from the airport Into the tone or sorry the city was like 60 euros, which it is Evidently someone not doing their calculations of Corona to euros correctly. Yeah, no that's That's that's not the correct price if you if you here we go Return ticket is It's about 60 euros so back and forth 60 euros and And if you are traveling like three adults together You will get a cheaper price and also if you travel two adults together if you bite, you know, you will get a cheaper price You got to like a discount if you're if you're traveling together. Yeah, yeah My friend was obviously missing form because I think they thought it was one way but a return for 60 Yeah, but that kind of fits into what you'd expect to pay for that kind of journey so that that's good So we're no near the arena some of ours are fortunately enough to have hotels right near the arena others of others are slightly outside Because sauna syndrome has lots of hotels as well that's I believe a main shopping plaza or something similar and I think I want to say that's maybe a kilometer and a half away from strawberry arena so about a 20 minute walk Douglas can you walk from sauna syndrome to be arena? Is it possible? Yeah, it's possible You you just use your Google map or something like that It's possible and it's yeah, it's about a kilometer and a half probably and You you will walk through sauna and You'll get there safe and sound. It's easy But if you live in it to stay in sauna syndrome You you you can walk to the arena, but you can also travel really easily With the public transportation if you want to go to the city or do something else to Stockholm It's like 20 minutes by or 15 minutes by subway. It's really simple. It's very subway station by the arena or is it sauna? Centrum is the main subway station the closest subway station is sauna syndrome You can also go to another Saguist station called Neckrubsen Neckrubsen but it's it's It's pretty much the same thing you can take buses from there if you want to Or you can ask me said early you can walk walk to the to the arena and Honestly walking for a place is really kind of nice You mentioned that you visit London a lot, and I know we've got some way, but sometimes it is nice to just walk through Busy streets you get to see more of the location So listen, I I know a lot of you obviously you have a high rocks, but a kilometer It's not gonna kill you so definitely definitely looking to that when I when I think yeah There is there's another alternative also for transportation, which is like electrical scooters I used it all the time. It's I use it more than Uber or taxi in the city going from one place to the other They are all over the place. They're really simple to To use you use your phone again and they're cheap So you can take if you want to like the electrical scooter from from the Subestation to the arena it would cost you maybe two pounds or something and it's it's quite fun actually to so we have boy It's called V.O.I. Or we have Bolt and we have all the line and the big brands that you probably also have in the London or in the UK. Oh my gosh I might have just Brought into reality be first ever high rocks scooter relay or something similar or the high rock scooter drag race. So listen, I'll be honest I'm walking but if you're confident enough to go on an electric scooter have a have a great time. Remember that was Douglassy's suggestion, not mine. But I will say make sure you travel insurance is up to date just in case. Yeah, exactly. But those scooters because you mentioned it, are they okay to be driving on the pavements or you meant to drive on the roading man? Well, what you are meant to do and what you're doing are two different things. You are you're meant to drive them on the road, I suppose. But I never I drive them all over the place. So I drive on the pavement and on the road and sometimes in the wrong direction, etc. You know, you know how it is. But yeah, you should probably abide by the rules, but you know, not always. Yeah, well, Douglass, you do have the the fact that you are from Stockholm. So listen, if you are a visitor to Stockholm, respect their customs as much as you can and speaking of which, we often think about customs. I know in America a tipping is a massive culture and you can really insult people if you don't tip. In the UK, you can get the worst punishment non-toman, which is a very, very bad tooting if you ever caught in a queue or in a line. Douglass, when it comes to Sweden, are there any customs we really need to be aware of? So we don't insult anyone from your country. Yeah, that's actually a good question. Yeah, we are we like to abide by the social social or society rules, you know, which means that standing in a queue, you don't you don't you know jump that queue, you just stand, you wait for your time and and people are quite polite and not and can even allow others that are more stressed to go ahead of them in the queue or things like that. I like that part with Stockholm and Sweden actually it's it's quite organized in many ways, not always obviously we're human beings, you know, but it's quite organized in many ways. One example just to give you like an idea of how it works is like jam and traffic jam, there are lots of traffic everywhere. There are three lanes. One of the lanes is dedicated for buses, police cars and ambulances for instance and then two lanes for regular cars. If you if you have that set up in Spain or in France or whatever, all the three lanes would be full of cars. Obviously in Sweden, like you