Girl Power

The last couple weeks I have had a few "girl power" events and it's time to get some pictures up here!

On Sept. 17 there was a Fast and Female event in Canmore for Sports Day in Canada. Annika Hicks and I volunteered to take the 9-14 year-olds for the morning and whitewater kayaker Jessica Groeneveld arrived to help us out with our group of almost 40 girls. 

There were lots of different stations for the women to choose from. Here are all the station leaders.

We managed to herd everyone together for a group shot.

The morning started with a Zumba dance warmup. It was a great way to get everyone energized for the day.

After Zumba everyone dispersed to their stations. Our girls played mingle, the animal game and capture the flag outside. Then we regrouped for a chill yoga session with Kristen Stuart, ending with the usual savasana posture. 

Thanks to Peter Collins of cuetophoto.com for all the great Fast and Female photos!

Part 2 of girl power took place yesterday and today in Whistler. We have a National Team camp that started this afternoon but the 4 girls flew a day earlier for some women-only bonding. We were joined by the 4 Callaghan Valley Training Centre girls and the National Team sport psych, Sharleen Hoar. We spent the night at Sharleen's lovely family cabin. We had a couple good sessions talking about women's issues in skiing, ate delicious food and of course had fun!

After training this morning we headed to Nita Lake Lodge. We felt like royalty as they fed us an incredible 3 course lunch with the chef describing each course as it was served. I can't remember all the details but I'll do my best.... the first course was a salad, partially picked from the rooftop garden, with a clarified gazpacho shooter and goat's cheese.

The main was steelhead salmon cooked really slowly in fennel pollen and turkish olive oil on veges cooked in broth. I didn't take a picture of it because I was too excited to eat it but luckily Chandra got a pic of the salmon and the chef describing it. 

Dessert was fruit salad with pineapple sage (the little leaf in the picture-it actually tasted like a mix of pineapple and sage!) with sorbet and some sort of whipped peach deliciousness. The fruit had been soaked in different things to make it especially yummy.

Then as a surprise touch they brought out some little sweets to end the meal.

As you can probably tell it was the best meal I've eaten in a long time! After getting a bit of time to digest we did some yoga and meditation then wrapped up the weekend.

The boys arrived this afternoon and we joined them and the coaches at the hotel, which happens to be the Four Seasons! Apparently we got a wicked deal since it's the off season so we are getting pampered once again and have a sweet setup. We have a week of hard intensity planned then we fly back to Canmore next Saturday.