July 27, 2010 - Good-bye Summer

A high five with Justin solidifies all the great training and technique work done over my much-blogged-about Yo Yo Altitude Camp. Since then I have been doing normal good training in Canmore with emphasis on intensity and strength and spent the past week soaking up some serious summer in Kelowna.

The purpose of the trip was to attend Best Buy's Vendor Partner Conference. Although my golfing is highly rusty since the days of Junior Golf as a young teen I was a real gamer and thanks to a team style of playing - best ball - I wasn't leaned on too heavily by my team.

Samsung CEO Benjamin Lee was a great golfer and I enjoyed getting to hang with Best Buy president Mike Pratt who has supported me tremendously in the lead up to the 2010 Olympics.

Devon and I enjoyed the Lake Okanagan sun and relaxed a bit between good uphill running and rollerski workouts.

In Oliver, BC Devon and I visited a friend from our Spain trip who owns the Tuscany-inspired La Stella and Le Vieux Pin wineries. These gorgeous lakefront properties were as good as the company over dinner and continued our growing love of wine. Low-yield and intense flavors, organically and sustainably produced. Loved the merlots.

www.lastella.ca and www.levieuxpin.ca

And just like that the mini-vacay is over. Devon and I flew to Calgary, slammed some espressos and hit the gym with our strength coach Matt Jordan.

This update begins and ends with snow... It's winter somewhere! July 27th most of the team is going to New Zealand and although I'll be the only girl going I'm looking forward to hooking up with Kikkan Randall, Liz Stephen and Morgan Arritola who are friends and fantastic skiers from the US team. Score!

More news from New Zealand!

Chandra