know, no one is driving in the right hand lane because because you're not supposed to. You just sit there in your in your traffic jam waiting for your for your time and if there is like the police car that needs to do like an emergency thing, then he can just drive there on the empty lane. So that's just an example of how how we are thinking. It's not always like this. Now it sounds like we are like you know, extremely squared people and but it's it's it's a good touch. When it comes to tipping, yeah most of the time you tip a little bit, maybe five, 10%, if it's good, 15%, but if you don't tip it's not a big big thing. So you can't tip if you like the service. I always tip but you don't it's not really a big a big rule when it comes to that. I will hasten to add that in the UK we have a similar set up with the road and again no one drives in them but that's because of the fact that there's cameras everywhere and we'll get a massive fine. I'm not convinced it's quite for the same reasons as Swedish people are being lost. No, no, we're also threatened by huge fines. I'm sure that's one of the big reasons why we're not using them. That makes sense. You mentioned that Swedish people like order and a very polite, I guess the potential problem when you have a lot of people together is we can get a little bit rowdy. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if you've heard about English people abroad. We tend to fly under the radar, particularly our football fans. I've never noticed your football fans ever actually. I've been to a mid, probably all the football championships the last 20 years or so when Sweden has qualified and the English fans are, you know, never noticed them. I don't know if they're very, you know. But yeah, all kidding aside, how would the average person in Sweden react if people are unnoises? What I'm getting at should people ensure that in their public spaces they keep the voices down, shall we say? No, no, no, it's okay. Just be who you are. It's not a big deal. I mean, Swedish people can be noisy and rude and drunk and whatever, like everyone. So it's not a big deal. Do whatever. Oh, gosh, you've no idea I'm a potential evil. You've just unleashed on straight. I'm kidding. I know everyone listening to this podcast is a polite person. So yeah, I have no concerns when it comes to that. Looking to high rocks, we've got some questions about the event itself. I'm going to probably try and cover later on. But one thing, what I'm thinking about high rocks, I will encourage you all is take advantage of the activations like you'll see from our socials. Our humour are doing quite a few and they're launching a new shoe colour. So make sure you definitely check that out. And if you wish to go and go and buy one, I'll also give a shout out some of the activations which are ongoing during week because I should point out that yes, the main event for all of you is your race, but I rocks put on a show and they've got a fan village there for pretty much from from Wednesday. So you've got the fan village with lots of food and drink, including highlights such as a customisation hub for metal engraving, T-shirt customisation and body tattoos. You've got a wall bowl challenge from Red Bull Centre. You've got the Puma Nitro Lab fan village with socket embroidery. For the life of me, I've never heard of socket embroidery, but we'll see how that is. There's a few recovery zones as well. My protein salty tap which is something we have in England, it's an English pub. Maybe it'll have a Swedish flair, but we'll see. You've also got the entertainment stage within VAPS or we've some NCHORSINGS and GIVORWAYS, some other partner activations. In addition, located just 15-minute war from Strobbery Reiner, you've got House of Hyros. That's House Speltby German Way, I'll say, which horse expert panel takes, partner lead training sessions, a Puma pool host, that'll be quite interesting. But yeah, that looks good. Also bear in mind that there will be exclusive training sessions such as Centre Stream Training, Concept 2, Amaze Fit, are doing something and House Performance, Reading of Sessions, Pro by Red Bull and Helio Pro Demonstrations and the Centre Leadership sessions. So check out online for all of them, make sure you check out the village. One thing I'm going to highlight because something I'm interested in is if you're free on the Friday and also if you're running Friday, but if you happen to be free on Friday, there is a midsummer run put on by Puma. The registration starts at 8am at Kung Stradgarden, I've butchered that Douglas I apologise, but it's almost 5k and it's running to Grondaland, which I'll get to in a second, and the first 100 people, 50 men, 50 women who turn up who have pre-registered can swap their trainers for a pair of Puma Deviate Elite Hyrule shoes. So they'll responsibly dispose of your old trainer. So if you want to take advantage of that, I guess pack a pair of trainers you're getting rid of anyway and get yourself some new ones. Douglas, you mentioned of course you've got kids, have you ever been to Grondaland because Puma is giving people two hours free from 9am to 11 once you get the following run? Well that's that's a good deal, yeah I've been there many times. It's an amusement park located in this central parts of Stockholm. You should know that Stockholm is basically built on water. I think downtown Stockholm consists of like 16 islands connected with bridges and you don't really think of it all the time but you notice that it's it's water