Experts at Training Camp

I just finished up with Canada's National Team spring training camp in South Carolina.  The weather was chillier than expected but whatever, I came prepared with a whack of clothes.  After a few years of trial-and-error, I'm getting good at this packing for bike trip deal.  Minimal casual clothes and one piece of clothing for every type of riding weather, good strong embrocation cream and you're (pretty much) set.

We had a lot of great resources to make this trip one of the most quality camps ever.

1. Trionne Moore, holistic nutritionist came from Toronto and stayed a few days to cook up some amazing recipes.  They were not only healthy and delicious, but EASY to make.  I like to ride my bike and need to stay strong and healthy to do it.  But I don't like cooking.  Trionne gave us some good ways to deal with this issue.

Trionne taught us new recipes and was a great inspiration to experiment with our own creations

2. Craig DeVeer, a super soigneur based out of Ottawa, Ontario took great care of us during camp.  I worked with Craig for the first time at the World Championships in 2012 in the Netherlands.  I was happy that he noticed the improvements that I made since then with my new Travel Roller.  I'm a lot less stiff! Thanks for noticing ;)

Myofascial release with my TravelRoller: I LOVE IT

3. Shawn Marshall was our mechanic and worked his magic fixing technical issues, and was also a great wheel to follow going down the twisty descents in South Carolina.  Shawn has a lot of riding and bike mechanics experience.  We used to work together at Bikeland, Barrie (Ontario, Canada) Barrie's coolest bike shop.  He now owns Velolab Cycle Works in Dartmouth (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Shawn getting the final touches taken care of on the bikes

4. Denise Kelly, Canada's women's National Team coach brought in a professional yoga instructor to lead us though some really beneficial stretching sessions 3 times through the camp.  The instructor was excellent.  In my books, yoga is for stretching and getting all "zen".  There wasn't any draining upper-body strength stuff, no frustratingly impossible poses, and she was hardly fazed when she sliced her hand open on some stray glass during one of the sessions.  10 points. Awesome.

Ready for yoga!

5. Jenny Trew, a previous teammate of mine who has become a coach, was an excellent part of the camp as well.  Jenny shared some "life lessons" with us girls, led an excellent sprint session (her expertise) and had plenty of feedback on and off the bike to help everyone improve.  Thanks for shuttling us back and forth from the grocery store too JT, it was great to be out on the road together again after 2 years!