Postcard from Spain: Running Madrid Rio

Greetings from Madrid, where it is hotter than blazing Hades at the moment! I arrived into a city that I love and that I once called home on Friday evening for the first stage of a research and conference trip that will take me to Toledo, Valladolid, Paris, and Bruges in addition to Madrid. After an exhausting 20ish hours of travel and a 10 hour time jump, I had just enough energy to unpack my suitcase, eat a chocolate bar (saved from my airplane dinner), and tumble into bed (carefully, as the flat I've rented for the first two weeks of my stay is an attic with slanted ceilings).

My plan was to get up early on Saturday morning and do a 40 minute run. Saturdays have been my long run days for the past several months, but this last week I did my long run on Wednesday in order to buy myself a little bit of time to acclimate to the heat before doing a run of any significant length. I admit to being incredibly relieved to not have to log 10 miles Saturday morning, as I was feeling jet lagged, and it was already sunny and warming up by 7am.

Even so, I was determined to get my training on this trip off to a good start by doing the 40 minute run that I would have done on Wednesday had I not run long. Training in Madrid is something I've been a little bit anxious about for the past several weeks. I'm signed up for Chicago and I'm running for a charity, so I don't want to be undertrained when I get to the start line. That being said, I have not had a good track record when it comes to running when I'm traveling in the summer for research. On past research trips, it has been common for me to run only once or twice a week -- sometimes even less -- and to log runs in the very short 2-3 mile range. There are both valid reasons and a category of sorry excuses for this. I'm determined to navigate the obstacles set up by the former and overcome the latter on this trip. My goal is to do at least 12 runs and 3 long runs during the first stage of my trip, which includes archival work in Madrid, Valladolid, and Toledo.

While I ate a few calories and drank some water on Saturday morning, I debated just running in Retiro Park since it is close to my flat, but I opted to head down to the awesome paved trails along the river to get my sweat on. I've enjoyed running a couple of miles there a couple of times in summers past. Saturday was like running in a toaster oven, but I was happy that I got my 40 minutes in and was only a little bit slower than I have been the past few weeks.

I ran at the river again yesterday morning. This one felt even hotter and tougher, but I got it done. I'm planning to do a number of my runs there as the path stretches 10 kilometers along the Manzanares and it only takes me about 15 minutes of walking from the door of my apartment building to get there. However, I will likely switch things up by doing some of my Madrid workouts in Retiro Park and the Casa del Campo as well. 

A few years ago I posted about how I had noticed quite a few changes in the running culture of Madrid. I'm happy to report that these trends appear to have continued. Each year it seems like there are a lot more people running than when I lived here just over a decade ago. It's nice to feel like I'm not the only slower runner or the only woman getting her sweat on in this lively city. While greeting other runners still doesn't really seem to be a thing, I did get one "hola!" from a fit fellow while he was zipping past me on the trail.

Do you run/exercise when traveling for work? When traveling for pleasure? If any of you have any route recommendations for Valladolid and/or Paris, please feel free to share them in the comments!