everywhere. Grondaland is one on one of the islands really beautifully located at Uroogorden. So yeah you should go there. As an amusement park it's nice. I mean you can probably find the more crazy ones in the US or probably the UK as well but it's a nice little thing to do and if it's for free so hey you should do it absolutely. You mentioned that Puma is doing this in the Kums Trigorden which is one of the parks or areas in the central parts of Stockholm as well and that's a beautiful little pearl I would say where you can you know sit down like a big fountain and really downtown you can have a nice ice cream there and enjoy this sun because it's always like in the UK it's always sunny and sweet and so yeah it's yeah I think that wasn't an interesting deal from the Puma well done by that. Yeah absolutely like say you need to broom start at 8.30 you can register from 8am and it is the first people who are there there is no official backdrop I hasten to add so take a bag if you need a bag take everything you need thankfully as Douglas mentioned you can pay for most things on Apple pay so you might not need to take to take very very much they said when you get to Kuntzschroggarden to look for look for Puma signs it will be in a corner so have a look at that. I should say that this weekend when we have the words here in Stockholm is a very special weekend for Sweden it's called the midsummer weekend so on Friday next week it's the midsummer in and basically every suite is leaving you're leaving town to go to the country side and celebrate midsummer it's the longest day of the year so there will be a sun until very light in the evening and then again very early in the morning almost no dark at all so that's actually a good tip for you guys to bring the face mask or something so that you because it's going to be very light when you're here but so that you know midsummer midsummer day midsummer Eve is on the Friday it's a big part today in Sweden and then midsummer day on the Saturday it's also a big a big day here so it will be sort of secluded I I reckon in the city actually on the Friday. That's really interesting I should point out it's a southwest corner of Kuntzschroggarden because I imagine it's a big park so head to the the southwest and and fine Puma there that sounds really cool but it possibly feeds into my next next question which is when it comes to eating because I suspect actually before I get to eating after a run thinking about it and certainly after high-arts people will be looking for recovery I mentioned that high-arts is doing some recovery zones but if people want to kind of guarantee a spot somewhere because when it comes to the village it can be busy at times any advice for people in terms of plunge pool soreness well I obviously need to advise of a life lab again we have included in the price we have a cold plunge I do it there myself every day it's we have for men we have between four and six degrees Celsius and for women it's a two two degrees warmer because women according to studies should not have the same kind of temperature should be that low so we have a cold plunge there we have sonas also in the gym and we have a recovery zone with as I mentioned earlier like foam rollers with infrared we have compression boots from terabody and we have these terabones to take care of your sore muscles and it's all included in one price so that's the best part I would say obviously otherwise as I said Stockholm is built on water and you can actually and the water is clean so you can actually just jump into the water and get a good chill there it's it's really nice to take a swim and you can do it pretty much anywhere in the city and that's fine because I know in the UK in particular you know if you were to jump into a body of water the police would be on you straight away but that that's just accepted as part of Swedish culture yes it's part of Swedish culture and lots of people in Sweden that actually cold plunge it all year around I have lots of friends that go down there make a hole in the ice every day in the winter and plunge well I certainly won't be making any holes in any ice of our suspect we're in summer adults suspect we're going to get too much ice of this morning in time hopefully there'll be ice of my drinks for which brings me nicely to talking about food you mentioned mid summer on the Friday potentially maybe a little bit difficult for people when it comes to to eating because there might not be many places open is that fair to say that's a good question actually I would be surprised if it was closed because after all its tourist season is here and restaurants they don't close down during tourist season so I would be surprised I think I think lots of it is most of the restaurants are open actually you can always you know find restaurants online all of them basically I think have the websites and you can book your table on the website or you can call them but it's always easy to do it online so I think I think it's going to be open on on Friday and Saturday the Saturday is a is a bank holiday but most things are open in Stockholm even if it's a bank holiday that's good to hear do you have any recommendations when it comes to restaurants when it comes to eating out in Stockholm there are a couple of really classical restaurants actually and two two of them I really need to mention one of them is called Rish so R-I-C-A-G it's a really it's it's a very nice place good food nice crowd a good vibe basically all day and all evening and if you want to