Last night I had a momentary lapse of good judgment, but thankfully came quickly to my senses. I tell you this tale in the hopes that you will avoid the situation I found myself in…this is my personal opinion and maybe others have had a good experience here, so if you have let me know!

For the past while I have been wanting to integrate a regular spin class into my routine. Only issues to this actually happening are the following:

-I need to find a early morning class that allows me to still get to work at 8:30 a.m.
-I need to find a place which is close to home because if I am really honest with myself I am not that motivated to travel far at that time of day

So, sadly I live in an area where there are no cool spin studios. My only option as far as I know  is joining a gym. I’m not a huge fan of gym memberships as I like to go to the smaller specialized studios, but I was prepared to give it a go if it meant I could start spinning regularly.

To cut a long story short, I saw that Extreme Fitness was offering a 7 day free trial at any of their locations. Perfect! I could redeem this online coupon and see if joining a gym was for me. I went to their website, filled in some details and printed off the coupon that was emailed to me.

Next steps? I wandered into the location by my house hoping to take an evening spin class. Did this happen? No. As soon as I walked in I was told I would have to meet with a membership coordinator. This part didn’t really surprise me, but what did surprise me was that after I was taken through a whole spiel about my fitness goals/tour of gym I was asked the question of what pricing did I think was appropriate.  I had explicitly said to the membership coordinator that I wanted to see if the gym was right for me and did not want to sign up at this time. Not a message that resonated apparently. His manager was then called over to “see what she could do for me” and after talking to her it became clear that their 7 day free trial is truly a scam to get people into their gyms/signing up for memberships.

Turned out she was willing to redeem my pass , but she warned if I redeemed it I wouldn’t be eligible for any deals if I did decide to become a member. Pure scare tactics and pretty disgusting marketing tactics.

While this gym may be conveniently located for me I would much rather may the $15 cab fare to get to a morning class at a proper and ethical spinning studio. Sadly, I would have probably joined this place if they hadn’t used any of their sleazy tactics.

Moral of the story?

There’s no such thing as a “free trial” at this place.

PS: I did go back on their website to see what “restrictions” were in place and the only thing that you had to abide by and none of what I expereinced was mentioned.

Flickr: capca

As girls we often ask our friends what their dream boyfriend or girlfriend is like. If I had a dollar for every time I have asked a friend what are the top 3 things they are looking for in a mate I would be an extremely rich person. What I have noticed, though, is that my single active friends always say that they need to be with someone who is also active and works out themselves. My diehard runner friends even take this further and say that their ideal mate should also be a runner. Yes, we are crazy.

So if you are a single active person in the city where do you meet other active people?

• You could rely upon one of the many Internet dating sites, such as Lavalife or Plenty of Fish, to find you an active mate as you can be as detailed as you like in your online profile with what you are looking for. Buyers beware, though…people are not always what they seem to be on paper.
• Go to the website ‘Where Singles and Adventure meet…’ This website offers Toronto locals the opportunity to meet up with other singles for planned activities. In the month of August alone they have a number of activities planned such as, singles intro to rock climbing; singles intro to water skiing and wake boarding; and singles golf clinic. They seem to take a number of people per event and from the looks of the number of spots they have left per event they seem like they are doing well.
• Check out one of Toronto’s sports leagues and pick a sport to try out. From what I know there are a number of different leagues out there that cater to all different abilities. Some ideas include the Toronto Recreational Sports League (Yonge and Eg area) and Out and Out Online (gay and lesbian outdoor recreation)
• As much as I hate to put this in check out the gym you go to. I have actually yet to meet someone who has actually met someone at their gym, but hey you never know. If you are looking specifically for someone who works downtown and most likely has a good job join the Wellington Club at Bay/Wellington. One tip that one comes to mind is to start playing racquetball or squash at the gym – this way you can arrange a game with people. According to the Nice Guys’ Guide for Getting Girls a game of racquetball could easily lead to lunch and ultimately dating.
• Join one of the Running Room’s clinics. In my store alone I know three successful couples who have met via the Running Room.

Oh and if anyone goes on one of the ‘Where singles and adventures meet’ let me know how it goes! Am curious to hear your experience!

I hate doing cardio at the gym. I much prefer running outside. But unfortunately sometimes I find myself downstairs in my building’s gym. It actually is a pretty nice gym with quite decent equipment, but for some reason I feel cooped up and bored.

The good thing, though, is that doing cardio at the gym doesn’t have to be as boring as it used to be. Many gyms now have TVs that you can watch and some even have them built into the actual machine that you are on. Fun, but for some reason this doesn’t quite work for me. So, what to do?

If you are a lover of Mac products (like I am) you most likely will either have an iPhone or an iPod that allows you to watch videos on it. My recommendation is to go to iTunes and download some video podcasts. These podcasts are great for a number of reasons as they are:

• Free
• Bite-sized pieces of information and learning
• Often inspirational or motivating and;
• They also take (most of) the pain away from being on a recumbent bicycle or elliptical machine

My favourite video podcasts come from TED.com – otherwise known as “ideas worth spreading”.

Here are a few of my top picks:

• Ray Zahab treks to the South Pole
• Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
• Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight
• Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

Even if you don’t have a device to download these talks onto I’d suggest checking out TED.com to watch them! These talks are good.

Banana Blossom Press

One of things that I love to do is send cards (snail mail ones and electronic cards). For a long time now I have wished that there were running or exercise related cards I could send to my fellow runners, but I could never find any (even with my skilled Google searching). But then I started this website and someone wrote to me letting me know that this product actually exists! I love love love how technology connects people and resources.

So, I wanted to share with you my recent finding.

Banana Blossom Press is “the”  resource for runners/gym goers/exercise looking to send some  motivation and inspiration to their friends. There are cards for every occasion – IT Band, post-marathon blues, new distance, motivation and much more. What is great about this company is that it was founded by a runner who wanted to celebrate all different levels of athletic achievement. Make sure to check out the story behind this company as I’m sure it is something that a lot of you will relate to.

I’m definitely going to be sending some of these cards to my friends. A set of five will cost you about $12. But to quote mastercard seeing your friend’s face when she or he gets the card is priceless.