Visit to Enka Spor

I had a meeting scheduled with the Fitness Director of Enka Spor, Dr. Aysel Pehlivan, on Monday afternoon. The facilities were located on the European side, which meant the majority of the day would be spent on the road. In fact, we took 6 different modes of transportation to get there (and back): walking, autobus, minibus, 2 kinds of water taxis (big boat and a little boat), and dolmuş (shared taxi). For a 1-hour meeting, we were practically on the road for 5 hours! Welcome to İstanbul...

Anyway, Aysel was wonderful woman. She has been in the fitness industry back in the days of Jane Fonda! When Turkiye didn't have an established fitness industry, she was one of the first to push for its evolution.

Author of the book Sporda Beslenme (which means 'Growing Up In Sports'), which (from what I understood) focuses training and cultivating the elite athlete from an early age.

She is also a university professor where she gives lectures in their fitness management department. And serves as an executive member of the Turkish 'Sport For All' Federation. Quite an established personality, indeed!

Aysel was kind enough to show me around the facilities which were quite accomodating, despite some of their upscale competitors (like Hillside City Club - which was located in the next door plaza).

I hope to meet up with her again, as well as, some of her colleagues. More later...