party that's a good place to go to after the race and another one that and they serve really typical Swedish or Nordic food lots of seafood and fish but also steak if you want it's called the stirruhoff STUR-E-H-O-F it's a really nice restaurant it's been there forever and and it will be there forever it's located at stirruplon which is maybe the heart of of Stockholm where lots of people go and particularly in the evening if you want to go party again then you can go down to stirruplon it's a lot of people in that area lots of bars and nightclubs and things like that so yeah so those two otherwise you know I think the level of the food the food is I think the food is really good in Stockholm actually lots of good restaurants and and you can find almost any kind of food that you wish to have in a Asian whatever American hamburger lots of hamburger establishments you know steaks Swedish food yeah well Marcus Molinson wants to know is there any good Italian restaurants so can he get a pizza somewhere in Sweden oh yeah oh yeah but if you want a pizza there are there are a number of good pizzerias out there if you want like a really good pasta there is one restaurant I need to mention which isn't I love Italian food and it's called the old man and the sea after the book is it him away I don't know yeah it's him away yeah yeah it's called the old man and the sea but in Swedish then gamle or kavet I know it's impossible day but Google translate the old man and the sea so then gamle or kavet it's in a really really great Italian restaurant and the pizza you can find in many places and they are normally really good listen there's a challenge for you I want at least one of you to head to the old man and the sea take a selfie the tag tag me tag Douglass's gym in and we absolutely will we'll show that final final question on food are there any local delicacies that people should be aware of because well from from UK point of view we just know of meatballs thanks to IKEA and imagine you you're much more sophisticated than that now well when it comes to Swedish food we're not the food is not as such sophisticated Swedish Sweden isn't like an old farmer's country you know and the food is basically this traditional Swedish food is farmer is farmer food I love it but speaking of the midsummer you know we have a tradition for midsummer for lunch everyone is eating herring and it's and you can actually eat that at at the restaurant dimensions do you They have really good herring and you should eat with potatoes and with this sour cream and some omnions and things like that. It's wonderful and then you can also find really traditional food in a restaurant called KB. It's called it's an abbreviation for Kon Snash bar, but you can just google KB restaurant Stockholm something like that and there you can also really traditional food actually. You can go to a restaurant with lots of traditional food also and all these restaurants are really close to Chate, close to Sturraplon. It's called Prince and the Prince. They have it's a little more upmarket but it's really good food there and then lastly I want to mention Groodan which is the frog. There you can find very traditional Swedish food like yeah. So is traditional Swedish food is it like hearty meals or potatoes that and stew that kind of thing? Yeah lots of fish lots of potatoes some sausage based things you know yeah good good question. No fantastic it sounds like I'm really going to enjoy myself in Sweden I might not even make it to the arena I might just go row Stockholm. Quick question on you might not know the answer so listen a lot this up. If people are heading into the center of town to part a after to drink, when does the subway stop running in Sweden? Is it like at midnight one a.m. No wait yeah later it's maybe two to thirty a.m. something like that and I'm almost embarrassed to ask the subway after dark is perfectly safe correct? Yeah I would say so no well yeah it's it's it is it's not perfectly safe you know you never perfect to say probably unfortunately these these days but you you should be fine. There's a group of you you should be fine obviously listener always stay together always stay safe that goes for wherever you are in the in the world let's be let's be honest and your listeners are really good runners you know so they just run get some free exercise that's very true that's very true I'm just going to cover off tourist attractions then we'll cover off some high rocks things then we'll look to wrap this up touristy things coach Lou has mentioned the upper museum yeah is it worth going have you other been? It's it's you know you know how it is you don't you don't do all the attractions in your in your own city everyone I meet they have been there have been there they love it I haven't been there but they really love it so it's on my list and has been on my list for I don't know how many years since they opened but you should definitely go there it's a aba is one of the big things of Sweden obviously and and I think you should if you have time go and visit it and if the weather is bad because it can be really bad you know unfortunately then go there it's it's a good choice it's funny you say that when high rocks came to Manchester for world championships Florian who who runs high rocks daily he he was visiting and he was telling me always wonderful things he was doing in Manchester and I was like yeah I've never done any of them things he was telling me about my architecture oh this it's it's just the way it goes are any