What: Pilates Mat
When: Saturday @ 11am
Where: Extreme Fitness (1521 Yonge Street)
Who: Paula

It’s April now (in case you haven’t noticed yet) and I don’t know whats’s scarier the fact that winter has completely disappeared on us, or that this Toronto Yonge Street 10k is creeping up on me very quickly. I’m starting to freak out! Just a little bit. The reason being — and I’ll be completely honest — I have not been following the running training schedule at all. Erin, I am terrible! But running and I, we just don’t mix. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a nice run on a fantastic sunny day or running with friends or with Erin, but I have to have something to make me want to run. I will not run because a piece of paper is telling in it’s Tuesday and this means I have to run 5k today. I won’t do it! More like I don’t want to do it. Or I will make myself go and hate every second of it.

My life is very sporadic and usually based on last minute decisions. You’d think working in events, I’d be good a scheduling things. Nope. Not true. My work involves planing things, not my life. I’ll go to yoga whenever I want to, I’ll pop by the JCC for a workout when I feel like I haven’t been there in a while (or if Phil is teaching the Group Cycle class). Trying to fit running into this mix has been hard. Okay, I’m being a baby. This bigger hatred for running sparked last Wednesday morning when Jenn (my new roommate) suggested we go for a morning run together. Bad idea. One, I’m not in ideal running condition (did you not hear me complain just now?) and Jenn is a total running freak. This is a girl who run 21k because she felt like it. She was also a track star in her university days at Dal. This was a tough morning for me, but I did complete the 8k at her pace (mind you, it was slower than her normal pace).

I then decided I shouldn’t be so hard on myself and use Jenn as a mentor. She helped me pick out new running shoes and we bought matching running shirts! Okay, Jenn, the next run I’ll be ready! Saturday we had a roommate bonding day which involved a run, a pilates class, and then yoga. Yes, I actually found a person busier and more active than myself (and yes this makes me jealous, but I like Jenn too much to hate her for this). If only Jenn were a boy, I would have the perfect boyfriend!

We ran the trails in Mount Pleasant — a way better run for me this time — before our pilates class at Extreme because the spinning class (which was the original plan) had a 60 person wait this! What? How is that even possible? Jenn and I wanted to do cardio before our core workout so we opted for running instead. That is one thing I do not understand, why do people join gyms like this? Ugh. It was an awful feeling walking into a place screaming at you “Lose Weight!”, “Muscles!”, “Get Fit!” from every possible direction — from the cardio machines to the instructors to even the changing rooms — I am thankful for the JCC. The pilates class was actually fantastic though, I will give them that. Although if Fitness Barbie existed she would have looked like the pilates teacher we had. Paula was blonde, beautiful and super in shape. This did not help the overbearing “Extreme” attitude.

I will probably never go back. Not unless Jenn gets her hands on more guest passes. I just can’t see myself enjoying a gym like that, not when I have Moksha Yoga Downtown in my life. Which is exactly where I took Jenn for the next part of our date.