Chino Grinder 2017: Race Report by Colleen Venti

Before signing up for St. George this year I had previously signed up for the Chino Grinder.  A 108 mile gravel ride through Chino Valley.  I love these back road rides and thought it would be a blast to ride my mountain bike on the course.  Looks like being swayed to St. George was the better way to go! My friend Colleen Venti was nice enough to give me her race report so my athletes and I can learn from her experiences.  Colleen is an incredibly strong cyclist. She can give even the strongest mens cyclist a run for their money. This type of cycling however is not usually her thing.  Based on her report it might be worth the investment of a gravel bike if I ever plan on doing this ride in the future! She would  like me to add that the event was well organized and the bike support was top notch!   Check out her report...

Chino Grinder- this kind of riding is new to me. I love mountain biking on trails and enjoy road riding (on a road bike), but gravel grinder courses consist of dirt roads, gravel roads, and some paved sections. For this one the route goes from Chino Valley, AZ- elevation 4,600 and heads north to Williams, AZ- elevation 7,545. At 22-miles into the route you are at the lowest point, about 3,800 ft. So, it's up, down, up, on the way out. Total climbing according to my Garmin was 8,734. It was supposed to be 108 miles, but was 110.1. About 90% of the people riding (at least those doing the full 110 miles) do it on specific gravel or cross bikes which have drop bars just like a road bike, but tires that look like something that would be on a hybrid bike- thinner and less knobby than mt bike tires. I own a road bike, a tri bike, and a mt bike, more than my garage can already fit- I never plan to do a race like this again and could not even justify modifying my road bike or buying different tires for my mt bike, so....mt bike with full knobby tires was my choice. My friend Keisa, who I did all the training with, was doing it with me, or so I thought… The race started at 7:30- at 7:10 she pumped up her tires and the seal on her tubeless tire separated and all the air leaked out. She headed over to bike support to get help, but they couldn't get it to seal, so she put a tube in it and finally at 7:43- 13 min after everyone else started, we were on our way. That part kind of sucked, we were on our own and the wind had already started, so we had no group with us to help block it. Then, 10 miles into the ride her tire blew, it sounded like a shot gun. The side wall had a slash in it and after a few minutes of us evaluating the situation, we realized there was nothing she could do to fix it. She had to call it a day and told me to go on. Luckily this happened right near a support vehicle so she could get a ride back. There are several distance options for this event- there's a 44 miler- you go out 22 and turn back and there's a 54 miler (really 55)- where you go to the top then get a ride back. I really didn't want to do 108 (110 I would soon find out) on my own, so I told her I'd most likely go to 22 and turn back. She and I chat non-stop on these long rides, making them go by so much faster, so the thought of talking to myself for 100 more miles was not appealing. There was not another rider in sight, so it was just me and the long dusty road. I got to the 22 mile turn around and was feeling good and wasn't ready to head back, so I decided to get to the 55 mile turn around and re-evaluate at that point. I was taking a gel and electrolytes every hour, and filled up my camelback at mile 33 where they had an aid station. My legs were feeling pretty shot by mile 50, but I was so close to the top that I decided to keep going (really, where the hell else was I going to go??). The last 2 miles are the steepest and hurt! I got to the turn around, heard some volunteers and other racers saying that a lot of people were calling it a day and getting a ride back down because the wind was so bad. I thought long and hard about doing the same, I just really wasn’t having fun. After telling my brain to shut up, I grabbed more gels from the aid station, filled my camelback up with water, used the men’s bathroom (women’s was out of order), jammed an Uncrustables down my throat, and jumped back on my bike thinking that it's mostly downhill and won't be that bad. HA! The wind coming back was insane, 30mph with gusts up to 50. Never knew what that felt like before, but it was an effort to stay on the road and my neck/shoulder/back were getting sore because I was so tense going down. About 10 miles into the descent a guy I know (Joe) caught up with me and we decided to ride together- I got behind and drafted him on the descents (or tried to, the wind seemed to be coming from several directions at once), and he got behind me and tried to do the same on some of the climbs. He told me this was his 3rd time doing this event, the first two times he didn't finish. Once he told me that I was determined to finish and get him to do the same. Also, it was nice to have someone to ride with and not have to talk to myself anymore! At about mile 80 I could no longer see out of my left eye at all, and the right wasn't must better, I wear contact lenses and they were so dried up from the wind. On a whim I decided to toss a fresh pair in my jersey, so at an aid station at mile 87 I stopped and changed my lenses. I had to go into a camper to do this, otherwise the lenses would have blown away. It was so nice to be able to see again!! The climb out was tough, it started at mile 88 and ended at mile 99. The last 11 miles are pretty much flat/downhill, and ideally should be an easy ride back, but not with a 30 mph head/cross wind and 50 mph gusts. It was almost comical. The gravel/dirt ended at mile 107 and the last 3 were on roughly paved road. Right when we hit the paved part we saw a bike on the ground on the right side of the road, and a guy laying on the left side- the bike support van was with him already. We stopped and they told us an ambulance had been called. The guy was literally blown off his bike and across the road. OMG (later heard he was ok, stitches and road rash were the worst of it). So- the one and only advantage of doing this kind of ride on a mountain bike- they are heavier and don’t get blown around as easily, haha. We made the final turn into a full-on headwind and just laughed, it was so ridiculous. I crossed the finish where Mark and the kids were there waiting for me. While I spent the day on the bike they had slept in, had breakfast, went for a hike, had lunch, went to see Guardians of the Galaxy, went out for ice cream, and still got to the finish an hour before I did.