other tourist attractions that you perhaps recommend we've talked about a few already but anything we haven't mentioned yeah we have we have a something called the Vosa ship it's it's a ship that sunk like 350 years ago outside of Stockholm and they took it up like maybe 50 years ago it sounds like boring boring thing to do but it's actually quite interesting to go there because you can walk around in that ship which is from the 1600s and if you're interested in history it's it's important and it's an interesting part of Swedish history otherwise you know it's it's the regular kind of things you know you could go shopping and sitting down in nice restaurants and have a coffee on in nice cafe in nice square whatever so and it's and you can you can take boat rides if you want to lead the city you can take boats out in the archipelago and archipelago outside of Stockholm is like it is huge there's like 24 thousand islands out there and there are boats regular boats going every day maybe once per hour to different locations in the archipelago so if you have a little bit of extra time look it up on the web take a boat at 8 or 9 am in the morning you go with a boat for two through hours which is really nice you walk around in one of the islands have lunch somewhere and then you go back in the after that's a really good day trip actually I can really recommend it that sounds super fun I'm actually sorry that I'm visiting for such a short period of time but I think I will be back because the intern listener heard about the amusement park and wants to come to Sweden so we we probably will make another trip of it some time a Douglas final thing when it comes to tourists is for any what we call tourist traps anything you absolutely should avoid I suspect you're all too polite in Stockholm to try and con people of their money but in like the UK in London you see for example at Covent Garden the tourist trap is the people the street performers who then try to get you to pay over their money and that is there anything similar any tourist traps in Sweden to avoid I don't think so actually I don't know I wouldn't I don't think so to be honest no I can think of any right now at least that's that's good news right I'm just going to go through a couple more high rocks things because the aim of this show is primarily to speak to Douglas and help anyone out of there who's navigating Sweden but part of that will be high rocks and we've had a few questions when it comes to registration to answer a question about booking a slot to register yes you have to book a slot to register if you haven't already go and find your your email click on book a slot the reason for for that a couple of reasons one it takes a little bit longer to register at wheelchamps because you also get your t-shirt for example which they they need to go and go and find so it takes a bit longer we also have this issue whereby lots of people want to register before the parade of nations on the first day and also a lot of people don't get in until the parade of nations so in years past you've had this situation where there's been massive shoes which has caused issues so make sure you book a slot speaking of that spectators you do not need to book a slot all you're doing is picking up a band head to a spectator entrance and grab that I think the entrance K is the main registration area and there's also entrance A which you can use once you've got your athlete band or spectators you can go there when it's open so have a look at that the entrance K is the main one if you cannot book a slot before the opening ceremony head to entrance K to pick up an access risk band you'll then have to register for your race at a later date ideally before you run it so yeah if you if you can't get a slot before the parade of nations you can still access the site to see the opening ceremony which bring me to the good point that if you can and you're in the country make sure you're attend the parade of nations it is really one of the highlights of a high rocks calendar I've attended obviously the Manchester one I've seen all the others it's it's great it's coupled with phone address and also celebrates the athlete of the year so I can't wait for that finally what I will stress is if you're staying all the way through to sunday I know a lot of you will be looking at the after party when it comes to sunday but bear in mind you've got the relay at 745 in the evening that's the international relay before that we've got the adaptive invitational from 240 pm women and 430 pm men if you are near the arena if you can pop along and and support the adaptive athletes please do I guarantee you they'll be supporting you as the other waves are ongoing so I think that's all I really need to share when it comes to higher rocks I will say keep an eye on the website various things will be there the map will be there everything else will be there higher rocks it's really stepped up their game when it comes to putting information websites and make sure you check there for more stuff today obviously we're recording this a little bit ways off before the main events or any changes will be published on the Douglas before I let you ask you what what time is the parade of nations on the Thursday do you know because I wasn't Chicago competing last year and I missed that parade which was already sad and I don't want to miss it this year yeah absolutely I probably should go through the the timing so I do apologize no no no no no I can look it up it's probably on the web - Right. - It