'ello 'ello 'ello, what's goin' on 'ere then?

I finally got around to commuting in to wok on the bike yesterday, now that the new rules for going around the campus are in place. I did it more out of a sense of obligation for having campaigned for bikes to be allowed on campus and to show my gratitude, than for the sheer pleasure of it (we are in December for goodness sake and it is freezing cold). Still, it was enjoyable and I even managed to go for a run at lunchtime as well.

Just as I was walking to my bike, dressed up to the nines in winter cycling gear, a security guard approached me and asked me the dreaded question "Is that your bike?". I thought, "Here we go"... Oddly enough he asked me if I understood Spanish before I even uttered a word: in the dark and under all my cycling garb I doubt he could have discerned my nationality and we "foreigners" are in the very minority at work. I can only guess that he made a subconscious connection between people mad enough to commute to work on a bicycle in December and "people from the North". In the end he said, "I'm having this problem with my bike: the chain keeps jumping from one cog to another... Can you recommend what I should do to fix it?"...

Commuting

I promised I would post a photo of the "Bike Parking" signs that have sprung up at my work. I love the design. Looks like it was done by a triathlete. (I just noticed that it looks like it says "Poo".)

I'm dying to get back on the bike and to make use of the new "facilities" at work. Just a couple of weeks to go until the Marathon and I'll go back to commuting a few days a week.

If at first you don't succeed...

...be a pain in the arse until you get what you want. Finally, we will be able to go round the work campus on bikes as of the 10th of November!

All cyclists must come in to work via the "B" entrance which is a few kilometers away from the gym (the "P" at the far left of the map) from where I then have to make my way back (in my suit) to the "P" in the middle which is nearest my office. Where there is no path we are supposed to go on the pavement. It adds a bit of faff to the whole thing but it is better than nothing and, in any case, a few extra kilometers are welcome. The rules stipulate that the speed limit (40kph) must be respected at all times but I can't really see myself getting up to that speed on the pavement. There is also a rule which looks like it has been taken straight out of the Ironman regulations: overtaking must be performed within 15 seconds or 100m, leaving a margin of 1.5m. One good thing is that they enforce the use of a helmet (something I was lazy to wear with my suit).

There is a serious problem with parking on campus as we are 6,500 employees. I'm hoping that other people will start to either bring in foldable bikes in the boot of their car to get from their distant parking spot to the office or to leave a bike permanently in the racks to move from one place to another. The next step is to get a "critical mass" of cyclists so that - who knows? - we can look forward to having a shower installed in our office (avoiding the trip to the gym) as is the case in most workplaces in London.

If you don't ask, you don't get...

This photo may look like an ordinary bike rack to you but this represents a huge victory, requiring some serious string pulling at the highest echelons of my company (which has about 150,000 employees world wide). This is the solution I was promised to the sudden and inexplicable ban on cycling on campus at work. After much speculation as to what the cause might have been - was it an insurance problem? - it seems that the reason all along has been the lack of official parking spaces for bikes. Now I can go from the gym to my office on the bike without having to wait for the internal bus, commuting by bike once more makes logistic sense. Hopefully the initiative will attract more than the poultry 7 currently catered for cyclists (out of a possible 6,500), especially those who don't have a convenient parking space and could stick a fold-up bike in the boot of their car.

If you are wondering what is under the plastic bag, I can tell you. It is a custom made sign indicating parking for bikes... Once it is unveiled and we are allowed once more to ride around campus, I'll post it here.

Monte del Pilar in Pozuelo de Alarcón / Majadahonda

That boy looks like he means buisiness

I discovered that I am not alone in my rant. Pozuelo is up in arms about the forest near my house that I cycle through on my way to work!! How exciting in a suburban, middle class kind of way. There was a demonstration on Saturday that I was unaware of otherwise I would definitely have attended.

The problem is that the land is owned by an extremely rich, influential and slightly scary Spanish family (maybe it's just me, but "The Legionaries of Christ" makes me think of bad 70s horror films). The Oriols - who made their fortune in the energy business, now Iberdrola -  have recently decided, after years of it being open to public use, to fence most of it off, leaving only one path through the forest. Apart from destroying the feeling of being out in the open, the "path" is so badly eroded from the security cars patrolling up and down that, when it rains, the puddles extend from one fence to another, leaving no option but to get off your bike and wade through the water. From a legal point of view, it seems hard to challenge them, especially as they have left a public right of way. Also they have a tangible reason for putting up the fence: to prevent damage to their grounds now evidenced, unfortunately, by people having torn down the very same fence (it wasn't me, honest!). The worrying thing is that it looks as though they might be planning to develop something on that land. After all the backhanders to re-qualify agricultural land as suitable for urbanization and its corresponding contribution to the Spanish housing bubble, I sincerely hope that the politicians have more sense now than to grant them planning permission.

It looks like this could be a clincher for the municipal elections next Sunday. On the one hand, we have Tomás Gómez (PSOE) who promises to be the "President for the Common People" and who poses on his pre-election poster gazing skyward, perhaps wondering if God will remember to vote for him; on the other, we have the Partido Popular (PP), which has the same slogan "Focused on you" underlining everyone's photo, except that of one person. His name? Narciso (Narcissus).

Anyway, if you happen to care about my little forest, you can "like" the cause on Facebook: it is called "Monte de Pozuelo - Monte para todos".

