Fitness in Madrid

In the last years, fitness has become an important part of people’s lives. It can even be said that it became fashionable because of the great number of people who started to participate and dabble in this practice. Fitness includes all those physical activities which aim at improving the person’s well-being like for example running and bicycling. Madrid city is not excluded from this activity but, instead, it offers possibilities of all kinds.

Running in Madrid

Madrid is the ideal city for running due to the big number of parks it has. The landscapes and nature of the parks give a special touch to a simple activity like running. Considering more suitable places for practicing running, the highlights are:

• Parque de El Retiro: without a doubt, it is one of the best places to train. It has a perimeter of almost five kilometers with an important number of dirt roads which runners can enjoy. This place is perfect to run short and medium distances, especially the Paseo de Coches.
• Madrid Río: created in 2011, it goes around ten kilometers of the Manzanares river. It has many sports areas and its terrain is mainly of cement and asphalt. On the right riverside, there is a flat path whereas on the left one, there are many slopes. It has distance indicators which are ideal for training. 
• Parque de Santander: this green space offers a circular and flat circuit with a distance of 1200 meters which is signaled in both ways every 100 meters. It is one of the most visited runways of Madrid, mainly in the evening.
• Casa de Campo: it is a perimeter of 16 kilometers in which asphalt and dirt roads are mixed. It presents many slopes for hard training. It has a four kilometers signaled area called El Bosque which is ideal for greater intensity.

Bicycle rental

Madrid offers the possibility of enjoying the city by riding a bicycle or joining a guided route to do outdoor exercise.  For those tourists who do not have a bike, that is not a problem: there are many specialized centers to rent bicycles, especially in all park or tourist zones surroundings.

In addition, Madrid has BiciMAD, a practical and easy rental service of electric bicycles which are 100% ecological. This service offers more than 2000 bicycles in 165 different stations and it is distinguished by its use of technology to accelerate the rental process. In each station, there is a totem in which customers select the causal user mode. A card of one, three, or five days is provided and the service has to be paid at the end of the service.

For those residents of Madrid, this service gives the possibility of being paid annually and of enjoying these bicycles throughout the whole year.