is, but let's go through the main timings because that's such a good point. - Yeah. - Registry. First I'll say on Wednesday, so if you've heard super early, the fund village opens from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. If you have a slot early, read on those 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. The first day, the fund village opens at 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and red juice from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Again, book slot. The walking of the nation's opening ceremony starts immediately thereafter at 5 p.m. local time. - On the Thursday. - On the Thursday, so 5 a.m. - Okay, great. - On the Thursday, then the Elite 15 women is at 7 p.m. The Elite 15 men are 8.30 p.m. Then on the Friday, from 7.30 onwards, and we have waves starting with the 16 to 24 pro women, and it keeps going until later on at 8.20 p.m., is the Elite 15 pro doubles women, as we're recording. Elite 15 pro doubles men, it's 9.30 p.m. as we're recording. Definitely check out the website to make sure that four times are still accurate. And when it comes to the other things, check on the website, but you'll probably be aware of your wave time. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time as usual. Douglas, before I let you go and wrap this up, I think we lost one hour, which is always a great time when it comes to a podcast. Is there anything we've not talked about Sweden that people should be aware of? - I don't think so. I think we covered a whole lot. It's basically, it's quite simple here. People speak English. So all the athletes coming here, I think they will feel safe and secure, and they will be able to communicate and find their way around for sure. - That makes me think it's definitely a good idea to charge you for, which brings up electricity. Douglas, I believe that you use the same electric as European countries, so they're a two-pronged plug. So if you're coming from the UK or a country that doesn't use the EU plugs, make sure you bring travel adapters, correct? - Yeah, correct. - Perfect. Right, Douglas, before I let you go, you have taught about your gym as we're going through the show, but how can people find it online? How close is it? You mentioned it's in the center of Stockholm, but I've read any landmarks, but it's near that people should look out for and anything else you want to promote. - Yeah, that's very kind. Well, it's called Life Lab again, and it's in the Freedom Splung, and actually the sub, if you're in Solma close to the arena, you have the subway going directly there, it's probably 10 minutes or so, and you find it online, it's called lifelab.sc, or alternatively on our Instagram, Life Lab Stock. So it will be really fun to welcome your listeners to the gym, and I think they will like it. - I think they will too, and I presume you're going to be open all the way through the world, Trumps. I presume that of course, you're going to be busy at various points, because of course you're competing yourself, but you've got staff who, what's your opening hours? - We are opening, we're open from like 5 am in the morning until 22, 10 pm. So it's everyday, and so we're open pretty much always. And we see already now, it's now when we record this a couple of days before the competition, but we see there are a lot of athletes coming from all around the world to the gym. So in a couple of the word, word stars are there training every day, or two or three times per day, even. It's really fun. - That's incredible. Again, listener, Douglas mentioned you can't get day passes, but there are passes for longer. It might be worth looking, looking that up. It's within your budget, because every one's budget is of course different, but the cold plunge on the access to solos may be worth a price of admission. Douglas, any final words before we wrap this episode up? - Not anything is particular, just very happy to welcome you here for the World Championships. And I hope that you will be welcomed and feel that you're always welcome to Stockholm. So yeah, it was fun to be on your show. Thank you so much for having me. - Thank you so much, Douglas. Listener, like I mentioned, we'll have one more episode before World Championships, which will go out on the Wednesday, but I'll be our snake draft with Dave Klexton and Emma Wearing. It is a tradition for a show to have that. So look out for that. I will be in Stockholm. So I'll be on a plane as my Wednesday episode goes out, get in in Stockholm, I'll run the boat midday on the Wednesday, and I'm staying till sat day. So if you're a world round, feel free to hit us up on on Instagram, 'cause I'm not competing listeners, that will not be a shock to any of you, but I will be in the arena through Sweden. And yeah, love to see any of you out there, but I will say good luck to all of you once again, hope you achieve what you want. But for now, I'm gonna say goodbye, Douglas. - Thank you so much. - Thank you. - And goodbye, listener. I'll speak to you all soon. ♪ I'm walking along the streets of Elantin ♪ ♪ The only thing I can see is my own silhouette ♪ - Thank you for listening to The Fitness Racing Podcast, produced and presented by UKHXR. Please hit that subscribe button, maybe leave us a review and follow us on social media through the link in the description. From everyone here at UKHXR, brain hard, race fast, but above all else, they say, "I'll enjoy yourself." ♪ Try and keep it safe, your soul ♪ ♪ We are like heroes tonight ♪ ♪ We will fly above the sky ♪