They decided they earned a spot on the podium regardless
of what place they finished :)

Ironman St. George 70.3

This race I was really looking forward to this year because I planned on going with my friend Maggie and I had coached my athlete Devon for this and it was not only his first 70.3 it was his first ever Triathlon!  It is crazy trying to get someone prepared for a TRI in general with no experience but make it a ½ Ironman to boot! I had worked with him enough and he was a strong and capable athlete so I felt like he was going to do great. 

I honestly could not have asked for a more beautiful race.  The town of St. George and the Snow Canyon Mountain State park is really just spectacular.  The weather conditions on the other hand… It could have been worse for sure.  The day before was a blistering 99 degrees and I remember thinking “man this is going to be a HOT race if the weather stays like this”.  The weather app said it was cooling down to about 88 degrees and that sounded so much nicer then 99.  There was a picture of wind on the app and I thought no problem I have had wind at races before maybe it will keep us cool? As my friend Maggie and I were settling into bed we received an urgent message from the race director informing us that swim wave times have changed and we were going earlier due to the increase of high winds expecting in the afternoon.  OK… well that's good I thought. Hopefully we will be off the bike in time for the winds and only have to deal with them during the run.

Swim: Water temp 64 degrees.  Much colder then I like but I had my full sleeve wetsuit and I was ready for it.  On the shuttle into the lake we all saw a sign that said “swimmers itch active”.  LOL.  I had to explain to people on the shuttle what this was (parasites in the water from bird poop that get under your skin and attack your veins) lol.  It is fine I said it goes away in like a week.  I am sure I didn't make anyone feel better. Lol.  I have dealt with this enough I wasn't concerned about it.  Honestly I felt pretty calm at the swim start.  I leaned over and told my friend Maggie “just think about dinner tonight in Vegas, all we have to do is get done with this and we will be on our way”.  Into the water we went.  It was very chilly starting out I and  was worried I was going to get one of the frozen sinus headaches that happen when the water is to cold.  But after a few minutes my body started warming up and the temperature was fine.  Honestly this is the first time in a race I actually really enjoyed the swim.  The scenery around me was beautiful the lake was pretty clean and clear.  If only I didn’t have 1000 people swimming around me.  They sent the younger guys in waves out behind us and sure enough they came charging though!  Got swam over a couple of times and punched in the face once.  For a triathlon this is pretty standard.  The swim is always carnage.  Made it out alive, which is always the goal, and on to my bike.

