Minuteman Road Club

Decided to head out and try the 40+ then 3/4 back to back. Arrived to downright soupy conditions. Nope, haven't had to deal with this kind of humidity yet this season. At least the sun wasn't supposed to really come out strong.
Got a bunch of preview laps in on the .5 mile, 4 right turn course and identified probable lines (which of course I promptly completely screwed up).
Lined up in the 40+ with Jacob, Jerome & John E.
Lousy start trying to clip in and then it was ON from the gun as 4 guys away within a couple laps. I was completely pegged at 92% HR and just trying to find spots to move up. Finally figured out this whole turn thing and maybe halfway got in to a much nicer position, just in time to see 2 guys (including Billings from 545) go off in a chase. I actually had the legs to jump with them, IF I wouldn't have first had to jump past 20-25 guys, so that wasn't gonna happen. Continued to move up and the gap to the 2 man chase was holding. Got to the front with maybe 10 or 12 to go and tried to get a chase going to at least pull back the two. Really only a Cyclonauts guy seemed all that interested, but we had 2 Aetna guys around at all times (with Hildebrand in the lead 3). So that wasn't going anywhere. Then I had just a little letup and all kinds of people got by me with 3 to go so figured I'd save some for the 3/4 and hold a rear pack finish. Looking at numbers, I spent way too much time above zone 6 power (my lack of cornering skills) and that would come back to haunt me.

Met Alice for the number swap and snack and lined up in the 3/4. Very fast starting out, and once again a lousy start. Things would bunch up more on turns 1 and 2 than in the 40+ so, where I was, more back and forth. 15min in quads start cramping. Shake those off and think I've gotten over the worse but now need to start playing frogger around various 2-4 person groups. Sometime 20-22min in the right hammy locks. Tough course with 4 right turns in .5 mile to try and stretch that one out. Can't apply hard power and lose contact with main field so just a matter of time before I get pulled. Didn't quite make it 30 minutes. Drenched, dehydrated and cramping as I pulled off. Oh well, a damn good workout! On a very positive note, my shoulder showed no ill effects from last Sunday's crash.

Looking forward to Thompson on a more (for me) favorable type course.

The Greenfield course layout looks deceptively simple with 4 fairly flat classic 90-degree turns packed in a half-mile loop. However, they all have variations significant enough to make it a very technical course. Turn 1's exit is relatively narrow and it leads to a 2% grade between turns 1 and 2, so key goal is not to get pinched in on the inside and be able to carry the momentum on the uphill. Turn 2 is slowest of the 4 because of the 2% grade between 1 & 2 but it is not very wide at the exit either. Since the group tends to get bunched up there, it starts looking like a street fight after a lap or two. Going into turn 3, the course narrows to 1 lane from full width and positioning is very important in order to avoid getting pushed into the narrowing part and keep off dive bombers. Turn 3’s exit leads to the widest section on the course, so you can track really far out, which allows many lines through it. It also leads to a 2% downhill and you pick up a lot of speed quickly going into Turn 4 where you hit 30+mph at the apex almost every lap.

This was my first race with the 3/4 group and I was weary of the higher pace. We were flying right out of the gate. I was at threshold at the end of the first lap already and my HR straddled between threshold and anaerobic for 9-10 minutes while I was holding on for dear life in the main group. First breather was around Lap 10 and after just a short lap, we were off to the races again. I’m very comfortable with cornering and large groups and was usually able to gain a position or two in the fast Turn 3 but then give it up in the slight uphill between 1 and 2. I managed to stay with the main group (just barely) and finished 37th out of 63. Average speed over the 45 minutes was 26.3 mph!

Greenfield was also my first multi-race day. By the time we lined up for the 4/5 race, the temperature was already up in the 80s and the humidity was off the chart. I was wondering if my legs would last another race at that pace. It turned out the Cat 4/5 pace was not far off and we averaged 25.7 mph over 45 minutes. At least we bumped up the speed a bit more gradually after the start. There is a much wider variation in skills in the Cat 4/5 group, especially on a technical course like this, and we had at least 4 crashes in the race. Someone turned right into me from the outside line at Turn 2 of the last lap and it took some acrobatics and luck to avoid making contact. I lost almost all speed coming out of the turn and had to dig in deep to catch the main group and finish with it. I placed 30th out of 73, happy to keep it upright and stay with the main group again in my second race of the day.

All in all, great father’s day (my son got second place in the juniors race) and probably one of the best run events I’ve been to this year. Next, double-header at Thompson this Thursday evening and then Longsjo Saturday and Sunday. 4 races in 4 days – we’ll be sending off the most active part of the road racing calendar with a bang!