Need advice from Torontoians

Triathlon Forum
1

So I moved to Toronto last night with a lot of excitement. I have lived in this nice city before 4 years ago but well I wasn’t into triathlons at the time. Right now I am at College and Spedina till the end of the month when I will move into my appartment at Yonge and Eglinton. So please help me with these:

1- Running wise: I ran this morning around 5am and because I didn’t know any good run courses I just ran in College to Yonge and then Yonge up to St. Clair (loved the hills), turned in St. Clair and ran down Spadina (I liked the fact that I didn’t have to run down the elevation I had gained as I just walked those stairs down).

So questions:
1.1 90% of my running surface was concrete sidewalks and I am not used to it much, is it a bad etiquet to run by the side of the road in Toronto ? We do it in Waterloo all the time but I understand the difference in traffic.
1.2 Is it safe to run around downtown area at that time ? On the way back in spadina, a crazy homless guy slurred at me which was kind of scary.

2- Swimming wise:
2.1 I want to join a masters club, which one is good and affordable (I found this NYAC which has a triathlete program but costs 1200$)
2.2 UofT pool is the closest to me right now, but costs 15$ a day, anything else around that area ??
2.3 Open Water in TO ? I have heard it is dirty as hell, please tell me I heard wrong!!

3- Cycling: No clue where to ride at all, suggestions please
3.2 My work is in Markham/Warden, is it a good idea to commute there by bike ? What roads are good ?
3.3 Is it safe to ride on HWY 7 ?

4- Triathlon Clubs/Running Clubs/Group Rides
where to find these ? Someone told me about Donut rides and I have heared good things about how intense it is,

Thanks!!

2

Once you move to Yonge and Eg, your running options will increase dramatically… you’ll be able to access about 20miles of trails connecting the beltline, Cedarvale Ravine, Mount Pleasant Cemetary, Moore Ravine, Don Valley Trail, Sunnybrook and Sherwood Ravine… mind you you’re not a million miles away from the bottom of that loop now… you could do this route for example

http://www.walkjogrun.net/index.cfm?rid=160737B3-106E-10B5-C50D13D2B417E693&utm_id=1&utm_campaign=Email+This+Route

Heading down to the Lakeshore wouldn’t be a bad idea either

Enduroport does open water swims on Wednesday Nights and Saturday mornings from Cherry Beach, as well as cycles and Runs. Toronto Triathlon club is also pretty active with cycles and open water swims every Saturday.

Runningwise you have all the Running Rooms of course, plus Marathon Dynamics and XSNRG who are based near Yonge and Eg.

Cycling, others will give better answers than me.

Swimming there’s a pool near Yonge and Eg, (with a Masters group), as well as one in Markham (I hear that the Y pool up in Markham is good also).

3

There is good riding up in Markham not too far from where you work is. Leslie is a good street up from the city to Markham. And one street north of Hwy 7 is 16th Ave and you’re pretty much into the country for riding. You can take Leslie, Warden, Woodbine etc all those streets and just head north.