Bike: I had driven the course the day before and felt good about my strategy.  I planned to take the bike course a little easier then I usually do because of the elevation and knowing the run course had 1200 ft of climbing.  I usually just barrel out the bike because that is my strength and whatever I have left for the run is whatever.  But this time I was really concerned about the run.  I took my time on the first climb of the bike, which was within the first few miles.  Just kept telling myself to take it easy.  About 20 miles into the bike course I started experiencing severe menstrual cramps. The only reason I am talking about this is because it is a situation I have never had to deal with and I want to share with my female triathletes so they can learn from my experience.  So sorry guys if this is just not something you want to know about you might want to stop reading here… I needed an ibuprofen so bad.  Seriously, it was bad.  I was not prepared for this.  Forget about the bike course, the pain in my abdominals was far worse then the pain in my legs.  Now I just needed to figure out what to do.  I have never had to stop on my bike at a bathroom for a 70.3 but I had no choice today.  I had no ibuprofen and just had to deal with the pain.  I started just trying to focus on the scenery and not worry about my bike times and find a happy place.

The bike course was very much like my rides to sunflower I had done previously so I felt really good about the training I had done to prepare for the bike course.  The long slow grind up snow canyon was really nothing comparatively to some of the sunflower hills.  It was really beautiful.  Sometimes Ironman bike courses can be dull and non-inspiring but if I needed to be on a course to take my mind off of my problems this was the one to be on!  The weather had remained pretty decent with cloud cover for most of the ride.  The last 10 miles of my bike the winds started really picking up with some strong gusts blowing us all over the road.  I felt good that I had finished fast enough to miss most of wind and felt sorry for the people that were still on the course.  Into transition I rolled.

Run: Oh boy.  The first aid station I came to I begged for some ibuprofen and nobody had any.  Even after taking it easy on my bike the first 3 miles of the run were all uphill.  I couldn't get a good groove going and had to walk a lot of it.  After that, we had a nice downhill section and I was finally able to get my legs underneath me to get my run going.  It was really kind of a wacky run course.  1200 ft of climbing consisting of 3 miles up, rollers, and then a out and back 2 times up and down a mountain then 3 miles down.  The wind had really kicked up now and people’s hats were blowing off, big gusts of dirt and debris were hitting us in the face and it was adding resistance to our run paces. It was just a “survive” kind of run for sure.  I never ended up with ibuprofen and I had several people ask if I was ok as they saw blood running down my legs (totally embarrassing I wanted to die).  But I FINISHED! Not my fastest times by far but I ran through the chute happy to have finished and have another experience in under my belt.  All of these experiences just makes me a better coach.

My athlete Devon had succeeded in finishing his very first triathlon and first 70.3.  All in all a successful day! Yay!!!

Cochise Classic 165 mile Bike race-- 1st Place Overall Woman! October 8th 2016

This was a crazy idea from the start...
This is my first year coaching and I did my own training schedule for Ironman Florida.  Saturday Oct 8th fell right on the date of my planned 7 hour training day bike ride.  As I browsed the local races in AZ as I do often I noticed that there was this local race in Douglas AZ that weekend and if I did the 165 mile option I could use my triathlon bike! Score! It seemed like the perfect scenario to pound out my long training day with the excitement of other riders and race support happening.  I knew that 165 miles would translate to over 7 hours but I felt ok with that. 127 was my farthest ride ever at that point so it would also be a new exciting challenge for me!
My friends Bridgit and Bethany decided to sign up with me to coach them and I started planning out their year schedules as well.  I mentioned to Brigit I had this race in mind and it might be something she would be interested in as her goal was to develop her biking this year.  I didn't have to ask twice.  She was in!  LOL.  We signed up together and tried to get a group together but believe it or not there is not a lot of people who want to ride that distance ;).

This was all planned out early in the year and I still had a ton of training to do in order to get me ready for my A race Ironman Florida.  As training volume started to get heavy and fatigue started to set in I was questioning more and more whether or not I should do this race.  I really didn't want to do something that was going to hurt my Ironman but I hate the idea of not completing something I signed up for.