Now we are 3

That's at least three of us commuting to work on a regular basis by bike (out of 6,500...). I hope this will go viral this year now that the weather is good and the days are long. For lots of people, the main barrier is a logistic one - finding a safe route, where to park your bike, where to leave your suit, etc. - so many people have asked me about these things, mainly out of curiosity, that I hope just seeing that it is possible will persuade others to do so.

My commute to work

My commute by bike (green), car (blue) and on foot (red)

Thanks to the amazing invention of Google Earth, just over a year ago I was finally able to figure out how to get to work by bike or even on foot. My bike route is quite a long way round (about 16km) but it is the most picturesque, passing through several pine forests and virtually not touching tarmac. On a normal day, I can make it in in about 45 mins, pedaling at low intensity (below my aerobic threshold). On days like today, the route can become quite technical - think frozen bike tracks in the mud - and I ended up going over the handlebars at one point. Nothing more than a little scratch but I think my keys must have also gone flying so I'll have to look out for those on the way back... It was also freezing cold - my beard froze and so did my gear cables for goodness sake - and my hands were extremely painful when I got inside, despite wearing gloves. Its a bit of an art working out how many layers to put on: put on too many and you sweat too much, too little and you freeze- not a problem I have when running.

I'm enjoying running in much more these days. I go by a shorter route which is also cyclable but it involves going on more roads; when running you always have the option of the pavement. The technical bits are not a problem while running: I've found that trail running is excellent for speed, balance and strength (not to mention boredom limitation). One thing is key, though, and that is a little head lamp to light up the trails. You can actually cause yourself more injuries running always on flat surfaces because you are consistently stressing the same little muscles in the feet and they can easily get strained or out of balance. Also, the extra effort to get your feet off the ground when they sink into the sand or mud means that you really fly once you hit the tarmac. The route is about 12.5km and there is very little traffic (if any) along most of the roads - it takes about an hour running at my aerobic pace.

The only hard thing is getting out of bed an hour before I normally get up. The night before I pack my little rucksack with a clean shirt and underwear and try to make it as simple a matter as possible to get out of bed and into my kit. Then, I've got it all organized. I have a spare suit hanging up in the work gym (the staff let me use their locker) and a pair of work shoes under my desk. I get to the gym, shower and change and then cycle up to the office in my suit. Then I lock my bike to some bars in the underground parking and hang out my kit to dry for the return journey (the bars double as a handy clothes horse). Once a security guard asked me if the bike and the kit belonged to me. I thought at that moment that the game was up but it turned out that he was just worried that someone might steal it and that I would hold them responsible for it! Having said that, I did once leave my cycling shoes in the gym and someone had pinched them by the time I went back that afternoon and my feet are not the most common size (size 48 EUR / 13 UK!). Maybe the culprit had had a hard time of sourcing shoes for his equally outsized feet.

Logistics aside, the feeling of having got to work under your own steam is incredible. It sounds like a trivial thing but it's not; neither does the journey itself seem like "dead time" nor does the exercise you would otherwise be doing on a static bike or treadmill seem pointless. I've seen cats, rabbits, snakes, frogs and even foxes on my route. You arrive in so much of a better mood than if you have had to sit in a car for even as little as 15 minutes, which is what it could take me on a good day. The time I spend commuting by bike or on foot, I treat differently to the rest of my training time which I take more seriously: I may listen to music or I may mull over what I am going to do when I get to work or think over conversations I have had during the day. Its my meditation time, my private time when I am passing through the woods, hidden from sight from the cars in their parallel universe. All this is what it is like commuting in January; when the days get longer and warmer it is so much more pleasant. I'll post some pictures in the next few weeks of some of the striking sunrises and sunsets that I see.

Rant

I can't believe it - they've put a fence all the way through one of MY forests that I ride / run through on my way to work. At least there is still a path I can use. But that's not all... I got to the other side only to find that the gate was locked, with a sign excusing the inconvenience and saying that it would be opened at 6:45am. The thing is, it was already half past 7! Luckily I saw a security guard driving slowly past so I flagged him down. He seemed to completely ignore me so I had to climb a 2m fence and hoist my chunky mountain bike over it. Unfortunately I managed to get a small nick in my lovely brand new GoreTex jacket - bah! By this time I'd managed to get over to the other side and reunite myself with my bike, the security guard had summoned the energy and initiative to come over and investigate. When I complained (ever so politely) that the gate on the other side of the forest was open with no warning sign, that it was past 6:45am anyway and that I had caught my jacket on the fence, he just pointed out that I could have gone under the fence instead. Damn, I hadn't noticed that.

Anyway, this is one of my bugbears about Spain. Every square inch of land belongs to someone and these someones seem to be allowed to build wherever they like (as long as the right "commissions" are paid to the right officials). As a result, there are fences all over the place. In fact, if I ever lose my job, I may set up a business in fence laying because it must be quite lucrative. It is a real challenge to go across country because you inevitably find your path blocked by some senseless fence - that is to say, a fence that doesn't really prevent anyone from entering a piece of land but only stops you going that particular way. When I think about the sort of trouble that gets kicked up when a famous pop star buys a country mansion in the UK and then tries to stop curious people traipsing through their grounds... What we need is an equivalent of the British Ramblers Association! Or perhaps a cross country version of the Critical Mass organizations.