About a week to go from the race I was battling some severe fatigue and depression and made a call to Bettina (head coach of Racelab and my mentor).  I explained to her how I was feeling and what I had planned and she told me that I was experiencing classic over training syndrome and that I should NOT do the race. Oh man.  What was I going to do?  I totally agreed with her based on how I felt and I knew that I would run a risk of ruining my Florida Ironman race if I went through with it.

This however was the problem...
1.We had a total of 4 riders going down to Douglas to complete the race and I had the support crew (Brittney) that we needed in order to do the race. (this ended up being Sevi's son)
2. This was a big race for my athlete Bridget.  She trained very hard and was really looking forward to doing it.  I did not want to bail on her.
3. Her grandmother had just passed away and she wanted to ride in honor of her memory.
4. I felt like she was really counting on me and I could not let her down.

I called Bettina again and said that I completely understand what she advised me to do but for reasons out of my control I had to do this race.  I asked her if she would help me recover as best as possible for Ironman Florida so I could at least still have a decent race.  She agreed to help me!

So I was off to Douglas with Bridgit!  Race morning came and I spent at least 1 hour watching Bridget try to decide what socks to wear out of the 10 pairs she brought with her? I don't wear socks so I was absolutely no help to her in her decision making process.  With 20 min to go before the race we were literally getting in our car at our hotel and driving to the race :/. LOL.  All was well and we somehow made it on time and got to the start line seconds before the gun went off.

The race was on!  We all started out together and my heart rate immediately shot up.  I yelled out to the group that I was going to slow it down because I knew I had to stick to my heart rate strategy if I was going to finish this race.  I decided to let my friends go ahead and I hung back.  Always keeping them in eye shot though it is hard to watch people ahead being a competitive athlete.  As the ride continued we rode out through the hills of Bisby and the historical town of Tomestone.  It was so beautiful and very cool to see.  In the mean time by mile 30 I had caught up with my group at aid stations and was feeling really good. I pulled away at one of the aid stops and just got my grove going.  I was seriously in my happy place.  There was so much to see and everything was new it really made for an awesome ride.  By mile 80 I was out on the course by myself and just cranking away.  I really had my rhythm by this point and was able to increase my speed.  At about mile 85 we head out onto the I-10 for about 15 miles.  This is a major highway and holy crap that was scary!  Semi's are buzzing by looking at you like you are crazy.  There was no signs or anything out there telling people cyclists were on the road.  My heart rate probably jumped about 10 beats for that portion.  As the I-10 portion finally ends around mile 100 there is a pretty big climb.  I remember thinking about one of my training rides where my friend suggested we climb this big hill for our mile 100.  We all laughed and said "nah lets not" but here I was climbing a big hill at mile 100.  I suffered through that climb a little bit but I knew after that it was pretty flat for the last 60 miles.  Now it was just time to get to the finish.  More miles ticked away and I was still going pretty fast and steady.  At about mile 150 everything started to hurt.  Those last 15 miles were a major grind.  My feet were burning, my back was sore, my butt had enough in the saddle.  I really had to dig deep and mentally push through those last 15 miles.  As I rounded the corner on the last mile I hear a volunteer yell into his walkie-talkie "first place female coming through".  What?  First place?  Was that me?  Holy shit!  As I rode through the finish line I got a lot of applause and they congratulated me on my first place finish.  Wow. 

I got my medal and they asked me to hang around for the rest of my crew to come in and so they could get a picture of the top female finishers because second and third had not finished yet.  I had a pretty good feeling that my athlete Bridget was going to be coming in second.  I knew if she stuck to the plan and held strong she had every bit of the ability to do it.  Sure enough they started announcing second place female was coming through.  There she was!  It was Bridget!!!  I was so excited and so proud to see her coming through.  Tears started welling up in my eyes as I saw her cross the line (I am kind of a sap about my athletes).  She looked amazing!  Nice and strong.
This turned out to be an amazing race for me and an awesome confidence booster for my Ironman Florida coming up.  To think I didn't even want to do it.  Hah!  Who knew?